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August 30, 2004: An
apple for the computer - Machines are so sophisticated they can be
used to grade essays. But in some ways, artificial intelligence still
lacks common sense. By Faye Flam. Philadelphia Inquirer. "First,
computers learned to beat people at chess, then they started answering
411 calls. Now, computers endowed with artificial intelligence are going
where only teachers ventured before: They're grading essays. At least
three companies are marketing computerized essay graders, and thousands
of schools across the country are using them as teaching tools and to
score standardized tests. ... Jill Burstein, [E-rater's] lead scientist
and a computational linguist, said the computer is 'trained' by feeding
it thousands of essays that have already been scored and then asking the
system to look for patterns that distinguish the good from the bad. ...
[E]ssay-scoring programs will work for students who make a good-faith
effort, said Harry Barfoot, vice president for marketing and sales at
Vantage Learning. 'It can't score poetry and creative writing,' he said,
but that was never promised. ... [Henry] Lieberman and other artificial
intelligence researchers say computers could become dramatically smarter
and more humanlike in the future. The brain is just a physical machine,
albeit a complicated one we don't yet understand, they argue. 'People
have this illusion that what we do is magic and it will never be automated,'
said University of Pennsylvania computer science professor Lyle Ungar.
When he first started studying artificial intelligence, he said, no one
thought a computer could play chess well enough to beat the masters. Today,
computers can beat everyone at chess, he said, and we're no longer impressed." August 27, 2004: What
awaits this year's GCSE generation? By Jenny Rees. The Western Mail
/ available from ic Wales. "Thousands of children in Wales picked
up their GCSE [General Certificate of Secondary Education] results yesterday
and started to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives - what
do I do next? Here Jenny Rees takes a look at what life may be like when
their children reach exam age. Ian Neild, of the BT research centre, looks
at new and emerging technologies, and says that while the pace of change
is rapid, in some cases very little has changed.... As the internet and
technology becomes more sophisticated young people are unlikely to see
the relevance of learning foreign languages. 'We use the language of the
web, it's the Microsoft language,' said Mr Neild. And if we're ever stuck
without a dictionary in our chosen language, 'there are all these lovely
language translators on line,' he added. ... Teaching is set for possibly
the biggest change, our crystal ball tells us. 'Teaching numbers will
be in decline because no one will want to teach the children so there
will be an increasing use of artificial intelligence to give personal
teaching,' said Mr Neild. 'Just as you have typing tutors, these sorts
of things will let you learn in different way.'" August 22, 2004: The
Making of an X Box Warrior - The military has quietly become an industry
leader in video-game design, creating games to train and even recruit
the soldiers of the PlayStation generation. Will virtual boot camp make
combat more real or more surreal? By Clive Thompson. The New York Times
Magazine (no fee reg. req'd.). "It was only a virtual Baghdad, baking
under a virtual sun. As in real life, though, troops were dodging gunfire.
I was at the Institute for Creative Technologies in Marina Del Rey, Calif.,
playing a new X box video game called Full Spectrum Warrior. ... For the
past three years, the military has been entertaining the surprising idea
that video games, even those that you play on a commerical system like
Microsoft's Xbox, can be an effective way to train soldiers. In fact,
the Army is now one of the industry's most innovative creators, hiring
high-end programmers and designers from Silicon Valley and Hollywood to
devise and refine its games. Some of these games are action-packed, like
Full Spectrum Warrior. Others, like one that the military's Special Operations
Command is currently designing to help recruits practice their Arabic,
are less so. All the games, however, speak to the military's urgent need
to train recruits for the new challenges of peacekeeping efforts in places
like Iraq. ... Not everyone in the military is convinced that receiving
training in a game is possible or even useful. ... One of the biggest
concerns that skeptics voice is the danger of so-called negative training.
If a game is programmed with unrealistic physics and behavior, it can
teach soldiers incorrect techniques -- potentially deadly when they eventually
enter combat. In a game like Full Spectrum Warrior, where the enemy is
made up of computerized opponents with artificial intelligence, the obvious
concern is that the preparation will not give a human-enough sense of
how devious, or inept, a real enemy can be." August 20, 2004: The
War Room. By Steve Silberman. Wired News (This article will appear
in the September 2004 issue of Wired Magazine.) "The installation
is the brainchild of the Institute for Creative Technologies, an Army-funded
R&D group at the University of Southern California. ICT brings together
videogame developers, f/x artists, research scientists, and Pentagon experts
to create faster, cheaper, and more effective ways of preparing recruits
for their jobs on the front lines. ... The backbone of military training
for centuries was rote learning. The goal of the punishing routines and
endless drills was to replace thinking with instinct so that at the sound
of gunshots, a soldier would automatically return fire. But this kind
of schooling, the Pentagon now believes, is inadequate to prepare soldiers
for hot spots like the Sunni Triangle, where it's not enough to be a good
marksman. These days, grunts fresh out of basic training must also be
versed in the nuances of street-level diplomacy with an increasingly hostile
citizenry in densely populated neighborhoods where allies can turn into
opposing forces overnight. To teach recruits how to navigate complex situations,
ICT's virtual training packages are built around the oldest form of immersive
experience: storytelling. 'Instead of moving the classroom into the field,
we're moving the field into the classroom,' says Randy Hill, the institute's
deputy technology director. An ICT software package for desktop PCs called
Think Like a Commander engages captains-in-training in conflict scenarios
derived from interviews with senior officers who served in Bosnia or Afghanistan.
In one story line, warlords descend on a food-distribution outpost, and
the trainee must quickly determine who to trust and how to build alliances
with the locals. The roles of the coalition soldiers, tribal leaders,
and villagers are played by lifelike avatars programmed with megabytes
of artificial intelligence, Army doctrine, and speech-and-text recognition
software. ... Studies by academic researchers have shown that immersion
in simulated environments increases learning speed and retention for a
range of tasks, from making laparoscopic incisions to rescuing people
from burning buildings. ... Virtual military training dates back to 1929,
when Ed Link, the son of an organ manufacturer, invented the first flight
simulator.... Impressed by Link's teaching tool, the Navy set about creating
a simulator that relied on a computer instead of pumps and valves. The
effort, dubbed Project Whirlwind and spearheaded at MIT, produced the
first digital computer (manufactured by an upstart calculator maker called
IBM) and many of the technical foundations of the modern networked age...." August 12, 2004: Computer
Graded Writing. Written by Nancy Steinbach and reported by Steve Ember.
VOA News broadcast. "Educators know that teaching students to write
well is not easy. One problem is the amount of time needed to read through
large amounts of work. So some companies have developed computer programs.
These can grade student writing much more quickly than a human can. Writing
tests can also cost less to administer by computer than by paper-and-pencil.
These computer systems are known as e-raters. They use artificial intelligence
to think in a way like teachers. In the state of Indiana, computer grading
of a statewide writing test began with a test of the system itself. For
two years, both a computer and humans graded the student writing. Officials
say there was almost no difference between the computer grades and those
given by the human readers. ... How do teachers feel about all this? ..." August 1, 2004: Computers
Weighing In On the Elements of Essay - Programs Critique Structure,
Not Ideas. By Jay Mathews. The Washington Post / also available from MSNBC
(Computers help grade essays;
August 2, 2004). "[E]ssay-grading computers are quietly making significant
gains in the booming U.S. testing industry. More than 2 million essays
have been scored by e-rater since it was adopted for the GMAT in 1999,
and the technology is being considered for use in the Graduate Record
Examination, for graduate school admissions, and the Test of English as
a Foreign Language, which assesses the English proficiency of immigrants
entering U.S. schools. SAT and ACT may be next Testing experts predict
that machines eventually will help grade the SAT and the ACT, which will
add writing sections in their 2005 college admissions tests, because computers
cost less money and work faster than humans. Before technology entered
the picture, teams of people graded each GMAT essay. Now one person's
judgment is compared with the machine's conclusion. ... The e-rater was
developed in the 1990s by subjecting essays to a 'natural language processing
technology' that identifies grammar, sentence structure and strength of
vocabulary. The computer also is programmed to scan for the elements present
in a well-supported essay, said Richard Swartz, an executive with Educational
Testing Service, which developed e-rater. ... Swartz emphasized the modest
goal of computerized scoring: to judge the structure and coherence of
the writing, rather than the quality of the thoughts and originality of
the prose. In college, he said, professors grade the development of ideas,
while essay-rating computers 'are better suited to judgment about more
basic-level writing.'" July 6, 2004: Virtual
Camp Trains Soldiers in Arabic, and More. By Margaret Wertheim. The
New York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "Sergeant Smith is not a real
soldier, but the leading character in a video game being developed at
the University of Southern California's School of Engineering as a tool
for teaching soldiers to speak Arabic. Both the game's environment and
the characters who populate it have a high degree of realism, in an effort
to simulate the kinds of situations troops will face in the Middle East.
Talle is modeled on an actual Lebanese village, while the game's characters
are driven by artificial-intelligence software that enables them to behave
autonomously and react realistically to Sergeant Smith. The Tactical Language
Project, as it is called, is being developed at U.S.C.'s Center for Research
in Technology for Education, in cooperation with the Special Operations
Command. ... One of the tools the Carte team has developed is a virtual
tutor that uses artificial intelligence software to coach individual students
through the minefield of pronunciation. To do this, the researchers have
had to design speech recognition software tailored specifically for language
learners. ... Developing so-called intelligent agents is currently a hot
research topic and U.S.C.'s Information Sciences Institute, where Carte
is based, is home to world leaders in this field. Two institute scientists,
Dr. David Pynadath and Dr. Stacy Marsella, have developed a program called
PsychSim to model individual and group behavior among agents." June 23, 2004: War,
with a with a restart button - Cary studio builds military training
from a game, 'America's Army.' By John Gaudiosi. The News & Observer.
"Since its introduction two years ago, the realistic online video
game designed by the U.S. Army as a recruiting and training tool has been
an hit. The combat game has more than 3.4 million registered users who
have played more than 600 million missions. It's available for free at
recruiting stations and at www.americasarmy.com/. ... The primary purpose
of 'America's Army' Government Applications Team is to use the video game
technology for real-world training. The studio is working on a number
of projects that improve the way personnel are trained and open new doors
for the testing of advanced military weapons and robots. ... Computer-generated
artificial intelligence can help create situations in which 'enemies'
react in ways that closely resemble real life. ... The [Army's Armament
Research, Development and Engineering Center's] team recently created
the Talon robot system and was able to test it virtually before Congress
ordered the titanium robots for combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. The game
technology was then used to build training kits for soldiers, who received
the software before the Talon robots arrived, and were already familiar
with how to operate them." June 15, 2004: State
has a strange way with words. By Tracy Dell'Angela. Chicago Tribune
(no fee reg. req'd.). "All children in Illinois public schools, and
many elsewhere in the nation, write an essay for a standardized test at
some point in their education. Next year, similar writing samples will
become part of the ACT and SAT college entrance exams. That, in turn,
is reshaping the way schools teach this essential skill -- for the worse,
critics say. But [Ulises Gonzales'] essay illuminates the difficulty of
trying to evaluate the infinitely variable craft of writing in an objective
and mechanical way. ... They penalize pupils who struggle to finish in
the prescribed 40 minutes, as Ulises did, without necessarily crediting
his unconventional uses of dialogue and descriptive passages that have
characters 'yelling with a surprising ferocity' and 'detention slips clenched
in tight fists.' In the end, what these tests evaluate is so formulaic
that in Indiana, a machine does the grading. In May, some 50,000 high
school juniors there took an online essay test that was evaluated by computers
using a form of artificial intelligence designed to mimic human readers.
... 'We didn't build this system to evaluate the Hemingways and Shakespeares,'
said Richard Swartz, an executive director at Educational Testing Services,
which designed Indiana's system and also uses computer programs to grade
essays for the GMAT, the business graduate school entrance exam. 'The
[artificial intelligence] is not going to be able to separate creative
approaches from mundane approaches, but I would argue that doesn't happen
with human readers either,' Swartz said. 'We're evaluating the kind of
writing students are asked to produce, and 90 percent of that writing
is pretty mundane.'" June 14, 2004: Arabic: High-Tech Tutor. By Andrew Murr. Newsweek / available from MSNBC. "Army Special Operations soldiers may soon get a high-tech computer game to teach them Arabic. Now being designed at the University of Southern California, the Tactical Language Training System helps students learn 'situational Arabic' by inserting them into a realistic videogame as Special Forces operator Maj. John Smith (Maj. Kate Jones for women). ... It employs voice-recognition and artificial-intelligence technologies so that the mayor and others react to Smith's Arabic words and motions."
>>>Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Speech, Vision, Education, Video Games, Military, Naturural Language Processing, Applications June 6, 2004: A
PhD in Mortal Kombat - A pioneering USC group tries to get into the
heads of players to learn if the pastime harms or can help. By Mary McNamara.
The Los Angeles Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "[T]hese three and others
like them are using their knowledge of games like Mortal Kombat and the
Sims to further their education. As members of USC's Computer Games project,
they are the local vanguard of a new academic discipline: video game scholarship.
... The research at USC focuses on the gamer rather than game design or
development, and much of what they are doing is groundbreaking. ... In
the past years, it's developed or launched studies into areas as diverse
as the effect of violent games on brain activity, the motivation of gamers,
the benefits of interactive learning, and the role of narrative and character
development in the games themselves. ... In one study planned for this
summer, researchers will test the conventional wisdom that interactive
learning is more productive than rote. 'Everyone assumes children will
learn more if they are playing a game,' [Ute] Ritterfeld says. 'But we
do not know that because it has never been tested.' ... Here is what is
known about computer games: They are the fastest-growing area of the entertainment
market; last year, when games sales reached $11.4 billion, which surpassed
U.S. box office figures, studios all over town began opening or gearing
up their interactive divisions. The median age of gamers has risen to
27, and almost half are women. Men prefer violent, combat-heavy games,
women are more into role-playing. The Sims, in which players create virtual
families and homes and lives, is the most popular computer game of all
time with 6.3 million units sold." June 3, 2004 [event date]: Interaction
Design and Children Conference. Live Online / The Washington Post.
"The University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab holds
their third annual Interaction Design and Children conference on the importance
and challenges of allowing children to be integrated at the early stage
of the technology design process. ... Conference speakers and chair Alan
Kay, Marvin Minsky, Seymour Papert and Allison Druin will be online Thursday,
June 3 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss the conference highlights and their research." May 26, 2004: New
e-learning tools. By Chandra Devi. Computimes / The New Straits Times
(Malaysia). "Local software provider
Zeddel DotCom Sdn Bhd has entered into an international research collaboration
agreement with two Canadian universities to develop new e-learning tools.
... The Aries Lab, in the department of computer science at the University
of Saskatchewan, is playing a pivotal role for research projects in the
areas of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) and adaptive learning environment.
... AICML [Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Machine Learning], on the other
hand, supports and promotes curiosity-driven machine learning research,
and leading-edge scientific and commercial applications in the bio-informatics
and interactive entertainment industries. ... Dr Randy Goebel, chairman
of the computer science department at the University of Alberta, says
AICML's partnership with Zeddel marks the first formal arrangement with
a foreign commercial enterprise. He adds that AICML which has a mandate
for fundamental scientific research on machine learning has been working
to establish relationships with foreign scientific institutions with related
interests, including the Centre for Automated Learning and Discovery at
Carnegie Mellon University in the United States and the German Centre
for Artificial Intelligence Research in Germany. According to Goebel,
the partnership with Zeddel is motivated by the company's willingness
to embrace leading-edge technologies and confront the task of making them
work in the market. Such passion, he adds, is rare and important for the
AICML scientists, as they need to collaborate in partnerships that span
the industry-university boundary." May 22, 2004: Would You Trust a Computer to Grade Emerson? The New York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). 2 Letters to the Editor regarding the May 19th article, Indiana Essays Being Graded by Computers. May 19, 2004: Indiana
Essays Being Graded by Computers. By Sol Hurwitz. The New York Times
(no fee reg. req'd.). "In the computer lab at Warren Central High
School in mid-May, Craig Butler, a junior, squinted at the question on
his screen, paused to ponder his answer and began typing. Craig was one
of 48,500 Indiana juniors gathering in high schools across the state to
take the end-of-year online English essay test. Unlike most essay tests,
however, this one is being graded not by a teacher but by a computer.
Craig has already decided he prefers computer grading. 'Teachers, you
know, they're human, so they have to stumble around telling you what you
need to do,' he said at a practice session. 'A computer can put it in
fine print what you did wrong and how to fix it.' But his English teacher,
Richard P. Dayment, wonders whether the computer is up to the task. 'For
the computer to do the subjective grading that's necessary on an essay,
I'll want to see it before I have faith in it,' he said. Indiana is the
first state to use a computer-scored English essay test in a statewide
assessment, and its experience could influence testing decisions in other
states." May 11, 2004: Sneaking
education into entertainment - Group hopes to smarten up video games.
By Stanley A. Miller II. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online (no fee reg.
req'd.). "Major players in the electronic equipment industry say
their video games can offer more than just sports, sex or violence. In
the spirit of making kinder, gentler video games, a group of designers,
publishers and educators called the Education Arcade announced Monday
they are developing guidelines to help studios create fun yet educational
games. They also plan a rating system for games with educational content.
... The goal of the new initiative is to raise the profile, promotion
and production values of educational games to the level of today's modern
bestsellers, which typically feature state-of-the-art graphics, sophisticated
artificial intelligence and some way to play the game over the Internet.
The Education Arcade selected the week of the Electronic Entertainment
Expo, which opens Wednesday in Los Angeles and is the largest electronic
gaming trade show in North America, to encourage game publishers that
such titles are worth the investment. Sneaking in the broccoli.
[Alex] Chisholm said the Education Arcade - which is run by the Comparative
Media Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- spent nearly three years examining ways to make fun games that also
teach. ... Some mainstream games that have sold millions of copies already
have educational elements, including the 'Civilization' series of nation-building
games, which teach some history. ... 'Stealth education' is the concept
behind Hidden Agenda, a game design contest sponsored by the non-profit
Liemandt Foundation in Austin, Texas, challenging college students to
create games that entertain while educating them as well." May 5, 2004:
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, Defense Subcommittee
Hearing with Public Witnesses - Testimony of Christopher Sager, American
Psychological Association. "Although I am sure you are aware of the
large number of psychologists providing clinical services to our military
members here and abroad, you may be less familiar with the extraordinary
range of research conducted by psychological scientists within the Department
of Defense. ... Office of Naval Research (ONR) The Cognitive and Neural
Sciences Division (CNS) of ONR supports research to increase the understanding
of complex cognitive skills in humans; aid in the development and improvement
of machine vision; improve human factors engineering in new technologies;
and advance the design of robotics systems. An example of CNS-supported
research is the division's long-term investment in artificial intelligence
research. This research has led to many useful products, including software
that enables the use of 'embedded training.' Many of the Navy's operational
tasks, such as recognizing and responding to threats, require complex
interactions with sophisticated, computer-based systems. Embedded training
allows shipboard personnel to develop and refine critical skills by practicing
simulated exercises on their own workstations. Once developed, embedded
training software can be loaded onto specified computer systems and delivered
wherever and however it is needed." March 9, 2004: Talking
Up a Good Game - Computer Simulation to Stimulate Soldiers to Speak in
Tongues. By Paul Eng. ABCNEWS.com. "Computer science professors
at the University of Southern California, with funding from DARPA, have
been working on a simulation program designed to help military personnel
perform a more prevalent -- and difficult -- task in the international
war on terrorism: communicating peacefully and correctly with foreigners
in their own native tongues. ... And the idea, says Lewis Johnson, director
of the Center for Advanced Research in Technology for Education (CARTE)
at USC, was that computer games, programmed with artificially intelligent
'agents' could help soldiers develop those much needed linguistic abilities.
... The result: The Tactical Language Training System. ... The program
is based on the graphics capabilities of Unreal Tournament, a consumer
computer game that has been popular with game players for its team-based
approach to virtual combat. But, Johnson and his team of researchers have
tweaked the game by adding a 'speech recognition' engine and their own
'intelligent agents,' software code that 'reacts' to how a user speaks
and what he says. ... The first part of the game, says Johnson, acts as
basically an 'intelligent tutoring' program.' ... But what makes the program
really 'intelligent' are the computer-generated and -controlled characters,
such as a virtual village leader and a virtual 'team member' that acts
as an in-game guide. These game characters are programmed to react in
ways that are unique to each individual user." March 8, 2004: City
pushes computer tutor for struggling algebra students. By Maggi Newhouse.
Tribune-Review / available from PittsburghLIVE.com. "About 40 percent
of the city's ninth graders fail first-year algebra every year, and Pittsburgh
Public Schools officials say it's time to expand an innovative math program
used by some schools to the rest of the district. ... The centerpiece
of the Carnegie Learning method, developed by Carnegie Mellon University
researchers, is a computer program that combines traditional algebra problems
with technology that can assess a student's progress and skill level.
The Cognitive Tutor program can then use the student information to offer
individualized instruction and provide instant feedback for a student
and teacher. 'What you're seeing here is artificial intelligence,' said
Jackie Smith, an instructional support director for mathematics. 'The
computer is learning and building a profile of every single student as
it diagnoses their strengths and weaknesses.'" February 2004: Beneath
the Tip of the Iceberg -Technology Plumbs the Affective Learning Domain.
By Sam Adkins. T+D
Magazine. "In the case of the classroom experience, the affective
is a layer provided by a human teacher. In higher education and corporate
classrooms, role play (human-to-human collaboration) is used to teach
affective domain subjects such as sales techniques, patient interactions,
and employee management methods. Now, new learning technologies have emerged
that are automating learning designed for the affective domain. These
new technologies are the equivalent of the railroads that opened new territories
in the past. They're now providing access to the last domain of human
learning, the Final Frontier. There's a broad category of products known
as Affective Computing and a specific product category called Affective
Learning Technology that are designed for the affective learning domain.
MIT's Media Lab is developing a Learning Companion designed to mitigate
belief systems that undermine learning accomplishments in children. The
project is funded by the National Science Foundation. This isn't a tutor
per se, but an affective companion that tries to alleviate frustration
and self-doubt in young learners. It does that by first establishing a
relationship with the child. It then attempts to ascertain the cognitive
state of the child and interacts with the child depending on that cognitive
state." February 12, 2004: Fast
Learners - Tech entrepreneurs hit the ground running with online tutoring
program. By Corilyn Shropshire. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "After a
chance encounter at the 2002 Three Rivers Venture fair, [Louis Piconi
Jr., and Stephan Mueller] launched Apangea Learning Inc. -- a tutoring
software company that uses humans and computers to boost students' school
assessment test scores. What sets Apangea apart in a crowded field stuffed
with computer and Web-based tutoring options is its approach. 'The artificial
intelligence behind their technology is something we did not find with
anybody else,' said Michael Matesic, managing director at the Idea Foundry,
one of Apangea's angel investors. Apangea's technology customizes each
tutorial to the need of the student, so 'if a student is having trouble
with one section, it continues to target that area,' Matesic said. 'And
the questions are tailored around the student's interest.'" February 5, 2004: Robots
get friendly - Robots are acting more like people. Will our attachments
eventually become too strong? By Gregory M. Lamb. The Christian Science
Monitor. "Later this month Valerie will go on duty behind the reception
desk at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Sciences. Besides
doling out information and directions, she'll chat about her ever-changing
personal life. If you introduce yourself, she'll remember you. If you
ask about the weather, when she meets you again she may bring up the subject.
Valerie, in case you haven't guessed, is a robot - one in a long line
of increasingly sophisticated machines. Of course, computers and their
physical manifestations, robots, are already deeply embedded in our lives.
In some sense, ATM machines, self-service gas pumps, and TiVo video recorders
serve as rudimentary robots. Now, scientists are pushing to make these
machines more sophisticated and humanlike, both in appearance [see related
story] and intelligence. ... Some experts worry that attachments may
become too strong [see the other
related story], subjecting people to manipulation by clever programmers
or unnatural reliance on machines for companionship. ... Studies have
shown that expectations are higher for such virtual people than, say,
a faceless search engine like Google. ... 'The traditional way of teaching
is on the way out,' says Mr. [Peter] Plantec, whose book encourages people
to create their own virtual people on the Internet using off-the-shelf
software. ... [V]irtual teachers can be constantly updated with the latest
information, he says. Not only do they not 'burn out' like longtime human
teachers, they can be replicated to work one on one with students, creating
a special bond with each one. They remember what students have learned
and don't let them move on until they have mastered the material." January 30, 2004: U
of M starts new company for research inventions. By Scott Shepard.
Memphis Business Journal. "As artificial intelligence goes from science
fiction to an everyday tool, the scientists who are at the center of it
aim to keep it closer to home. ... That's the intent of IIDSystems, a
business being developed at the University of Memphis in conjunction with
the Technology Resources Foundation to commercialize the university's
technology and encourage small businesses to form in Memphis. ... Or,
IIDSystems could own a suite of integrated products. One candidate for
that is ePal, which will integrate several forms of artificial intelligence
to create a personal teaching mentor, with a talking head on the computer
screen. 'Maybe we can combine all of our intelligent systems, and not
just those for learning,"'[Eric] Mathews says. ... The U of M is on the
cusp of churning out a wide array of learning tools in the next few years.
There are concepts that teach critical, creative thinking, and systems
that can read and react to human emotion. Technology development is beginning
to slip out of the hands of technocrats, [Art] Graesser says, and that's
good." January 14, 2004: Takara
develops handheld memory aid device. Mobile Commerce World. "Major
toy manufacturer Takara has developed with Index Corp. a portable device
that helps users memorise information. ... The first software available
will aid in learning English vocabulary for college entrance examinations.
Questions appear on the LCD (liquid crystal display) of the device in
multiple-choice format accompanied by pictures and sound. Users can learn
words while seemingly playing a game. The device's artificial intelligence
analyses response time and percentage of correct answers, then changes
the ways or order in which the questions are given, a method that makes
it easier for users to memorize information." December 29, 2003: No
rest for the apostle of training. By Larry Werner. Star Tribune. "Michael
Allen has spent a career tying to wipe out boredom in education. He felt
so strongly about his crusade that he came out of a comfortable early
retirement to start a company that attempts to make corporate training
fun and effective. ... His programs use the techniques of video games
to teach subjects that can be dry as rice cakes. ... 'Training can be
very effective, if done right, and it's a competitive advantage,' he said.
The persuasive tone in his voice is one of the things his latest product
-- DialogCoach -- attempts to teach. Using voice-recognition and artificial-intelligence
software, Allen Interactions has developed an interactive program that
can role-play with a user who might be a sales person, a customer-service
agent or anyone who could benefit from rehearsing a conversation. In sales
training, for example, the fictitious sales prospect on the computer screen
is programmed to cut off the sales pitch if the trainee doesn't use the
right words to make a sale." December 16, 2003: AI
think, therefore I am. Virtual agents feature - Computerised characters
that look, sound, move and seemingly think like real people are emerging
from the realms of science fiction into everyday life. Superguide by David
Braue. apcmag.com. "Making computers human is an idea as old as computers
themselves, and what was initially a wild science fiction fantasy is gradually
turning into fact. From the chilling 2001: A Space Odyssey's HAL 9000
to robotic newsreader Ananova and Jar Jar Binks, virtual creatures have
become part of our collective culture. Much more than entertainment is
at stake, of course. The potential of computerised agents or entities
that are autonomous, self-directed, reactive and social -- just like humans
-- can be estimated only in the realm of the imagination. Already, such
agents have been built to present the weather on mobile phones, drive
trucks, monitor environments designed to support life on other planets
and perform many other sophisticated tasks. Computers are good at doing
what they're told, but in this field they're required to reach their own
conclusions. The complex computer code beneath their 'skins' is designed
to make them react to situations like real people do -- unpredictably.
Just how far we have come was evident in Melbourne earlier this year when
more than 450 researchers from 29 countries attended the second annual
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems conference. ... 'We have agents
embedded in trucks, excavators and individuals [robots] in order to mine
the right material at the right time,' says Hugh Durrant-Whyte, research
director at CEAS [Centre of Excellence in Autonomous Systems]. 'We do
not approach it at all from a human point of view -- robots are really
physical embodiments of agents. They won't discuss Plato with you, but
they can work 24 hours a day and have cooperation and negotiation strategies
[to interact with each other].'" December 11, 2003: Stock
exchange simulator.The Budapest Sun (Volume XI, Issue 50). "AITIA
Rt, a 100% Hungarian-owned software group, has launched a capital markets
and stock exchange interactive simulator and education internet portal
(IP) under the name vBroker. According to Róbert Markó, Director of Marketing
at AITIA, the IP is based on the latest international internet technology
and artificial intelligence research. ... One of the highlights of the
unique site is that users obtain their information from a 3D 'chatterbot'
(a computer animated or virtual person) who holds dialogs on several topics." December 2, 2003: Codebaby
grows up with 'Laura' - Virtual tour guide earns software company
its first major contract. By Paul Marck. The Edmonton Journal. "Laura
is a lithe young twenty-something with a sunny personality and a central
role in the fortunes of two companies. But as friendly and entertaining
as she is, Laura is not real. She's an animated, interactive, virtual
tour guide and tutor to help you navigate through a tax return. ... For
Codebaby, a three-year-old Edmonton software development company that
creates animated artificial intelligence applications to help e-commerce
customers negotiate through corporate websites, this is its first significant
sale using a virtual assistant. The inspiration for Laura came from the
estimated 60 per cent of website visitors who start an order form and
never complete it, says CEO Shaheel Hooda." December 1, 2003: Foundations
back educational program based on Apangea technology. By Patty Tascarella.
Pittsburgh Business Times. "Two of Pittsburgh's largest foundations
are bankrolling Project StepUp, a remedial tutoring program for high school
students. ... 'We call it hybrid tutoring,' said Mr. [Louis] Piconi, 35,
a veteran of several area tech companies and former managing director
of IT Networks at the Pittsburgh Technology Council. 'It combines artificial
intelligence with human tutors at the cost of $5 per hour.' ... 'We intend
to deliver human tutors on the Internet with our artificial intelligence
system,' said Mr. Piconi. As an alternative to having a tutor in the classroom,
a tutor could be at a central site, accessible to several classrooms via
the Internet." December 1, 2003: Software
allows virtual veterinary lessons. By Ross Markman. The Augusta Chronicle
(no fee reg. req'd.). "Toiling alone amid robotic laboratories and
high-tech equipment in the University of Georgia's Artificial Intelligence
Center, graduate student Jason Schlachter is developing software that
will enable veterinary students to simulate clinical scenarios. Known
as the Virtual Vet Emergency Room, Mr. Schlachter's software will be implemented
next fall for first- and second-year students, according to faculty members
of UGA's College of Vet erinary Medicine. ... Scott Brown, a physiology
professor in UGA's vet school, said the software might have far-reaching
effects on teaching and could be invaluable for vet students." December 2003: The
Love Machine - Building computers that care. By David Diamond. Wired
Magazine. "I have seen the future of computing, and I'm pleased to
report it's all about ... me! This insight has been furnished with the
help of Tim Bickmore, a doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab. He's invited
me to participate in a study aimed at pushing the limits of human-computer
relations. What kinds of bonds can people form with their machines, Bickmore
wants to know. ... Bickmore's area of study is called affective computing.
Its proponents believe computers should be designed to recognize, express,
and influence emotion in users. Rosalind Picard, a genial MIT professor,
is the field's godmother; her 1997 book, Affective Computing, triggered
an explosion of interest in the emotional side of computers and their
users. ... And she developed an interest in the work of neuroscientist
Antonio Damasio. In his 1994 book, Descartes' Error , Damasio
argued that, thanks to the interplay of the brain's frontal lobe and limbic
systems, our ability to reason depends in part on our ability to feel
emotion. Too little, like too much, triggers bad decisions. The simplest
example: It's an emotion - fear - that governs your decision not to dive
into a pool of crocodiles." November 21, 2003: Professor
selected to be Air Force adviser. November 3, 2003: Palm
Beach County considering using computers to grade FCAT essay portion.
By Marc Freeman. Sun-Sentinel. "Artificial intelligence may be coming
soon to Palm Beach County classrooms -- computers, not people, would read,
score and analyze student essays on standardized tests for the first time
in Florida. Grades are promised to appear within seconds, rather than
the months it now takes to get similar writing results from the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test. It sounds futuristic, but the School District
wants to try out the technology starting early next year in grades three
through 10 at selected schools. ... Here's how it works: As many as 300
student essays, scored by people, are collected and processed by Vantage's
computers. Based on that pool of essays, the system is designed to look
at 50 features of an essay concerning content and structure. It is capable
of analyzing natural language, syntax and semantics and looking at concepts.
If the computer is unable to process a particularly creative passage,
a human grader is brought in as a second opinion." September 23, 2003: How
their kids will learn - Schools have seen many changes in the past
three decades, but what's next? We look 30 years into the future to see
how the vast advances expected in ICT may affect learning. By Jack Schofield.
EducationGuardian. "Children can already do things with digital camcorders
and movie editing software that were beyond Hollywood only a few years
ago. What could they do with artificial intelligence-based computer-aided
design? How far computers will go is a matter of conjecture. ... The critical
question revolves around the creation of ultra-intelligent machines -
ones that are smarter than us - and what happens when that happens. If
computer power keeps increasing, it must happen within the foreseeable
future, probably in less than 20 years. And once computers are smarter
than us, they should be able to design computers that are even smarter
than themselves, leading to an almost vertical rate of progress. ... In
a world of ultra-intelligent machines, knowledge-based skills won't be
valuable because, for example, expert systems software and robot surgeons
will outperform human medical experts. However, people with caring skills,
such as nurses, will be more valuable. 'We see a complete inversion,'
says [Ian] Pearson." September 4, 2003: For
Student Essayists, an Automated Grader. By J. Greg Phelan. The New
York Times (no fee reg. req'd.). "When Camden County College in southern
New Jersey introduced standardized final exams for English composition
four years ago, Anthony Spatola, the chairman of the English department,
knew he had a problem: he and other teachers had to grade 1,500 essays
in a few days. Hoping to alleviate the burden, he joined a pilot program
that was testing an automated essay-scoring system developed by the Educational
Testing Service. After achieving about 95 percent agreement between the
automated system and a human reader, he was eager to bring the technology
into the classroom. ... Impressed by the results, he became an early user
of another offering from the testing service: the Criterion Online Essay
Evaluation Service, a Web-based program for students seeking to practice
writing. It combines automated essay scoring with instructional feedback
in basic grammar, usage, style and organization. According to the Educational
Testing Service, 104,000 students and 2,700 teachers are using Criterion
in 535 schools, primarily in the United States; four-fifths are middle
or high school students, and the remainder are at colleges or universities.
Such schools hope that Criterion will help students improve their writing
scores on standardized tests, although some educators are not convinced
the technology will necessarily make them better writers." September 2003: The
Man Who Mistook His Girlfriend for a Robot. By Dan Ferber. Popular
Science. "No one asks why, of all the roboticists in the world, only
[David] Hanson appears to be attempting to build a robotic head that is
indistinguishable in form and function from a human. No one points out
that he is violating a decades-old taboo among robot designers. And no
one asks him how he's going to do it -- how he plans to cross to the other
side of the Uncanny Valley. ... In the late '70s, a Japanese roboticist
named Masahiro Mori published what would become a highly influential insight
into the interplay between robotic design and human psychology. Mori's
central concept holds that if you plot similarity to humans on the x-axis
against emotional reaction on the y, you'll find a funny thing happens
on the way to the perfectly lifelike android. Predictably, the curve rises
steadily, emotional embrace growing as robots become more human-like.
But at a certain point, just shy of true verisimilitude, the curve plunges
down, through the floor of neutrality and into real revulsion, before
rising again to a second peak of acceptance that corresponds with 100
percent human-like. This chasm -- Mori's Uncanny Valley -- represents
the notion that something that's like a human but slightly off will make
people recoil. Here there be monsters. [Cynthia] Breazeal, creator of
Kismet, has, like many of her colleagues, taken both inspiration and warning
from the Uncanny Valley. ... As Hanson's work progressed, it became ever
more clear that making lifelike robot heads meant more than building a
convincing surface and creating realistic facial expressions. So late
last year he began to consider K-Bot's brain. The Internet led him to
a Los Angeles company, Eyematic, which makes state-of-the-art computer-vision
software that recognizes human faces and expressions. ... [Javier] Movellan
has asked Hanson to build him a head, and is hoping to give it social
skills. He and Marian Bartlett, a cognitive scientist who co-directs the
UCSD Machine Perception Lab, have collaborated in the development of software
featuring an animated schoolteacher who helps teach children to read.
... The scientific question, Hanson says, is 'whether people respond more
powerfully to a three-dimensional embodied face versus a computer-generated
face.'" August 30, 2003: Mind-Expanding
Machines - Artificial intelligence meets good old-fashioned human
thought. By Bruce Bower. Science News Online ( Vol. 164, No. 9). "When
Kenneth M. Ford considers the future of artificial intelligence, he doesn't
envision legions of cunning robots running the world. Nor does he have
high hopes for other much-touted AI prospects -- among them, machines
with the mental moxie to ponder their own existence and tiny computer-linked
devices implanted in people's bodies. When Ford thinks of the future of
artificial intelligence, two words come to his mind: cognitive prostheses.
... In short, a cognitive prosthesis is a computational tool that amplifies
or extends a person's thought and perception, much as eyeglasses are prostheses
that improve vision. ... Current IHMC projects include an airplane-cockpit
display that shows critical information in a visually intuitive format
rather than on standard gauges; software that enables people to construct
maps of what's known about various topics, for use in teaching, business,
and Web site design; and a computer system that identifies people's daily
behavior patterns as they go about their jobs and simulates ways to organize
those practices more effectively. Such efforts, part of a wider discipline
called human-centered computing, attempt to mold computer systems to accommodate
how humans behave rather than build computers to which people have to
adapt. ... Just as it proved too difficult for early flight enthusiasts
to discover the principles of aerodynamics by trying to build aircraft
modeled on bird wings, Ford argues, it may be too hard to unravel the
computational principles of intelligence by trying to build computers
modeled on the processes of human thought. That's a controversial stand
in the artificial intelligence community." August 19, 2003: Educators
eye high-tech solutions for writing woes. By Jondi Gumz. August 15, 2003: Can
Grand Theft Auto Inspire Professors? Educators say the virtual worlds
of video games help students think more broadly. By Scott Carlson. The
Chronicle of Higher Education. "Research shows, Mr. [James] Gee says,
that people learn best when they are entertained, when they can use creativity
to work toward complex goals, when lesson plans incorporate both thinking
and emotion, and when the consequences of actions can be observed. Those
needs, he says, aren't met in college or school classrooms, where students
are often given lists of facts, told to memorize them, and expected to
regurgitate them on tests or in essays. Video games, on the other hand,
immerse people in worlds and make them rely on problem-solving skills
to reach defined goals. ... Curriculums dedicated to video-game criticism,
game design, and education through games have been established at many
colleges, including Southern Methodist University, the Rochester Institute
of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University. Students like Robin Hunicke,
a doctoral candidate in computer science at Northwestern University, are
becoming more common. Ms. Hunicke is developing artificial intelligence
that will automatically adjust the difficulty of a game to match the ability
of the player. Her work is grounded in educational theories that say that
people learn best when they are in the 'flow' -- challenged and thinking
but not overwhelmed." August 2, 2003: Educators
Turn to Games for Help. By Brad King. Wired News. "Video games
have come under tremendous political pressure in recent years because
of an increase in violent and sexual content. But schools soon may be
using the technology that powers those games to help teach America's children.
Earlier this year, Washington state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, a Democrat,
tried to ban the sale of violent games. While the courts continually have
struck down these types of initiatives, both state and national politicians
continue looking for ways to regulate the video-game industry. Academics,
though, want to use the underlying software that powers the games to create
learning simulations. The Digital Media Collaboratory, one of several
technology laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin's IC2 Institute
, works with partners from the public and private sectors to develop computer
games that can be used by schools, businesses and governments." July 29, 2003: Students
seek the knowledge. By Steve Pain. ic Birmingham. "Students from
the University of Birmingham's school of engineering are checking out
a new mobile 'knowledge management' system developed by BT's research,
technology and IT operations business, BT Exact, it has emerged. The trial
allows students to access personalised information and to contact people
based on their personal profiles. The project was set up to help students
with their studies and is part of research at BT and Birmingham in mobile
technology to transform learning. ... At the heart of the trial is the
intelligent personal agent technology developed by BT Exact that can reliably
and accurately select information from a range of sources to match a particular
user’s profile of interests." July 24, 2003: Chatting
with Online Characters. By Sebastian Ruple. PC Magazine News. "While
today's intelligent online characters, or bots, have disappointed some
people, two prominent partners have launched a new effort to find useful
e-learning and customer service applications for virtual people. Oddcast,
a company that makes conversational characters, and the ALICE AI Foundation,
a nonprofit research organization focused on advancing AIML (Artificial
Intelligence Markup Language) have announced a partnership to create smarter
intelligent online characters. The technology allows for personal interaction
with online agents that can function as customer service agents, tutors,
and the like." July 14, 2003: Are
intelligent tutoring systems the next wave in corporate training tech?
By James Ong. Mass High Tech. "Artificial intelligence is making
its way into intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), enabling automated instruction
that produces measurable improvements in learning. ... Providing a personal
training assistant for each learner is often beyond the training budgets
of most organizations. However, a virtual training assistant that captures
the subject matter and teaching expertise of experienced trainers provides
a new option. This is the heart of the ITS concept, which has been pursued
for more than three decades by researchers in education, psychology and
artificial intelligence. Today, prototype and operational ITS systems
provide practice-based instruction to support corporate, K-12, college
and military training. The goal of ITS is to provide the benefits of one-on-one
instruction automatically and cost effectively." June 16, 2003: Washington
fertile ground for brain research - How science and society can build
brighter babies. By Marietta Nelson. The Sun. "At the heart of this
effort is the Center for Mind, Brain & Learning at the University of Washington
in Seattle. Led by Patricia Kuhl, a professor of speech and hearing sciences,
and her husband, Andrew Meltzoff, a psychology professor, the center is
becoming a place for innovative scientific research on learning and the
brain. ... Other research includes: . Using human learning to design machines
that learn more efficiently, and using artificial intelligence to improve
human learning. ..." June 12, 2003: Robo-thespians
Help Mothers Of Kids With Cancer. ScienceDaily ("adapted from
a news release issued by University Of Southern California"). "Cartoon
figures animated by robotic artificial intelligence can help mothers cope
with the stresses associated with caring for a child who has cancer. In
the first clinical trial, 26 mothers of children being treated for malignancies
gave 'uniformly positive reviews' of the system, called 'Carmen's Bright
IDEAS,' (CBI) developed by the University of Southern California, according
to a paper that will be presented at International Conference on Artificial
Intelligence in Education, Sydney, Australia, July 21-24. ... CBI 'is
an interactive animated health intervention designed to improve the social
problem-solving skills of mothers of pediatric cancer patients' who must
balance the needs of their sick child, their well children, their spouses,
and their work, according to the paper. ... Complex and sophisticated
software is used to orchestrate drama from the mother's choices. It is
not a simple matter of creating canned incidents illustrating various
outcomes. Instead, explained [Lewis] Johnson, the AI characters actually
create their actions and dialog "on the fly," acting much as humans do,
from goals and desires evoked by what occurs." May 12, 2003: Computers
That Cajole. By Matt Hamblen. Computerworld. "Web sites and applications
use a growing variety of persuasive techniques to alter our attitudes
and behaviors, and after the bursting of the dot-com bubble, there is
increasing interest in 'stepping back to see what really works and persuades,'
says B.J. Fogg, director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford
University. He also coined the term captology, the science of using 'computers
as persuasive technologies.' In the coming years, Fogg says, captology
is likely to challenge IT managers and traditional business leaders, who
will see persuasive techniques become an important part of business training,
management coaching and marketing. ... In studies of human/computer reciprocity,
users were discovered to be far more willing to do simple tasks for a
computer, such as signing up for a newsletter or upgrading software, if
the computer had provided them useful information and told them so."
May 7, 2003: Virtual
war turns real - Quicksilver Software develops war game exclusively
for U.S. Army use. By Tamara Chuang. The Orange County Register. "Major
Brent Cummings, an instructor at Fort Benning, said the 'Full Spectrum
Command' game is effective because Army trainees enjoy computer games.
'The students I'm getting, they're guys. They already play these games,'
he said. '(Class) is usually from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. But the guy, if he's
having fun with the simulation, he takes it home and plays all night.'
... Players pick weapons for each unit, direct platoons to their targets
and build attack plans. Only then does the animated portion of the game
begin and users can watch their troops follow orders. With help from a
massive dose of artificial intelligence, the game's virtual soldiers defend
themselves when attacked and don't shoot innocent bystanders. ... For
'Full Spectrum Command,' Quicksilver enlisted five of its artists, seven
programmers and project director Mancuso, who had produced 'MechWarrior
3.' ... The game developers visited Camp Pendleton to observe war games
and training exercises. They interviewed experts such as Cummings to make
sure their ideas about military strategy and doctrine were correct." May 2, 2003: Hollywood
to Give U.S. War Games 'Razzmatazz.' By Stefan Lovgren. National Geographic
News. "The Army hired [Dick]Lindheim to run [Institute for Creative
Technologies]. The institute is housed in an office laid out by Herman
Zimmerman, a Star Trek production designer, and it employs an army of
'techies' whose job it is to construct training scenarios that will deliver
a visceral wallop. The greatest challenge is to give the games a kind
of realism that doesn't exist in the Army's own training. The focus is
on story and character, something the Army never paid much attention to.
Each soldier and each enemy in the game must have his own personality
and character development. "If you can make an emotional connection with
your learning, the learning sticks," said Lindheim. ...
In addition to using sophisticated modeling and graphics, many of the
games incorporate artificial intelligence. The goal is to have a virtual
human that can be easily reconfigured to play new roles in virtual worlds
and carry on dialogue with human users." April 2003: Cognitive
Systems. ERCIM News. "The European Commission has identified
Cognitive Systems as one of the priorities for the new generation of research
projects to be developed from 2003 to 2008 (http://www.cordis.lu/ ist/workprogramme/fp6_workprogramme.htm
). The stated objective is to construct physically instantiated or embodied
systems that can perceive, understand (the semantics of information conveyed
through their perceptual input) and interact with their environment, and
evolve in order to achieve human-like performance in activities requiring
context-(situation and task) specific knowledge. ERCIM News has chosen
to devote a special issue to this exciting research challenge in order
to monitor what is under development in Europe (but not only in Europe),
and what is the current status of research and development in this domain."
- from the
introduction
April 24, 2003: Humanizing
the ATM - Companies try to strike balance between efficiency and personality.
By Dennis Watkins. Columbia News Service / available from The Baltimore
Sun. "The friendlier ATM is part of a recent trend in the field of
human-computer interaction. Creating a machine that is simple and pleasant
to use raises important questions. How much informality will people tolerate
in a computer, particularly one that dispenses money? How well do people
accept computers that display some amount of artificial intelligence?
... Scientists at dozens of human-computer interaction laboratories at
universities and private companies worldwide have spent years trying to
understand the complex dynamic between man and machine. An experiment
recently conducted at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute revealed that
some people may still be unable to accept a human-like computer. ... Ben
Shneiderman, author of the upcoming book Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs
and New Computing Technologies, agreed that people are rarely charmed
by a computer. 'People don't want friendly,' said Shneiderman, a professor
of computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park, 'they
want fast and gets the job done and gets them out of there.'" April 22, 2003: War
games Hollywood helps bring military training into the 21st century.
By Beth Greenberg. Boston Globe. "This scenario, taken from 'Think
Like a Commander,' a real-time, artificial intelligence 'immersive technology'
simulation, was developed in Hollywood - for the Army. It is an example
of a new era in training soldiers. ... One of the seemingly less-likely
collaborations has been between the military and Hollywood. The Institute
of Creative Technology, developer of 'Think Like a Commander,' is based
in a beachfront office a few miles from Tinseltown. ICT, which operates
under the umbrella of the University of Southern California, received
a $45 million, five-year contract from the Army in 1999 - with the ceiling
increased to $100 million in 2002. ICT, which employs film directors,
special-effects gurus, and computer whiz kids, has a mandate to enlist
experts from the entertainment and game development industries to work
collaboratively with computer scientists and noncommissioned officers
on improving the level of simulations and 'immersive' training available
to the military. ...[O]ne might wonder whether artificial intelligence
and immersive technology aren't turning war into a computer game. Or if
simulation training might cause soldiers to react to real crises as if
they were a game, and pull a trigger more easily, believing on some level
that the outcome will not be real. Michael Macedonia of STRICOM [Simulation,
Training and Instrumentation Command] is quite clear on this point: 'This
seems to be a common concern of folks who are not in the military. It's
unfounded. Soldiers know the difference between the 'game' and reality....'" April 15, 2003: Teacher's
Break - Computer software scores student essays. By David Stevenson.
Tech TV Live. "Teachers have long graded stacks of multiple-choice
exams with the help of computers. Remember using a No. 2 pencil to fill
in those bubbles? Now many school districts are trying to save time and
money by using computers to grade student essays. But will teachers retire
their red markers any time soon? Find out tonight on 'Tech Live.' Artificial
intelligence software developed by companies such as Vantage Learning
assess answers that require more thought than do simple true or false
questions. The company's IntelliMetric software uses roughly 300 preprogrammed
writing samples to 'learn' the elements of a good essay. Once IntelliMetric
is trained to recognize a quality response, it applies its preprogrammed
data to a student's essay. ... Vantage Learning Chief Operating Officer
Scott Elliot says business is booming for IntelliMetric, which is in use
in 400 schools nationwide. 'By using a computer-automated essay-scoring
approach, you can produce scores that are more accurate, get feedback
to students more quickly, and, in a sense, facilitate the learning process,'
Elliott says." April 14, 2003: Springboard
for female entrepreneurs. By Darcy Evon. Sun-Times. "Women entrepreneurs
who have long bemoaned the lack of venture capital will take special delight
when Springboard Midwest 2003 gets under way on April 23 in Chicago. The
premier mentoring and national venture-capital forum has held a series
of boot camps over the past year to prepare women to compete in their
presentations for increasingly rare venture capital. ... Other presenting
companies represent 'the best of the best throughout the region,' said
Karen Andre, president of K Andre Consulting and a promoter of women's
entrepreneurial initiatives. ... The other presenting companies are: ...
Carnegie Speech, Pittsburgh, provides speech-tutoring software that uses
artificial intelligence, speech recognition and language learning pedagogy
to teach a non-native person to speak a foreign language more efficiently
and effectively." April 13, 2003: Digitally
enabled - With only the use of his thumbs and his computer, Michael
Phillips can create art. He can write reviews of games and chat with friends
across the country. His latest endeavor: an online FCAT. By Leonora LaPeter.
St. Petersburg Times. "Michael Phillips' mother pushed his stretcher-like
wheelchair up to the desk of Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush's aide cleared an ink
blotter and a menorah from the governor's desk and set up Phillips' laptop.
Next to it, a space heater was plugged in to keep Phillips' thumb warm.
Gov. Bush got behind Phillips and watched as the 22-year-old, who lives
his life on his back and can move only his thumbs, pulled on a string
with one of his only functioning digits to type letters on the screen.
Five years ago, Phillips fought the state for the right to take his high
school competency test on the computer. He was meeting with Bush to urge
that the FCAT be given and graded on the computer, changing the way students
in the state take the test. ... Bush said in an e-mail that his staff
was considering seriously Phillips' pitch and hopes to bring online testing
one day to all children taking the FCAT. Grading the exams via computer
could prove the most controversial part of Phillips' idea. He advocates
doing even the essay portion of the test online. Critics worry that the
artificial intelligence that would be used to grade essay questions could
be inaccurate and promote formulaic writing. ... Officials with Vantage
Learning, the Pennsylvania company trying to get Florida's FCAT online
business, say the artificial intelligence that grades the essay questions
is just as accurate as humans and would save the state $15-million a year." April 2003: Adding
Excitement To E-learning - Simulation programs ease the cost, stress
of training. By Jennie L. Phipps. Industry Week Magazine. "Fun and
employee training aren't usually words that companies use in the same
sentence. In fact, much of e-learning is e-boring, but several computer
training companies are aiming to lighten up the learning process with
games and simulations that are anything but dull. ... Simulations are
also good for teaching the softer side of management. SimuLearn's 'Virtual
Leader,' simulates a series of company meetings in which the player has
to manage a complex network of workplace relationships. Players are scored
based on how well they meet business goals while maintaining cordial relationships
with customers and co-workers. Clark Aldrich, co-founder and vice president
of SimuLearn, explains the software uses complex artificial intelligence
routines to control the behavior of characters, including a library of
almost 200 body gestures and facial responses." March 31, 2003: Eureka!
You've got it. Massey News. "A flicker of enlightenment or a
frown of frustration, often the best indicators of a student's grasp of
new learning, mean nothing to a computer tutor programme. But scientists
from four New Zealand universities are fast coming up with the world's
first intelligent computer tutor that assesses a student's state of learning
using non-verbal cues. The Next Generation Intelligent Tutoring System
(NGITS) is being developed by computer scientists, information systems
developers and neuropsychologists from Massey University Auckland, The
University of Auckland, Auckland University of Technology and The University
of Canterbury. NGITS will interpret such non-verbal cues as facial expressions,
change in heart rate, voice inflections and even eye and body movements
that for human teachers are 'dead giveaways' as to a student's level of
understanding. Using these cues NGITS will provide individualised instruction
by adapting its teaching strategy to the knowledge, learning ability and
needs of a student." March 17, 2003: Pitch-perfect
PC - Software that turns a computer into a smart, sensitive practice
partner for music students. By Alex Markels. U.S. News & World Report.
"From outside her bedroom, it sounds as if 16-year-old Carolina DePaulis
is practicing trombone as an accompanist plays piano. They begin Guilmant's
'Morceau Symphonique' together, then DePaulis launches into a trombone
solo. When she slows down, the pianist does too. But open the door and
you'll find the junior from Minnesota's Mound Westonka High School all
alone. DePaulis's mentor is a computer with a microphone and speakers,
running a program called SmartMusic. Computer-aided music instruction
isn't new; programs like Band in a Box and Music Minus One also provide
accompaniment. But SmartMusic compares students' playing with a digital
template, which lets it detect mistakes and mark them on a score. It also
simulates the rapport between musicians by sensing and reacting to tempo
changes. 'It makes me want to play more,' says DePaulis.'" March 14, 2003: Spell
czech, for better or wurst? By Charles Sheehan. Associated Press /
available from The Bakersfield Californian. "A study at the University
of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field
between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the
work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software.
... Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business
School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have
come to trust it too thoroughly. 'It's not a software problem, it's a
behavior problem,' he said." March 9, 2003: Advances
in training help revolutionize the military. [Part
5 of 6] By Kit Lavell. The San Diego Union-Tribune. "To make
training more realistic the military has reached out to the business world,
academia, think tanks, and non-traditional sources such as the entertainment
industry for out-of-the-box thinking, technology and support. The result
has been significant developments in constructing live, virtual and constructive,
dubbed L-V-C, environments for military training. ... The University of
Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies began in 1999
with a $45 million grant from the Army with a mission to help make soldiers
better decision makers. Some of Hollywood's best talent - men and women
responsible for creating popular action and adventure films - have teamed
with engineers, professionals from Silicon Valley and the computer game
and amusement park industries, academicians, and the military. Their mandate
is to develop artificial intelligence to allow digital characters to interact
with real people. By engaging all the senses, ICT hopes to advance the
state of the art in virtual reality. The navy has a counterpart at the
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey. It is called MOVES (Modeling, Virtual
Environments and Simulation)." February 24, 2003 [issue date]: The
Robot Ate My Homework. By Fran Stewart. TIME. " Kids who are
hospitalized for long periods by trauma or chronic illness risk falling
behind in school. Now robots are here to help. PEBBLES (Providing Education
by Bringing Learning Environments to Students) have rolled into five U.S.
pediatric centers...." February 20, 2003: IT way to teach English launched. By T. Thant. New Straits Times. "A pilot project to teach English using information technology modules designed by a local consultant has been launched at five primary schools here. | |||