Xref: utzoo comp.ai:1408 comp.edu:949 comp.cog-eng:494
Path: utzoo!mnetor!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.edu,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <1988Feb28.190839.22276@lsuc.uucp>
Date: 29 Feb 88 00:08:36 GMT
References: <776@zippy.eecs.umich.edu> <3316@killer.UUCP>
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 44
Summary: CAI can be done right

elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) writes:
> dwt@zippy.eecs.umich.edu (David West) says:
> >>Computers are accurate, infinitely patient, and highly interactive.
> >>In this regard, they surpass classroom teachers.
> > Well, yes, but the things computers are best at teaching humans are,
> > by and large, things that humans used to have to do only because they 
> > didn't have computers.   Why train humans to emulate machines if
> > you have adequate machines?
> 
> ...
> And second, when teachers do discover computers, inevitably it's used to
> inflict the three-B's of educational software upon unsuspecting students --
> that is, software that's Boring, Banal, and just plain BAD. 

There is certainly lots of bad courseware around, but with some
effort it can be done right.  We teach income tax, accounting and
other courses to 1,100 Bar Admission students each year with CAI,
and I like to think we've done it right.  Our courses are challenging
and appear extremely "intelligent"; although we don't use any AI
techniques, the simple mechanism of asking open-ended questions and
telling the student *what* they're doing wrong when they make a
mistake makes them think the computer is almost human.  To that you
have to add a certain bulletproofing to let your software respond
sensibly to just about anything the student does.  (Many of our
students have never touched a keyboard before; and they get no
human assistance in using the system, so it has to be completely
self-explanatory.)  Many of our students tell us that they find
our CAI much more useful than lectures.

If anyone is interested in our experiences, I can send a copy
of "Computer-Assisted Instruction and Evaluation at the Law Society
of Upper Canada", a paper I gave at the National Educational
Computing Conference (NECC'87) in Philadelphia last June.
Let me know whether you want a paper or an electronic copy.
(On-line, it's 30K, with [nt]roff macros.)

David Sherman		dave@lsuc.uucp
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Osgoode Hall
Toronto, Canada  M5H 2N6

(416) 947-3466
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