As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m doing some research and writing on the idea of “transfer of learning.”

As part of that research, I’ve been exploring online simulations that could “transfer” learning to different situations students might realistically encounter in classes or outside of school. I’ve posted about quite a few of them over the year, and you can find them on various “The Best” lists, but I don’t have one dedicated list to them.

I thought it was time to create one.

I did a quick and dirty search of my Best lists (particularly The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories) to identify a number of them, and have them listed below. It’s by no means exhaustive (I know there are a lot of science-oriented ones out there, as well as others that connect math to concrete “real-world” situations), though, and I’m hoping readers will contribute more.

Also see: THE DANGERS – & POSITIVE POSSIBILITIES – OF HISTORY SIMULATIONS

Think Twice Before Doing Another Historical Simulation is from Jennifer Gonzalez.

Gamifying settler colonialism is by Benjamin Doxtdator, and makes a number of important points about the need to be very careful when doing simulations.

How to — and How Not to — Teach Role Plays is from the Zinn Education Project.

ARE USING SIMULATIONS IN THE CLASSROOM ONE WAY TO “ACCELERATE LEARNING”?

Here goes:

Broken Co-Worker is an interesting “Choose Your Own Adventure” game where players are in the role of a bullied worker. It appears to be classroom appropriate, but I did not explore all the alternatives available.

Depression Quest is an interactive text fiction game (or choose your own adventure) where the player plays the part of someone who is suffering from depression.

Lifesaver is an online video game designed to help you learn CPR through the “choose your own adventure” game genre.

Here are a few job interview simulation interactives:

My Interview Simulator

Interview Simulation

 

 

The Best Sites For Students To Create Budgets has quite a few activities that would probably qualify as simulations.

And there might other financial-related ones I missed at The Best Sites For Learning Economics & Practical Money Skills.

Here are links to several stock market simulations:

National Stock Market Simulation

The Stock Market Game

The California Stock Market Simulation

And many science-connected simulations can be found at PhET Interactive Simulations

Wake Your Class Up with Simulations! is from Ingenious Teaching.

I previously posted  “Loopy” Lets You Create Interactive Simulations That Look Cool But I Don’t Really Understand Them. You can find even more similar tools at Explorable Explanations.

Okay, now, let me know what I’m missing!

Mock Auctions. Pretending to Flee Captors. Do Simulations Have a Place in Lessons on Slavery? is from Ed Week.

Read To Lead is free, and provides online simulations that “teach students literacy and leadership in an immersive virtual workplace.”

Mission 1.5 is a simulation game from the United Nations that lets you help deal with global warming.

Stax is a game designed to help you learn about investing.  It also gives you the option of playing in groups you choose.

Prisoner in My Homeland is a role-playing simulation game about Japanese-American internment during World War II. It’s from Mission US, which has been justly criticized in the past for some of their role-playing games (see the top of this post). I have not played this particular game, but their most recent other ones have indicated they may have taken those criticisms to heart.

“ESCAPE PLAN” IS A FIRE SAFETY INTERACTIVE

“SIMULATIONS LAB” HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL FOR PLAYING & CREATING…SIMULATIONS

“MISSION US” LAUNCHES SEVERAL NEW ONLINE HISTORICAL SIMULATIONS

Svetlana Kandybovich has created what seems to be a useful AI-powered Role Play Generator. It took me less than a minute to give it some parameters, and it came up with a pretty decent one.