Tag Archives: AR

M4 P1 Application of the Extended Reality Technology for Teaching New Languages

The link below is to a systematic review for the application of Extended reality technology (XR) for learning new languages. Some of the benefits that were found  include increased engagement, motivation, collaboration, a more comfortable and safe learning environment, decreased anxiety with language learning, vocabulary acquisition and enhanced story retelling. There were also a number of reported challenges and or barriers that ranged from technology issues to difficulty with how to incorporate VR in a way that maximizes the value of the technology.  It appears, that with proper planning and studying of how to best implement XR technology into language learning, that there can be many benefits. I do not believe that using XR technology as your sole method of language teaching is the correct approach, but that it can be a powerful tool if used in combination with other proven language learning methods.

 

file:///Users/pro2019/Downloads/applsci-11-11360%20(1).pdf

 

M3 P4 Indigenous AI

This video goes further in depth into the work of Michael Running Wolf, from my Module 3 Post 3, as well as the work of his wife Caroline Running Wolf, who is pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at UBC, studying the potential application of XR technologies in the revitalization of Indigenous languages. This video is filled with valuable information regarding the challenges and potential solutions with technology and Indigenous languages.

One of the highlights that I found particularly interesting was that Michael Running Wolf and his colleagues had found a way to “fork” the coding of open source AI technologies to incorporate Indigenous languages. They had found that most AI technologies were incredibly biased to the western world and specifically California, where google headquarters is located. They had to find a way to use the existing technology and adapt it to the different Indigenous languages they were working with. Furthermore, the complexity of polysynthetic languages in how they have no finite dictionary, as there are virtually an infinite combination of root words, prefixes, suffixes etc.

M3 P3 The Race to Save Indigenous Languages, Using Automatic Speech Recognition

This article is about the work being done by Michael Running Wolf, who is a clinical instructor of computer science at Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, on developing methods for documenting and maintaining Indigenous languages through automatic speech recognition software. This work is a precursor to his long term goal of providing a way for Indigenous youth to learn their language by way of technological immersion, using technologies such as virtual reality or augmented reality.

Part of the difficulty of developing automatic speech recognition for Indigenous languages is that in the field of computational linguistics, relatively little research has been devoted to Indigenous languages. An additional challenge is that many Indigenous languages are “polysynthetic” meaning that they have words that contain many morphemes, or units of language that cannot be further divided. As Michael Running Wolf points out, “polysynthetic languages often have very long words – words that can mean an entire sentence, or denote a sentence’s worth of meaning.”

 

https://news.northeastern.edu/2021/10/08/protecting-indigenous-languages-using-automatic-speech-recognition/

M1 P2 Teaching an Indigenous Language Using Social VR at Georgian College

As a person teaching an Indigenous language, I find the potential for VR and XR to be used as tools for teaching Indigenous languages to be quite fascinating. I think there is a lot of potential to enhance the learning experiences of students by using these XR technologies. In person language classes are a great way to learn; however, students interested in learning their Indigenous language are often not located near where the classes are held. XR technologies offer a potential to bring a learning experience that is more tangible to the online learner. As XR technology improves, there may be potential to teach plant names or place names while the learner is in a Mixed Reality environment that allows the learner to ‘see’ and ‘interact’ with the plants and or place names. The article below shows how Georgian College is now using VR to teach Anishnaabemowin. The youtube video link is from the Immersive Learning Research Network World Conference 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ryQS0QpTQ

Teaching an Indigenous Language Using Social VR at Georgian College