Father of Teaching Machines

Father of Teaching Machines


Do you know who Sidney Pressey is?
Pressey, Sidney L. (1888–1979) was father of the teaching machine. He considered himself a cognitive psychologist. Clearly, he had some harsh comments about Skinners theories. Mr. Pressey was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. from Williams College, his father's alma mater. He attended graduate school at Harvard Univeristy in 1912 where he majored in psychology. After receiving his doctoral degree in 1917, he received an appointment as a research assistant at Indiana University. After four years, he accepted an invitation to Ohio State University as an assistant professor and remained on the faculty of Ohio State for the next thirty-eight years, achieving the rank of full professor in 1926 and retiring from the university in 1959.
His contribution to the world of learning was significant. In 1924, Sidney L. Pressey created a crude teaching machine suitable for rote-and-drill learning. In 1926, he published the first paper on the use of a teaching machine in School and Society.The U.S. Navy made use of one of his early models in its training program shortly after World War II.

What are Edward Thorndike’s three conditions to maximize training?
The three (3) conditions are the laws of recency, effect, and exercise. The law of recency stated that the last response achieved by the learner has a higher chance of appearing again. The law of effect stated the chance of specific response reinforcement is based on the award and punishment. The law of exercise stated that the act of repeating stimulus-response associations strengthens the link.

Why did the teaching machine fail?
The machine failed primarily for two reasons: Pressley was way ahead of his time and the depression placed a dent on the mass production of his teaching machine.

How did the teaching machine work?
The teaching machine was similar to a typewriter carriage. The machine had a window that exposed a question with four answers. On one side of the carriage were four keys. The user pressed the key that corresponded to the correct answer. When the user pressed a key, the machine recorded the answer on a counter to the back of the machine and revealed the next question. After the user was finished, the person scoring the test slipped the test sheet back into the device and noted the score on the counter.

Resources:
http://www.coe.uh.edu/courses/cuin6373/idhistory/pressey.html
http://www.teacherandtechnology.com/pressey.htm

P540 Meets Scuba Diving

San Francisco, Pompano Beach, Florida Work and Diving Trip Week

I had the pleasure of spending a week attending several training courses with my new team and then I went to Pompano Beach, Florida for a quick 3 days of diving.

My diving buddy Chris L and I dove with lighthouse dives. I took a red eye on Thursday night and arrived in Pompano Beach on Friday. Chris picked me up; we had breakfast and then slept till 1 pm that day. Of course, we were too lazy to do a beach dive that day.

Saturday September 24th we did two boat trips (morning and afternoon). The visibility was excellent and we had a blast. We did only one boat dive on Sunday. During my diving trip, I could not resist reflecting on the P540 course I am currently taking. At this point, we have covered radical behaviorism, Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, and Cognitive Information processing.

Couple of key items came to mind. The first one is Bandura’s self-efficacy “…people make judgments about their ability to perform certain actions required to achieve a desirable outcome Driscoll, p.316” We were placed on the advanced boat. The advanced boat consisted of experienced divers and it took us to deeper dives locations. Since I have not dived in 3 months I was a little hesitant regarding whether I would remember how to achieve the same comfort levels as I had done previously. Using joking as an assurance policy, my buddy kept reminding me diving is like riding a bike. You just do not forget how. In this case, Chris was my self-efficacy stimulus. In addition, using visualization techniques of safe descents and ascents I was happy to see that yes diving is like riding a bike.

I also realized that automaticity was a key factor in my ability to put my gear together and achieve buoyancy without many conscious efforts. I do recall when I first started diving, I was simply like a yo-yo, one second I am at 30 feet and the other I am the surface. This became more evident, as we were asked to take a beginner diver with us as her buddy became seasick. She was very comfortable in the water and of course had the yo-yo issue. Fortunately, we dived a shallow reef and her yo-yo effects were not a big risk factor. One of the key items in CIP is the fact that students need to take the time and effort to properly practice their skill. “Perfect practice makes perfect.” I was fortunate enough to start diving with other exceptionally experienced divers. Their prototyping gave me the solid foundation of what it means to be totally neutral. I hope Chris and I allowed our new friend to realize what it means to be totally neutral.

Note: The pictures were taken by Joe M. Please do not copy these pictures for any use.

Future Indiana Museum "A behaviorist dream"

Future Indiana “A behaviorist learning Experience”

I went to the Indiana state museum with my friend and her two daughters. The kid’s ages are 12 and 7 years old. My friend and her daughters have visited the museum on several previous occasions and they continue to go to see the latest exhibitions.

The whole museum is interactive and is a behaviorist dream come true. Several gizmos or computers would suit the individual needs from the young to the adults. One of the activities I did was located within the Future Indiana exhibition. This exhibition was located in a separate room where you sat down in front of a futuristic screen and you had a console in front of you. The screen played a scenario around a futuristic farm family. The console displayed a question with two answer options and you had to answer the question. Based on the majority of the audience responses, the family scenario developed. The behaviorist approach in this exhibition was around the Operant Stimulus (Question on your console) > Response (A second screen displayed the response rates) and the contingent stimulus (The family behavior and story was modified based on the answers).