Method and apparatus for educating and influencing an individual

• US 20070009870A1
• Filed: 06/22/2005
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sandra Kallander
• Original Assignee: Sandra Kallander
• Inventors: Kallander, Sandra
• Granted Patent: US 8,038,448 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

A method and apparatus for influencing a person to develop, accept and/or understand a concept, position or idea using questioning, including a technique sometimes known as the Socratic Method. A universe of question and answer subsets comprising questions and respective multiple choice answers to each question designed in advance, arranged and inter-connected on a stand-alone computer, a computer on a local area network or computer network, or any computer network and displayed in such a way as to allow the participant to follow the individual'"'"'s own path by selecting answers he accepts, which tend to logically lead the individual toward agreement and or understanding on the subject.

Claims

1. A method of educating or persuading an individual comprising the steps of:

(A) composing a universe of questions and multiple choice answer subsets such that the question and multiple-choice answer subsets are;

1) about an issue, concept or subject matter which can be examined logically, and

2) at least one answer to each question with which a participant is likely to agree is presented, and

3) the questions and answers;

a) elicit the participant'"'"'s current state of knowledge or opinion, b) reinforce the participant'"'"'s current state of knowledge or opinion, c) introduce new concepts or data, d) test whether the participant agrees, has learned or been persuaded, or e) asks the participant to take action;

(B) relating each answer to a subsequent question in a logical manner such that the series of question and answer subsets form a logical structure;

(C) presenting a question and multiple choice answer subset to the participant; and

(D) automatically presenting the next logical question and answer subset to the answer chosen by the participant, and

(E) repeating steps C and D until the participant gives the answer which indicates he has learned the desired concept;

accepted the desired opinion, and/or agreed to take the desired action.

2. An apparatus for educating or persuading an individual, comprising:

a) a computer having a memory storage media, a microprocessor, and a first communications channel operably connected between the memory storage media and the microprocessor, the computer being capable of communicating with an individual using audio, text or graphics;

b) a feedback device and a communications port operably connected to a communication device, being capable of two way communications with the individual;

c) an application program residing within the memory storage media of the computer and operable with the microprocessor for choosing a question and answer subset from the universe of question and answer subsets for transfer from the computer to the audio, text or graphics presentation device through the second communications channel;

d) a universe of question and answer subsets residing within the memory storage media of the computer, the question and answer subsets comprising a plurality of questions and a respective plurality of answers to each of the questions, the question and answer subsets predetermined for the purpose of educating or persuading individuals, wherein the applications program chooses to communicate a predetermined question and answer subset from the universe of question and answer subsets to the individual by means of audio information or the display of text or graphics based upon one or more previous answers chosen by the individual by means of the feedback device.

3. An apparatus for educating or persuading an individual, comprising:

a) a first computer having a memory storage media, a microprocessor, and a first communications channel operably connected between the memory storage media and the microprocessor, the first computer being capable of communicating with a terminal device for a participant;

b) a terminal device for the participant comprising a first communication device, a feedback device and a communications port operably connected to the first communication device, the terminal device being capable of two way communications with the first computer by means of the communication port;

c) a second communications channel operably connected between the first computer and the communication port of the terminal device for the individual for the two way transfer of information;

d) an application program residing within the memory storage media of the first computer and operable with the microprocessor for choosing question and answer subsets from the universe of question and answer subsets for transfer from the first computer to the terminal device through the second communications channel; and

,

e) a universe of question and answer subsets residing within the memory storage media of the first computer, the question and answer subsets comprising a plurality of questions and a respective plurality of answers to each of the questions, the questions and answer subsets predetermined for the purpose of educating or influencing participants, wherein the applications program chooses to communicate a predetermined question and answer subset from the universe of question and answer subsets to the participant by means of the terminal device based upon one or more previous answers chosen by the individual by means of the feedback device.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the terminal device comprises a video display device.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the terminal device comprises an audio generating device.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the feedback device comprises a speech recognition device.