[pandorabots-general] Ideas on ChatBot Technology and Applications in Education - Middle School Math

[Stanley E. Honour]

(In response to math teacher below)
I can understand why you got out of net admin.  Security has become such
a nightmare with no light at the end of the tunnel.  
	I think the bots are better suited to language learning and
practice than math but first and foremost your bot must have an
interesting character / personality.  And that is not easy, just ask
anyone who's written a childrens book.   Unless you're ready to do a
huge amount of coding, the general AI has trouble 'staying focused'.  It
would be difficult to establish structured learning.  In my case, I'm
just trying to create an 'episodic' character that can tell a story and
answer questions about its 'life'.  I've been working on it for over a
year and it's nowhere near ready to be exposed to kids.  My target age
group is 12 - 16.   One possibility is the class may find it more
interesting to teach the bot than to learn from it.  The trick of course
is that you can't teach unless you know the material yourself, hehe.
You could setup bot building teams ect.  There has been some preliminary
social / psyc research on using chat bots as an educational tool.  If
you're interested I can provide the references.  There are other groups
on Second Life that have established virtual classrooms with language
tutor bots on duty 24/7. I think it is an exciting time to get into this
technology.  We are in a period of rapid development, and many
complementary technologies are becoming available.  However this is not
something you can finish in a few months, it is more of a multi year
project.  Well perhaps I'm being too harsh; it depends on your goals.
I'd be happy to exchange ideas with you.  I have also forwarded this
email to some contacts I have, one of them may also contact you.

-----Original Message-----
From: pandorabots-general-bounces+stan=adnamis.org at list.pandorabots.com
[mailto:pandorabots-general-bounces+stan=adnamis.org at list.pandorabots.co
m] On Behalf Of Bob Cronin
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 12:32 PM
To: pandorabots-general at list.pandorabots.com
Cc: 'Bob Cronin'
Subject: [pandorabots-general] Ideas on ChatBot Technology and
Applicationsin Education - Middle School Math

Hello, 
 
   Greetings, and I'm hoping all this expertise on this list can give me
some ideas, or point me in the right direction.  I am a former IT
professional (Info Security and Architecture), and now am a Middle
School
Math teacher in an urban middle school in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
   I'm intrigued by the Bot technology, and the use of the AIM XML files
to
drive the ChatBot behavior.  My question is; I teach 7th grade math to
inner
city kids (98% Hispanic, many with English not their primary language).
I
would love to use this Bot technology to enhance the students' learning,
and
am looking for ideas, research projects, web sites, papers, or any other
resource that talks about Bot applications in education (middle school
math
and English language learners specifically). Also, if anyone wants to
join
me in collaborating and exploring this area of Bot applications in
education, let's chat.

    One application I've been thinking of is to use a Bot to teach
students
math vocabulary, another to use a Bot for interactive quizzes on math
content. Any and all ideas welcome.  Thank you in advance for any
assistance
you may provide.   

Regards, Bob Cronin
7th Grade Math teacher
Leonard Middle School 
Lawrence, Massachusetts
bob.cronin at comcast.net


  
     




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