shneider@cui.unige.ch (Daniel Schneider) (09/20/90)
Dear AI&ED-ist, There has been a lot of discussion going on these few last weeks over the network. This happened via simple mail because only few people read this News group (and even less write in it). But several people asked me to bring the debate to a public place. Hence, I summarize what the discussion was all about. The discussion has been initiated by Radboud Winkels van Amsterdan who wondered why Schank decided to change the name of the AI&ED conference (see the call for papers posted in this news group). I reacted and forwarded the mail to many AI&ED-ists who all agreed with Radboud : AI&ED is may be not the best name but at least it has become a useful label for many of us. More globally, Radboud's questions raises basic issues about the status of our field : its name, the necessity of having some society, to decide democratically the name and location of main conferences, to coordinate efforts, to reactivate this nearly-dead news-group, to edit a journal, ... This summer we had a very good 2-weeks workshop in Calgary and these issues have been intensively discussed around the talks. About the name we had many suggestions. e.g. computational mathetics, learning sciences,... All have been discarded for some reasons. Learning sciences has been rejected because AI people said they will not get any funding if they say they work in a "learning" field. They may be right. Maybe not. Anyway, we discussed that more seriousely the last day and decided that even as large group, we had not the right to choose such a name in the name of the whole AI&ED community... This is some kind of collective meta-cognition ! We also discussed the AI&ED - or whatever - society idea. Again we decided not to create it there (because we did not represent the whole AI&ED community) but to start enquiring about it, contacting many people around, contacting the organisers of AI&ED91. Sharon Derry, from Florida (temporarily at LRDC), said that an AI&ED group will be launched within AERA (I think) and that we would be better to join it instead of creating a new society because "big names" would join it and that our society would then be dead before being born. However, belonging to an educational group does not fit the needs AI groups and belonging to an American association does not accomodate European groups. We also discussed the comp.ai.edu news-group, hoping that somebody would accept to actively moderate, but again nothing clear has been decided. However, Jim Greer from Saskatoon University, proposed to start making contacts, gathering mailing lists,... about the society, the name, the news group,etc. A few persons promised him to help him building the premisses of an AI&Ed society. If you want to know more about Jim's plans, please use this news group. I think such a society has some chances to succeed if it aims to optimize cooperation between persons like you and me, not if it attempts to solve the struggle for power between the elephants of our field. Salut les gars ! Pierre Dillenbourg FPSE TECFA Universite de Geneve 1211 GENEVE 4 Switzerland pdillen@divsun.unige.ch
bjr@clarity.Princeton.EDU (Brian J. Reiser) (10/05/90)
In article <3384@cui.unige.ch> shneider@cui.unige.ch (Daniel Schneider) writes:
Dear AI&ED-ist,
[..some discussion deleted...]
We also discussed the AI&ED - or whatever - society idea. Again we
decided not to create it there (because we did not represent the whole
AI&ED community) but to start enquiring about it, contacting many
people around, contacting the organisers of AI&ED91. Sharon Derry,
from Florida (temporarily at LRDC), said that an AI&ED group will be
launched within AERA (I think) and that we would be better to join it
instead of creating a new society because "big names" would join it
and that our society would then be dead before being born. However,
belonging to an educational group does not fit the needs AI groups and
belonging to an American association does not accomodate European
groups.
An AI and Education Special Interest Group has *indeed* already been
launched within AERA, the American Educational Research Association.
Last year, our SIG sponsored some very well attended sessions
at AERA 1990, and we will be sponsoring some very exciting sessions
at next year's conference (April 3-7 in Chicago).
The SIG publishes an occassional newsletter containing information
about upcoming conferences, publications, and general news in the
field, and most importantly sponsors symposia and paper sessions at
the yearly AERA conference.
For information about joining the SIG in AI and Education,
please write or email to the Secretary of our SIG, Joe Psotka:
Joseph Psotka, Ph.D.
Chief, Smart Technology for Training
U. S. Army Research Institute
ATTN: PERI-IZ
5001 Eisenhower Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22333-5600
Internet: Psotka@alexandria-emh2.army.mil
The representation given to the area of AI and Education at the AERA
conference is directly proportional to the size of our membership,
so if you have an interest in this area and would like to see it
represented at this conference, please consider joining the SIG.
\end{plug}
Brian J. Reiser
President, SIG-AI and Education
Cognitive Science Laboratory
Princeton University
Internet: reiser@princeton.eduleonr@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Dr Ruben Leon) (10/05/90)
In article <3384@cui.unige.ch> pdillen@divsun.unige.ch (DILLENBOURG Pierre) writes: >Dear AI&ED-ist, > >There has been a lot of discussion going on these few last weeks over >the network. This happened via simple mail because only few people read >this News group (and even less write in it). But several people asked >me to bring the debate to a public place. Hence, I summarize what the >discussion was all about. > Thank you Pierre. I hope the 'debate' is continued over here so people like myself can listen. I don't see the point in having a moderator when a open forum will be quicker and easier to distribute. Also I think one should consider the role of a newsgroup in allowing subscribers to exchange practical information/experience (i.e. where do I find this article, does anyone have such & such software, etc)... >FPSE TECFA >Universite de Geneve >1211 GENEVE 4 Switzerland >pdillen@divsun.unige.ch > > > > > Newsgroups: comp.ai.edu Subject: Re: AI&Ed status, conference,... Summary: Expires: References: <3384@cui.unige.ch> Sender: Reply-To: leonr@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Dr Ruben Leon) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Comp Sci, Glasgow Univ, Scotland Keywords: In article <3384@cui.unige.ch> pdillen@divsun.unige.ch (DILLENBOURG Pierre) writes: >Dear AI&ED-ist, > >There has been a lot of discussion going on these few last weeks over >the network. This happened via simple mail because only few people read >this News group (and even less write in it). But several people asked >me to bring the debate to a public place. Hence, I summarize what the >discussion was all about. Thank you Pierre. I hope the 'debate' is continued over here so people like myself can listen. I don't see the point in having a moderator when a open forum will be quicker and easier to distribute. Also I think one should consider the role of a newsgroup in allowing subscribers to exchange practical information/experience (i.e. where do I find this article, does anyone have such & such software, etc)... >FPSE TECFA >Universite de Geneve >1211 GENEVE 4 Switzerland >pdillen@divsun.unige.ch > > > > > -- Ruben Leon, Computing Science Dept || Tel: 44 41+ 330 4264 / 330 4463 Glasgow University, Scotland || Fax: 44 41+ 330 4913 USENET: ruben@cs.glasgow.uucp || JANET: ruben@uk.ac.glasgow.cs ARPA: ruben%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk