Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Virtual co-learners may provide keys to faster, deeper learning

“The findings were that people learned much more with a supportive agent,” observes Nass. ”Some of our other findings indicate that a smarter co-learner (or agent), the one who gets the answer right, helps people learn more than dumber agents. It is clear that in any teaching or learning situation it is worthwhile to have a co-learner – someone else who appears interested.”


http://scil.stanford.edu/news/virtual10.htm

Yes, I want an agent based co-learner who would learn everything that I learn and never forget! Isn't it annoying when reading a text, half way through you say: well, I think I've read this text! That would never happen with the agent.

I already see myself having conversations with my agent: "Really, I know this already? So you mean I don't need to learn this anymore?".

In the future I might just kick back and let my virtual agent do all the communication and tackle the situations where I'm supposed to do something that I have already learnt.

2 comments:

Gijs de Bakker said...

This looks like an interesting development, but are you really that keen on interacting with virtual people? I mean, aren't we so excited by Web 2.0 beceause it enables us better to engage in more social interaction with real people? Or am I getting old... ;-)

vuorikari said...

Maybe yes, but imagine if I always have to ask my friends whether I've learned something or not? Waste of their time.. ;)
Well, the whole comment is rather tongue-in-cheek! How are your studies going?