If you’re one of the many students who dreads going to the Math Emporium for yet another rousing session of self-tutoring, take heart. Technology could soon be on the way that will make staring at numbers on a lifeless computer monitor for hours on end a little more … attractive.
This is where Amy Baylor, professor of instructional systems at Florida State University’s Research of Innovative Technologies for Learning, and her pedagogical agents come to the rescue.
Peda-what? They’re simply a technical term that Baylor uses for her 3-D, animated virtual professors and teaching mentors that she is currently developing.
“Unlike a human mentor, we can control all aspects of a pedagogical agent — its gender, age, ethnicity, personality, message and interaction style — to represent the ideal persona for facilitating learning,” Baylor told Fox News. “This leads to all kinds of exciting possibilities for simulating and researching different teaching styles and instructional strategies.”
Baylor conducted a study funded by the National Science Foundation that examined the performance of 79 female engineering students on a brief test.
Predictably, the students reacted better to certain virtual professors over others, but when given the test of their abilities, the women reported more positive math and science-related beliefs than they did at the beginning of the semester when the test was administered, and also compared to a group who had no interaction with a pedagogical agent.
Baylor also conceded that further tests are needed in which the agents are assigned to students, rather than chosen by the students themselves.
Is this a viable solution to the current Math Emporium-esque method of learning via staring at words on a computer screen on many a gloomy evening? Absolutely — as long as the pedagogical agents do not begin to replace human agents of flesh and blood.
From a purely technological standpoint, Baylor’s research could be a significant part of the next big upgrade in educational software. However, it has the potential to grow into something more than just a software upgrade — something that would undermine the core reasons for why universities exist.
Listening to an attractive polygonal model of a professor dispense pearls of wisdom may be novel and technologically savvy, but it fails to facilitate classroom discussion and peer interaction. And it also fails to take into account the near-infinite capacities of the human mind, something that living, breathing instructors have immediate access to.
Something has to be said for the atmosphere that a small classroom environment provides — something that can’t be duplicated even in an online chat room. In terms of productiveness and overall learning, nothing beats a small classroom where discussion is facilitated and real people can interact face-to-face.
That said, a smart idea for schools to consider would be adding on more recitation sections for a greater number of classes in order to make the material more understandable. And, no matter how few faculty or students you have available, a discussion-heavy liberal arts class should never be taught online.
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