Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 290.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni- (122)
dortmund.de>
Subject: How a Virtual Knowledge Network could propel your
institution, etc....
[2] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni- (91)
dortmund.de>
Subject: As robots become smarter and self-aware, scientists,
theologians consider their humanity
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2000 08:01:18 +0100
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: How a Virtual Knowledge Network could propel your
institution, etc....
Dear Humanists scholars,
Once again, Prof. Jim Morrison and his educational technology team have
accomplished stellar job in making Technology Source, a unique source on
the Web for educationists, technologists and teachers.
a.)Enhancing Professional Education through Virtual Knowledge Networks
with the some quotations from Peter Drucker at
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/commentary/1999-07.asp>
Charles Morrissey argues that higher education administrators should take
a close look at the corporate world, where virtual workteams of employees
are now collaborating and problem-solving online. "The field of
professional education," he writes, "would do well to develop an
educational equivalent to the virtual workplace." Specifically, Morrissey
suggests that colleges and universities establish what he calls a Virtual
Knowledge Network: a continuous, online learning spectrum where faculty,
students, alumni, and community members can interactto the benefit of
all. Read on to learn how a Virtual Knowledge Network could propel your
institution into the twenty-first century.
The Impact of the Internet on Management Education: what the Research
Shows also by Dr. Charles A. Morrissey at
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/cases/1998-06.asp>
b.)Via Technology to Social Change by Alan Cummings
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/vision/1999-07.asp>
Ready for a ride into the future? Alan Cummings takes his imagination to
2020 in this issue's Vision article and predicts that, by that year, the
worlds of business and education will have merged. Students older than 10
will study at home with teleconferencing tools provided by corporate
sponsors and learning packages designed by education brokers. Parents will
update their job skills with online training software and consult
employment brokers for professional planning. In the business-oriented
culture of the twenty-first century, qualifications will matter greatly;
social status, age, and gender will count for little; and actual
performance will be everything. Could it really happen? Cummings says yes
and offers readers a fascinating scenario of the future
c.)Virtual-U:Results and Challenges of Unique Field Trials
<http://horizon.unc.edu/ts/vu/1999-07.asp>
In the Virtual University section, Milton Campos and Linda Harasim
describe Virtual-U, a Web-based learning environment that is customized
for online education delivery. When software developers at the Canadian
TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence use the term "customized,"
they mean it: since 1996, researchers and developers have been working
collaboratively with professors and students to tailor Virtual-U to real
needs. The result is an environment with such features as a personal
workspace in which users can manage their learning tasks and activities, a
course editor for designing and editing curriculum, a grade book,
instructional tools, and examples of how to teach and learn online. Find
out more about the continuing development of Virtual-U and its innovative
approaches to online education by reading further.
Below is a description of the July/August issue of The Technology Source,
a free refereed Web periodical at http://horizon.unc.edu/TS. Please
forward this announcement to colleagues who are interested in using
information technology tools more effectively in educational
organizations.
As always, we seek illuminating articles that will assist educators as
they face the challenge of integrating information technology tools in
teaching and in managing educational organizations. Please review our call
for manuscripts at http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/call.asp
Jim
--
James L. Morrison morrison@unc.edu
Professor of Educational Leadership CB 3500 Peabody Hall
Editor, On the Horizon UNC-Chapel Hill
http://horizon.unc.edu/horizon Chapel Hill,NC 27599-3500
Editor, The Technology Source Phone: 919 962-2517
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS Fax: 919 962-1693
d.)Distance Learning in East Carolina University's Educational Leadership
Program
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/cases/1999-07.asp>
The Masters of School Administration (MSA) program at East Carolina
University (ECU) is the focus of this issue's first Case Study. In 1997,
professors in the MSA program decided to offer two educational leadership
courses via distance education. They believe that, in order to ensure that
school leaders will be effective in tomorrow's technology-infused world,
graduate courses must prepare these leaders to adapt to changes in the
field of technology and to recognize how technology can support the goals
of their schools. Distance education provides the ideal format for such
preparation; after all, it allows students to master content and gain
experience with technology tools at the same time. Lynn Bradshaw and
Laurie Weston document the results of the MSA distance education pilot
effort and describe what steps ECU professors will take in the near future
to improve their distance offerings.
e.)Perfect Practice Makes Perfect Through Digitized Video
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/cases/1999-07a.asp>
Physical education: for most people, the term conjures up images of gyms
filled with lively, sweaty kids. For Peter DiLorenzo, it also conjures up
images of contemplative students sitting in front of computer screens. As
he explains in this issue's second Case Study, DiLorenzo uses digitized
video to teach his physical education students at Floyd College (Georgia)
the fundamentals of basketball, softball, volleyball, and other team
sports. His experience indicates that technology can be used to improve
instruction in physical education courses as well as in academic classes.
f.)Piloting the Psychosocial Model of Faculty Development
by Prof. Patricia Cravener
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/development/1999-07.asp>
At most colleges and universities that adopt new technologies for distance
education, staff in instructional design, educational technology, and/or
information technology services devote a substantial proportion of their
time trying to help faculty learn to use the most effective media for
communicating with distant learners. Unfortunately, as Patricia Cravener
reports in the Faculty and Staff Development section, faculty usually
either do not attend training programs or do not implement the new
technology after the programs end. Cravener uses her Paradoxical
Disjunction Model to explain why, and she delineates concrete and
cost-effective ways that faculty can be motivated to seek out, as well as
effectively apply, technology training.
g.)Internet Teaching and Learning Resources from Indiana University and
the University of New Brunswick by Dr. Terry Calhoun
<http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/sites/1999-07.asp>
The Spotlight Sites for July/August are WebdevShare and WWWDEV.
WebdevShare, sponsored by Indiana University, focuses on the
Web-enablement of higher education administration. Check out the seven
e-mail lists featured on the site, or read proceedings from annual
WebdevShare conferences. Then access WWWDEV, a listserv on courseware
sponsored by the University of New Brunswick (Nova Scotia, Canada). The
homepage features links to materials from annual WWWDEV conferences, to
members' courses, and to an extensive list of Web-based courseware
authoring/management tool vendors. Terry Calhoun, who describes the best
aspects of these two sites, promises that they are invaluable resources
for anyone interested in online teaching and learning tools.
Sincerely
Arun Kumar Tripathi
National Advisory Board Member for AmericaTakingAction, National Network
<http://www.americatakingaction.com/board/arun.htm>
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2000 08:02:17 +0100
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: As robots become smarter and self-aware, scientists,
theologians consider their humanity
Dear humanists,
Hi --on the eve of last year's Don Knuth's bold lectures on "God and
Computers" (a challenging job) at MIT, several issues and concerns have
been raised by AI and Robotics researchers in relation with the field of
Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Robotics and faith in the
scientific discoveries and inventions..a report is written by MARGIE
WYLIE, Newhouse News Service --from which several excerpts are given
below-- --comments are welcome??
FOR THOUSANDS of years we have used mythical robots to explore the
question of what makes humans human.
In the Middle Ages, Jewish cabalists spun myths about golems, clay
creatures animated by the secret name of God. The ancient Greeks sought
to create homunculus, a tiny proto-person servant. More recently, Mary
Shelley's ``Frankenstein'' creature and the android ``Star Trek'' crew
member Commander Data have raised the question: ``Can man-made creatures
have souls?''
Anne Foerst's calling is to ask that question, but not about mythical
creatures. As resident theologian at the Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Foerst has spent the
past four years pondering how increasingly smart machines may affect our
sense of humanity.
``I think that computer science, and especially artificial intelligence,
is the field for religious inquiry,'' says Foerst, a German research
scientist who has served as an ordained minister and holds a doctorate in
theology as well as degrees in computer science and philosophy.
In biology or astronomy, the questions theologians ask deal with God as a
distant and powerful being. But in the field of artificial intelligence,
the theological issues are more ``personal,'' addressing God's
relationship to an individual being.
A human being asks, ``Who am I? What am I doing here? What's the meaning
of my life?'' Foerst says. ``Humans have a very strong sense of
specialness, and these machines challenge that specialness in extremely
profound ways.''
Lab director Rodney Brooks invited Foerst to work as theological adviser
for a new generation of smart robots that learn by doing, just like
humans.
One of these is Brooks' brainchild, Cog, a robot built in roughly human
form except that he carries his ``brain'' on his back in a laptop
computer. Cog is designed to discover and adapt to the world much the
same way a human baby does.
Traditionally, artificial intelligences -- such as the chess-playing IBM
computer Big Blue -- are software applications primed with vast amounts
of data and then given complex rules for how to make decisions and for
how to learn to make other decisions. But such a disembodied
intelligence, Brooks argues, cannot possibly experience the world as
humans do. Only through experience as a physical being can smart robots
develop emotions, which he argues are prerequisite for a truly
intelligent being. So the aim is for Cog to become conscious of his body,
his surroundings and, someday, his ``self.''
When that happens, asks Foerst, then what?
Minsky, like others at the school, thinks studying theology is
incompatible with computer science. ``The act of appearing to take such a
subject seriously makes it look as though our community regards it as a
respectable contender among serious theories,'' Minsky comments by
e-mail. ``Like creationism and other faith-based doctrines, I suspect it
is bad for young students.''
But Brooks, who describes himself as a scientific rationalist and
``strong atheist,'' says he can understand how faith can coexist with
science. ``From a scientific point of view, my kids are bags of skin full
of molecules interacting, but that's not how I treat them. I love them. I
operate on two completely different levels, and I manage to live with
these two different levels.
Exploration of faith
As computer science bumps against the limits of rationality, more of its
practitioners are feeling freer to explore their faith. Leading computer
scientist Donald Knuth recently wrote a book called ``3:16'' in which he
examined the third chapter and 16th verse of every book of the Christian
Bible.
``I thought at first I would be ridiculed; I had this feeling like I was
coming out of the closet or something,'' says Knuth, professor emeritus
for the art of computer programming at Stanford University. ``I
hesitantly admitted to a few people that I was working on this book on
weekends but got an unexpectedly warm reaction.''
Knuth says he found that ``a lot of computer scientists have a God-shaped
hole in their hearts.''
As part of her work, Foerst tries to educate ministers and theologians
about the science of artificial intelligence.
Brooks says his ``ultimate megalomaniacal goal'' is to build a robot
``that is indistinguishable from a human -- which I won't do before I
die. I admit that.''
But some milestones are already past.
Today, deaf people can hear with electronic cochlear implants that tap
directly into a nerve in the ear. Silicon corneas are in the works. And
these two examples are just the beginning.
``As we start to connect silicon to biological material, in living
humans, where is the boundary between personhood and machinehood?''
Brooks says.
Address of original story is available at:
<http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/075884.htm>
I hope, you will enjoy the excerpts, thank you!
Sincerely yours
Arun Tripathi
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