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. 

Echo Dot Kids Edition- For Education?

I've been fairly pumped about the Echo Dot Kids Edition coming out. My pre-ordered one came in this past week and the 10 minute video at the bottom of this post is me unboxing and digging into its capabilities. I was beyond excited about the safeguards the Echo Dot Kids Edition would offer an educational setting. I immediately asked it questions I would hope it wouldn't answer and my brief synopsis was that it did feel much safer to use with youngsters. I did like the fact that when setting up profiles for children it asked the age of the child but also allowed me to override and set stricter settings if I wanted to do so. I have yet to really dig into all the suggested apps for the kids edition but I believe any parent or educator could find multiple reasons to see this as a benefit to learning. One of the things I like the most about it is that it gives young students access to information and learning without screen time issues.

The thing I was most excited about was using an Echo Dot Kids Edition during center time in our elementary school. The safety net of creating user profiles for kids that didn't allow them to intentionally or unintentionally order things off Amazon with my credit card was a huge plus to me.

I couldn't wait to create my first Amazon Blueprint Skill to quiz students at one table while a teacher was engaged in a small group activity with another set of students. I created my skill about STEAM tool knowledge and immediately asked the Echo Dot Kids Edition to open it. It wouldn't. I tried it on one of my other Echo Dots and there was no problem at all.

So here is the deal according to Amazon, because my Echo Dot Kids Edition is set up for a child named Joe Charger, they cannot access my Blueprint skills because it is seen as a different user (even though it uses the same Amazon account). This was a huge disappointment to me. So much potential that just slid away. I was ready to place them in every classroom if it had worked! I will say that the Amazon Troubleshooting team was a big help and they listened to my wants and said they would pass my concerns along to the Amazon Developers.

I know the goal of the Echo Dot Kids Edition isn't for educational purposes but for parent controls but it is SOOOOOO close to being a product that could be amazing in the educational technology realm. So Amazon developers, if you are ready this...I want to be your guinea pig! Thank you for the tool you've given us so far that makes adults feel a little more piece of mind in regards to voice user interface. I look forward to seeing what the next step might be!

Alexa Blueprints? The Possibilities for Education are Growing

A few months ago I stood in front of a group of voice user interface programmers and said, "I wish the interface to create a skill for Alexa was easier so that my students and my teachers could quickly create their own skills." Some people said, "It is easy!" and one in particular heard me and we have been talking back and forth ever since about what this platform would look like and what it could do. Roger Kibbe (@rogerkibbe) even sent me a link to a potential input/user interface page for students and it was so intuitive and happy looking! I believe with all my heart he is on to something amazing. 

Then this week Amazon came out with its own page. It's called Alexa Blueprints and it works simply and beautifully by using templates to create opportunities for people to create their own Alexa skills. This video is of me using the website for the first time to create a flashcards skill for first graders to learn their shapes based on definitions. That was the first concept that popped into my mind because our students had just done a STEAM time with robots to help them learn their shapes. 

So I created this concept yesterday and had all evening to think through the educational implications of using this in the classroom. Things to think on:

• I can see this being a great tool for teachers to use to create a center for learning in their classroom but you can only share your skill with those using the same Amazon account so a teacher can't say "look for my skill to help you study for this test at home, etc." Each student would have to make their own skill using their parent's Amazon account...which I can tell you from recent events at our school isn't a wise decision to give out to minors.
• Falling under the same issue, I would love to have my students create their own skills in class but
• They can only use an Amazon account under the age of 18 "with involvement of parent or guardian."
• The risk of letting them have access to my own account to create skills seems too great.
• I continue to be a little leary of using Alexa in the classroom due to the instant access to information that could be used inappropriately by students by asking innapropriate questions. This week when Alexa Blueprints came out Mark Tucker (@marktucker) reached out to me to let me know it was out there and also to tell me that he thought it would work well with an Alexa Voice Remote. I didn't even know those existed. I must dig deeper at this capability. And FYI here is Mark's Youtube explanation of the new Alexa Blueprints platform.

So there are things that I would love to see:

• Teacher accounts for Alexa that allow teachers to feel confident with using these devices in the classroom without fear of some student ordering 42 packages of Tide pods on teacher's Amazon account. Could there possibly be Alexa accounts that are not tied to a credit card?
• Teacher accounts for Alexa that allow the teachers to both create skills that could be shared with all their students so that the teacher could create opportunities for learning outside the classroom for their students using this device.
• Allow teachers to set up users under their own teacher account so that it could be used in a language arts classroom (for instance) and the students write their own stories using the templates available. 

And I know I have mentioned it before, but as an educator if you ever have the chance to speak outside your educational realm, do it. The connections I made at the Alexa Conference have allowed me to be more tuned into the possibilities of Voice User Interface than I would have ever imagined. Thank you Roger and Mark for keeping me updated on potential new things!