#VoiceEDU: Why Waiting Mattered to Me

I bought my first amazon echo the year they hit the market in hopes that it might have good uses for the classroom. After briefly playing around with it in the classrooms of willing teachers and in situations that I could, I decided the risks did not outweigh the benefits. The deciding factor? After a long field day morning for our elementary students, most went home for the day. About 20 students remained and we created a STEM day for the remaining time. I pulled out my echo during carpool time and students would whisper a question in my ear and then I would give them permission to ask Alexa. We danced to the songs she played, we laughed at jokes, and then I asked her to tell us a story. Without hesitation she starts in a sultry voice: “he was riding his bike right there in front of me. His legs were pumping in the sunlight...” and I scream “ALEXA, STOPPPPPP!” I still don’t know why she chose that story based on the skills I had enabled. She was quickly relegated to my office where she often helped me with efficiencies. Meanwhile, Alexa and her pal Google Assistant started showing up in every corner of our home. 

Fast forward to January 2018 when I find out the Alexa Conference is coming to my home town. I reach out to Bradley Metrock, the organizer of the event, and he not only graciously allows me to come to the conference but asks me to speak at it as well. This opened a door for me that still puts me in a position to be aware of what’s next, to bend ears, and to share concerns. At this year’s Alexa Conference, Bradley once again allowed me to be a part. I will forever be grateful for both his vision and willingness to allow a Chattanooga, Tennessee teacher into this space. 

When the Kids Edition Echo Dot came out, I remember thinking “this is it!” Bradley introduced me virtually to Dave Isbitski, the Chief Evangelist for Amazon Alexa and he and his wife sent 5 Kids Edition Echo Dots with remotes to our school to pilot. What an amazing opportunity! I sat down with those five teachers that volunteered to try things out and we planned to create blueprints to personalize the learning in the classroom. Our goal was to use the devices to create more independent learners. 

We soon found out that blueprints didn’t work with the Kids Edition Echo Dot and that only "kids skills" could be used on the device. The teachers kept apologizing for not using them more regularly and I kept feeling like every road was a dead-end. 

Until January 2019, when I finally realized that you could “whitelist” skills using Amazon FreeTime. No longer were we just using kids skills but any educational skill. And a week after the Alexa conference, Kids Edition Echo Dot could start using blueprints! Blueprints are template skills that allow owners to go in and add their own information into a skill without needed to know how to code. All of a sudden, the possibilities with Alexa just got personalized for each individual classroom. 

The really funny thing is that the weekend after the Alexa Conference I was sitting at home and decided I would just change those devices to regular echo dots weighing student access to student privacy. I mean, teachers were using them all over the nation already... why not us? I sent an email out on Friday asking the teachers to let me pick them up to perform this task but on Monday I said: “never mind!” I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I didn’t like the idea of Alexa carrying on adult conversations in the classroom because one kid thinks it’s funny and potentially yells out an inappropriate question. 

I’m so glad I waited! This week I plan to work with our integrated units and create Hyperdocs that will walk students through a lesson that will utilize Alexa in the learning process. While I would say Alexa was never a true brick in the classroom, her ability to truly make a difference in the learning process and safely doing so by using FreeTime just got real! 

Anytime a new technology enters the marketplace, we as Edtech leaders must make choices. In this case, I chose to embrace the device but keep limits and barriers in place. The cutting edge is messy and cumbersome but I’m thankful I waited out my concerns. I can’t wait to see what Amazon for Education will come out with in the future to even take this tool further in being helpful for teachers everywhere. I feel certain it will be a hybrid of the Amazon Alexa for Business Tools and taking student privacy into account. I just hope they will continue to keep their price point minimal so that this device can truly be a game changer for educators everywhere! 

NOTE: You don't have to buy the Kids' Edition Echo Dot to access FreeTime, you can buy free time as a stand-alone but FreeTime is free for one year with the Kids' Edition Echo Dot. 

Alexa, I wanna kiss your face!

In the last two days, Amazon has made our Echo Dot Kids Edition devices more useful in the classroom than ever before! Yesterday, I learned how to "whitelist" Alexa Skills for our Kids Edition Dots that were not specifically made as a kid's skill.

What does this mean? According to this article, "Amazon says that the FreeTime on Alexa experience is tailored for kids ages five to 12, and most of the skills and features are appropriate for ages five to nine. Toni Reid, Amazon’s vice president in charge of Alexa and Echo devices, says the company is taking privacy and security very seriously with the FreeTime service and noted that it does not share customer info with any of the developers of FreeTime skills." (Siefert, 2018) Developers had to jump through additional hoops to create kids skills and oftentimes a really good educational skill wasn't available as a kid's edition skill because it was tagged as an "educational skill." 

While at the Alexa Conference last week, I realized that many developers (as well as some Alexa employees themselves) did not realize this was the case. After a bit of trial and error yesterday I enabled the FreeTime service on one of our school own devices and I was able to allow that device to access some very worthy educational skills by allowing them through the parent portal. What did this look like?:

• I signed into the Amazon Alexa app that was associated with the account that managed the Echo Dot Kids Edition device I was working with. I then started searching for the educational apps I wanted. Specifically for me this time, 123 Math and AskMyClass. 
• I then downloaded the FreeTime app for Alexa and signed in with the same credentials. 
• I then launched the Parent Dashboard inside the app by clicking on the "Child" that I had set up already. (This is password protected so that children can't add things without permission."
• I then clicked on "Settings"/"Add Content"/"Alexa Skills"
• I was able to swipe on skills I wanted to add to this device.  

Two concerns:

1. That's a whole lot of steps, maybe there is a shorter way to do this that I am not aware of right now.
2. FreeTime will not be free after a year grace period that I received when I got the devices this year. 

Next thing happened TODAY! When I opened my Amazon Alexa app today I noticed something new.

• Click on "Your Skills" at the top of the app
• Now I see "Blueprints" 
• Not only do I see Blueprints but I can create them right from the app now. This can be an amazing formative assessment tool on the fly.

This is a gamechanger for the classroom! We can now personalize the use of our Kids Edition Echo Dots with skills that relate to OUR classrooms and do it safely by using the Kids Edition Echo Dot! Alexa, I could kiss your face! I can't wait to share all this with my teachers tomorrow! 

P.S.-ALEXA, did you read my blog yesterday? Am I vain to think I might have been the catalyst for this change????

Becoming a Proactive Voice in a Reactive Society

We are in an era of technology changing so quickly that it's hard for anyone to stay abreast of the topics and concerns. One thing that continuously tugs on my inner moral compass is the way we (society in general) seem to adopt the next best thing like lambs being led to slaughter.

It's a fine line for me- as an instructional technologist I don't want to wait so long to adopt a worthy concept that we are creating more work for our teachers and students than need be but I also don't want to just accept something as new and great without spending a little time "looking behind the curtain."

I have weighed the pros and cons of voice user interface (VUI) in the classroom on and off, again and again over the last 3 years. Through a series of unexpected events I've created a network of VUI programmers by speaking at the Alexa Conference last year in regards to what educators want from VUI. Because of this opportunity, a few programmers from across the country have remained in contact with me and have reached out to me via social media when Amazon Alexa has created safeguards for student privacy. I am so thankful for this new network of people because there is no way I could have remained as well informed about updates to the Alexa Echo without their help.

This school year our campus has been given the opportunity to pilot the use of 5 Amazon Echo Kid's Edition devices with remotes thanks to the generosity of Dave Isbitski, Chief Amazon Alexa Evangelist. Dave and his wife heard about my desire to use Echo dots with remotes in ways that kept student privacy issues at the forefront and they personally bought our school 5 devices with 5 remotes. I was blown away by the generosity and encouragement I received from a man I have never even met before.

While I always try to stay on the edge of technological innovation, I will never be an educator that just adopts sites, apps, or devices without doing research first. I don't want to be seen as a reactionary innovation leader but one that has been mindful of all the details that are associated with any new platform or device before blindly accepting usage.

That's why I have been patiently waiting to place these Alexa Echo Kid's Edition devices in the classroom. I wanted to do some trial work with one on my own first- which I did last year. This year we have 4 devices in our elementary school and one in our high school to try out. The reason I was ready to make the jump into implementation was 4 key things you can now do:

1. I can delete history at anytime from the device- daily, weekly, hourly, monthly. 
2. I can use a remote with the device that turns it off completely when I am not intentionally using it in the classroom setting.
3. I can set it up so it does not "learn" voices.
4. Turn off the ability to purchase things from Amazon using the echo.
   

Our pilot teachers all have their devices in their classrooms but just being 2 weeks in they have done very little implementation. As we move forward, I am thankful for the opportunity to share with the educational and VUI community ways to proactively use voice in ways that put student's needs first. We will spend this year addressing potential issues, analyzing the effectiveness of VUI in the classroom, and constantly reviewing concepts of good student privacy practices. Stay tuned as we trail blaze  forward within boundaries. We hope to represent a well thought out use of voice interface in the classroom for others to consider.