Real+Life+Applications

=Real Life Application or Simulation Games= Although there are a myriad of types of games, the most successful in the learning world are the games that simulate real life situations or serve as simulations. Simulation games, that simulate the real world, are the primary real life application games that are available for use within the school setting. Due to their accuracy, these types of games can make a student feel immersed within said environment. These types of games seek to replicate real world scenarios and simulate actual life events for the purpose of learning and increasing skill competency. "It is important to emphasize that games and play may be effective learning environments, not because they are “fun” but because they are immersive, require the player to make frequent, important decisions, have clear goals, adapt to each player individually, and involve a social network." [9] Although the 'fun' aspect is one to consider when attempting to reinvigorate a sense of excitement within students, the educational benefits are wider that simply fun, which makes simulation games much more important for a child's education. Simulation games expose students to various world events, social issues surrounding the development of individuals in role-playing games, workforce opportunities, and other segments of their future world.

media type="youtube" key="sPe5NQYi1hE" height="251" width="305" align="left" Simulation games enhance a gamer's ability to think critically when given a chance to eradicate a world issue, discern appropriate aspects of a certain job occupation when simulating life as a doctor or a lawyer, and seek an additional perspective on various tasks, which permits alternate viewpoints and competing perspectives. According to James Paul Gee, "You build your simulations to understand and make sense of things, but also to help you prepare for action in the world. You can act in the simulation and test out what consequences follow, before you act in the real world. You can role-play another person in the model and try to see what motivates their actions or might follow from them before you respond in the real world." [7] The safety afforded by the simulation games permit students to test out certain issues and circumstances without feeling a sense of failure before attempting something on their own. This safety net, especially targeting more reserved and less self-confident kids, provides an opportunity for differentiation within a classroom. Students that want the option to test before creating something can have that chance by utilizing the simulation game, while others may prefer to simply start their work. Either way, students have the opportunity to be exposed to different circumstances prior, which is a sound instructional tactic.

Take, for example, this preview of The Great Flu game [8]. media type="youtube" key="aDqkoosl-Ig" height="237" width="289" align="right"This game allows for users to immerse themselves within the gaming situation to eradicate a world problem. This game is only one of the many simulation games available to integrate within their curriculum to engage students and seek to encourage their critical thinking skills and academic competencies.

According to Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D, gamers can learn from "relating the game world to other world." [10] By relating an experience within a game world to a real world application, users increase their comprehension through the connection. Students make connections each day with their own lives, and games further those connections in a positive way. Being immersed into a virtual world or game, students can then step back into reality and connect their learning from the virtual game to their own life, which makes the experience even more rewarding. Students will take lessons from these simulation games and apply it to their own lives in a positive manner.

**Educational Implications** Within education, games are still overcoming the stigmata that games only serve a "fun" part of learning; however, ample research shows the importance and gains of games in regard to learning. Games can be utilized as educational learning tools in order to engage students and promote their critical thinking skills. Puentedura writes "students showed greater interest in topics taught via games or simulations" [10]. Games, especially simulation games, are truly interactive because the user input is a must in order to continue within the environment. Users must continue to make realtime decisions, provide the next steps for their character, and move along their character's path within the environment. Thus, users become completely immersed within the virtual game and can forget about the real-world sitting around them, but also realize the believable nature of this world and what they could potentially learn from the situation. Students will become more engaged within a simulation games because they are not only an active participant, but the participant. Topics actually come alive when in a gaming simulation, which makes the topics more interesting, because of their participation within the learning process. Simulation and Real-Life Application games target many aspects of the Constructivist theory of learning as discussed further below.

Within a classroom setting, students must understand the impact that simulation games can have on their learning. These are three ways that students and teachers can implement these types of games:
 * //Testing Hypothesis and What If Questions//: Simulation games provide students with the opportunity to alter situations that are otherwise unalterable within the confines of the classroom, either due to cost or lack of availability of resources, to test various hypotheses in various disciplines. In science, students can alter various genetic compositions to see which are more likely to provide an offspring with a genetic mutation. In math, students can test various equations in environments that might not automatically exist within the classroom setting. In social sciences, students could change the way history occurred, and then see the change to future historical events by plotting various events within a gaming situation. Students can also answer What If questions that often go unanswered. Especially when looking toward the future, students here can find answers to the infamous What If questions that often are of great interest to our students. In Ayiti: The Cost of Life game, students can answer the question of what will happen to the family if focusing on health, happiness, money, or education. All of these different choices have different outcomes for the family of four in Haiti. Thus, the 'if' becomes more crucial for students on the consequences of decisions and the sacrifices that various families make. By answering these questions, students have the opportunity to construct their own knowledge-base by determining various aspects of the learning environment from their hypotheses. These types of questions and explorations promote critical thinking skills in students due to the higher-order thinking that occurs within the gaming environment.
 * //Promote New Perspectives//: Real-life games provide users with the option of playing a game from the perspective of another individual and understand a phenomenon or problem from their thinking by seeing the world from their shoes. This is a powerful method for teaching because a student can then engage critical thinking skills to develop a well-reasoned decision about the issue. Especially in the social sciences, students often enter a classroom with their own ideas and upbringing that students tend to have a difficult time understanding an event from a different perspective. In a simulation game, a student can play once as a slave during the late 1800s and see that perspective, but then play again as the slave owner and see his perspective. After playing both versions, the student, then, can seek to make a new informed decision on the topic of slavery during said time period. Offering students to experience events from perspectives other than their own will significantly enhance the education of students because students will make better informed decisions and also understand why different groups of individuals make their decisions within this circumstance. Therefore, targeting the pedagogical goal of the Constructivist learning theory of providing experiences that encourage the appreciation of multiple perspectives.
 * //Observing Behavior//: By simulating through various scenarios and looking at certain games that simulate real life habits (e.g. The Sims, etc.), users can observe the behaviors of others; this typically will occur in a multiplayer simulation gaming environment in order to see what others are doing . The other users on the other end of the program conduct themselves throughout the game and therefore one can look at their behaviors, habits, and decisions and see how they can affect outcomes. As students observe the actions and outcomes of other individuals, the student can self-reflect in order to become more self-aware of their own behaviors and outcomes, as discussed in the Constructivist learning theory. Behaviors are an important part of understanding human culture and nature; therefore, students need to be exposed to these environments to try and comprehend why certain actions elicit various results as well as apply some decisions to their own lives.

Within an educational setting, teachers always provide a purpose for their assignments, lessons, and assessments. When integrating simulation games, the purpose and setting is even more critical to establish the reflective benefits. Kurt squire writes, "the educational value of simulations does not necessarily lie in the program itself, but rather in the overall experience of the simulation." [11] This simulation experience includes a reflection component at the end of the students' interaction with the specific game. After concluding the gaming situation, teachers must be there to guide students through the discovery process of stepping back and looking at the scenario, the implications, and reflecting upon the circumstances. This critical component encourages the students to think about the activity that was just completed and what implications this has for their future. How can a student take the information they just learned, connect it to their own life, and make meaning of the entire experience? These are excellent reflection pieces that should be included at the end of a gaming situation, instead of allowing the bell to ring and the class period to end. Students need time to think about what they have done and what it means to them in order to fully reap the benefits.

Additionally, many children at a young age always want to be a teacher, firefighter, police officer, or other known occupation to them. media type="youtube" key="p1n1cZ9D5cg" height="244" width="296" align="right" Teachers are responsible, aside from teaching their curriculum, to encourage students to determine their interests and assist in the college search process and career path. Simulation games can assist in this responsibility because these games can expose the students to a wide array of different career options and actually expose students to what the profession might be like. "Such distribution also allows players to internalize not only the knowledge and skills of a professional (a professional soldier in this case), but also the concomitant values (“doctrine” as the military says) that shape and explain how and why that knowledge is developed and applied in the world." [7] Examples of these games include the Call of Duty suite of video games for military, ER: The Game [4] for medicine, or Pursuit of Justicefor law. According to Diana Oblinger, "players can experience the ways a particular discipline thinks about and solves problems, as a physicist, an astronaut, or a physician. By requiring one to become a member of the community (or guild) and to develop knowledge, skills, and values, novices are exposed to the ways professionals deal with problems, mirroring the practice of becoming an expert." [9] These games, as the trailer and Oblinger suggest, completely immerse an user into the world of that profession to see and feel what life is like on a daily, virtual, basis for that profession. Students are completely exposed to the skills necessary to achieve and apply those skills to real-world circumstances.

Overall, the educational implications for games are significant, when integrated appropriately. Educators should bring simulation games into their classrooms to open the door to the real world to their students, show them different options of careers, and promote higher engagement. Each game needs to include the idea of a reflection piece, as mentioned above, in order to take full advantages that simulation games provide to their students. =Challenges to Simulation Games= Simulation games undergo a variety of challenges in full implementation and integration within a classroom setting. These challenges can be overcome in order to reap the educational benefits of simulation games when the teacher does a thorough preview of the gaming situation. Teachers must be willing to put in the time to preview the gaming situation prior to introducing the game to students. This preview is important for numerous reasons. The game must meet the instructional needs of the students and the curriculum to enhance and augment instruction within the classroom. Additionally, the game needs to be appropriate for the age-group of students that one might wish to utilize it. Aside from the preview done by the education, the following should be taken into consideration:
 * Research: Simulation games must be well-researched in order to fully embody the appropriate environment and provide an accurate view of what the game is attempting to depict. Thus, a team of researchers and professionals in the field must be assembled in order to fully execute the simulation because the game is not being developed purely for entertainment value, but also for an educational audience. When simulating real-life, the team gathered is significantly important because of the topic at hand is crucial for the purpose of the game. The decisions and graphics must mirror a real world situation so that the user can significantly address what life would be like in that situation.

=Future of Real Life Application and Simulation Games= With advancements in technology, games will only become more and more commonplace. Games are beginning to advance from end user to a community, and now with the creation of other gaming devices, the learning that can occur within games becomes more and more complex. Simulation games will certainly become more readily available as technology increases because the technology will no longer be a problem. In the future, simulation games will most likely be three dimensional so that the user can actually be immersed within the culture of any given situation. Additionally, these games will be completely realistic. In some instances, today, simulation games are not as realistic as one might like because there are certain restrictions within the gaming situation. The gaming developers permit you to choose a diagnosis among three as opposed to determining the diagnosis on one's own. In the future, these choices will be few and far between so that the user will actually be making the decisions in a lifelike manner. Furthermore, Oblinger suggests, "These future tools may not be games but rather massively multiplayer immersive worlds where learners develop epistemic frames and social networks." [9] There are current gaming environments that include the social aspect of a multiplayer environment, but typically simulation games are predominantly one-sided and user directed. Oblinger suggests that simulation games will take the form of a true world where there is constant interaction among and between individuals that promote learning and simulate a real-world. This might include actual villages with professions - teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc. - that carry out their roles virtually to educate and care for the virtual identities included within the network. An additional method of bringing real life application that is beginning to take hold and find its way into the educational realm is augmented reality. Augmented reality games will get the students outside of the classroom and out into the real world. Thus, if a simulation game could be created that modeled a real world environment and added an actual real world application by the student, a student could make significant in roads into the area of learning. Not only could the student make comparisons and contrasts between the two worlds, but also be able to modify the real world with simulated environmental features. This is when there will be unlimited options for decisions, but actual consequences and rewards for actions. There is certain tremendous growth within this area to come in the next few years.