Intelligence+Agents

=__**Intelligence Agents**__=

Intelligent agents are programs that carry out a task unsupervised and apply some degree of intelligence to the task. The intelligence may be pretty minimal but often will include some degree of learning from past experience. For example, an agent that searches the Internet for interesting material can be told by the user whether what it found was interesting or not. In this way it can be trained to be more successful in the future.Some intelligent agents can also interact with one another. There is considerable ongoing research in this field, with many exciting possibilities. Retrieved 9/8/08 at http://www.compinfo.co.uk/ai/intelligent_agents.htm

Chances are you have experienced such built in computer software and didn't give it a second thought. The clip can be annoying, but demonstrates a rudimentary example of an intelligence agent at work.

Did you ever purchase anything off of Amazon? Did you notice that the website uses previous data to offer suggestions to make further purchases?

I searched and selected a laptop. What pops up next? Amazon has built-in data mining that uses your searches to suggest additional purchases associated with your purchase. A great way to up the total cost, but a helpful feature to suggest additional materials needed with your purchase.

__**Educational Impact**__ How could intelligence agents impact educations?

Computers are evolving. The software installed on computers nowadays is more intuitive and easier to interface with. Common tasks are more automated and easier to perform. You can burn a CD, send an email, and search the internet by just clicking on the start button (in most operating systems). The internet has also experienced an evolution with incredible mega-search engines that can bring millions of search results for even the most vague topics in the world. I searched 'lemon sharks' using Google. How many web page results? 10,000? 50,000?.....Nope, try 327,000 pages on one obscure species of shark. Great White Shark???? over 13 million. How do you sort through all of this information? How do you teach your students how to?

The first generation have been with us for a while now. Great at filtering or finding information, but lacked higher-level functionality and learning. The second generation is exciting. It is smarter, provides context instead of content, and is autonomous.
 * Web Searching || [|Copernic Agent], [|Google], Yahoo,Dogpile, MSN ||
 * Desktop Searching || Google Desktop, Vista, Mac OS X ||
 * Content Notify || RSS feeds, Google Alerts, SchoolsOut.com ||
 * Paper Grading || Intellimetric, [|Pearson IEA] ||
 * Check for Plagiarism || [|Google][|EVE] ||

Here are some futuristic demos of Intelligence Agents at Work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkPqSJxEmnI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNGqJwjKFtg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWQFfnefJFc&feature=related

Go to the ELC discussion board and respond to the discussion thread I have placed there. It asks each person to search for products or ways intelligence agents are impacting education. Please include links, description, and how it impacts education.