GEOSIMULATION IN EDUCATION: THE EXPERTCOP SYSTEM Vasco Furtado Eurico Vasconcelos Filho University of Fortaleza Av. Washigton Soares 1521, Edson Queiroz, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil vasco@unifor.br jose_eurico@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This research work proposes a generic architecture for pedagogical geosimulation systems. This architecture is characterized by the existence of a multi-agent system supported by a geographical information system. In this system, a pedagogical agent aims to define interaction strategies between a user and a geosimulator in order to make simulated phenomena better understood. The article also describes the ExpertCOP system, a geosimulator system of crime rate in a region, which is based on this generic architecture. In ExpertCOP, the police officers allocate their available police force according to the selected region and then, they can follow the simulation process. ExpertCOP system intends to induce users to reflect about their actions related to resources allocation through questionings about the causes that lead to the occurrence of crimes in the selected region. INTRODUCTION Simulation aims to represent a phenomenon via another one and it is useful to measure, demonstrate, test, evaluate, foresee, and decrease risks and costs. In educational terms, simulation is important because it allows learning through the possibility of actually doing (Piaget 1976). The use of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) to simulate social environments has become broadly used (Khuwaja 1996) (Gilbert 1995). Social or urban environments are dynamic, non linear, and made of a great number of variables, characterizing the geosimulation (Benenson & Torrens 2004). In such environments, the individual behavior is relevant for the simulation general context, different from the traditional top-down approach, in which the system is represented as a whole in terms of mathematical models. With the computational development of geographical information systems (GIS), multi-agents simulation systems benefited from them in terms of geographical representation of areas to be simulated. Geoprocessing brought precision and realism to simulation (Wu 2002). Gibbons (Gibbons 1994, 2001) suggest that there are few adequate tools for developing educational computer systems, where intelligent agents support the interaction between the simulation model and the user. Our research work consists of investigating how computational tools, which perform social simulations based on multi-agents with GIS, could become educational tools. Particularly, we focus on the development of a generic architecture of pedagogical simulation, and based on this architecture, we develop a MAS with GIS simulation tool in order to help understanding the cause- and-effect related to crime rates. In this article, we describe the educational software ExpertCOP that considers the main characteristics, which we agree to be essential to a general architecture of an educational social simulation. ExpertCOP aims to enable police officers to better allocate their ostensive police force in an urban area. This software produces, based on a police resources allocation plan, simulations of how the crime rate behaves in a certain period of time based on the defined allocation. The goal is to allow a critical analysis by police officers, the system users, making them understand the cause-and-effect relation of their decisions and actions. Initial experiments with police officers in the city of Fortaleza were performed and indicated valuable contributions of the software developed. This article is structured as follows: Initially, we present the state of the art, in which we describe the adopted technologies and its correlations. In the next topic, we present the proposed generic architecture of the pedagogical social geosimulation in order to describe the public safety domain and the ExpertCOP. Correlated works lead to comparisons and conclusions to finish this article. BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Simulation in Education Simulation is a scientific tentative that consists of performing an artificial reproduction called model, of a real phenomenon that we want to study and observe the behavior (Drogoul 1993). Simulation has been also proving to be an excellent teaching tool, especially for complex situations, with high cost and risk. Practical examples of simulators application can be seen in various areas, such as, in the