GAMES AND SIMULATIONS SEEM to go hand-in-hand. This article explores the similarities and differences that exist between them. Games and simulations are often referred to as experimental exercises because they provide unique opportunities for students to interact with a knowledge domain.

Game: A competitive activity that involves certain skills and it is played under a set of rules for the amusement of the players, which compete for points or other advancements that indicate that they are outperforming other players.

Simulation: A conscious attempt to represent a real life situation in which participants take on roles that would enable them to see how a particular situation might unfold.

1. Transport the participants to another world.
2. Participants control their own actions.

Academic games are those used in the classroom. These games should not teach students strategies that involve questionable ethics. Academic games should not allow luck or chance to determine the outcome of the game. Winning in academic games should depend on knowledge of subject-matter and on problem-solving skills (Edens & Gredler, 1990).

Experimental Simulations
Establishes a particular psychological reality and places the participants in defined roles within that reality. Experimental simulations were developed to provide learner interactions in situations that are either too hazardous or are too costly to provide in the everyday life.

Symbolic Simulations
It is a representation of the behavior and functions of some universe, system, or phenomena by another system. They involve the dynamic interaction of two or more variables (Forrester, 1971).

Created by Roberto Del Busto
Graduate Student
Educational Technology
San Diego State University