The EIL445 Turing Test: Sample Lesson Plan

The Turing Test Lesson Plan

Class Profile: ESL Intermediate Undergraduate Students

Objectives:

To discuss artificial intelligence

To write a series of questions for a "robot"

To write an argumentative essay about artificial intelligence

Preparation

Assign this homework before this lesson: "Use the internet to find out who Alan Turing is and what the following have in connection with him"

The Enigma Code (he cracked it)
Poisoned apple (he killed himself with one)
Gordon Brown (he reclassified him as a war hero in 2009)
Steve Jobs (it’s rumoured that the Apple logo was created as a tribute to Alan Turing but Steve Jobs denies this)
The Turing Test (he proposed that we should not ask whether machines are intelligent, or can think, but whether they can act like a person)."

Make sure the websites listed below are working OK before you go into the lesson:

Procedure

1. Warm-up (5 min)

Based on your students' online research before class, ask them the following questions in class:

Do you think a computer will be invented that can interact with a human without the human realizing that it’s a computer?
How well do you think computers cope now with language?
Have you ever used a translation tool? Have you found it useful/ accurate? Has the translation been good enough to use?

2. Pair Work--Writing Questions (5 min)

In preparation for the computer based activity ask students to work in pairs or groups (the same pairs or groups as they will work on the computers) and think of five questions they would ask the computer to find out if there was a human answering them or whether the answers were coming from a robot/the computer. The only rule is they are not allowed to ask whether the 'person' is a robot/computer.
Monitor as students work to help them to formulate their ideas and questions. Take note of any problems areas such as question formation, phrases and vocabulary and spend some time going through these as a whole class so that students learn new language from others in the class and begin the computer task with correct questions.

3. Individual work--Answers (5 min)

Then ask students to work alone and to speculate what the answer is going to be.

4. Chat with Robots (10 min)

Students then follow one of these links:

Students start their chat with the person/robot. They note the answers to the five questions and then carry on the conversation wherever it takes them after that. Set a time limit and allow them to carry on until the time is up.
Use these questions to guide a whole class discussion:
Were there any questions it coped well with?
Anything it couldn’t cope with at all?
What strategies did the robot use to deal with questions it maybe didn’t understand?

5. Class Discussion (15 min)

After the activity ask students to share their experiences talking to the robots and see how convincing they were.

6. Argumentative Essay (50 min)

Students will be asked to write the first draft of an argumentative essay about using the following prompt:

Do you agree with Turing that whether a machine can produce the same results as a human is more important than whether it is intelligent? Should computers have 'rights'?

Key Elements:

·         a specific and focused thesis, or premise, stated as a clear position on a debatable issue
·         at least three main points, or arguments, that support and explain the thesis
·         evidence from at least two sources to support the arguments above presented with sufficient and logical explanation
·         opposing positions and counterarguments summarized and refuted properly
·         introduction that overviews the issue’s context and different views, funneling to the thesis
·         conclusion that summarizes main points and calls for an action

Adapted from: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/turing-test

The EIL445 Turing Test

the turing test

Sample Lesson Plan

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