For many years, my passion has been making learning more interesting, powerful and fun. The techniques that I have enjoyed the most have been experimental, where people learn by doing and simulation, whether computerised or not, captures this well.

When I first started working on simulations, over 20 years ago, I wanted to create a system that was flexible enough that it could easily be modified to suit any organisation. We realised that the spreadsheet was possibly one of the most flexible calculation engines ever created and so we developed a plug-in into Excel that would make it easier to generate multi-person, multi-user simulations. We used this first with AXA to create a simulation customised for their financial brokers. This evolved into a language and a methodology that we trademarked SpreadSims. Any spreadsheet-user could design, build, test and publish a simulation on the Internet for other people to use. Using SpreadSims we produced a more general simulation called the Great Restaurant sim. This was used in teaching business and team skills to a 1st-year university business class.

The Great Restaurant Sim was a big hit and we always knew that for this type of product to grow, we would need to open it up to others to create their own sims. So we have designed SchoolSims, reconfigurable spreadsheet-based learning simulations. SpreadSims can be easily used by teachers and students to design, share and learn from sims which fit in with their schools curriculum.

Our team has shown much dedication and support in getting SchoolSims products to a quality standard for schools to employ in 2010. Our team can see the benefits in which simulation can enhance education in New Zealand schools and this drives them to do the best they can for the company and the community. And that is where we are right now.

The next step is to empower teachers to make a difference with their schools by getting on board with the SchoolSims programmes. SchoolSims will empower students with the tools to enhance learning, make them think and make thinking fun!

Stay tuned for how this evolves over the next few months.

-Pete Mazany