simSchool: the classroom simulator for teacher training today
simSchool is a classroom simulator in which trainee teachers work with virtual students. Its creator is David Gibson, and the 2012 NMC Horizon Report for higher education named it as an example of an emerging technology.
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What simSchool is
simSchool puts a trainee teacher in front of a virtual class. The students are simulated, and their behavior is modeled on research in psychology and behavior. The trainee studies how the students differ, adapts instruction to each of them, gathers data on what the teaching achieved and then watches the results play out. David Gibson, Ed.D., is named as the creator.
Interest came from colleges of education and from learning support centers devoted to faculty development. Medical and legal schools were mentioned as further users, because the same method could carry over to human-resources simulations. A module project within simSchool received funding from the Next Generation Learning Challenges program of EDUCAUSE, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. CurveShift, a company that builds digital tools for K-12 teacher preparation, is named as the organization behind the program.
The developers list the results trainees show: better general teaching skill, more confidence with technology, stronger belief that they can make a difference for a child, and better performance in teacher preparation courses. These are the developers' own claims, and this entry does not test them.
The 2012 Horizon Report mention
The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative included simSchool in the Game-Based Learning in Practice section of the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition. The report called it a flight simulator for teachers, a way to practice demanding classroom scenarios before facing a real class.
The wider point of that section was that open-ended, challenge-based and collaborative serious games fit higher education well. The Horizon Project behind the series was set up in 2002 to identify technologies likely to affect education worldwide over the following five years.
What is true today
As of November 2026 the official address, simschool.org, opens a landing page titled SimSchool, described in its metadata as a way to transform a school's learning experience. The page loads as a script-driven app, and its text cannot be read without running scripts, so the features, pricing and access options of the simulator are not stated here. An address that does not exist on the same site shows a page-not-found message, which shows that the main site is live.
The CurveShift address given for the company shows an empty page today.
Questions about simSchool
What is simSchool?
simSchool is a classroom simulator for teacher preparation, created by David Gibson, in which trainees practice with virtual students who differ in their needs and behavior.
Which report named simSchool in 2012?
The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition, produced by the New Media Consortium with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, listed it in the Game-Based Learning in Practice section.
Is simSchool still available?
Its official site was online in November 2026 and shows a landing page titled SimSchool. The page does not display its offering without scripts, so the availability of the full simulator is not confirmed.