Microworlds have two important characteristics that may not be present in a simulation (Rieber, 1996).
- a microworld presents the learner with the "simplest case" of the domain, even though the learner would usually be given the means to reshape the microworld to explore increasingly more sophisticated and complex ideas.
- a microworld must match the learner's cognitive and affective state. Learners immediately know what to do with a microworld - little or no training is necessary to begin using it (imagine first "training" a child how to use a sandbox).
the student is encouraged to think about it as a "real" world, and not simply as a simulation of another world.
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