Animations and Simulations

Animations and simulations offer the students opportunities that otherwise may not exist in the average classroom. I have found some really good sites, Real Lives is one, and the Australian electrol commission have some to.Currently I am teaching year 7 politics and have been using interactive games to engage the students in a somewhat dry topic. Animations and simulations are learning resources that can effectively support students when conducting a task (Oliver, 1999).

Real Lives is an interactive life that enables students to go to any country in the world at any time. Real Lives brings to life different cultures, political systems, economic opportunities, personal decisions, health issues, family issues, schooling, jobs, religions, geography, war, peace, and more (Real lives, 2009). This would we a great resource for lessons. You can access it RealLives from, http://www.educationalsimulations.com/

Year 7 politics can be a very serious subject. I can literally seem them switch off when you tell them to get out there SOSE books. So when I discovered these interactive games on Australian politics and told them half their lesson was playing a game, they went from enraged to engaged (Prenksy, 2005). They come with teachers notes and quizzes at the end to check for the learning. Here are some of the links to government and politics interactive, http://www.peo.gov.au/kidsview http://www.aec.gov.au/Education/DemocracyRules/studentanimations

In using animations and simulations in the classroom, all the intelligences(Gardner, 1991) will be engage in the learning. As we all know, children learn best when they are been entertained greatly and educated gently, animations and simultions offer this.

References
Gardner, H (2001). Gardner’s multiple intelligences. Retrieved July 24, 2009 from http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/MI%20Smarts.htm

Oliver, R. (1999) Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning: distance education, 20, (2). Retrieved 28 July, 2009 from, http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

Real Lives (2009) Educational simulations. Retieved 11 August 2009 from, http://www.educationalsimulations.com/reallives.