Creating your own blog entry

As we mentioned last Friday, our next step is to research web sites and find resources that cover the topics listed in the previous entry related to Tutorials and Wizards. Your assignments consists in:
- Creating a blog entry similar to the ones that I have posted in the past for other units, with an introduction and comments relative to the resources found, highlighting why you think they are relevant.
- Design an assignment that will allow students in the class to learn and deepen their understanding on the topics chosen.
Both these tasks must be completed by Wednesady (we will not work on this on Wednesday) and emailed to itgs.sass@gmail.com
You will be assessed on the relevancy and qaulity of the resources found, the related explanations, and the originality and usefulness of the assignment proposed.

Tutorials and Wizards

Our next topic is tutorials, wizards and how the apply to training. The objective is to try to understand how the use of technology affects the way people learn, both in the academic environment (schools, universities) as well as in job training. Throughout this unit we will be covering the following issues:

Social and ethical issues
Study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of tutorials, training
and wizards. These may include:
• the balance in responsibility between an individual and an organization for training
• the need for IT companies to consider global and cultural diversity when preparing training and tutorial software
• the requirement of organizations to provide training when implementing change.
Related technological concepts include:
• key terms—tutorial software, training software, wizards and assistants, help menu and help features,“Read Me” files
• using wizards, assistants and online assistants in the design and creation of a product, for example, desktop-published documents, slideshows, web sites.

We will start discussing the topics by watching two videos that reflect on how education has changed:

• Sir Ken Robinson: "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"
• Richard Baraniuk: "Open Source Learning"

Our first activity for this topic will be the discussion of some of the implications of the two videos.

Assesment Exercise: Robotics

Answer all of the following questions:

1. Give 3 examples of situations in which a robot would be used over a human and explain, in detail, the reasons why a robot would be the preferred choice.
2. During one of the videos that we watched, a robot machine sorted out chocolates and placed them within their correct wrappings. Explain clearly how the robot can achieve this. You are expected to use the relevant technical terms when appropriate.
3. How is an expert system developed? What special characteristic does an expert system have?
4. Explain how a bot is developed and how it can increase its ability to recognize natural language.
5. How would you program a robot to simulate feelings? Explain what Roboethics deals with and the potential implications on individuals and society.
6. Robots will surpass human intelligence. Discuss briefly.

Email your answers to itgssass@gmail.com Be sure to check that the answers have arrived before you leave the room.

Creating your own simulation

Even though creating a simulation is a very complex endeavour, and one that requires a specialized team researching a problem and coming up with a model to be later coded, we will attempt to create a very simple simulation based ion an existing model.

We will access the Forio web site and select the option to Create your Web simulation, then select Broadcast Express. Once there, you will create an account and work on a simulation that follows the Epidemics model.

Your task will be to modify both the model and the interface to adapt the Epidemics simulation to the spreading of a rumor. The goal of the simulation is, given a user-defined probability that a person hearing the rumor will retransmit it, to predict how many people will get to know of the rumor after a certain period of time.

You have to send the URL of the simulation to itgs.sass@gmail.com before the end of the lesson on Friday afternoon.

Assignment #12: Evaluating Simulations

Before we set out to do a simulation of our own, it is a good idea to see practical examples of applications of simulations and evaluate their effectiveness and implications. Some common fields that have been subjected to modeling and simulation are:
- Weather forecasting
- Stock Exchange
- Genetics and evolution
- Flight simulators used for training pilots

Working in pairs, your assigned task will be to choose one of these fields and answer the following questions:
Find web sites or direct references to computer simulations within the chosen field.
How complex is the underlying model and on what theory/equations is it based?
To what extent are the above simulations being used for real-life or research/training purposes and why?
Based on the above, what is the reliability and effectiveness of the model and related simulation? (This is the most important question!)

You will be working on this assignment during the second part of the lesson today and the first block on Wednesday. You should be ready to submit the assignment on Wednesday.

Simulations and Modeling

The next topic that we will be covering involves computer simulations and modeling. The unit will focus on the effectiveness, usefulness, limitations, and (of course!) the social and ethical impact of the increased use of simulations.

We will initially discuss the basics of computer simulations by reading the article on Computer Simulations prepared by staff at Osaka International School.

Some other simple but very complete resources that can serve as reference for the topic are Simulation Models and Analysis, the What is Simulation? tutorial at Simulism as well as the presentation on Introduction to Simulation and Modeling of Queueing Systems. Another important resource is a list of applications of computer simulations that can be found on Table 1(Page 2) of Growing Importance of Modelling and Simulation: Professional and Ethical Implications.

The following video shows some common applications of computer-based simulations:



Towards the end of our lesson today, we will be exploring a tantalizing possibility by reading the New York Times article entitled Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy’s Couch.

AI / Expert Systems Recap

Upon our return from the winter break, we will recap what we have learned on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems. Working in pairs, the goal is to develop an open book assessment instrument (test) by using the Test Designer site.

The test must include a total of no less than eight multiple choice, short answer and essay questions, and cover the following keywords and topics:
- AI, Turing test, machine learning, natural language, pattern recognition, expert system, knowledge base, inference engine, heuristics, fuzzy logic, knowledge engineer.
- Roboethics, implications of the evolution of robots and their relations with humans.
- Development of AI engines, construction of a knowledge base.

The assignment consists of the questions themselves and the writing of model correct answers for all of the questions. You will be graded based on
- Coverage of all topics included.
- How well the questions lend themselves to an open book environment and stimulate analysis and learning of the above topics.

The tests, together with their answers, must be submitted to itgs.sass@gmail.com before Saturday, August 9, 2008.