ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a synthetic teacher named Synthia based on the Model of Expertise introduced in this book. We all want to be taught by, and want our children to be taught by, the best expert in a field. In the coming cognitive systems future, cogs will possess expert-level domain, problem-solving, and task skills and knowledge about virtually any domain of discourse. Therefore, it is natural to think about cogs becoming our teachers. Our children will go through their K-12 school years (roughly ages 6-18), college, and even through their entire life with access to a collection of synthetic teachers they have learned from and worked with their entire lives. Teacher cogs will have tremendous advantages over human teachers. They will never tire, never get frustrated, and will be able to discuss how to teach us with the millions of other teacher cogs in existence. As a result, new teaching methods will evolve no human could ever have developed. Synthia maintains multiple models about the student’s learning style, engagement, and progress and not only alter scourse material presentation accordingly, but also tailors dialog and interaction with the student. As a result, each Synthia/human pairing will evolve a unique relationship.
