Computer Narrative and Technology-Enhanced Learning:
What can automated storytelling do for education?
Dr. Pablo Gervás, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Abstract:
The role of storytelling as a tool for teaching and learning has been studied for the past decades.
As a result, specific efforts oriented towards applying storytelling in education are under way in many
disciplines. Automated storytelling is progressively coming of age after decades of being a holy grail of AI. The accumulated
years of intensive research in close colaboration with the fields of psychology, narrative theory and linguistics
have produced a body of insights, working programs, and best practices that is ready to be applied to practical problems.
This talk will consider the various roles of storytelling in education, outline the subtasks of storytelling that
are likely to be succesfully modeled by computers, and discuss possible matches between the needs of technology-enhanced
education and the solutions available from automatic storytelling.
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From Research Demo to Mass Medium: Addressing the Authoring problem in
Story Generation.
Dr. Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz
Abstract:
The authoring of interactive, generative narrative is a task that
typically requires an extensive multi-disciplinary background in
computational and narrative theory. This significantly limits the
accessibility of generative story systems as an expressive medium. In
the Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz, we are interested
in addressing this authoring problem to enable the use of story
generation as a widely used medium. In this talk I will present Wide
Ruled, an authoring tool that provides a friendly, intuitive,
story-centric interface to an author-goal driven text-based story
planner. Wide Ruled is based on the Universe author-goal model of story
generation, and extends this model by providing support for reader
interactivity, episodic memory elements, and an extensive graphical
interface that is aimed at authors with little or no experience with
computer programming or artificial intelligence planning techniques.
Over the past two years, this system has been used repeatedly by
technical and non-technical users in multiple classroom settings, and
has evolved into a robust, publically available story authoring system.
In this work, we describe the successes and failures of Wide Ruled, and
how it provides a critical evolutionary step in developing a truly
usable, writer-friendly, and practical authoring environment for
generative story spaces.
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Networked Learning: vision and practice.
Prof. Liz Beaty, University of Cumbria
Abstract
In this new century the internet, global connections and a more mature understanding of learning come together to offer a richer future for higher education.
Networked learning refers to those learning contexts which, through the use of ICT allow learners to be connected with other people and with shared information rich resources. There is much to discover about how networked learning can best be used to support higher education. The presentation will focus on the theory of networked learning drawing on a manifesto that was launched in 2002. The opportunities for practice will be illustrated through the example of a new University in the UK: The University of Cumbria is working in partnership with other learning providers and with employers across a distributed network of campuses and workplaces and aims to become the first of a new generation of higher education institution based on a vision of networked learning.
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Personal Inquiry: Supporting Inquiry Science Learning with Mobile Technology
Prof. Mike Sharples, University of Nottingham
Abstract
The Personal Inquiry project enables young people to develop skills of science inquiry beyond the classroom. The approach of ‘scripted inquiry learning’ provides structured learning activities that start in a classroom or lab and extend into scientific investigations in the home and outdoors. As part of a combined project with the Open University UK we have developed a Personal Inquiry Toolkit, running on an ultra-mobile PC, that has been tested with school students for exploring topics of personal health and environmental science. Through a combination of critical incident studies and learning outcome measures we have evaluated the impact of the method and technology on learning. In the presentation I shall describe the approach of ‘scripted inquiry learning’, demonstrate the toolkit, and discuss the student trials. Issues include the need to support teachers in coordinating inquiry learning activities outside the classroom, and the contrasting problems of ensuring students are personally committed to the inquiry and of ‘too personal inquiry’ where they are reluctant to report results that might be personally embarrassing.
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