Linda,
I totally agree. The intelligent tutors are going to have to be intellignet not just a "dumbing-down" of the educational process and we have sometimes seen in the past (and present).
Renee Shaffer
As I was reading the presentation I was thinking to myself "how well prepared is the intelligent tutor?" I do feel this is going to be a pivot point in the learning process. If it is the case of bringing these courses online fast then I think there will be deficiencies as usual when something is rushed. Dumbing-down is a perpetual problem I see coming from primary education with no child left behind scenarios. We can't continue to have this problem if we are thinking in terms of human capital.
I truly like the adea of adaptive learning with the intelligent tutors but I think these courses need to be completely thought out before applying them. I agree the just referring the student to read another source is going to slow them down and bore them. It needs to be a simple process in which the material is broken down. I love the ahh-ha moments!!!!
Dale,
I also am one of those that like human interaction so it wouldn't be best for me in that respect. Real world lessons are consistently used in my classes as I am sure they are in yours.
Renee Shaffer
LE,
Wow...Really great points made. I find your comment about dumbing down the course interesting. I can see how that could happen. I have just started to get my feet wet in this environment of adaptive learning, and so far, at least in my experience, I have not seen that.
Renee,
I think it is really hard to say with any certainty at this point. I think students will do very well with it, especially those that are more motivated then others, but still think there are those students who want the human interaction with a real person. Someone that can be more personal with them and encourage them when they are struggling. I don't think an intelligent Tutor can talk to a student about the real world aspect of a lesson that he/she is trying to master. Time will tell, but I do think that the concept of it is here to stay.
LE,
Very good points. It will be interesting to see if the intelligent tutor can really deeper their learning.
Renee Shaffer
The question of how effective "Intelligent Tutors" are and how students respond to them largely depends upon the quality of the tutorial experience. I have been working with Adaptive Learning and what I am seeing is a lot of pressure to bring courses online fast. This usually means dumbing-down of the content as less time is devoted to ensuring rigor and quality. If the Intelligent Tutor is going to be effective it must help the student quickly achieve an "Ahh-Ha" moment. Intelligent Tutors risk becoming an annoying obstacle to completing the course. Many students are not motivated by learning. They are motivated only to complete the course. To really be effective, I would like to see Intelligent Tutors studied and evaluated as part of the continuous course improvement process used by the educational institutions. On the fly tutoring is a new adaptation and it will be exciting to see it develop over time. It needs to be a lot deeper than just referring the student to read a different element of the material.
Rick,
I certainly agree that there are many different types of students from the distracted to though that might want to replace the instructor. More and more students are wanting to complete courses quickly and many don't have an interest in the materials.
Renee Shaffer
I see this question as very general, so I'll attempt to respond to it using my experiences in teaching Microsoft Excel to now well over 200 students - representative of that "static" content that AL attempts to address.
As a disclaimer note here, I've never been too enthusiastic about using "weasel words": talking about "some" or "many" students, because this lacks any sort of precision when attempting to ascertain the real barriers to solving the real problems in post-secondary education. How many is "some"? What percentage of students per class?
Surrogate - Some students will see the concept of "intelligent tutors" as replacing the instructor. When the machine attempts to teach a human, the human doesn't have to take into account the machine's time. AL's point is to attempt to take the time pressure off of the student. But there comes a point where the student has to be motivated to respect their instructor's time and some students need that pressure to keep moving.
Stealth Student - I've had a number of students in my Excel classes that are very apprehensive about disclosing their progress to the instructor. They don't want to be seen as "stupid" or "unprepared", so they appreciate having a mindless tutor who will just tell them how to build a PivotTable, not whether they are cognitively using critical thinking to solve problems that the PivotTable is designed to do.
Additional Distraction - Sometimes, students can see expert systems like Intelligent Tutors as just another thing getting in the way of the overall goal - completing the course. In my last class of Excel - eleven students, less than half of them, by the end of the course, were engaged in the course to learn anything - they just wanted to be done with it. My Excel course is demanding - it requires the acquisition of skill and constant practice to achieve the Master Course Objectives laid down by the school. There is a weekly deliverable and they MUST learn to achieve. Problem is, students don't allocate the time, the 3-4 hours per week outside of class to do the work. By week 11, there is only one motivator - do or fail. The 10-15% students who know and manage their time well will score high and walk away from my class with real skills (and Excel is a core post-secondary skill more most any degree plan). I really wish we could get students to learn the material for the material's sake, but how many students are in college because they want "a higher paying job". How many Criminal Justice students actually develop enough of a passion for criminal justice where they rise to a level of Personal Excellence?
Okay, I've written enough here I think to start a pretty spirited conversation.
/rab
