Roger Schank

Roger Schank

I did my research on Roger Schank. I included much of this information in my presentation. I was very impressed as I studied the life of Roger Schank – I learned many things, but one thing that I didn’t expect was how much I would be inspired by his research. It was a kind of an indirect way that he inspired me – I was so impressed by all that he has accomplished in his life so far. It made me want to do more with my life. He’s been all over the world, worked in numerous different jobs, and has goals far larger than anything I have every goaled.

The memory machine – one of his current projects is called the memory machine. Schank wants to create a database of millions of experiences that could become a sort of virtual sage that could guide us through anything we experience in the future. In essence it would be that grandpa who always has the best advice for anything – except it would be a computer, it would ideally never be wrong, and it would never pass-away. Schank talks about the importance of experience in learning – when we encounter something new in our life it is a natural reaction to seek out those who have been there before and take their advice to help us. Schank’s dream is to create the computer version of this model – a database full of the wisdom (brought through experience) of millions of sages through the ages.

Another project that inspired me was Schank’s call for a reform of public schooling. I was very blessed here at BYU to be in the major I am in. As a TEE major I had very few classes that were not ‘hands-on’ and I gained most of the education I received here at BYU through direct experience – through actually doing something. In talking with my roommates I have realized that this is not the norm. Many of them complain that in their classes they are asked to be regurgitators of information and little more. I agree with Schank when he argues that there is a big difference between knowledge acquisition and factual acquisition. Simply memorizing facts so you can spit them out on a test has very little to do with learning. I think the most actual ‘learning’ that happens here is maybe in the meta-cognition field if we think of strategies to help us remember what we learn. Schank’s big call is for memorization and fact learning to be replaced by experiences and learning opportunities where students learn through doing. I am a big believer in this thought process – this is the approach I take at the MTC when I work with the missionaries. Very rarely do I stand at the front and lecture – rather I prefer to give them situations and then help them figure out how to learn what they need to accomplish the given task.