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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Mike:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Writing in Scientific American, Bill Gates says
"...it is impossible to predict exactly what applications will drive the new
industry" but he adds that the new personal robots "...will look nothing like
the humanoid C3PO" (page 65). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What we need is a contest sponsored by Microsoft to
sketch out a design for Bill-Bot, a competitor to Robosapien. Bill-Bot can
be used as a peripheral to a pc and with .NET SW, "anyone interested in robotics
with even the most basic understanding of computer programming could easily
write robotics applications". Well, we have .NET installed right here so we are
waiting for MS to deliver on that promise. Let's use a language in common with
Robotics Studio SW. How about C?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We can order VIVO HW and SW to go with Bill-Bot (or
Robosapien while we wait for Bill-Bot). And voila! We are ready to program
Bill-Bot. Bill-Bot becomes our Harvard teaching machine... Robosapien if MS
doesn't get going pretty fast.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I agree with you below re "mixed mode" machine
teaching. Students have the option of meeting with other students who live
within reach and they may even be able to meet with human teachers. And for avid
self-teachers, the extra help from Bill-Bot will work just fine.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So here's how it goes. One of the 100 universities
now putting out OCW course materials steps up to the plate to write a
teaching machine program for Bill-Bot in C. Having been instructed in C by MS,
we could take care of writing the code from here. It could be any
course but hey, why not have a sense of humour about this and make it
Introductory C Programming at BCIT? (That's Comp 1002). Bill-Bot is going
to deliver on that statement in Scientific American by teaching C programming.
Is that funny or what?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.geocities.com/Bill_Gates_Challenge_in_Sci_Am">http://www.geocities.com/Bill_Gates_Challenge_in_Sci_Am</A>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PtP</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=tintner@blueyonder.co.uk href="mailto:tintner@blueyonder.co.uk">Mike
Tintner</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=psychiatry-research@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:psychiatry-research@yahoogroups.com">psychiatry-research@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=pay_the_piper@shaw.ca
href="mailto:pay_the_piper@shaw.ca">pay_the_piper@shaw.ca</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:51
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Harvard v MIT - Global
Education</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV class=ygrp-content>PTP,</DIV>
<DIV class=ygrp-content> </DIV>
<DIV class=ygrp-content>This is a v.interesting & extremely important
area. I think the answer to your point is that they should become open
courses, with forums where students can talk to each other about their
problems & from time to time to experts internationally volunteering time
- as they do already in computer forums.</DIV>
<DIV class=ygrp-content> </DIV>
<DIV class=ygrp-content>Of course, person to person contact is extremely
important - & physical contact with relevant materials. But the MIT
experiment has to be made to work in some form or other - the ultimate
benefits to global society and global education are huge. And we know it can
be done - some people are largely self-taught in certain areas.</DIV>
<DIV class=ygrp-content> </DIV>
<DIV class=ygrp-content>PTP:Concerning the details of using those course
materials, you may want to ask on the MIT- list. As far as I know the OCW PR
man, Jonathan Potts is still on it as is David Diamond who covers OCW for
Wired. <BR><BR>My main point is that OCW course materials by themselves are of
limited value. Eventually they have to be taught or they are of no value. OK,
what happens when OCW gets turned into machine taught
courses?<BR><BR>PtP<BR><BR>----- Original Message ----- <BR>From: Mike Tintner
<BR>To: <A href="mailto:psychiatry-research@yahoogroups.com"><FONT
color=#1e66ae>psychiatry-research<WBR>@yahoogroups.<WBR>com</FONT></A>
<BR>Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 8:33 AM<BR>Subject:
[psychiatry-<WBR>research] Re:Harvard v MIT - Global
Education<BR><BR>Paythepiper writes:<BR><BR>Around 100 world universities are
participating in the Great MIT Boondoggle, which is to put course materials
for thousands of courses into sets of notes which only instructors can use. If
they maintain their success in creating the illusion of giving something away,
perhaps the apocalypse will relieve them of any pangs from the equally
illusory MIT conscience.<BR><BR>Could you expand on this? I did have a quick
glance at the MIT Net course materials recently & did find them confusing
- sometimes downloadable, sometimes not... Are they in fact more or less
inaccessible? Or only accessible to
instructors?<BR><BR>------------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>-<BR><BR>No
virus found in this incoming message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free
Edition.<BR>Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.8/648 - Release Date:
1/23/2007 11:04 AM<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>No virus found in this incoming message.<BR>Checked by AVG Free
Edition.<BR>Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.17.9/650 - Release Date:
1/24/2007 4:06 PM<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>