Limitations of simulation

Answer 1

* Expensive to build a simulation model. * Expensive to conduct simulation. * Sometimes it is difficult to interpret the simulation results. * Simulation concerns the manipulation of a number of variables of a model representing a real system. However, manipulation of a single variable often means that the reality of the system as a whole can be lost. Certain systems or components of a realistic situation are not transparent. Some factors have a lot of influence on the whole, but they have indistinct relations in the whole and can therefore not be represented in a model. These factors, however, cannot be forgotten in the learning process.

* A computer simulation program cannot develop the students' emotional and intuitive awareness that the use of simulations is specifically directed at establishing relations between variables in a model. So this intuition has to be developed in a different way.

* Computer simulation cannot react to unexpected 'sub-goals' which the student may develop during a learning-process. These sub-goals would be brought up during a teacher-student interaction but they remain unsaid during the individual student use of a simulation.

* Computer simulation programs may function well from a technical point of view, but they are difficult to fit into a curriculum.

* Often a computer simulation program cannot be adapted to take into different student levels into account within a group or class. A computer simulation program can certainly be made to adapt to different circumstances if the designer bears that in mind; however, for many computer simulation programs this has not happened.

* During the experience of interaction with a computer simulation program, the student is frequently asked to solve problems in which creativity is often the decisive factor to success. The fact that this creativity is more present in some pupils than in others is not taken into account by the simulation. Mutual collaboration and discussion among students while using the software could be a solution for this