ROGER SCHANK (1946-2023) was one of the world's leading researchers in AI, learning theory, cognitive science, and the building of virtual learning environments. He was President and CEO of Socratic Arts, a company whose goal is to design and implement low-cost story-based learning by doing curricula in schools, universities, and corporations. He founded XTOL (Experiential Teaching On Line) in 2012, a company that creates earn by doing experiences for universities in any area of expertise, and the Institute for the Learning Sciences (ILS) at Northwestern University in 1989 with support from Andersen Consulting.
Schank was the John Evans Professor Emeritus in computer science, education, and psychology at Northwestern University. Previously, he was a professor of computer science and psychology at Yale University and director of the Yale Artificial Intelligence Project. He was a visiting professor at the University of Paris VII, a faculty member at Stanford University, a research fellow at the Institute for Semantics and Cognition in Switzerland, and a fellow of the AAAI.
Before founding Socratic Arts, Schank founded and served as Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Cognitive Arts Corp., a provider of goal-based multi-media simulation training to Fortune 500 corporations and Ivy League universities. Cognitive Arts was formed in partnership with Northwestern University to market the software initially developed at the Institute for the Learning Sciences. Earlier, he founded and served as president of two software development companies: Cognitive Systems, Inc. (specializing in the development of knowledge-based natural language computer systems) and CompuTeach, Inc. (creating and marketing educational software for personal computers).
Schank has written more than twenty-five books including Teaching Minds: How Cognitive Science Can Save Our Schools; Virtual Learning: A Revolutionary Approach to Building a Highly Skilled Workforce, Coloring Outside the Lines: Raising a Smarter Kid by Breaking All the Rules, Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Learning in Computers and People, Engines for Education, Designing World-Class E-Learning, Making Minds Less Well Educated Than Our Own, Scrooge Meets Dick and Jane, and Lessons in Learning, e-Learning, and Training, and Make School Meaningful-And Fun!
