[EM] A question in classroom creation

[Juho Laatu]

Hello Michael,

This is maybe not what you were looking for, but self-organizing maps  
(or other corresponding approximating methods) could be useful (and  
computationally feasible) in this kind of classroom problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organizing_map
http://www.arch.usyd.edu.au/~rob/java/applets/neuro/ 
SelfOrganisingMapDemo.html

(If you want to get also the four teachers in the map, give them fixed  
locations somewhere on the map.)

Best Regards,
Juho


On Apr 16, 2005, at 20:14, Michael A. Rouse wrote:

> Here's a rather different (and more complicated) voting problem than  
> usual:
>
> In the interest of classroom harmony, a school decides to let the  
> children vote for which classmates they want in their home room.  
> Assuming each class is the same size, what kind of ballot and what  
> method of grouping students should be used? Also, should top-ranked  
> (most liked) or bottom-ranked (most disliked) preference take  
> precedence?
>
> Some possibilities and problems that come to mind:
> Ranked ballots  -- difficult to make it a "secret ballot," but it  
> gives a fine-grained preference listing.
> Approval/Anti-Approval -- rating classmates as approved, disapproved,  
> and unknown. Also difficult to use with secret ballot. Probably the  
> easiest to use.
> Classroom grouping -- let students make their own classroom groupings  
> (kind of like the districting problem), possibility of secret ballot  
> but a *lot* of work.
>
> If an example is needed -- and just to give some numbers -- let's say  
> the school has 4 teachers and 100 students in the same grade, which  
> would give 25 students per home room. For extra credit (heh), if they  
> can also vote for which teacher they want, what would be the fairest  
> way of resolving ties if more than one class prefers the same teacher?
>
> This would also have an interesting application in voting district  
> creation -- if voters can choose which precincts go into a voting  
> district, what would be the fairest way of doing so?
>
> Michael A. Rouse
> mrouse1 at mrouse.com
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