- Class attendance and completion of the readings by the assigned date are essential. This is not a straight lecture class - you will be expected to be able to discuss the articles. To this end:
- At least one analytical question for each set of readings must be mailed to the instructor two hours before class. These questions will form the basis for discussion.
- Each student will lead the discussion of an article once or twice during the semester. Leading the dicussion means
- presenting a summary of the article.The summary should indicate and explicate the important parts of the article, the problems with the theory espoused or system explained, and the relevance for previous research discussed in class;
- EITHER
(a) presenting an existing conversational/dialogue interactive system that deals with the discourse phenomenon under discussion. A list of systems may be found on the [resources] page. The presentation should include a short description of the system architecture and a discussion of how well or poorly the particular discourse phenomenon in question is treated, and how it might be extended.
OR
(b) preparing your own design sketch of a computational system or application that depends on or exemplifies the phenomenon treated in that lecture's readings, and leading a discussion in class on that computational system. A design sketch should present a system of the student's own invention that incorporates the phenomenon under discussion into its functioning. The system can be as fantastical as you desire (and may incorporate *some* elements that are impossible given the state of research today), but the part of the system that uses the class phenomenon should be down-to-earth, possible, and clear. The goal of this exercise is to help the class understand the utility of discourse phenomena for interactive systems, and to understand in a concrete way how to incorporate them into system design.
or extensions to existing approaches for the problem studied. The project may either
be an analytical paper 20-25 pages in length OR may include an implementation of
the proposed solution, accompanied by a 10-15 page description of the technique,
the phenomena it handles, and how it extends existing capabilities.
Students will come up with the idea for their final project by the 5th week of the sterm and will turn in a proposal at that time. Final project presentations will take place during the last classes.
Notes
Some of the course readings will be available electronically, and linked
to the syllabus. Other readings will be passed out before class..