ABSTRACT
There is a vision that advanced learning technologies can optimize the delicate balance between emotions and the learning of academic material. Students are not prone to have much fun when they are expected to learn a dense array of new jargon, complex systems with many components, mental models with tradeoffs between variables, solutions to difficult problems, and other difficult academic content. The technology needs to be designed in some fashion that allows students to have emotionally satisfying experiences as they attempt to master material that is often viewed as tedious, pedantic, exceedingly challenging, or useless in their eyes. In an ideal world, the computer system would put the student in a zone of optimal concentration that targets relevant knowledge about the subject matter at a pace that delivers the right challenges to the particular student at the right time.
