As methods grounded in experiential learning, demonstration, especially, and simulation have an important place in Extension. The history of Extension was built largely on demonstration. The jobs of early agents was to show people how to apply knowledge derived research.
According to Gilley, demonstrations serve two purposes, to demonstrate a skill or to provide support for an idea or concept. Agricultural Research and Extension use demonstration for both purposes. Food preservation workshops, for example, use demonstration to teach the skill of canning, drying or freezing foods. “Demonstration plots” provide support for an idea, for example, using two different methods to plant and raise the same crop in adjacent fields thus demonstrating the results of each method and, hopefully supporting the idea of using the preferred method.
Simulation enables learners to acquire skills by participating in situations that are similar to real life. Gilly says simulation can get learners “involved cognitively as well as emotionally,” leading to sharing that deepens learning. He cites Thiagarajan’s five learning objectives simulation can serve:
1. Develop complex cognitive skills
2. Impact values, beliefs or attitude
3. Induce empathy
4. Improve human relations skills
5. Unlearn attitudes or behaviors
Application: Extension has used simulation to develop complex cognitive skills in Second Life, a fully immersive, 3D virtual world. Second Life has been used to simulate experiences that would be impossible or unsafe to create in the real world.
In a Second Life experience to simulate spray drift of herbicides, learners can have make their avatar (their virtual self in Second Life) ride in a droplet of herbicide and be carried by the wind into different, potentially harmful situations. You cannot see spray drift, and it is difficult to imagine it travelling very far. By putting people inside a droplet can make spray drift more “real” to them and impact their attitude toward it.
With advancing technology, there are opportunities for creating virtual world simulations, outside of Second Life, that are more realistic and may be more effective.
Assessment: Debate (Barkley & Major, 2016, pp. 196-201)
In the application above, it is difficult to find an assessment. Learners are isolated in a virtual world that they are accessing on-demand without a facilitator present. I think debate could be adapted to the spray drift simulations by programming a virtual assistant to accompany the learner within the droplet. This virtual assistant could make the argument for or against spending the time, attention and money on reducing spray drift. The learner could be presented with a 3 potential counterarguments to each point the virtual assistant makes. The learner could then choose which counterargument they want to respond with which would change which argument the virtual assistant presented next.
References
Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2016). Learning assessment techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gilley, Jerry W. (2004). Demonstration and Simulation. In Michael W. Galbraith (Eds.), Adult Learning Methods: A Guide for Effective Instruction (3rd Ed.) (361-380). Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company.