If we understand the human mind, we begin to understand what we can do with educational technology."
- Herbert A. Simon
How do we learn? What makes a teacher effective? What unique qualities does a computer based system have to offer, and what are its limitations? What features should the best model for an intelligent tutoring system possess? AI scientists involved in education address these and other questions in three basic contexts:
"The first is to use AI and cognitive science techniques to model experts who problem solve in a domain, as well as tutors teaching and students learning in that domain. . . . The second research goal involves explaining learning and teaching as parts of the human information-processing system. . . . The third research goal is to demonstrate completeness and reliability in the engineering side of the discipline and to show that intelligent instructional systems can be used effectively in training and classroom situations."
- Shapiro, Stuart C., editor. 1992. Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Volume 1, page 434.