Post for June 28th - Response to the Use of Teaching Agents

The two articles we read for this week were very interesting, but I have issue with the idea of implementing the types of teaching agents they discuss. These articles discuss the use of avatars as a way for students to communicate with regarding issues on a specific assignment or topic. These avatars are a form of artificial intelligence that hold a certain expertise on a select topic. The use of these agents seems like a very useful tool, although I cannot imagine the amount of time a dedication it takes to set up such a tool.

Part of the purpose of these avatars is for students to "learn with technology" (Doering, 2008). Being interactive in learning is very important, and I see how being able to learn with a technology can be beneficial. Also these avatars provide students with instant access at any hour of the day so students don't have put their work on hold until they hear back from someone. In my own experiences with technology, it can be very frustrating to hit a snag in a project, and have to wait to hear back about the issue in order to continue. On the other hand, in my experience, I always remember how to do something better when I have had to search and experiment with how to do it myself. This is one thing I feel these education agents lack. I have no experience with using these agents (and having experience with them may change my perception), but I don't see myself utilizing this technology.

As I said above, I feel seeking out how to fix any issues you have in a project or learning process will have a much more lasting impression on the student than will immediately asking the educational agent a question and receiving the answer. Seeking out the answer can be very time consuming, but it teaches the student to be very resourceful. It also seems that these agents, particularly the one used for eFolio, are similar to the "help" link that appears on almost all interactive websites. It seems clicking the "help" link on the eFolio site could have been just as informative, if not more informative, than the agent. Clicking on the link requires a little more searching around and doesn't have the friendly humanistic demeanor of the agent, but it is a way to get the same information.

Maybe I don't quite understand the true purpose of the teaching agent, or maybe it's not clear the full capabilities of this technology, but it appears that what the agents do is already available to students. I can understand having an agent that is an "expert" in a certain topic, but there are plenty of experts in the online world - this one can simply be directly controlled. I feel that helping students to learn how to be resourceful (and, of course, critical of their sources of information) will ultimately benefit the students more. It seems there may be a rising need for this type of technology, but I will have to be further convinced.

Sources

Doering, A. et al. (2008). "Conversational Agents and Their Longitudinal Affordances on Communication and Interaction". Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 19(2), 251-270.

Veletsianos, G. et al (2008). "When sex, drugs, and violence enter the classroom:
Conversations between adolescents and a female pedagogical agent". Interacting with Computers. 20(3). 292-301.