James C. Lester
Distinguished Professor of Computer Science
North Carolina State University
Abstract
Humans continuously assess one another’s situational context, modify their own affective state, and then often respond based on these outcomes through empathetic expression. Similarly, pedagogical agents might engage in rich interactions with students that could benefit from a computational model of empathy. These might exhibit both parallel and reactive empathy. In this talk, we consider the potential role that empathy might play in pedagogical agents, offer preliminary empirical evidence for the impact it might have on learning experiences, and suggest promising directions for empathic pedagogical agents. We conclude by exploring the role that empathic pedagogical agents might play as creative collaborators in rich learning interactions.
Bio
James C. Lester is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, where he is Director of the Center for Educational Informatics. His research centers on transforming education with technology-rich learning environments. With a focus on adaptive learning technologies, his research spans intelligent tutoring systems, game-based learning environments, affective computing, and tutorial dialogue. The adaptive learning environments he and his colleagues develop have been used by thousands of students in K-12 classrooms throughout the U.S. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (2009-12), Co-Chair for the International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (2008), and Program Chair for the ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (2001), the International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (2004), and the International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (2013). He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. In 2014 the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence elected him a AAAI Fellow.