NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/ai/edu/531

Text File | 1992-11-12 | 10.3 KB | 275 lines

Newsgroups: comp.ai.edu
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!sunic!aun.uninett.no!nuug!ifi.uio.no!si.no!paris.si.no!krogh
From: Christen Krogh <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Disaster Management request
Sender: [e-mail] (News Poster)
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d11
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 13:07:00 GMT
X-Xxdate: Thu, 12 Nov 92 18:10:43 GMT
X-Xxmessage-Id: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Nntp-Posting-Host: paris.si.no
Organization: Center for Industrial Research
Lines: 259

In article <[e-mail]> Marie Bienkowski,
[e-mail] writes:
>
>Could whoever posted the summary on training for disaster mgmt
>please repost or e-mail it to me?

Certainly.

The repost is identical with the previous summary except
for one added (incomplete) reference.

If you are working with Interactive Learning Environments for
Disaster Management, I would appreciate any information you
have about it (by email or posting).

- Christen
email: [e-mail]


REPOST FOLLOWS:
===============

SUMMARY: Teaching disaster management
---------------------------------------------

The following is a summary of responses to a posting some
weeks ago concerning Interactive Learning Environments for
Disaster Management.

This posting contains the following:
    1) The original article
    2) the relevant responses
    3) Some (relevant) references

If anyone has any other comments and / or further references,
please contact me.

- Christen Krogh



======================================================================
                        ORIGINAL ARTICLE
======================================================================

Teaching disaster management
----------------------------

Key words:
 Disaster Management, Crisis Organisation, Hazards Control,
 Incident management, Interactive Learning Environments,
 Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Interactive Video, Multimedia,
 Cooperative Learning Environments.

Using computers and associated methods/technologies for teaching
disaster management poses a set of problems that can be considered
broader and more complex than problems traditionally tackled by
learning technologies. Disaster management in this context is defined
as the organisation of a group of individuals during a crisis or
disaster. The set of potential disasters can range over fires, large
traffic accidents, earthquakes, etc.

It is considered important that students (potential "disaster
managers") has access to (and is indeed being exposed to) scenarios
of disaster development. Furthermore they must be able to interact
with fellow students as they progress through the scenarios. Today
there exists several conventional games, covering this area. As far
as I know, none of these have been "computerised".

Some aspects (technological (T) and educational (E)) characterising
an interactive learning environment for disaster management are
listed below:

 - Human to human interaction is mandatory (E)
 - The process of encouraging students to think through what
   should be done in crisis situations is considered important
   in itself (E)
 - Measuring the students behaviour, making the process of
   adapting the instruction hard (E, T)
 - A cooperative working environment enabling sharing of
   multimedia-resources between students seems to be of
   importance (T).

All information about previous attempts, approaches to follow,tools
to use,  pits not to fall in, etc.,  will be appreciated.


Christen Krogh
Center for Industrial Research
P.Box. 124 Blindern
0314 Oslo
Norway

email: [e-mail]
       [e-mail]

======================================================================
                        RESPONSES FOLLOW
======================================================================

From: Bob Hendley (10/29/92)
To: Christen Krogh

Two things that might be of interest to you:

. There was a multimediia system developed for training fire officers.
  The aim was to provide training to people who would have to
  manage the deployement of resources during incidents that might
  only happen once every few years.

  Theer was a simulation which generates incident reports from
  officers in the field in real time.

  I don't have a reference to hand, but I think it was developed
  by logica for the West Midlands Fire Dept (uk). I can look out
  more info if you like

. the CBLU at Leeds have built a police training system prototype to
  train officers to manage public disturbances. If you want
  more info you could mail [e-mail]

Hope this helps.

Bob Hendley

======================================================================

From: Frerk Meyer (10/27/92)
To: Christen Krogh

There are two very successful games for PC's/Amiga/Atari named
'SimCity' and 'SimEarth'. They are very funny to play AND they are
good simulations. In SimCity you build up a City dealing with all
aspects of Energy, Traffic, Buildings, Security, etc...
But the real game is mastering a disaster. You get a complete city,
where a disaster has happen, and you have to overcome it.
- Hamburg 1944 after heavy bombing
- Tokio after an attack of godzilla
- Bern (swiss) with constant traffic jam
etc...
All is animated in full color graphics with easy mouse interaction

But one requirement from yours is not fullfilled, there is no
'multi-player mode'.

Oh, now that I think of it, another simulation game comes to my mind:
Populous. Two players play god of two tribes in a fictious world. And
they fight against each other by triggering disasters for the enemy,
like swamps, vulcanos, earthquakes,...
You can couple two computers together, and they will not see, what the
enemy has done. All actions are in real-time.

Perhaps you are searching for more scientific, serious simulations,
but I guess good simulations are funny to play with, so why shouldn't
funny simulatons be good?

Frerk Meyer <[e-mail]> Portnoy@irc


======================================================================

From: Michael Korcuska (10/26/92)
To: Christen Krogh

  I'm sorry that my information is so vague, but I know that some
disaster management software was written to help with cleanup
following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska several years
ago. I really don't know any specifics.  I can perhaps find a name
for you if you are interested.

Michael Korcuska
The Institute for the Learning Sciences


======================================================================

From: [e-mail] (Ade Barkah)

Although I am not personally familiar with disaster-management
educational programs, espescially those related to AI, I
will not be quick to say (as the original article did) that
none of such programs / games are computerized.

In fact, tying computers to disaster-management simulation
is a logical one. Although I am not aware of general simulation
programs, there are some specific examples. Air traffic controllers
routinely train with simulated aircraft disaster (and possible
disaster) situations, such as collision detection and avoidance,
emergency procedures, etc. There might be packages designed,
for, say, training nuclear reactor operators to react quickly
using a computer-simulated disaster scenario. I would imagine
NORAD or other defense entities would teach disaster management
through computer simulations. The original poster may want
to ask the Departement of Defense if such programs exist, or
the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The use of artificial intelligence here is interesting. An
AI program may be programmed to generate "disasters" through
(which complies with) several constraint conditions. Hence
it maps the infinite possibilities of scenarios, and searches
them through two constraints which must be satisfied: 1)
the scenario is possible and 2) the scenario represents
a disaster. Currently I am not aware if disaster simulation
programs used in disaster-management courses use AI.

Scenario generation, and disaster generation as well as the
simulation controls was effectively used in several personal
computer games released a few years ago. "Balance of Power"
generated disastrous geo-political scenarios. "Traccon" (sp ?)
generated air-traffic scenarios with possible disasters.

-Ade.

======================================================================
                      SOME RELEVANT REFERENCES
======================================================================

The proceedings from ETTE`92 (European Training Technology Event)
held in Paris 27. - 29. october 1992 describes several interesting
systems (among them two police traning systems and a fire-squad
training system mentioned in the response from Bob Hendley,
above). I do not have the complete reference at this time :-).

Bankes, S.C.; Davis, P.K.; "Models of strategic decisionmaking imbedded
in a game-structured"; Proceedings of the 1986 Summer Computer
Simulation Conference p.743-7; SCS, San Diego, CA, USA; 1986.

Bright, L.K.; "Videodisc development for human service professions:
potentials and risks for production by university faculty"; Computers
in Human Services vol.7, no.3-4 p.247-63; USA; 1990

Carroll, J.M.; Robbins, L.E.; "CompuDARE: computer disaster and
recovery exercises"; Simulators V. Proceedings of the SCS Simulators
Conference, 1988 p.335-42; Edited by: Clymer, A.B.; Amico, V.; SCS, San
Diego, CA, USA; 1988.

Gargett, J.B.; "Computer simulations of a train accident involving
hazardous" imulation in Emergency Management and Technology.
Proceedings of the SCS Western Multiconference 1989 p.118-19; SCS, San
Diego, CA, USA; 1989.

Knott, R.P.; Stephenson, R.; "Computer based simulations for training
emergency relief managers"; Interactive Learning International vol.4,
no.3-4 p.85-9; UK; Sept. 1987

Loevy, R.D.; "President: a computer program that simulates being
President of the United States"; 1986 Tenth Western Educational
Computing Conference p.182-5; California Educ. Comput. Consortium,
Sacramento, CA, USA; 1986

Ritoux, A.; Sander, E.; "Dictator, an exemplary economic simulation";
Micro Systemes no.50 p.199-204; France; Feb. 1985

Rosenthal, P.; Himel, B.; "Business resumption planning: exercising
your emergency response"; Computers & Security vol.10, no.6 p.497-514;
UK, Oct. 1991.

Sadow, Jeffrey D.; "Pedagogical problems in playing planetary
politics."; Simulation & Gaming; Sep Vol 22(3) 373-381; 1991