Roger Schank Launches New Company: Socratic Arts
PITTSBURGH, JANUARY 28, 2002 – Dr. Roger Schank, a world-renowned expert on
computers and education and author of more than 25 books, today announces that
he has launched Socratic Arts, a company focused on providing higher education
institutions with high-quality, inexpensive curricula that is based on "learn
by doing" methodology. By using a combination of mentors and online support,
Socratic Arts is building an entire master’s degree for less than the cost of
one high-quality e-learning course.
"The most effective way to teach new skills is to put learners in the
kinds of situations in which they need to use those skills and to provide mentors
who help learners when they need it," said Roger Schank, chief education
officer of Carnegie Mellon West and distinguished career professor of the School
of Computer Science. "Socratic Arts will focus on helping universities
deliver meaningful, yet inexpensive "learning by doing" curricula
that focus on real-world skills and give students degrees for work accomplished
rather than courses passed."
Socratic Arts’ first partnership is with Carnegie Mellon University’s School
of Computer Science to build an entire online master’s degree in computer science
for the school’s professional information technology disciplines. The first
degrees will be offered starting in May both online and in person at Carnegie
Mellon’s campuses, including the new Silicon Valley campus Carnegie Mellon West.
The first degree offerings include:
- Data Mining http://www.cs.cmu.edu/education/masters_cald.html
- Electronic Commerce http://www.cs.cmu.edu/education/masters_ecom.html
- Entertainment Technology http://www.cs.cmu.edu/education/masters_etc.html
The degrees are designed to provide real-world project and problem-solving
experience and are mentored by Carnegie Mellon faculty.
Socratic Arts’ e-learning programs are based on a new approach called the Story-Centered
Curriculum. The Story-Centered Curriculum represents a dramatic departure from
traditional master’s degree curricula. It is "learning-by-doing" based,
rather than listen-and-test based. In fact, there are no classes, no courses,
and no tests. Students learn by working together on projects that are part of
a larger "story" – a business – in which they are playing a role.
Help is offered by professors and by local experts on a just-in-time basis.
Socratic Arts is also working to provide this new "story-centered curricula"
to corporations and secondary education institutions.
About Roger Schank
Schank is one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence
and applying cognitive learning theory to education. He has written more than
25 books including Virtual Learning: A Revolutionary Approach to Building a
Highly Skilled Workforce, Coloring Outside the Lines: Raising a Smarter Kid
by Breaking All the Rules, Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Learning in Computers
and People, and Engines for Education. His latest book, Designing World-Class
E-Learning, was published by McGraw-Hill in November 2001.
Schank is the John Evans Professor Emeritus in computer science, education
and psychology at Northwestern University, where he founded the Institute for
the Learning Sciences. Schank has also taught at Yale University and Stanford
University.
Before founding Socratic Arts, Schank founded and served as chairman and chief
technology officer of Cognitive Arts Corp., a provider of goal-based multi-media
simulation training to Fortune 500 corporations and Ivy League universities.
About Socratic Arts
Founded by world-renowned e-learning expert Dr. Roger Schank in January 2002,
Socratic Arts’ goal is to change the nature of the education curriculum to provide
meaningful and real-world skills to students. Socratic Arts uses the new medium
of the computer and Internet to replace the traditional course model of lectures
and tests with "learn by doing" curricula that teach practical skills
based on a new approach called the Story-Centered Curriculum. To learn more
about Socratic Arts, visit www.socraticarts.com <http://www.socraticarts.com>.
Press contact:
Linda Stephen
RLM Public Relations
Tel: 212-741-5106 X 17
E-mail: linda@rlmPR.com
