Some factors in the design of instructional micrcomputer simulations that high school social studies teachers must consider when selecting and using computer software are discussed: (1) Instructional computer simulations are adequate instructionally only to the extent that they make explicit the set of relationships underlying the program for the simulation. (2) Students must have access to the system model so that they can understand why a particular action leads to a particular consequence. (3) The simulation must accurately model the observed phenomena in the real world. (4) Instructional simulations of abstract relationships must at a minimum provide both iconic and symbolic representations of the relationships. (5) Instructional simulations of social relationships and systems must not only provide iconic and symbolic representations of the systems; they must also provide, in a context external to the computer, for enactive experience to authenticate the parallel enactive-social experience in the real world phenomena. (6) Teachers must be able to differentiate between social and non-social content, and when teaching non-social content, must be sure to debrief students on the connections between the two. (RM)