Workshop [6]

The school of the future, personally, is not something that is characterized by novel and sophisticated technologies, e.g. immersive simulations necessarily. The way I imagine it is a school that aims to create connections for its students. This stands on multiple levels - connections between grade levels, connections with their prior knowledge, connections with each other, connections in terms of accessibility, connections to the learning subjects, connections to their selves, all of those through experiencing learning. It is also a school that attempts to reframe students' perceptions around different learning subjects, bridging natural and human sciences and approaching computational thinking horizontally. Lastly, it is a school that aims to approach learning as a process with multiple aspects (emotional, motivational, cognitive, etc.) and address students needs in all those subsets.

More specifically, if simulation environments such as the applications presented in the workshop were widely integrated into classrooms across the world I believe the experience of learning would fundamentally change and move towards the direction I mention above, and along with that, students would evolve very differently throughout grade levels. 

Firstly, through simulations,students are trained in inquiry-based learning. Raising their questioning and the sense of discovery around learning does not only benefit them by developing high-order skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving,but gradually shapes thinking humans that have learned through "trial and error", .

By integrating simulations in a cross-disciplinary manner, a central issue of present schools could be potentially solved, which is the divide between students who are geared towards human/social sciences, and students geared towards physical sciences/engineering etc. Until now, in my personal experience in the last years of high school when students start deciding on their upper education studies and picking specific courses, the development of their skills also becomes more one-sided depending on the chosen path. For example, students taking physics classes will develop their design thinking and problem-solving skills, whereas students taking literature classes will develop their reading comprehension skills. However, in modern times a person needs to be equipped with a well-rounded set of 21st century skills but also digital competencies. Simulations if used across disciplines can bridge that gap and address that need for multifaceted development of skills.  

Moreover, it has been proved by research findings that being provided with multiple representations assists our learning (Meyer, et.al, 2014). Providing diverse representations as well as expression and engagement, according to UDL guidelines is a step towards creating inclusive environments. Simulations manage to do that by providing multimedia content on which the students can interact with, e.g respond or make choices in different ways. 

Additionally, as Seymour Papert has proposed, engaging students in contexts that they care about largely benefits their learning. Simulations often refer to real-life problems that help students understand how disciplines are intersected in real life, which creates connections and shows the practical value of previously abstract scientific concepts. 

These are some of the points that shape my perspective on how future learning would look like if simulations were widely used in education.

Regarding the PISA 2025 Learning in Digital World description, the two competencies that it focuses on is self-regulated learning and computational thinking.

In the demo exercise, I would say that perhaps the part that activated more of my SRL skills was the reflection part when I had to backtrack on what I had achieved during the demo and evaluate the level of accomplishment. Other than that, I cannot say that the structure of the demo helped me activate other SRL mechanisms or practice my metacognition much. It was mostly a matter of cognitive actions and paying attention to the information that was given to go through the activities.

Regarding computational thinking, i think the demo was very effective in creating an engaging context for problem-solving. The structure really helped with breaking down the problem into pieces and solving them gradually. For example, not all features of the ecosystem were introduced at once but after e.g solving how different species interact with eachother, then more complex elements would be added that would require combined thinking. Also there was a clear demonstration on how digital tools can be used to explore a system as the description says, and represent information in different ways (e.g text, graphs).