Apologies for cross posting Please forward it to whoever may be interested ---------------------------------------------- New formal discussion is starting on 28 September in IFETS forum on the topic: "If only my intelligent pedagogical agent could ... !" Moderator and Summariser: Scott Overmyer Associate Professor, Drexel University, USA (Pre-discussion summary below) ------------------------------------------------------------------ International Forum of Educational Technology and Society (IFETS) http://zeus.gmd.de/ifets/ The forum aims to bring together the developers of educational systems, and the educators who implement and manage such systems. If you have not joined the forum yet, but would like to do so, please follow these steps: 1. Please subscribe to the forum discussion mailing list by sending a message to [log in to unmask] with the following in the body of the message (no subject needed): subscribe ifets-digest 2. Please fill out registration form at forum's website http://zeus.gmd.de/ifets ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ * Pre-discussion summary If only my intelligent pedagogical agent could ... ! This discussion is to talk about the requirements for an intelligent pedagogical agent, and it's role in an overall pedagogical strategy for distance or other on-online education. Recognizing that there are domain-specific requirements for pedagogical agents, perhaps it would be possible for us to arrive at a set of basic functional capabilities that are common to all or most agents. It would be interesting to brainstorm a "wish-list" of capabilities that we would all like intelligent agents to be able to do, and then partition the list into those things we can currently do, will be able to do in the forseeable future, and those capabilities that may never be possible. We could then try to fit those capabilities into an overall pedagogical strategy for distance education. It's a large topic, and this start could provide a bit of structure for future discussions on pedagogical agents. Related stimulating links to the discussion are available at: http://zeus.gmd.de/ifets/discussions/discuss3.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ ** Future discussions on the forum ** "The role of student knowledge in the design of computer-based learning environments" (26 Oct. - 6 Nov. 98) Moderator & Summariser: John Eklund Lecturer, The University of Technology, Sydney, Australia --------------------- "The 'next generation', like tomorrow, never comes." (Shouldn't we be learning how to make tried and tested 'old' technologies work for us and our students, in reliable and pedagogically effective ways, instead of being seduced by the blandishments of the technocrats?) (23 Nov. - 4 Dec. 98) Moderator: Chris O'Hagan Dean of Learning Development, University of Derby, UK Summariser: Karen Allnutt Instr./training software developer, University of Iowa, USA --------------------- Adult learner behaviors in workplace vs. educational environments (11 - 22 Jan. 99) Moderator: Nora Carrol President, The First Forward Institute, Inc., USA Summarisers: Mary Harrsch, College of Education, University of Oregon (USA) Karen Kaminski, Colorado State University/OIS --------------------- ============================================================== Rossen Rashev E-mail: [log in to unmask] http://zeus.gmd.de/hci/pages/rossen.rashev.html Phone: +49 2241 14 28 70, FAX +49 2241 14 20 65 GMD FIT Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik GmbH German National Research Center for Information Technology D-53754 Sankt Augustin, GERMANY (near Bonn) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%