Week Five: My Gizmoz "Ms. J" and Examples of Using Agents in the Classroom

There are many ways you could incorporate agents in the English curriculum-a few examples have been included below:

Students could create an agent to welcome members to their blog sites or websites. This would be an interesting way for students to personalize these sites without disclosing numerous personal facts. One of the many administration concerns about publishing student work on the internet is the privacy protection-an agent would be a nice touch without jeopardizing the students' privacy.

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Students could also use agents in the place of paper proposals, writing workshops, or other peer reviews. After writting a comment, students could have their agents deliver this message (via email video) to other individuals using these agents. Instead of a paper proposal, students could have their agent present their suggestions for papers, projects, or literature circles. This software would also promote a degree of novelty that would motivate and encourage students to complete these activities.

Teachers would be able to use agents in a variety of ways. First, it would be an interesting experiment to have your agent deliver a short grammar lesson to your students, then test the students' recall of this material. Would students pay more attention to the agent, or would they still comprehend the material?

Another interesting use of a teaching agent would be to deliver sub plans. You could have your agent direct the students in their daily activities on days when a sub was in the classroom. This would ensure each class received the same instructions regarding assignments, projects, or expectations for that day.

Finally, your agent could deliver the seemingly monotonous task of classroom syllabuses, rules, and expectations. This would be a novel, unique way to introduce this material to your class. It would also be a good introduction to the use of media in your classroom.

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