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Pedagogical agents, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent computer assisted instruction. Oh my!

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Knowing what you know from the course reading so far, how would you describe the differences and similarities between pedagogical agents, intelligent tutoring systems, and intelligent computer-assisted instruction?

Quite honestly, my base understanding of the definition of these terms was pretty low before this week's readings. Through other courses, I've been introduced to the concept of pedagogical agents, basically technological applications or tools that provide a learner with instruction. However, I've never thought to differentiate between such agents and intelligent tutoring systems or intelligent computer-assisted instruction. Below is my attempt to uniquely define these three entities, with a little help from Timms (2016), VenLehn (2011), and Johnson (2018).

Pedagogical Agents

Johnson & Lester (2018) define pedagogical agents as "autonomous characters that inhabit learning environments to engage with learners in rich, face-to-face interactions" (p. 33). Ideally, these agents would be capable of "human-like interaction with learners" which would "make learning easier, more engaging, and more motivating" (p. 33).  The goal was for pedagogical agents to be able to promote learning through the following attributes: expressing emotions, nonverbal feedback, gaze and gestures, conversational signals, adaptive pedagogical interactions, interactive demonstrations, and navigational guidance (p. 34). 

In their article, Timms (2016) describes his belief that "educational cobots" will eventually be incorporated into classroom settings and schools. To me, his description of an educational cobot, a "robot designed to support human teachers" would be the highest form of a pedagogical agent (p. 703). In more ubiquitous or less aspirational manifestations, I believe that precursors to pedagogical agents may appear as any piece of technology that supports student learning, whether inside or outside of the classroom. I believe there is an argument to be made that this may even sometimes manifest as the Intelligent Learning Environment (ILE) itself. 

Intelligent Tutoring Systems

As defined by VanLehn (2011), intelligent tutoring systems are "characterized by giving students an electronic form, natural language dialogue, simulated instrument panel, or other user interface that allows them to enter the steps required for solving the problem" and then providing students with feedback and hints to help scaffold learning (p. 198).

Intelligent Computer-Assisted Instruction

To me, intelligent computer-assisted instruction probably most resembles what we would find in an everyday classroom at this point. Currently, there aren't many full-functioning educational cobots who are providing socio-emotional and data-driven support to hard-working teachers. Additionally, not many classrooms are lucky enough to be classified as ILEs. 

Therefore, many teachers who are instructing students, are doing so based on best practices in pedagogy, as informed by their training and experience. The lucky ones may even be able to utilize specific technological tools that could assist them in the classroom, from computerized whiteboards to classroom management tools that allow them to see the screens of all computers in a class. 

In today's world of Covid-19, more teachers than ever before are probably learning how to incorporate and utilize technological tools, driven by necessity. It's interesting because I've always found a lack of significant training to be one of the biggest obstacles in implementing educational technology. However, due to the pandemic that's required socially distanced learning, teachers now have a newfound need and motivation to learn, and schools have a renewed impetus to train them effectively. 

Final Thoughts

Altogether, the biggest similarity to me between these three modalities and tools is that they are all working towards the same unified goal: helping learners learn better. Depending on the modality, this may involve different methods or tools, but in the end, each is trying to figure out the best method to engage learners in a way that's sustainable, equitable, and innovative. 

I agree with many of this week's article's authors that AI presents a huge opportunity for education. However, I also believe that more time, research, and funding needs to be put into the best way to implement AIED into the classroom and its effect on diverse learners. Finally, I'll return to my earlier point that in order to effectively employ AIED, teachers need to be engaged, trained, and empowered to implement it effectively. 

References

Johnson, W. L., & Lester, J. C. (2018). Pedagogical agents: Back to the future. AI Magazine, 39(2), 33-44. doi: 10.1609/aimag.v39i2.2793

Timms, M. J. (2016). Letting artificial intelligence out of the box: Educational cobots and smart classrooms. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 26, 701-712. doi:10.1007/s40593-016-0095-y.

VanLehn, K. (2011). The relative effectiveness of human tutoring, intelligent tutoring systems, and other tutoring systems. Educational Psychologist, 46(4), 197-221. doi: 10.1080/00461520.2011.611369.

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