Research Interests Amy Baylor Thanks for the opportunity to share with you my current research interests. I have a broad, interdisciplinary vision of instructional systems, and am currently conducting research along two complementary strands. Stay tuned to find out more about my interest in simulated teachers teaching pre-service teachers about teaching... (can you repeat that five times fast?) Strand 1: Agent-based learning environments One trend in the field that I have been closely following is the use of intelligent technologies-from web portals that provide a particular "view" of information on a web-site to intelligent agents that serve as digital TA's for distance learning. In this capacity I have collaborated with the CyberLab at Indiana University who have created a course management system, ANGEL (A New Global Environment for Learning), which incorporates intelligent agents. A metaphor of an intelligent agent is an independent computer program with a persona that simulates a human relationship. By using intelligent agents to simulate instructors, agent-based learning environments can serve as a powerful research tool to investigate teaching and learning. The agent metaphor provides a way to operationalize and simulate the "human" aspect of instruction in a more ecologically valid way than other controlled computer-based methods. Additionally, from an architectural perspective, since agents are independent objects in the learning environment, it allows for more flexibility in research design. I have done significant work in the conceptual foundations of intelligent agents for education, moving beyond the connotation of agents as "bots" that serve a role similar to what Nicholas Negroponte at MIT referred to as "butlers." As I argued in a paper recently published in the Journal of Educational Computing Research, it is time to move beyond agents as butlers and consider the instructional potential of agents as mentors. The highlight of this research strand for me is the development of a research-based system I call MIMIC (Multiple Intelligent Mentors Instructing Collaboratively). This summer I collaborated with computer science researchers at the Knowledge Based Systems Institute in Hannover, Germany and set up the architecture and basic framework for a prototype MIMIC system, using Microsoft Agent. (See the draft screen shot below.) I was recently awarded funding through an FSU planning grant that will allow me to support a computer programmer in continuing the system development over the next six months.   Draft screen shot of MIMIC with instructivist and constructivist pedagogical agents MIMIC consists of pedagogical agents that represent two contrasting approaches to designing instruction (e.g., see Jonassen, 1991): an instructivist agent (following a Dick & Carey type of approach) and a constructivist agent. Through the prototype version of MIMIC, pre-service teachers will learn about approaches to instructional planning through interacting with agent-mentors. In other words, the MIMIC environment contains simulated teachers (agent-mentors) teaching pre-service teachers about teaching (instructional planning). The content basis of the environment is a multimedia-enhanced case study of an imaginary student and her eighth grade class that is having difficulties learning the economic concept of "supply and demand". Within the environment, the task for the pre-service teacher (PST) is to design instruction (consisting of three components: goals/blueprints, instructional plan, and assessment) to address this problem. I'll provide a brief example below to give you a better "feel" for the types of interactions. The context: The PST (pre-service teacher) has just entered [The Plan] page, where she will develop an instructional plan within MIMIC. The PST does not know the purpose of the two agents (here referred to as Instructivist and Constructivist) in terms of pedagogy; they are just there to assist her. In this example both agents are present… Instructivist: "When you start to develop the activities, consider what Anna should know and what Anna will do with that knowledge" <waits with a light bulb and a box stating: "Click me once for more detailed suggestions."> Constructivist: "I would start by coming up with a market that the students can relate to-something like Pokeman" <waits with a light bulb and a box stating: "Click me once for more detailed suggestions."> PST <clicks on [Suggestion from Instructivist] > Instructivist: "How I would start would be to consider the basic economics laws and definitions and consider what knowledge is involved for each: 1) law of supply; 2) law of demand; 3) law of price change" Constructivist: "But do you think they will really understand these concepts? Maybe the students won't 'get it' just from the definitions and the laws. I think they need to interact with the information. Maybe they could even figure out the laws for themselves!" PST <after working on her plan for a few minutes, she clicks on [Blueprints], to go to a prior page that includes her instructional goals> Instructivist: "It's a good idea to review the goals of the instruction." Constructivist <after PST works without intervention for 10 minutes > "Why don't you take a moment to look over what you have done so far… consider what you think about it." The two initial research questions that I am investigating are as follows: 1) Does the presence of a didactic approach - or the presence of multiple approaches -- (as operationalized by instructivist and/or constructivist agent(s)) affect the user's perspective of instructional design theories, and attitudes in a transfer task? 2) How does the user perceive agents (especially simultaneous multiple agents) as representing didactic theories, in terms of believability, engagement, and usefulness? Depending on the results from the initial research, future intervention could include varying the agents' persona in terms of emotional expressiveness, or language, and varying the agent's pedagogy through a third pedagogical agent (e.g., "The Artist" who will promote brainstorming, intuition, idea generation). Part of the draw in using agents as instructional mentors is in their potential to facilitate learner self-reflection. This leads to the second strand of my current research interests... Strand 2: Self-regulatory processes in instructional planning Given that we have significant areas of overlap in our research interests, Anastasia Kitsantas, (a faculty member in the Educational Psychology Program) and I fortuitously both arrived here in the same department. We are working together to investigate the value of strategic self-regulatory training on the learning of instructional planning (currently with pre-service teachers, moving to more advanced instructional design students). We received some interesting results from an experiment we conducted in Fall 1999 (with a paper in press with Educational Technology and another in review with Educational Technology Research & Development) regarding instructional planning attitudes, beliefs and performance in relation to self-regulation strategic training. Building on these results, we followed up with two more experiments in Fall 2000; one incorporating a constructivist-oriented strategic tool and the other considering instructional planning of well- versus ill-defined instructional problems. We hope to analyze this new data later this year and follow up with more data collection in Spring 2001. Eventually I see both of these research strands -- agent-based learning environments and self-regulation in instructional planning -- merging, as the self-regulation research in instructional planning will form a strong empirical foundation for the types of agents that I would like to develop. Pretty cool! (Sorry, that's my California influence coming through ; ) Opportunities abound! Last but definitely not least -- there are many possibilities for students who may be interested in participating in research or development of these or related projects. The students here are great and it was a major factor in attracting me to FSU. If you are interested, let's talk. Amy Baylor is an Associate Professor in the Educational Research Department. To contact her, send an email to baylor@coe.fsu.edu.

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