Editorial Notes

       The ThaiSim Journal: Learning Development is hosted by the Thai Simulation and Gaming Association aiming at sharing knowledge about simulation and gaming for promoting learning and education.

       This issue can somehow be considered as a special issue because most articles are resulted from collaborations among graduate students and their teachers. The journal thus serves its main mission as a stage for student researchers to contribute their works and help move the field forward for better learning circumstance.

       The first three articles are studies of gaming and simulation implemented with local people in rural area in different parts of Thailand. The first article entitled “Learning the environmental impact of land use change by using the Sathing Phra millionaire game” The authors integrated the concept of millionaire (monopoly) game with simple spatial representation to facilitate collective learning on environmental impact among local villagers in two villages in Sathing Phra district, Songkhla province, southern Thailand. The game is very useful for co-learning and players requested to use this game with their kids.

       The second article namely “Using “Carbon and melaleuca forest” and “people and melaleuca forest” games with children in the community for melaleuca forest learning and management”. This article used games and related activities with children and local stakeholders to understand the importance of the last melaleuca forest patch in Tung Bang Nok Oaak community, Songkhla province. After using the game, local administrative organization set up a melaleuca conservation day in the community and plan to use this game with more children and local resource users to increase awareness. This showed a successful case of using game for environmental public policy.

       The last article titled “Companion modelling for land and forest management: Case study of cattle raising and reforestation in highland of Nan province”. It is about the use of gaming and simulation with Hmong ethic minority herders and local staffs under the Royal Forest Department to mitigate the land use conflict on cattle rearing and reforestation in highland headwater area. After using the game, herders and foresters learned by observation and discussion during the gaming session. Both of them suggested building a new game to test new cattle raising techniques before implementing in reality. All case studies could inspire researchers and academia to use gaming and simulation not only in the classroom but also in real world.

       The fourth article is a classroom-based study undertaken by graduate students in the Teacher Certificate program entitled A Study of Image Game Effectiveness in Teaching Visual Arts for 2nd Grade Students. Graduate researcher assessed whether the use of image game was effective in enhancing 2nd graders in learning visual arts in the classroom setting. The findings was promising that learners showed their learning achievement, while they were enjoyed playing game as a part of their learning activities. The study supports that the use of game is a good choice for teachers to support their students in achieving learning goal.

       All in all, the studies showed that using games and simulations is not limited in only a classroom setting. Games and simulations can be used in the wider setting like teaching the local to learn how to spend better life quality, to save the environment, and to teach younger generation to protect their life necessities. We, therefore, are certain that games and simulations help promote learning for sustainable life.

       Although we, the editorial board, believe that the studies benefit the readers, we still apologize for any imperfection may be found in the issue. Comments, feedback, and suggestions from the readers are always welcome. Moreover, we would like to invite scholars to contribute their manuscripts, with focuses on games, simulations, and learning development, for the next issue, scheduled to release in June 2017. Submission details are available via the ThaiSim website at www.thaisim.or.th.

       Lastly, on behalf of the editorial board, we would like to thank all contributors, reviewers, and staff of the Thai Simulation and Gaming Association for their hard work to make this issue possible.

Pongchai Dumrongrojwatthana, PhD
Chulalongkorn University

Natthapong Chanyoo, PhD
Mahidol University