Teaching machine

• US 3,981,087 A
• Filed: 06/23/1975
• Issued: 09/21/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Thomas D. Sachs
• Original Assignee: Thomas D. Sachs
• Inventors: Sachs, Thomas D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Grieb, Wm. H.
• Application Number:
  US05/589,045
• Time in Patent Office: 456 Days
• Field of Search: 35/8 A, 35/9 A, 35/9 B, 35/22 R, 35/35 C, 128/2.1 B, 350/160 LC
• US Class Current: 434/308
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/04 characterised by modifying the teaching programme in response to a wrong answer, e.g. repeating the question, supplying a further explanation

Abstract

A teaching machine adapted to take account of the student'"'"'s ability and progress operates with programmed cards and includes three stacking means, controlled conveyor means, display means and a student input means, such as a keyboard.

Claims

1. A teaching machine including a housing, a display fixed on said housing, an operable means for the input of data;

a plurality of cards positioned within said housing each of which cards has data thereon, the data being a question or concept and information related to said question or concept;

mechanical means within said housing to sort said cards, including a first stacking means to position cards on the top of an active stack, a second stacking means to stack cards into a reserve stack, and a third stacking means to stack cards into a discard stack;

display position means to position said cards in a display position associated with said display;

operable means for the input of data by the student in response to stimuli generated by the machine;

picker means to remove cards from the bottom of the active stack or alternatively from the reserve stack;

a first conveyor means to transport said cards from either the reserve stack or alternatively the active stack to said display position means;

a second conveyor means to transport cards from said display position to either the first stacking means to be placed back in the active stack in the case of an incomplete or wrong answer or an answer which is as yet insufficiently learned or alternatively to the third stacking means to be placed in the discard stack in the case of a correct answer or an answer which has been adequately learned; and

recording means to record machine readable question or concept related data and/or student record data on the cards sufficient to indicate if the question or concept has been correctly or incorrectly answered or responded to and to indicate the state of the user or student'"'"'s knowledge concerning the question or concept.

2. A machine as in claim 1 and further including an electronic control circuit connected to and controlling said first and second conveyor means and being responsive to said operable means.

3. A machine as in claim 2 and further including a control circuit responsive to said data on said cards.

4. A teaching machine as in claim 3 and further including a secondary display indicating to the student one or more from the group consisting of the following:

the total number of questions done during each session of usage;

the total number of questions done correctly during each session; and

the total elapsed time during selected machine modes.

5. A teaching machine as in claim 4 wherein said secondary displays may be made visible and at other times are concealed under control of the control circuit.

6. A teaching machine as in claim 4 and having printing means wherein each of said group may be printed out to serve as a record of total student performance.

7. A teaching machine as in claim 2 and further including a set of electrodes adapted to be connected to the head of the user and an encephalograph amplifier connected to said electrodes;

a frequency decoder capable of distinguishing which frequency range of brain wave is present and generating a code to so indicate, said code being connected to said control circuit.

8. A teaching machine as in claim 2 and further including a magnetic write head connected to said operable input means whereby the cards may be programmed by a programmer.

9. A teaching machine as in claim 2 wherein said second conveyor means conveys cards to the third stacking means and thereby to said discard stack only when the card in question has been correctly answered the number of times selected.

10. A teaching machine as in claim 9 and further including a first reject switch whose operation overrides the operation of said control system and causes the card involved to by transferred directly to said discard stack.

11. A teaching machine as in claim 10 and further including a marking mechanism to mark cards going to the discard stack.

12. A teaching machine as in claim 10 and further including a first reject discard stack into which the cards are directed when said first reject switch is activated.

13. A teaching machine as in claim 10 and further including a second reject switch conditionally overrides said control circuit when said second reject switch is activated before a correct answer has been entered at said operable means, under which conditions said card is moved to said discard stack.

14. A teaching machine as in claim 13 and further including a marking mechanism to mark cards going to said discard stack, position of said mark being so chosen as to indicate that said second reject switch was activated in addition to there being present a correct answer from said operable means which combination led to card'"'"'s direction to said discard stack.

15. A teaching machine as in claim 13 and further including a second reject discard stack into which the cards are directed when said second reject switch is activated and followed by the input at the operable means of a correct answer.

16. A machine as in claim 1 and further including machine means to read the question related data on the cards.

17. A machine as in claim 16 and further including means to enter the question related data on the cards, wherein the question related data is writable and eraseable on the cards by the machine.

18. A machine as in claim 1 and wherein the display is an electro-optic display whose transparency is controlled electrically.

19. A machine as in claim 18 and further including a control circuit connected to and controlling said display'"'"'s transparency and responsive to said operable means and said card data.

20. A machine as in claim 1 wherein the cards have thereon magnetizable material for the said question data.

21. A machine as in claim 1 and having a magnetic reading head to read data from cards.

22. A machine as in claim 21 and having a data storage device connected to said reading head to store data from cards for later use.

23. A machine as in claim 21 and having an acoustic output device such as a loudspeaker or earphone connected to said storage device for replay of acoustic data.

24. A machine as in claim 1 and further having a magnetic recording head and connected thereto a data storage device to enter student performance data upon said cards.

25. A machine as in claim 24 and further including a magnetic reading head positioned near said display position, said reading head being connected to said data storage device.

26. A teaching machine as in claim 1 and further including a control circuit connected to said operable means and receiving input from said operable means and from said card carried data, which control circuit evaluates input data from said operable means and said card carried data and is connected to and controls said first and second conveyor means and is responsive to one or more of the group consisting of:

a user control through which user'"'"'s momentary mood as he perceives it is inputted;

a student performance data record;

first input means by which machine'"'"'s second conveyor means may be controlled to determine the number of times an answer must be correct before the card is conveyed to said third stacking means; and

input means by which the type of information fed back to the teacher may be predetermined.

27. A teaching machine as in claim 26 wherein the first input means is a card having magnetizable areas which can be read by a magnetic reading head and the data stored in a data storage device wherein said card'"'"'s data is separated from said student performance data by said control circuit on the basis of identification of card of this claim as different from other cards.

28. A teaching machine as in claim 26 wherein said first input means is an adjustable set of pegs on the surface of an object inserted in said machine, which pegs cooperate with switches fixed relative to the housing.

29. A teaching machine as in claim 28 wherein the pegs are permanent magnets and the switches are reed switches.

30. A teaching machine as in claim 29 wherein the pegs are selectively slideable in channels in said surface.

31. A machine as in claim 26 wherein said first input means includes an optical mark sensor system to read data from optically marked cards.

32. A machine as in claim 31 and also having a data distribution device and a data storage device such that the location of the data to be stored and the data itself are both read from said optical card by said sensor system.

33. A teaching machine as in claim 1 wherein said operable means further includes means for the input of data by the programmer of data related to format and presentation procedure during the programming procedure.

34. A teaching machine as in claim 1 including a housing, a device requiring physical output from the user and having physical movement and movably mounted on said housing, switch means connected to said device, a machine control system connected to the switch means so that the activation of the device completes an answer response and causes a new response to be brought into view by the display position means.

35. A teaching machine as in claim 34 wherein the force required to activate said device is adjustable and is a programmable means which is connected to such adjustment means to control the adjustment of said force.

36. A teaching machine as in claim 34 wherein the force adjustment means comprises a motor having an output shaft, a gear attached to said shaft, a rotatable wheel driven by said gear, a connection linkage pivotly mounted on said wheel, and a spring having one end attached to said linkage and its opposite end attached to said handle.

37. A teaching machine as in claim 35 wherein the programmable means is a card having magnetizable areas, the control system is a numerical control system responsive to magnetization of said areas, and the adjustment means is an electro-mechanical transducer.

38. A teaching machine including a housing, a cassette loaded with a plurality of cards, the cards having indicia thereon for questions or other data, a machine control system, correct answer evaluation means connected to said machine control system, a first input means connected to said answer evaluation means, a card transport system controlled by said control system, means to record on each card data and constituting the student record concerning one or more of the following:

(a) the number of times including more than once the question on the card has been answered correctly;

(b) the number of times including more than once the question on the card has been answered incorrectly;

(c) the responses to the question on the card;

(d) the order of responses to the question on the card;

reading means to read the said student record on each card, said reading means being connected to said control system so that the control system may control the card into different movements depending upon said number of times the question on the card is correctly or incorrectly answered and said other items of the said student record.

39. A teaching machine as in claim 38 and further including one or more from the group of:

a user control through which the user'"'"'s momentary mood as he perceives it may be inputted;

a second input means by which the type of information fed from the machine to the teacher may be predetermined;

a sensor and memory for said cassette'"'"'s insertion and the number of cards processed since that insertion.

40. A teaching machine as in claim 38 wherein within the cassette there is an active stack and a discard stack, the cards being moved to said discard stack only when correctly answered the number of times selected.

41. A teaching machine as in claim 40 and further including a first reject switch whose operation overrides operator of said control system and causes the card involved to be transported directly to said discard stack.

42. A teaching machine as in claim 41 and further including a second reject switch which conditionally overrides said control system when said second reject switch is activated before a correct answer is applied at the first input means, under which conditions the card is moved to said discard stack.

43. A teaching machine as in claim 41 and further including a marking mechanism to mark cards going to said discard stack indicating by the position of the mark on the card being rejected that said first reject switch was activated.

44. A teaching machine as in claim 42 and further including a marking mechanism to mark cards going to the said discard stack, indicating by the position of the mark on the card being rejected that said second reject switch was activated and followed by the input at the said first input means of a correct answer.

45. A teaching machine as in claim 41 and further including a first reject discard stack into which the cards are directed when said first reject switch is activated.

46. A teaching machine as in claim 42 and further including a second reject discard stack into which the cards are directed when said second reject switch is activated and followed by the input at the first input means of a correct answer.

47. A teaching machine as in claim 38 and further including a second input means which is an adjustable set of pegs on said cassette, which pegs cooperate with switches fixed relative to the housing.

48. A teaching machine as in claim 47 wherein the pegs are permanent magnets and the switches are reed switches.

49. A teaching machine as in claim 47 wherein the pegs are selectively slidable in a channel.

50. A teaching machine including

a housing having a display thereon;

an operable means for the input of data;

a plurality of cards positioned with said housing each of which cards has data thereon, the data being either a question and information related to said question or data to which the user is to react otherwise;

mechanical means within said housing to sort said cards including first stacking means to position cards back into an active stack, a second stacking means to stack cards into a reserve stack, a third stacking means to stack cards into a discard stack;

means to position said cards in a display position associated with said display;

picker means to remove cards from the bottom of the active stack or alternatively from the reserve stack;

a first conveyor means to transport said cards from one of the reserve stack or the active stack to said position means;

a second conveyor means to transport cards from said display position to one of the first stacking means to be positioned back in the active stack in the case of an incomplete or insufficiently repeated or wrong answer or alternatively to the third stacking means to be positioned in the discard stack in the case of a correct answer or other response accepted for this action;

an electronic control circuit connected to and controlling said first and second conveyor means and being responsive to said operable means and responsive to said data on said cards; and

keyboard means for the input by the student or programmer of answers to questions and for the input of programmer'"'"'s question related data during the programming process.

51. A teaching machine as in claim 50 and further including recording means to record machine readable data on the cards indicating if the user has placed information on the card or otherwise responded to it.

52. A teaching machine as in claim 50 and further including within the operable means a reject button which causes a card in said display position to be conveyed by said second conveyor means to the third stacking means and thus to the discard stack.