[LINK] Fwd: [TCLT] Call for participation: Virtual Instructors Pilot Research Group

[Robert Hart]

Jan Whitaker wrote:

> Virtual instructors? Has the world gone mad?

Well actually - no, I don't think so.

I suppose it depends on exactly what you call a 'virtual instructor'.

Would you consider an expert systems knowledge base in a well bounded 
area linked to some well written software that was able to help 
guide/criticise a student through a particular area a 'virtual instructor'?

Personally, I think the name sucks, but the ability to have software 
guided instruction is far from new: I was playing around with this sort 
of thing on DEC Vax 11/750 back in the 1980s! But I really don't think 
you could call any computer based learning system a 'virtual instructor' 
until it is able to perform a reasonable subset of the many and varied 
learning interventions that a "meat " instructor routinely carries out.

-- 
Robert Hart					hartr at interweft.com.au
+61 (0)438 385 533			  http://www.hart.wattle.id.au