The first principle that I think is important in education is the Active, Critical Learning Principle. It states that every aspect of the learning environment should encourage active learning and not just sitting and passively taking in information.(Jonassen, Howland & Crismond pg.54) Another important principle is the Discovery Principle. It basically says that students should learn from discovering stuff for themselves by experimentation. Some of the most beneficial learning that I have experienced was when I had to do research on a topic and "discover" it myself. The third principle that I would pick is the Practice Principle. I think that it goes hand in hand with the Active, critical Learning Principle. Practice is so important because when students apply what they are learning they increase their ability to retain the information.
If I were to create a simulation for my ag class to participate in I think I would make it based on a farm setting. The students would have to create a farm and manage it by feeding the animals and taking care of the budget that they are alloted. I would give each student a scenario such as, taking these 75 goats and 100 acres of land and see how you could make a profit, or take these 100 head of cattle and 200 acres of land and figure out how your money could be best spent to maximize the profit. The decisions I would make for them would be which animals and how much land they have to work with and how much money they have for a budget. How they set up their farm and what they do to with their livestock to make a profit would be solely up to them. They would need to do research so that they could make the best decisions possible with their farm. The purpose of the simulation would be for students to learn about how to manage livestock that they may not be familiar with and to make them realize what goes into having a successful farm.
In conclusion, I think it's important to make learning real and fun for students. I believe that our job as educators is to not only teach students about the subject we are teaching in the classroom, but to help them to learn how to be successful citizens in the real world. Good simulations make this possible.
Reference:
Meaningful Learning With Technology-Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R.M. & Crismond, D.(2008). Pearson, Merrill/Prentice Hall, 3rd edition.
