Subject:
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RE: legOS
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 1 Dec 1998 18:29:42 GMT
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Original-From:
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Stefano Franchi <franchi@csli.Stanford.EDU>
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Viewed:
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2506 times
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At 5:04 PM +0000 12/1/98, Vaan, Howard wrote:
> I guess this depends what you're trying to teach.
I teach philosophy and I have been waiting for something like Mindstorms
for a long time. I am thinking about an "Introduction to AI" class for
philosophy or non-computer-science majors. I have been following Papert's
(and Piaget's) work since the seventies and I see Mindstorms as the best
and potentially most fruitful outcome of that research so far.
Unfortunately, the software side is still weak for my intended audience:
the Lego software is trivial, while the alternatives that I have seen (NQC,
TCL) are too techie-oriented (not in general, of course, but for the
students I have in mind). I'd really love to have something like Logo
available, or perhaps Smalltalk.
> My background's in AI and I bought the set with the intention of keeping
> that interest going. One of the big debates in AI has always been the
> difficulty of real world environments for AIs - Lego means I don't have to
> worry about getting heavily into 'real' robotics to try this stuff out.
>
> I guess one of the points about a classroom is that it will have more scope.
> With 20 RCX units there's the possibilty of organising/evolving co-operation
> between units. The breadth of this mailing list illustrates that the RCX is
> a great platform for learning about many interacting technologies and
> concepts (even I'm having to learn SOME basic engineering principles).
I agreee that this is potentially the greatest benefit, although from the
discussions I have seen on this list, coordinating the RCX's is far from
trivial. But the educational benefits would be substantial. A long time ago
I used to teach programming by having the students implement predator/prey
behaviors in Logo virtual turtles ( with ideas lifted from
Abelson/DiSessa's great book on Logo). It was a very successful approach.
Has anyone tried something similar with MS?
Stefano Franchi
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Stefano Franchi |
| |
| Department of Philosophy Phone: Off: (650) 723-2192 |
| Stanford University Home: (650) 497-2812 |
| Stanford, CA 94305 Fax: (415) 723-0985 |
| USA |
| |
| e-mail: franchi@csli.stanford.edu |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | RE: legOS
|
| I guess this depends what you're trying to teach. My background's in AI and I bought the set with the intention of keeping that interest going. One of the big debates in AI has always been the difficulty of real world environments for AIs - Lego (...) (26 years ago, 1-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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