Education as Regime Change in Aristotle\u27s Politics

Aristotle’s Politics is a study of political science, established by Aristotle as the practical science of all things related to the polis, the highest human community, with the purpose of securing and promoting the good life, that of noble action and happiness, for its citizens. Aristotle observes that the political communities in existence around him all fall short of this lofty goal, and much of the Politics and subsequent commentary on the Politics is an attempt to establish what type of regime is best able to achieve this highest end of the polis. This paper argues that the relationship between the end of the city, the happiness of its citizens, and the methods used to achieve that end are reciprocal, and that as such only the ideal form of regime change is capable of producing the ideal regime. Through an analysis of the Nicomachean Ethics, the Politics, and the Constitution of Athens, this study demonstrates that there is, according to Aristotle, only one proper method of regime change: education. Through proper education, of both the young and the old, both civic and intellectual, in what is noble and what is useful, the regime is able to progress towards the ideal regime simply. This ideal regime simply, then, is the rule of the virtuous multitude, in which all citizens of the city have achieved full virtue. Given that this may in fact be impossible, it is also apparent that it is only through proper education that the best regime possible is reached; any regime that has the ability, through education, to move closer to the regime of the virtuous multitude

Towards human control of robot swarms

In this paper we investigate principles of swarm control that enable a human operator to exert influence on and control large swarms of robots. We present two principles, coined selection and beacon control, that differ with respect to their temporal and spatial persistence. The former requires active selection of groups of robots while the latter exerts a passive influence on nearby robots. Both principles are implemented in a testbed in which operators exert influence on a robot swarm by switching between a set of behaviors ranging from trivial behaviors up to distributed autonomous algorithms. Performance is tested in a series of complex foraging tasks in environments with different obstacles ranging from open to cluttered and structured. The robotic swarm has only local communication and sensing capabilities with the number of robots ranging from 50 to 200. Experiments with human operators utilizing either selection or beacon control are compared with each other and to a simple autonomous swarm with regard to performance, adaptation to complex environments, and scalability to larger swarms. Our results show superior performance of autonomous swarms in open environments, of selection control in complex environments, and indicate a potential for scaling beacon control to larger swarms

Human Swarm Interaction: An Experimental Study of Two Types of Interaction with Foraging Swarms

In this paper we present the first study of human-swarm interaction comparing two fundamental types of interaction, coined intermittent and environmental. These types are exemplified by two control methods, selection and beacon control, made available to a human operator to control a foraging swarm of robots. Selection and beacon control differ with respect to their temporal and spatial influence on the swarm and enable an operator to generate different strategies from the basic behaviors of the swarm. Selection control requires an active selection of groups of robots while beacon control exerts an influence on nearby robots within a set range. Both control methods are implemented in a testbed in which operators solve an information foraging problem by utilizing a set of swarm behaviors. The robotic swarm has only local communication and sensing capabilities. The number of robots in the swarm range from 50 to 200. Operator performance for each control method is compared in a series of missions in different environments with no obstacles up to cluttered and structured obstacles. In addition, performance is compared to simple and advanced autonomous swarms. Thirty-two participants were recruited for participation in the study. Autonomous swarm algorithms were tested in repeated simulations. Our results showed that selection control scales better to larger swarms and generally outperforms beacon control. Operators utilized different swarm behaviors with different frequency across control methods, suggesting an adaptation to different strategies induced by choice of control method. Simple autonomous swarms outperformed human operators in open environments, but operators adapted better to complex environments with obstacles. Human controlled swarms fell short of task-specific benchmarks under all conditions. Our results reinforce the importance of understanding and choosing appropriate types of human-swarm interaction when designing swarm systems, in addition to choosing appropriate swarm behaviors

Elementary Teachers\u27 Definitions and Usage of Inquiry-Based Mathematics Instruction

Current educational leaders call for students to build his or her own mathematical understanding from experiences, coupled with feedback from peers, teachers, and themselves and gain a conceptual understanding of mathematics. Researchers agree that inquiry in the elementary mathematics classroom can help increase conceptual understanding. This case study focused on how elementary teachers define inquiry-based mathematics and implement it in their classrooms. Interviews, observations and lesson analysis were used to investigate what identities, relationships and activities look like in an elementary classroom that uses inquiry. All of the participants felt problem solving and working collaboratively were essential for inquiry but each teacher defined them differently. Questioning was also an important feature of inquiry according to the teachers. Professional development seemed to have a strong impact on why these teachers use inquiry in their classrooms. As far as the relationships necessary to teach using inquiry, teachers did not indicate that administrators’ nor peers’ support were necessary to continue using this type of pedagogy in their classrooms. The participants believed that including inquiry in mathematics was a best practice and continued to incorporate inquiry because they felt it allowed their students to gain a deeper understanding of mathematics. The local field of each teacher influenced the planning they did before the lesson and the activities they included in their inquiry instruction. The written plans of each participant differed greatly. The requirements of the district had an effect on how much detail the participants included in their planning documents. Also, whether they were planning for their entire grade level or just themselves influenced how much detail was included. Another aspect of the mathematics classroom that was influenced by the local field was including a software program, which is expected to be a part of students’ daily mathematics instruction. The various ways inquiry is carried out and how the local field influences this is important for educators at all levels to understand. This study has implications for teachers, administrators and teacher educators. Inquiry means a variety of things to elementary teachers within this study. If mathematics educator leaders, teachers and administrators want to infuse more inquiry into the classroom, the many ways it is carried out needs to be understood

Seventh Generation Earth Ethics: Native Voices of Wisconsin

Review of: "Seventh Generation Earth Ethics: Native Voices of Wisconsin," by Patty Loew

Connectivity Differences between Human Operators of Swarms and Bandwidth Limitations

Human interaction with robot swarms (HSI) is a young field with very few user studies that explore operator behavior. All these studies assume perfect communication between the operator and the swarm. A key challenge in the use of swarm robotic systems in human supervised tasks is to understand human swarm interaction in the presence of limited communication bandwidth, which is a constraint arising in many practical scenarios. In this paper, we present results of human-subject experiments designed to study the effect of bandwidth limitations in human swarm interaction. We consider three levels of bandwidth availability in a swarm foraging task. The lowest bandwidth condition performs poorly, but the medium and high bandwidth condition both perform well. In the medium bandwidth condition, we display useful aggregated swarm information (like swarm centroid and spread) to compress the swarm state information. We also observe interesting operator behavior and adaptation of operators' swarm reaction

This Storied River: Legend & Lore of the Upper Mississippi

Review of: This Storied River: Legend & Lore of the Upper Mississippi, by Dennis McCan

Oneota Flow: The Upper Iowa River and its People

Review of: Oneota Flow: The Upper Iowa River & Its People, by David S. Faldet

Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out

Review of: Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out, by Annette Atkins