JOTPAL. Designing for Voice Recognition.
Three month solo project.
Advances in information and communication technology has changed how we learn. JotPal redesigns the home smart speaker into an interactive learning aid. The device, with visual aids, streamlines the homework process for teachers and creates a new and engaging experience for students. It blends the traditional format of teaching with 21st century skills and technology. Based on the idea of learning through teaching, the device acts like a virtual study buddy, where the student teaches their learnings to the device.
Learning Outcomes; User Research; Interviews, Observations, Co-Creation Workshops, Personas, Research Market Trends, S.W.O.T analysis, Insight Driven Conceptualisation, Wireframing, User Testing, Site Mapping, Storyboarding, Use Cases, Prototyping with Voice Recognition Software, User Journey Mapping, Model Making, Mapping out Interaction.
AIM
In recent years in Ireland, there has been a shift away from traditional teaching methods towards digital methods. However recent reports and trends have begun to question the true value of learning technologies. In 2018, PISA released a report stating that “giving school students access to iPads, laptops or e-books in the classroom appears to hurt their learning”. This highlights the need for a balance within the education system between old and new teaching methods with the core focus being on children’s learning outcomes.
RESEARCH
My starting point was to look at how we learn in the digital age. EdTech is a booming industry, however teachers, students and parents often struggle to identify its real value to classroom learning.
Secondary Research. For this project, I conducted both primary and secondary research. I started by researching the current education reforms that are happening both nationally and internationally. I reviewed established educationalists, past and present and their teaching ideals. In a bid to understand how we learn, I researched various learning theories, educational psychology and pedagogy practices.
Interviews with teachers. To understand and get up to speed with what was happening in the classroom, I spoke to 12 teachers located in inner city Dublin, the Dublin suburbs and my hometown in Co.Longford. I wanted to understand how tech was being used in the classroom and how teachers felt about it.
Interviews. Teachers, subject / title / class, years teaching, quotes.
Co-creation sessions with teachers. Following my interview with three teachers, I asked them to complete a mind map to better understand their teaching values, and identify any learning constraints and gaps. I also asked them to fill out a journey map of a typical school day and their process of setting and correcting homework.
Co-Creation Session. Mind maps of Values, Constraints and Gaps.
Co-Creation Session. Journey Maps.
Co-creation session with students. I conducted two co-creation sessions with students aged 10-11 years old. My aim was to gain some insight into students interests, motivation and obstacles around learning.
Throw paper planes
Journey Map
Filling out Invent a tool
Invent a tool: Homework Bot
Fill out worries and concerns sheet
INSPIRING PROJECTS + EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
My research also involved reviewing emerging trends for technology in education, which led me to the fields of AI and AR. From this extensive research, I became increasingly interested in AI and how it can benefit both teachers and students.
Yoto | Smart Speaker for toddlers
Dynamicland | MIT
Spark | Using AR in the classroom
Bear Abouts | Interactive Story Telling
Thought box | CIID
Chatter Box | Build it yourself AI Speaker
Mover Kit | TechWillSaveUs
Paul and I testing out the Empathy Toy by Twenty One Toys
Researching AI in education
MAKING SENSE
From my findings, I began to pull out the most interesting insights and grouped them into themes. The colour corresponds to its source.
Yellow. Literature review.
Green. Teacher Interviews.
Pink. Co-Creation session with teachers.
Orange. Co-Creation session with students.
Personas. Based on all the information collated through my research, I drew up three teacher personas.
S.W.O.T Analysis. To better clarify my online research and primary interviews I did an analysis on how technology is being used in the classroom.
IDEATION
By extracting my most interesting findings, I wrote out a number of 'How Might We' statements and begin to ideate about how technology can most effectively enhance both teaching and learning experiences.
FURTHER RESEARCH
After choosing my direction, namely how might we support teachers in fostering a positive home learning experience, I decided to do some further research to really understand the homework process. Again, I conducted both primary and secondary research.
Further Secondary Research. From my secondary research I reviewed academic papers on the topic of homework. I pulled out my key findings, namely the purpose, misuses and ideals for homework.
Further Primary Research. I visited five students aged between 7 to 13 years old and spoke to their parents regarding their homework habits. Each student showed me their preferred place to study and their homework copies from the previous year. After speaking to each student, I asked them to complete a journey map of a typical nights homework. This gave me an insight into the type of homework they received, how they felt about it and highlighted any issues they had. I also asked them to invent a night of homework.
Participant 1 & 2 showing me where they do their homework
Participant 3 (aged 7) showing me where he does his homework
Participant 5 (aged 13) Irish homework copy
Participant 1 (aged 8) English homework
Participant 1 (aged 8) Maths homework
Journey Maps of a typical homework night
Invent your own homework
Interview with parents. I spoke to a total of five parents regarding their children's homework. Key insights were as follows.
Key Findings.
1. There is a disconnect in communication between home and school. Teachers are unaware of the problems faced at home from homework.
2. Teachers, students and parents are calling out for more engaging homework.
3. All students I spoke to needed assistance with homework. Interestingly, parents also struggled with homework - mainly in the latter years of primary school. Most expressed a particular need for support with Maths and Irish.
4. Parents don’t believe in too much homework, but they want their child to be adequately challenged. Students and parents complained about homework being too easy.
5. The internet can be a poor tool for helping both parents and students. One student explained how at school they are taught a specific way to do long division by their teacher. However the internet offers them multiple ways of doing one thing which can cause confusion and frustration for students and parents.
6. Low confidence. One students said when she didn’t understand her homework, she would be too embarrassed to ask in class the next day.
7. There was a divide between parents regarding the use of digital aids. Most parents had an issue with the screens. I also noticed a trend where students were using Smart Speakers to provide them with the answers to their homework.
FINAL CONCEPT
From here I had my final concept. Inspired by Virtual Tutee Systems (or VTS), the concept incorporates learning through teaching. VTS involves a student teaching a learned topic to a virtual tutee. Research has shown that learning through teaching can help students clarify and summarise their learnings, promoting a deeper understanding of topics and in turn better retention.
ITERATION ONE
Teachers Platform
I presented my idea to three teachers who validated that my idea was feasible. I then created a paper prototype for the teacher end of the homework platform. In total I tested it out on two teachers and five UX designers.
Key Findings.
1. Certain features (i.e. the ability to group students according to their level) were liked by the teachers, whereas they questioned the value of others (i.e. one complained about data overload).
2. One teacher asked to filter content through subject.
3. One teacher suggested to add an intervention for boredom and a function to monitor the level of interaction by the student.
4. In some cases, layout and wording needed to be refined.
5. I also reviewed the student platform with two teachers. One gave me a format for asking questions to students. Namely, starting with questions with just one specific answer, gradually introducing higher order thinking questions, where there is no definite right answer.
This, in turn, helped me to refine my site map.
Students Interaction
I was interested to see how we teach each other. I set a teaching challenge for my classmates. After reading a printed out explanation of Pythagoras theorem, I took the sheet away and asked them to teach it to another classmate who had not revised the sheet. I repeated this four times.
This gave me an insight into how people interact with each other when one is teaching something to another. I noted habits and obstacles in both roles of the instructor and the listener.
I drew up two activities, one in Maths and one in History. I went back to the previously visited households to user-test.
I asked each participant to read the task, and after ensuring the concept was understood, I asked them to teach it to me or another participant, imagining those who were being taught had no previous knowledge of the concepts.
Participant 3 reading about the stone age
Participant 5 reading about the WW1
Participant 4 reading about the stone age
Participant 4 teaching addition
Key Findings.
Finally I asked each participant to fill out a feedback sheet of what they liked, disliked, any questions they had and suggestions for improvements. This paired with observing and sometimes participating in the task, gave me important insights to improve the user experience. My key takeaways from this were as follows:
1. Students needed help with extracting information or note taking
2. It was important to keep the interaction conversational
3. Some students need more options or methods to express themselves
4. Students needed feedback on their performance
5. Some students lacked confidence
I then began to storyboard the various touch points for both the student and teacher interaction.
ITERATION TWO
Teachers Platform
From there, I created a digital website. I resumed contact with two teachers, Cian, a newly qualified teacher, and Mary, a retired teacher, to review the platform by completing four tasks and to provide feedback.
Third Class teacher testing the platform
Retired teacher testing the platform
Key Findings.
1. Cian suggested a number of online tools he used regularly, such as the NCCA planner. He encouraged me to incorporate these features into my design.
2. He also asked for an option to share and review content with other teachers.
3. Mary was very helpful refining the feedback that was of value. She helped me refine the learning objectives teachers look for.
4. Other features such as students attendance and student interaction were included.
Students Interaction
After refining the touchpoints of the interaction, I begin to explore how this type of interaction would play out with an AI smart speaker.
I started off by mapping out conversation trees. Through the VoiceFlow application, I created my own skill on Alexa. This consisted of building a conversation using different programming formats such as capturing data, using that data in the feedback and choice blocks. The interaction was broken into six stages;
1. Greetings. Introducing the concept of the design (i.e. a study buddy who needs help with an upcoming test), catching the name of the participant and establishing a relaxed peer-to-peer dialogue.
2. Setting Goals. Here the learning topic was described and specific learning objectives were outlined for the session.
3. Creating a Lesson Plan. Helping students plan and organise the relevant information for the session.
4. Questions. Asking the participant questions on the topic. Questions started from fact-based, single answered questions to more discussion type or higher order thinking questions. For instance, participants could be asked to do an activity, such as draw a timeline to explain events.
5. Understanding Learnings. Here the device would project a mind map of what it had learnt from the participant. This provided the participant with a final opportunity to correct and complete their work.
From there, using Alexa I started user testing on my intended users. In total I tested it five times, firstly with an adult and then with four students aged 11-13 years old.
Key Findings.
1. Working with the smart speaker proved problematic as it did not leave enough time for participants to respond.
2. Students said they were unsure when to respond and suggested adding a response cue.
3. I designed a lesson plan to help students to take notes. However this function actually removed some of the student’s autonomy over their work. This needed to be revisited.
4. All participants liked how using the device helped them to reframe the topic and give them a better understanding of the subject, with some claiming they believed they would remember the content better.
5. Two participants commented on the content of the questions. Giving me example of questions they would like to be asked, or ones their teacher had asked which they thought were better.
6. I was surprised how well participants took to the device. Most commented that they liked that he had a personality, in that he was informal, helpful and friendly.
Below is a user journey map of the testing.
ITERATION THREE
Students Interaction
It was important that the student had a sense of ownership over the speaker. The speaker needed to be distinguished from a home smart speaker. An original design had replaceable panels which allowed students could customise their own device.
Material Palette One
Material Palette Two
Exploring Materials
Cardboard Models
Mdf Models
I wanted to see what students would design for themselves. I brought a range of materials and forms to inspire students to create their own design. Over all students wanted something portable, small and pleasant to touch.
Taking in the usability issues from the previous testing session and suggestions from the participants, I refined the interaction.
Teachers Platform
Lastly I begin to tidy up and refine the teachers end of the platform.
FINAL DESIGN
LEARNINGS
From the outset, I decided this would be a research-led project. However in the end I felt the project would have hugely benefited from another round of testing to clarify the interaction. Also given this project fell in the middle of summer, further testing would need to be done in the appropriate context, namely during the school year.
It is important to create the right environment for participants to be creative. Giving small and simple examples can really help to spark the imagination and open up a new dialog.
I learned the importance of incorporating the end user and harnessing their knowledge throughout the design process. Teachers proved to be invaluable when designing this device. Without them it would have been impossible to build meaningful content for the interaction.
Interviewing a wide demographic is hugely beneficial. Working with a range of teachers from different backgrounds and teaching experience opened up a variety of avenues which strengthened my design.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
There were issues around privacy which would need to be addressed further. Since the device will be used in the home, usage of the device could capture unwanted private moments. I added a 'record' button in an attempt to give the user more control over what is captured.
In terms of further development, I would like to focus on how this device could encourage learning Irish. Due to time constraints and the lack of available resources, I could not take the project in this direction. However I feel the real benefit for this device would be in learning languages.
The strength of the device is in providing an alternative, engaging way for students to experience learning and homework tasks. This benefits all students, especially those who struggle with communication difficulties. It would be interesting to directly focus on this target group.
I would also like to add an app for parents to the device as this wou the set-up process and provide them with more opportunities to support their children’s learning.