AIC NSA Reflection

      Now that our AIC (Arab-Israeli Conflict) Simulation project it is over it is time to reflect. Like all things I had up and downs through out this project. I had to interact with people posing as world leaders in a way that would be true to life. Of course, I had the help is my NSA but the fact that I never did nor could I have met my NSA it was hard to contact them. Not to mention all of the other people that they had asking them questions.
      Lets start with the good things. The AIC was very effective in achieving it's purposes: allowing students to realize how complicated and urgent the conflict is. The conflict is based upon over a century of history. Religion and pride take the front seat in controlling the issue. I never even began to imagine how complicated things are. Learning about the conflict in a text book or discussion cannot compare to how much I learned in that simulation. The experience I gained in simply being able to talk to anybody in a respectable, mature and professional manner is already invaluable and is something I will need for the rest of my life.
      Now, like all things in life, with every good thing there is always a down side. And in this case it was the time. Though in hindsight I could see why the simulation needed to take months (because the conflict is so complicated) it did grow tiresome by the end. It came to a point where no matter how hard I tried in and out side of class I could not bring my self to put in the same effort and enthusiasm that I did in the beginning. This is not because I have blatant disregard for the entire conflict but it is because it got to the point where is was more of the same. If you were trying to find a peaceful solution then things would start to get boring. The second thing that I would advice to improve on is the website its self. For the tech-savy people in the world navigating through that website was probably a walk in the park but for the furthest-thing-from-tech-savy people in the world, like me, navigating through that website in the first few weeks was like a walk to the  moon. And back. That being said by the end of the simulation I was able to get around fairly easily, only bumping into a few hitches when I tried to navigate into uncharted territory.
       Over all I would say that teachers should continue using this as a learning tool. The things I learned through the simulation can not be matched - even by the best of text books. Teachers, continue to put up with the complaints about how brutally long the simulation is because in the long run I remember more about the conflict than I do of most  other things that I learnt that early in the year. So in conclusion, keep up with the simulation and hope for students who know there way around a computer better than I do.