Hello Hello!
My future cast is inspired from some of the conversations that came out of my A2 on podcasts. I began thinking about how listening to podcasts, lectures or any type of audio material typically happens in silo. I wanted to consider ways that peer-to-peer interaction could be blended into the experience. I came up with VACT which stands for Voice-Activated Collaboration Tool. An app or software that can be integrated into learning management systems that allow students to interact while they are listening to any type of audio material. Hands free. From anywhere. At any time.
Check out my site: https://sites.google.com/view/voice-activated-collaboration/home
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
What an interesting idea. I love podcasts and listening to information. Tools focusing in this domain are few and far between.
VACT also has the ability to maker audio more social, collaborative and hands-free. It also addresses something that I find difficult in podcasts – saving/sharing a specific time, or quote.
My only complaint with VACT is in the domain of audio itself. You can’t skim through audio (or video for that matter). Listening is also way more time consuming than reading. I understand that speed isn’t always best when it comes to learning content, but it is a frustration I have experienced.
ps. beautiful info graphic on VACT voice control keywords
Hi Natalie,
Thank you for sharing a great forcast. The presentation is clear, well designed and mobile friendly. I enjoyed the use of scenarios to illustrate the problem and the solution. It helped me see the potential of VACT.
As I was reading your description of The Problem, I thought I was reading my own story. I love listening to Podcasts and audiobooks, but I always find myself getting into deep thought about something interesting I heard only to realise I stopped listening to the rest and missed a whole section. It’s exactly as you described it. I believe it’s the difference between reading and listening. When reading, you can slow down when reading, pause. When listening, you go with the speed of the interlocutor.
The further I read into VACT, the more I want it to be available now. I think it has great potential. I would personally love to use it in the car, where I listen to most of my podcasts and audio books. I have to drive a lot for work and always thought it was a “waste” of my time. It’s when I started to listen to podcasts and audiobooks. I found it helped me find the drives more “productive”. I have secretly wished for a way to be able to accomplish some form of homework while driving. VACT could very well be the answer to my wish.
Hi Veronique,
YES! I know I named my character Laurel (after my god-daughter actually lol) but I could have easily named her Natalie. I too have experienced all of these issues while listening to podcasts.
The extended mobility aspects is key to this idea. As you mentioned, you can now drive and participate in a discussion board. A task that previously required you to have phone in hand in some way.
Thanks for your feedback
Natalie
Hello Natalie, thank you for sharing. I really appreciate the way you were using a story to present your idea. VACT seems like an enhanced voice assistant such as Siri or Google but way stronger. I wish I could have it one day.
Your presentation, especially the rationale, looks like a persuasive sales document. It is also a collection of sparking ideas. I would like to know more about the challenges or limitations of this idea, witch will make it even better.
Thank you so much.
Yi
Hello Yi,
Thanks for your feedback!
I agree, I could have integrated a challenges and limitations section (because those always exist). I honestly didn’t think I would have a whole lot of challenges – though they may exist and I just can’t see them without running a full test. A few of the challenges I did think of would be the digital divide, language limitations, and some regarding accessibility (I imagined students that couldn’t speak or write). However, Aiann (in the post below) found access technology that I could possibly integrate into mine so that even students that cannot speak or write can have a voice in the same way others might.
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
I enjoyed going through your VACT future cast – it was succinct and easy to follow. I liked that you broke it down by problem/solution, and how you integrated personas, a common usability research practice when sharing Laurel’s scenario.
If you’re interested in voice-activated technologies, there’s a product being developed by researchers at the hospital where I work. The Hummingbird, converts vocal cord vibrations into binary control signals for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), environmental control, and computer access. Essentially, it enables non-verbal people with severe disabilities to communicate. You can read more about it at https://hollandbloorview.ca/research-education/bloorview-research-institute/innovations-industry-opportunities/novel-access.
One thing you touched on in the FAQs was how the technology would likely pick up accents. How would you imagine testing this technology for accuracy?
When I was studying accessibility, I looked at voice/speech-to-text tools. For a fun exercise, I tested how accurate Google’s voice commands in Google Docs was by reading a passage of text. I then asked my mother, whose English is her second language and has a light accent to read the same passage. We compared results and there were significant differences. (Some were hilariously off, and we both had a good laugh about the experience). Considering the accuracy rate for Google’s own translation tool (85%), I expected better! I wonder in your VACT case, if you could do a baseline test to measure against.
Again, great presentation and thanks.
Aiann
Hello Aiann,
Thanks for sharing, this kind of access technology would definitely be beneficial for my app! I may collaborate with Hummingbird in my next update 🙂
Yes, I wanted to ensure my product worked for many people, so that’s why I integrated the ability for the user to almost tell the application what they sound like by recording their saying the key terms. I feared the dreaded “I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to understand your request. Please say it again” type of response, so I wanted to add technology that would help with that issue.
It should be easy to test, because I wouldn’t be requiring my app to understand all accents, I would be adding the ability of my app to make associations with the pre recorded terms my users added to their settings. I thought this would be easier to achieve and have better results.
Thanks for your feedback
Natalie
Hey Natalie,
Excellent work here. You really extended the possibilities that podcasts have to offer as an educational technology. Making podcasts interactive for the user create more opportunities for students to collaborate and extend ideas. I also really enjoyed the narrative style of your project. In fact, I think it would have made for a great podcast! As I was writing down my points while reading your work, I thought “how much easier would this be if I was able to listen, pause, comment and move on to the next point” instead of coming back to this mobile form and leaving a block of text. Another aspect I really liked was that this project is completely geared towards improving the mobility of podcasts. One piece of feedback we received for our OAR on the subject was that podcasts are asocial. You have addressed this issue very well. A final point that I appreciated was that you addressed the issue of accessibility in your project. We encountered many comments on our OAR about how podcasts are mostly in English and how this can be a drawback for many users, and your project appropriately provides access to 10 (or 100 in a future update ;)) languages which can be accessed for translation. You also provide accessibility to users with speech impediments.
Well done Natalie!
Thanks Ben! I was totally inspired by the discussions that followed our OER. I did a bit of digging at that point and was shocked to find that this technology doesn’t exist (well I couldn’t find it anyway) in this way.
Your positive feedback is appreciated 🙂
This is an incredible idea! My issue with podcasts as they relate to education is that they exist – as you said – in silo. There’s no interaction, so if a student has a question or comment, they’re just gonna have to wait. Technology like what you’re proposing would be outstanding.
I really appreciated the fleshed out scenario crafted in describing the problem and its solution. The whole issue with the sandwich and the wet fingers was well chosen – and I’m guessing from specific personal experience. The rewinding thing is totally a nuisance, so being able to – handsfree – just jump back a few seconds would be awesome.
I’m wondering about a future version of this product and if we could get to a point where it collaborates with a digital personal assistant like Siri so that listeners could pose questions during the “lecture”.
Either way I really really enjoyed your site!
Hi Natalie, and Tyler. You said my thoughts exactly. Podcasts are great but if you want to talk, ask questions or interact with the host you have to post on a discussion board. These are usually never looked at and the only interactions would be from other viewers/listeners. This tech would be incredible, thanks Natalie!
Hello Tyler and Tyler 🙂
I appreciate the positive feedback. I actually did consider integrating AI and still think it would add value to this idea. I left it out because I wanted to focus my proposal a bit more to classroom application and feared overcomplicating it for students. My big ideas were for more casual podcast listening, but I LOVE your suggestion! Technically students can pose questions during the audio by saying “Discuss”, but I can definitely see the benefit of AI integration.
Natalie
Hi Tyler,
You mention the lack of interactivity in podcasts but I think there is change-afoot in mediums such as Twitch and live-streaming. I think the future of podcasting will resemble something much more dynamic and revolutionary once bandwidth allows for live interactive vlogging. Maybe will will remove the pod from podcasting.
If anyone is interested here is a list of the top celebrity twitch streamers.
https://www.inkedgaming.com/blogs/news/celebrity-twitch-streamers-check-this-out
Hi Natalie,
Great forecasting! Can’t wait to see this app being used in the near future. With the advance of voice recognition technology, do you think that voice-enabled technology can replace the keyboard in the future? “Keyboard in five years will be gone as an input device” (Tluszcz, 2019). Do you agree with this?
Browne, R. (2019, April 18). The keyboard will be gone in five years and voice tech is ‘the opportunity of a decade,’ investor says. [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/voice-technology-will-replace-keyboards-in-five-years-vc-investor.html
Hi Ceci,
Very good question. I think that voice recognition technology COULD replace the keyboard in the future, but it is unlikely it will. It’s not the same thing, but it reminds me of hard copy textbooks. People sometimes ask if ebooks will replace them at some point. Although printed texts are used less, they will likely always be desired (even if it’s from a small group lol). I think the same thing goes with a keyboard. We may use voice recognition most of the time, but as humans we want options and the keyboard will likely be one of those options we don’t want to lose. It may come in handy when talking isn’t ideal (library or work, for example). We need flexibility with our devices. It needs to work for us all the time.
Thanks for getting me thinking and I’m glad you enjoyed my app idea!
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
I loved the idea of VACT and think that it is a great addition to tasks that are usually solitary and can be passive. Your Google site is very well laid out and your idea of presenting the problem and then the tool as the solution was awesome. The problem itself is very realistic and relatable to almost every student, and the whole time I was reading it, I was wondering why a tool like VACT does not already exist!! It feels very reasonable and I don’t think it is that far off in the future. Something like VACT that allows seamless interaction with content as well as others can change the landscape of mobile learning in the sense that listening to lectures or watching videos that are usually individualized tasks can become more social constructivist especially when used in a flipped classroom model. These individualized tasks conducted in the home space can be non-constructivist and passive, but by allowing the discussions to be this seamless, blending it in as part of life, gives lifelong learning a new meaning. I also really liked the graphic you made with all the keywords that can be used to interact with the tool. Your FAQ’s were useful and informative (What are the 10 languages?? 😉 ) Customization options – awesome!
Some questions I had when considering VACT – would the tool be available as a stand alone tool or does it have to be integrated as part of a course? It would have to be configured by an instructor to tell it when to pause and ask the questions or provide discussion prompts – but what if I wanted to integrate it as part of my daily non-course related Spotify listening? The discussion “threads” being read out are also great – but what if you wanted to skip a couple, is there the option to do so without first listening to all responses? With regards to customization, does the tool employ machine learning to understand speech and use patterns? Logistically, does it use a lot of data? Battery life? Is it always running in the background “listening” for commands or do you have to first start it up?
Overall a great idea, Natalie!
Hi Binal,
I’m glad you enjoyed the idea.
I completely agree with your feedback. Something like VACT really elevates the learning experience and allows more of a social constructivist approach.
It’s funny you asked about the 10 languages. I have no idea why I remained conservative with that. I should have gone bold and said 100! 🙂 I just knew that this could not only be available in English. I would want this app to be useful and useable for many people around the world.
I love your questions! VACT is designed for the learning space and to be integrated into a course… but you do bring up good points. This could easily be used outside of the classroom as well in a more casual way. It can be linked to a podcast and a group of friends (or strangers) can discuss the podcast, share feedback, and opinions. Yes, you can skip anything in VACT, even the questions that are integrated by an instructor. Customization is huge for me, so I envisioned the tool to be hugely customizable so that it would be what users need it to be. For example, perhaps a user doesn’t want to be asked if they are sure they want to do a task (which is standard). They can go into the settings and turn that off, making their experience personal. It also wouldn’t be a huge data and battery suck. It’s similar to streaming a video on YouTube. Because it’s main purpose is as an eLearning tool, you need to be logged into your course or have the app running for it to be listening to you. It doesn’t listen if the app is not engaged. This helps with data usage and battery life.
I appreciate your feedback and thoughtful questions!
Natalie
Thanks for the response, Natalie! I love how fleshed out this tool is in your idea. You should totally pitch it to someone and get it developed – it is totally doable today 🙂
In line with Tyler’s comment above with digital PA’s I think that AI can make this a very seamless integration.