Understanding Systemic Change in Education
through SimEd Technologies
Theodore W. Frick
School of Education, Indiana University BloomingtonKenneth R. Thompson
System-Predictive Technologies, Columbus, Ohio
SimEd began with the idea that educators could learn to think systemically by repeatedly experiencing a simulation of educational systems, something akin to the popular SimCity. That was in 1994, when the first author led a conversation on simulosophy at Asilomar, an annual conference on the Design of Social Systems, organized by the late Bela Banathy.
'Simulosophy' was a word that emerged from that conversation, coined from combining 'simulation' and 'philosophy.' Our simulosophy has evolved considerably in the last 12 years. For one, we believe that scenario-based models such as SimCity have significant limitations. If scenario-based models lack fidelity and make unwarranted assumptions, they can be misleading and potentially dangerous -- people can learn the wrong things.
We believe that logic-based models, grounded in scientific theory, are superior and ultimately more useful. And that is has led us, to ...
SimEd Technologies
Many well-intentioned people want to improve education. So do we. We believe that education could be far more effective, efficient and satisfying than it is in our current educational systems—both K-12 and higher education.
We believe that the following questions have not been adequately addressed:
- “Change what?”
- “Change how?” and
- “How do you know the change is working?”
We must know what to change in order to know how. We must know whether the change accomplishes the goal and that the change does not have negative, unintended effects. Change for the sake of change is nonproductive. And, without knowing what to change, the “how” is irrelevant.
SimEd Technologies consist of four parts:
- The ‘Get Ready, SET, Go!’ change model,
- The theory model options set called Axiomatic Theories of Intentional Systems (ATIS),
- Computer software: Analysis of Patterns in Time and Configuration (APT&C), and
- Computer software: Predicting Education System Outcomes (PESO).
The theory and software are currently under development. For overviews of this work, see:
SimEd Technologies