At this year EDMedia conference (online) we did a publication about “The Use of Alexa for Mass education”.
Abstract:
The amount of digitalized information increases day by day. Everyone connected to the internet through different devices or interfaces can acquire information of specific topics and interests at every time on every place. Nowadays, nearly every child owns a mobile device or at least has access to a mobile device connected to the internet. The main focus of children is to watch videos or play games on their device, so they always see it as an interesting, entertaining virtual friend. The use of mobile devices containing apps which deliver selected information opens a very interesting channel to deliver knowledge in a hidden way to children. This research deals with the development of an Alexa skill prototype to train 1×1 calculation skills of children in primary school in a very funny and playfully way. To evaluate the speech-assistant technology connected to an education game, a field study in was realized. As the Alexa speech-assistant is anyway absolutely magnetic to children, the feedback of the 1×1 calculation skill was better than expected and motivated us to enhance the base functionalities.
Reference: Schoegler, P., Ebner, M. & Ebner, M. (2020). The Use of Alexa for Mass Education. In Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 721-730). Online, The Netherlands: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
