Can open-ended online simulations be customized for content?

Earlier, we shared  elements of simCEO that make it a unique way that technology can change learning. Namely it provides:

1) Students who move beyond recall and produce solutions with content.

2) Social Learning: Learning from and with one another.

3) Contextual Learning: Authentic roles & goals

4) Students as creators and dynamic evaluators.

5) Empower instructors to guide meaningful learning experiences.

These are transformational goals and they do not come easily. There are challenges, and we want to be up front with those challenges. Do we have tested solutions to overcome all of these challenges? Not yet .  

That's why we are looking for partners who can help us overcome these challenges. We believe deeply they can be solved, and they need to be solved. But we want to attract the right kind of partner. With that in mind, we have come to Part 3 of our 4-Part series we call:

The list of reasons you should be hesitant partner with us.

Can we deliver an open-ended experience that allows instructors to easily customize it to meet student needs?  

Most simulations (and online learning resources in general) are intended as plug-n-play experiences. They are created by experts with pre-defined educational outcomes. The educator is the user, but in most cases has minimal ability to adapt or tailor the learning experience to match his students’ needs.  Open-ended simulations offer both a challenge and an opportunity.

While simCEO can be played as a plug-n-play experience, the power of simCEO comes alive as instructors customize the experience by integrating it with their current units of study focusing on students’ application (not recall) of specific concepts and skills. Instructors can customize the content and complexity to target student interests and learning goals  by selecting or creating customized business plan elements, adding news articles/resources to define a context, and, if desired, influence share prices based on students’ (in)actions. This creates a new model of learning for instructors – one that excites early adopters but increases barriers of implementation for instructors expecting an experience that does not solicit instructor-influence.

• Do instructors want (or expect) the ability to customize their online learning tools?
• Can the user-experience around this new model of learning be more effectively structured to ease adoption in the classroom?  
• Can we provide instructors the support to easily customize online, open-ended learning experiences in a way target student needs?

This is certainly a challenge. We seek partners who can assist us in developing an effective model to encourage and easily allow instructors to shape the learning experiences they give to their students.

Seeking Partners, but here's why to hesitate: Reason 2

In earlier posts, we shared  elements of simCEO that make it a valuable (and much-needed) way for students to learn in the 21st Century.

1) Students who move beyond recall and produce solutions with content.

2) Social Learning: Learning from and with one another.

3) Contextual Learning: Authentic roles & goals

4) Students as creators and dynamic evaluators.

5) Empower instructors to guide meaningful learning experiences.

The list above represents a change to what students experience in schools. But like any change, it does not come easily. These are challenges we have to overcome; we want to be up front with those challenges.

Do we have tested solutions to overcome all of these challenges? No.  But we believe deeply they can be solved, and they need to be solved.

That's why we are looking for partners who can help us overcome these challenges. But we want to attract the right kind of partner. With that in mind, we have come to Part 2 of our 4-Part series we call:

The list of reasons you shouldn’t partner with us.

Reason #2 Can we really assess content learning in an open-ended environment?

Schools naturally want to measure learning results for the resources they utilize.  Rote learning results are easily quantifiable. Yet, schools continue to strive (and struggle) to utilize and evaluate student learning from resources focused on 21st Century skills, the four Cs: Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking.

In short, all that can be assessed may not be important. And all that is important may not be easily assessed. 

Education wants to implement 21st Century resources, but this is an uphill battle. 21st Century resources like Minecraft are incredibly popular with students and focus on 21st century skills (and are showing greater implementation in classrooms!)  - but they still struggle in their ability to become adopted by mainstream classroom teachers as these educators weigh the ‘measurable’ learning gains (aka “recall”) versus the time needed for students to play (and teachers to initially understand).

We believe that the right kind of open-ended simulations can deliver 21st Century learning gains and provide a more effective / authentic environment for students to learn traditional (measured) content.  We believe we have a framework to do this.

But admittedly, this is a perspective that is currently in the minority.  We are looking for partners who embrace this challenge and can help us envision solutions.

We’re looking for partners, but here’s why you should be hesitant.

ARTICLE 1 OF 3

On the business development side of simCEO, we have had a few meeting with potential partners who are intrigued by simCEO and want to learn more. It’s been a learning curve for us. We thought we’d get out in front of the curve and try to outline some the challenges we foresee - and why we’re looking for partners who share our belief that these problems can be overcome.

In earlier posts, we shared  elements of simCEO that make it a valuable (and much-needed) way for students to learn in the 21st Century.

1) Students who move beyond recall and produce solutions with content.

2) Social Learning: Learning from and with one another.

3) Contextual Learning: Authentic roles & goals

4) Students as creators and dynamic evaluators.

5) Empower instructors to guide meaningful learning experiences.

The list above represents a change to what students experience in schools. But like any change, it does not come easily. These are challenges we have to overcome; we want to be up front with those challenges.

Do we have tested solutions to overcome all of these challenges? No.  But we believe deeply they can be solved, and they need to be solved.

We are looking for partners who can help us overcome these challenges. We call the next 3 posts the:

List of reasons you shouldn’t partner with us.

Reason #1    Is this model of learning what we want for students?: We’re asking students to apply their knowledge in an open-ended simulation without right and wrong answers. So, simCEO is closer to Minecraft than a typical (business) simulations which assess learning with pre-programmed, multiple-choice questions or finite questions such as “How many widgets would you like to produce this quarter?” with associated points for correct answers. This is not a plug-n-play simulation with right/wrong answers (although we believe there are avenues to add some of these elements). At it’s core, simCEO is an open-ended platform that allows students to create and apply their own solutions - and evaluate each others’ solutions - in a dynamic environment. Learning, as demonstrated through the application of content knowledge in an authentic, dynamic environment, is not judged by a computer algorithm. Instead it is  judged by the collective feedback of peers ( other students and the instructor) within the specific context of the simulation as shown through share prices. If students do not share responses that are deemed as quality by their peers, they are encouraged to adjust, and re-adjust, to improve their ideas.

• Is this the type of learning that schools are seeking? Will educators and school districts deem it worthy of their time and money?
• Can we create effective social learning environments - where students learn from one another instead of just a teacher or a pre-programmed computer algorithm?
• Is this a viable model of learning capable of large scale implementation in schools?  

These are legitimate barriers. This is an attempt to alter the staus quo. We seek partners who can embrace this model of learning and can help advance it within schools.

Seeking Teachers to Pilot simCEO in 2017

Pilot simCEO - Push us to the next level of EdTech GBL!

As we kick off a new school year, we want to continue to seek out teacher feedback to ensure we're making simCEO as effective as it can be in the classroom.

We believe simCEO represents a new form of online learning - where learners simultaneously create and evaluate each other's creation in a dynamic environment controlled by the instructor!

Learn more about our pilot program to help play a part in helping to make this innovative learning even more effective! Play a part in recommending and evaluating new features!



Why join a pilot?

• Because your input will help future students and instructors!
• Contribute to the development of a new model in games-based learning.
• Build your professional resume.
• Connect with other innovative educators to share ideas.
• Earn 100 simCredits of the new site for your district.
• OPTIONAL: Have your name immortalized (well, printed on our site) as an innovator and contributor towards the development of the new features.

================================
LEARN MORE ABOUT SIMCEO
Visit www.simceo.org
Learn more about how we hope to change learning.
Attend one of our webinars
Check out our Getting Started resources.
Interested in partnering to foster youth entrepreneurship?
Follow us on Twitter @simCEO and join our Facebook Group

Empower instructors to guide meaningful learning experiences.

One of the fastest-growing segments of the education industry is Games & Simulations  with a compounded annual growth rate of 37% predicted through to 2020.1 It has the potential to provide a faster and more engaging way to learn traditional content and skills. But we’re missing a huge opportunity if we are only using games and simulations as a faster way to run the wrong race (recall of content). Games and simulations have the power to transform the type of learning our students experience.

Advocates of Games-Based Learning (GBL) know this. And, we’re beginning to see an evolution. Instead of fun ways to practice multiplication tables, GBL developers are working with educators to create environments where students, design, create, analyze information, tinker, develop models, test hypotheses, and take action based on evidence.  Many GBL environments are integrating collaboration, competition, or a socially networked audience for student learning.

These different environments for learning lead to a deeper learning. These environments tap into constructivist models, allowing students to develop and test their own understanding. Many tap into social learning, allowing students to learn from and with one another.

Early forays into GBL created linear, progressional, engaging environments to learn, practice, and assess skills. These are still needed. However, the new GBL environments provide a context for learning that simply was not possible without their existence.  They are transformational.

The Challenge: Shifting the Role of the Instructor

How will teachers customize and interact within this
GBL environment to target student interests and needs?

One of the major challenges in developing these new GBL environments is the evolution of empowering instructors. These environments are open-ended by their very nature. They allow a greater degree of customizing and decision-making by the instructor to identify and target the particular skills needed for this (group of) student(s).  If we want students to construct their own meaning in relevant environments, then instructors will have a greater role. They cannot simply “click play” and let the students do their thing.  Instructors need to play a larger role in shaping the environment and evaluating the students’ actions. Either directly or indirectly, instructors are interacting with their students within the GBL environment.

These environments operate with an important baseline assumption: Instructors (not game-designers) are the experts in knowing what their students need; they need to be able to shape the learning environment that is created.

We are two educators at the core. Empowering instructors is something we believe with all our heart, but it comes with it’s own challenges - ones that we haven’t fully solved.

We founded our company with the belief that learning in schools must to be naturally engaging and mirror the skills of the real-world to promote intrinsic student motivation. We believe learning experiences should have as many of the following unique elements to prepare our students for tomorrow.

1) Students who move beyond recall and produce solutions with content.

2) Social Learning: Learning from and with one another.

3) Contextual Learning: Authentic roles & goals

4) Students as creators and dynamic evaluators.

5) Empower instructors to guide meaningful learning experiences. (THIS ARTICLE)

At simCEO, we believe we have a model that addresses this challenge, and highlights how GBL can change learning by offering students engaging real-life experiences.

The simple premise allows students to create companies to form an online stock market. Within this environment, each student has two roles with a distinct goal.

1. Create and manage a successful company by ending with a high share price.
2. Maximizing an investment portfolio of $10,000 within this market by identifying how dynamic news will affect various companies.

As news is shared, the environment changes, and students have to analyze and potentially take action to apply their learning.  As a student takes actions (adjusting her company’s business plan or buying/selling shares), the simulation itself (company’s strategies and share prices) dynamically changes.  It’s an environment where the instructor has the option to customize in the following ways:

• determining/specifying the elements needed for the student business plans
• sharing news articles
• adding announcements to alter the environment.
• adjusting share prices

We believe simCEO is a good example of the new model of GBL that students need. But thus far, we have not been successful in helping all instructors see themselves within this role. These are challenges we have to overcome.

1. We’ve seen our fair share of confused instructors who are expecting a “click and play” experience with little or no instructor interaction.  
2. Once instructors understand their interactive role, how can we enable this interaction and customization in a time-efficient and effective way?
3. How can we provide more options to instructors to choose? Can we use the cloud to leverage the expertise of our existing 1500 instructors? How can we structure a shared repository of instructor-created learning objects (assignments, environments, news articles, etc.) to help scaffold new instructors into this model of learning with more options?

We certainly do not have it figured out, but we’re working on it.

It will take creative solutions to leverage the real power of these open-ended GBL environments. It’s a journey - one that our students need us to take. We believe we’re at the beginning of something special, and we’re always on the lookout for partners who share our passion.

If you can help us solve this, reach out. We’d love to hear from you.

This article is our last in 5-part series.

1 Source: GSV Advisors

Developing Student Entrepreneurship

How Can You Help Develop Student Entrepreneurs?

If you’re excited by real world learning where students each create their own company and those companies combine to form an interactive stock market so that students can practice investing and entrepreneurship in a dynamic environment, then we’d love to connect.

As a start-up with an innovative idea, at simCEO we’re always looking to expand our reach through partners who can add value and further our mission to reach students.

Since winning the SIIA Most Innovative Ed Tech Incubator Award, we know simCEO represents a powerful tool to help transform education.

Specifically, we’re seeking:

• Purpose-driven individuals and organizations who can add value to our cause through investment, leadership or partnerships to take simCEO to the next level.
• Educators interested in sharing simCEO with other schools as partner representatives.
• Local or regional organizations who can help share simCEO with schools – free of charge – to support efficacy research on entrepreneurial and financial literacy skills.

Entrepreneurship and financial literacy are just the beginning! We think big to transform education – and we know we have an innovative model to get there.

• Moving beyond recall: Students develop business plans and other real products for a real audience.
• Students as creators, applying content in a specific context.
• An environment where students are evaluators of (each others) quality.
• Real world environments: open-ended,  dynamic, and with a specific context.
• Empowering educators to customize and target learning

We seek passionate partners who can help us scale this type of learning to students around the world.

Follow our story on Twitter @simCEO , and share your story with us. Or, reach out to us at info@simCEO.org .

Students as creators and dynamic evaluators

As educators, we all agree that we want students to be creators - placing them in open-ended contexts where they have to apply their knowledge (and content) to solve problems.

And, we all agree that have students take an active role in evaluating quality is beneficial to learning. Evaluating quality most likely consists of:

• self-assessments,
• peer-assessments, or
• having student help determine quality by establishing rubrics prior to beginning.

Here’s how these elements usually play out in the classroom:

1. An authentic PBL problem/project is shared.
2. Students learn and apply content as they create solutions, sharing their product.
3. Teachers provide time for students to self-assess or peer-assess. Learning, and potential for future improvement, is facilitated.

The more dynamic we can make this feedback cycle, the greater potential for learning.

Basketball players can watch film of previous games (to self or peer evaluate).  Certainly, while playing the game, players also learns skills which can be practiced for future development. In this sense, basketball players mimic a strong classroom experience.

However, basketball players (or jazz musicians or a Socratic discussion participants) have to do more. Certainly they must take action (problem-solve); but they also must evaluate and adjust along the way.  When one player gets hot and is making every shot, the other 9 players on the court all adjust.

These are the experiences where creativity and evaluation are happening simultaneously. There is an interdependence between participants that is typically missing from most classroom experiences. The thinking and actions of one participant can quickly affect others. The act of evaluating is not an after-the-fact (wonderful) add-on to aide learning; it is a necessity to successfully navigating a dynamic experience!

Can we shorten (or even integrate!) the action and feedback cycle in our classrooms within authentic, open-ended problems? The more we can, the more we mirror the type of learning that.students will need in their future and has proven effective in many real life learning experiences.

The Power of Games-Based Learning

Here is where the power of Games-Based Learning (GBL) has huge potential. Consider the recent success of Minecraft and other multi-player simulations. Students are certainly creating their own solutions within these environments. It’s easy to see how students learn from this interaction - picking up ideas and techniques from others. But students are also interacting and evaluating within an environment that is changed by their action.

The real beauty of these environments? Just like our basketball game, they are dynamic based upon the actions of the participants.  This better represents the real world problem-solving (and real-world learning along the way) - where there are seldom “right” and “wrong” answers. Instead, participants must navigate messy environments that more closely resemble gray rather than black and white.

Creating GBL environments where learners must:

• Analyze relevant variables, seeking to make meaning with models, patterns, and generalizations
• Form conclusions
• Take reasonable actions

Our best GBL learning environments allow many opportunities where each of these 3 stages can be reasonably debated by intelligent participants. Content and skills are needed, but they are not the goal. They are means to an end - successful application in a specific context as judged by peers. This is the power of GBL. Multiple choice and essay assessments can’t compete. If we want GBL to take root in more classrooms we need to leverage their unique potential to provide this interactive model.

Our Solution… and Challenges Ahead

We are two educators at the core.

We founded our company with the belief that learning in schools must to be naturally engaging and mirror the skills of the real-world to promote intrinsic student motivation. That belief has guided us in creating a learning experience with five unique features needed to prepare our students for tomorrow.

1) Students who move beyond recall and produce solutions with content.

2) Social Learning: Learning from and with one another.

3) Contextual Learning: Authentic roles & goals

4) Students as creators and dynamic evaluators.

5) Empower instructors to guide meaningful learning experiences.

At simCEO, we believe we have a model that addresses this challenge, and highlights how GBL can change learning by offering students engaging real-life experiences.

The simple premise allows students to create companies to form an online stock market. Within this environment, each student has two roles with a distinct goal.

1. Create and manage a successful company by ending with a high share price.
2. Maximizing an investment portfolio of $10,000 within this market by identifying how dynamic news will affect various companies.

As news is shared, the environment changes. And, like Minecraft, as students take actions (adjusting their company’s business plan or buying/selling shares), the simulation itself (company’s strategies and share prices) dynamically changes.

Because the environment is dynamic and inter-dependent, we have students who are simultaneously creating/adjusting solutions while also evaluating (and learning from) others' solutions.

The challenge we need to overcome?

Building (and using) this sort of open-ended GBL environments is different. We see two main challenges we have to overcome.

1. Typical games are plug-n-play experiences with scripted storylines.  Open-ended GBL experiences require changes in expectations and focus on different skill-sets. If users expect a plug-n-play, they will be disappointed - just as they would with Minecraft.
• Teachers can - and should be - shapers of learning.  SimCEO (like Minecraft) require teacher customization to better target traditional curricular outcomes.
• Students need to learn to be creators and simultaneous evaluators of quality. They are not just seeking the fastest way through a quest. They are not short-cut seekers, looking to outsmart the programming to win by gaming-the-game.

2. Open-ended learning environments are likely aimed at different goals than traditional, linear GBL environments. This can sometimes confuse. In traditional GBL environments, the user’s growth is visible and directly related the product - usually the ‘level’ of attainment. But in open-ended GBL environments, the goal of the game may not be the main learning goal. Creating and running a successful business (or building a cool Minecraft environment) is informative, but doesn’t fully represent the student’s learning. There's no guarantee that the 'winner' of such a game actually learned more or even established the best business. Small formative assessments can be built in to assess traditional content - similar to linear gbl environments. But to really tap into the power of open-ended, dynamic environments, we need to ask deeper questions to students?.
• Why did you _____ ?
• Why did you choose the action of X when presented with Y?
• What action within this environment represents your best decision? Why?
• What skills or content do you need to better understand in order to improve?

It will take creative solutions to leverage the real power of these open-ended GBL environments. It’s a journey - one that our students need us to take. That’s why we seek partners who share our passion.

Innovative teachers: We invite you to customize an environment in our simulation for your students.

Advocates of innovative GBL: We are actively seeking partners with experience in investment, business development, or B2B partnerships who can take this model of learning to the next level for a new generation of students.

(This is the 4th article in a series of 5.)