Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!ugun2b!cui!cuisun!shneider
From: shneider@cui.unige.ch (Daniel Schneider)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.edu
Subject: AI&Ed status, conference,...
Message-ID: <3384@cui.unige.ch>
Date: 20 Sep 90 13:46:04 GMT
Sender: shneider@cui.unige.ch
Reply-To: pdillen@divsun.unige.ch (DILLENBOURG Pierre)
Organization: TECFA - University of Geneva, Switzerland
Lines: 65

Dear AI&ED-ist,

There has been a lot of discussion going on these few last weeks over
the network. This happened via simple mail because only few people read
this News group (and even less write in it). But several people asked
me to bring the debate to a public place.  Hence, I summarize what the
discussion was all about. 

The discussion has been initiated by Radboud Winkels van Amsterdan who
wondered why Schank decided to change the name of the AI&ED conference
(see the call for papers posted in this news group).  I reacted and
forwarded the mail to many AI&ED-ists who all agreed with Radboud :
AI&ED is may be not the best name but at least it has become a useful
label for many of us. More globally, Radboud's questions raises basic
issues about the status of our field : its name, the necessity of
having some society, to decide democratically the name and location of
main conferences, to coordinate efforts, to reactivate this
nearly-dead news-group, to edit a journal, ... 

This summer we had a very good 2-weeks workshop in Calgary and these
issues have been intensively discussed around the talks. 

About the name we had many suggestions. e.g. computational mathetics,
learning sciences,... All have been discarded for some reasons.
Learning sciences has been rejected because AI people said they will
not get any funding if they say they work in a "learning" field. They
may be right. Maybe not. Anyway, we discussed that more seriousely the
last day and decided that even as large group, we had not the right to
choose such a name in the name of the whole AI&ED community... This is
some kind of collective meta-cognition !
 
We also discussed the AI&ED - or whatever - society idea.  Again we
decided not to create it there (because we did not represent the whole
AI&ED community) but to start enquiring about it, contacting many
people around, contacting the organisers of AI&ED91.  Sharon Derry,
from Florida (temporarily at LRDC), said that an AI&ED group will be
launched within AERA (I think) and that we would be better to join it
instead of creating a new society because "big names" would join it
and that our society would then be dead before being born. However,
belonging to an educational group does not fit the needs AI groups and
belonging to an American association does not accomodate European
groups.  We also discussed the comp.ai.edu news-group, hoping that
somebody would accept to actively moderate, but again nothing clear
has been decided. However, Jim Greer from Saskatoon University,
proposed to start making contacts, gathering mailing lists,... about
the society, the name, the news group,etc. A few persons promised him
to help him building the premisses of an AI&Ed society. If you want
to know more about Jim's plans, please use this news group. 

I think such a society has some chances to succeed if it aims to
optimize cooperation between persons like you and me, not if it attempts
to solve the struggle for power between the elephants of our field. 

Salut les gars !

Pierre Dillenbourg
FPSE TECFA
Universite de Geneve
1211 GENEVE 4 Switzerland
pdillen@divsun.unige.ch