A study on teaching children the role of decentralized control in social communication using an interactive simulator

Following the trend in using computer-based learning tools to support articulate reflection, we report here our experiences on using an interactive simulator to help children learn about the role of decentralized control in social communication. A decentralized control system is a parallel system in which many local processes interact with the neighboring processes, and macro-characteristics emerge from it. In order to make children learn and appreciate the role of decentralized control in social communication we designed and implemented an interactive simulator, and experimented with using the simulator in a classroom with 6^th grade children (11-12years). Our results show that it is unreasonable to support articulate reflection from a computer-based learning system alone. Instead, a more integrated approach that combines traditional classroom teaching and discussion with the computer-based learning-systems is necessary.