Date:         Tue, 18 Apr 2000 01:15:28 -0400
Reply-To:     CS92-L List <CS92-L@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU>
Sender:       CS92-L List <CS92-L@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU>
From:         David Emory <demory@CS.BROWN.EDU>
Subject:      Notes & Questions for Tues.
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Hello all,
Sorry this is so late, my original mail apparently didn't go through..

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Tomorrow we will be discussing Schank's & Cleary's "Engines for
Education," chapter 10: "Goal-Directed Learning and Creating the
Software We Need." Some notes & questions to think about:

The authors are critical of the traditional lecture-based teaching
styles, even at the college/university level. Are there not situations
where lectures from experts are the most efficient way of acquiring
knowledge on a specific topic? Is the goal-oriented model something that
should be applied across the board, or only in certain situations (such
as engaging students who might not be inherently interested in the topic
being taught)?

The "Broadcast News" news program presented in this chapter, designed to
serve as part of a high-school-level Social Studies/ Current Events
curriculum, is a comprehensive system involving expensive computer and
video technology rarely found in a high school social studies classroom.
It is also fairly demanding in terms of the students' time compared to
traditional models. Is it really realistic to think that this kind of
setup can be incorporated on a large scale (i.e. in many schools, and
for many different subjects)? If not, how can schools with limited
resources benefit from this type of teaching model?

Towards the end of the chapter, the authors turn to the problem of
insufficient attention being paid to the development of quality
educational software by schools and SW developers. Is this still a major
problem today, 5 years later (a relatively long time for the SW
industry)? If so, how should it be addressed?

As we're well into the process of developing our own projects, it might
be useful consider our projects in light of the goal-oriented model
proposed by the authors, especially given that the examples in this
chapter seem to be of the same general nature as what is developed in
CS92. Does your project present explicit goals for the student users to
pursue? How do you make these goals attractive and engaging for students
who might otherwise have little interest in the topic being covered?