Networked Gridlock: Students Enacting Complex Dynamic Phenomena with the HubNet Architecture

This project brings together two lines of research—the study of complex dynamic systems and the use of participatory simulations as a powerful way into systems modeling—both of which can be enabled and advanced through emerging network technologies. The study of dynamic systems stands as a new form of literacy for all. Participatory Simulations Activities can support new forms of classroom interaction and can serve to catalyze the engagement with dynamic systems modeling as a core feature of the education of all students. To accomplish these goals, we introduce a new architecture, HubNet. HubNet is an open client-server architecture, which enables many users at the “Nodes” (currently TI graphing calculators) to control the behavior of individual objects or agents and to view the aggregated results on a central computer known as the Hub. This network of nodes is integrated with a powerful suite of modeling, analysis and display tools that together give users the capacity to “fly’ the system in intuitive mode, to reflect on the emergent result of their simulation and, also, to encode their strategies as rules which the system can then run independently. The HubNet system is being used in several middle and secondary classrooms. An illustrative example of classroom use is presented.

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