As President of SAGSET (Society for the Advancement of Games and
Simulations in Education and Training) I have watched and listened to
members of the Society argue about the effectiveness of experiential
methods of teaching for the past thirty years. They are still in the throes
of discussion. There is a wealth of anecdotal evidence that role-plays,
simulations and the like have a powerful and lasting effect on students;
they are often the only element of a course that is remembered ten years
on. But objective, general research findings; well ................
The problem is that the you can prove that for a particular group of 16
year olds of a particular education background, with a particular teacher
and in a particular environment for a particular subject the experiential
methods were great. For a group of 30 year olds with different background,
teacher, environment, subject, the result may be different.
The question is too broad. Perhaps we should look for evidence for the sort
of situation technology is supposed to be best suited for. For example
individual learners of such and such an educational background, aged X,
studying Y by themselves at home. By taking the most promising case one
could at least demonstrate that in SOME cases technology-based material was
superior to group teaching.
Morry van Ments
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