Alex Kass

A goal-based scenario for high school students

any commercial and academic developers of educational multimedia have focused primarily on information access and presentation. However, while it is easy to see that multimedia has tremendous potential to enhance the vividness with which information can be presented, and the ease with which it can be accessed, the main barriers to learning are not generally that appropriate information is difficult to access or badly presented. The problem has more to do with a lack of anything interesting for the student to do with that information. Much research—dating back to Dewey—argues that information that is accessed but never put to use during the learning process may be difficult to retrieve and use when the need arises in the real world. If the objective of a learning environment is for the student to develop a working knowledge of the subject, then providing access to information is just one of several issues that must be addressed. In addition to providing access to useful information, an effective learning environment must do the following three interrelated things:

Supporting learning through active retrieval of video stories

Abstract This paper describes how a computer program can support learning by retrieving and presenting relevant stories drawn from a video case base. Although this is an information retrieval problem, it is not a problem that fits comfortably within the classical IR model of Salton and McGill. In the classical model the computer system is passive: it is assumed that the user will take the initiative to formulate retrieval requests. A teaching system, however, must be able to initiate retrieval and formulate retrieval requests automatically. We describe a system, called SPIEL, that performs this type of retrieval, and discuss theoretical challenges addressed in implementing such a system. These challenges include the development of a representation language for indexing the systems video library and the development of set of retrieval strategies and a knowledge base that together allow the system to locate educationally relevant stories.

Explanations, machine learning, and creativity

Creativity is obviously a crucial aspect of human intelligence, and yet it has not been explored much by AI researchers. A principal reason for this lack of attention is the mystical aura that the word “creativity” has about it. Creativity is thought to be something so mysterious that AI researchers have been intimidated by it. We claim that creativity is a much simpler, more algorithmic process than many have thought and that AI is ready to start designing creative computers.

Chapter 10 How to support learning from interaction with simulated characters

Publisher Summary The broad pedagogical approach underlying the educational interactive story systems is what Schank et al. call the Goal-Based Scenario (or GBS). A GBS is a learning environment in which the students activity revolves around a central goal, or mission, which the system challenges the student to pursue. The systems discussed in this chapter represent an attempt to apply the GBS approach to areas in which the students mission is carried out largely through interaction with simulated characters generated by the system. While this sub-class involves some particularly challenging design considerations resulting from the complexity of interactive characters relative to other components of GBS task environments, they are based on the same basic pedagogical philosophy as any other GBS. The theory of cognition and learning that underlies GBSs includes, among others, the following tenets that bear on the design considerations that are discussed throughout this chapter: (1) People learn knowledge that they have an opportunity to put to use in an authentic context, (2) People learn when allowed making meaningful mistakes, and (3) People learn from real-world cases, presented in a relevant context.

The Use of 'War Stories' in Intelligent Learning Environments

Stories occupy a central role in training and instruction, and in many professional contexts is an intrinsic element in the enculturation and education of novice practitioners. “War stories” are valuable pieces of information that experienced mentors share with trainees, and when appropriately selected, can illustrate a concept when the learner is in a position to best understand and apply that concept. Stories hold promise for instructional applications because: Stories are contextual: a story encapsulates ideas and concepts within a rich set of contextual cues that can render the ideas and concepts immediately accessible to the learner. Stories show utility: a story can not only illustrate a skill or concept, but also a set of conditions under which that skill or concept is appropriate (or inappropriate) to apply. Stories are real: abstractions are often difficult to master whereas a story is a real-life instantiation of some abstract set of principles. Stories are memorable: Human memory is organized experientially; we are more adept at logging away specific episodes than at memorizing facts and axioms. A story is more readily retained because it associates a set of concepts with a corresponding sequence of events. Stories are provocative: Much of human conversation entails telling stories. As we hear a story we naturally draw inferences, explain, pose questions, and get reminded of similar stories. Stories are believable: Reading a decontextualized explanation of a phenomenon is not nearly as convincing as hearing a credible mentor discuss first-hand knowledge of that phenomenon.

Semantics and Pedagogy in Authoring Educational Technology: Confronting the Mismatch Bewtween Researchers' Expectations and Users'

As technological approaches to instruction become more widely available (and expected), developers have turned to authoring tools as a solution to two classic problems: (1) how can software be produced more easily and rapidly; (2) how can teacher practitioners and instructional designers create sophisticated, technology-enhanced curriculum materials without relying on computer programmers and researchers? Research in educational technology has led to constructivist and situated-inspired paradigms such as Anchored Instruction and Goal-Based Scenarios, yet few authoring tools have emerged that would help a designer create examples of these paradigms. Recently, however, researchers have been engaged in creating authoring environments that adhere to explicit models of instruction and that assist/cajole/coerce users in adhering to those models. One early result from these experiences has been the variation in the degree to which tool users are willing to adhere to the suggestions of the authoring tool. As a consequence, users create artifacts that may lie beyond the expectations of the tools’ creators. Some issues to explore in this regard are: How can the semantics of a tool be effectively expressed? What is a “Goal”? A “Scenario”? A “Project”? How can we scaffold tool users in creating materials that both fit their needs and are aligned with the instructional models and goals of the creators of the tool? What should a tool “know” about instruction? It’s domain? How flexible should a special-purpose tool be? How “special-purpose” should we be aiming for?