ASRCLASSROOMSTUDENTTEACHERINSTRUCTORSTTMLThe use of Speech-to-Text in the classroom

John Jacob

John Jacob

January 10, 2023·6 min read

STT in Classroom Education

Speech-to-text technology, also known as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), is a technology that converts spoken words into written text. It has the potential to deeply impact the classroom experience and transform the way we learn. By using ASR to transcribe lectures and other spoken content in real time, teachers can provide students with a written record of the material covered in class. This can be especially useful for students who have difficulty taking notes by hand or who may struggle to keep up with the pace of a lecture. ASR technology has been increasingly used in schools and classrooms as a way to enhance the traditional teaching method.

Traditional methods are a less effective way of Classroom Education

Traditionally, classrooms have relied on teachers to convey information to students through lectures, discussions, and other forms of verbal communication. Students are expected to listen attentively and take notes in order to retain this information. However, this method of teaching can be challenging for students who have difficulty comprehending spoken language, such as those with hearing impairments or learning disabilities. It can also be difficult for students to keep up with the pace of lectures, resulting in incomplete or inaccurate notes.

These are a few reasons why traditional classroom education may be less effective compared to using ASR technology:

1. Limited time: In a traditional classroom setting, the teacher is usually limited by time constraints and may not be able to cover all the material in depth. With ASR technology, students can access the material at their own pace and review it as many times as needed.
2. Limited interaction: In a traditional classroom, the interaction is limited to the teacher and the students in the room. With ASR technology, students can interact with the material and ask questions in real-time, leading to a more personalized learning experience.
3. Limited flexibility: Traditional classrooms are often held at specific times and locations, making it difficult for students to fit them into their schedules. With ASR technology, students can access the material at any time and from any location, providing more flexibility.
4. Limited resources: Traditional classrooms may not have access to a wide range of resources, such as review material, course guides and automated study plans. ASR technology can help enable access to such technologies and platform features, making the learning experience more engaging and interactive.

Advantages of ASR Enabled Classrooms

Speech-to-Text, or ASR technology offers solutions to the above mentioned issues by providing a written record of lectures and discussions that students can refer to at a later time. It allows students to revisit difficult concepts and review material at their own pace. Additionally, ASR technology can be used to transcribe lectures and discussions in real-time, allowing students to follow along and even build more effective note-taking strategies.

These are a few reasons why using ASR technology may be far more effective compared to the traditional way of classroom education:

1. Personalized learning: ASR technology allows for personalized learning experiences, where content such as automatically generated review material and flashcards can be tailored to the individual student's needs and learning style, with suggestions and aids provided to the students, based on their progression through the course. This is not possible in a traditional classroom setting where the teacher has to cater to a group of students with diverse learning needs, with no digital trail of each sutdent's progression through the course material.
2. Flexibility: ASR technology allows students to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule, which can be more effective for students with different learning styles or those who may have difficulty keeping up in a traditional classroom setting.
3. Engagement: ASR technology can enable the use of interactive elements such as games and quizzes to keep students engaged, whereas traditional classrooms may rely on lectures and reading material which can be less engaging or motivating.
4. Convenient Accessibility: ASR technology brings the classroom to you, whereas traditional classrooms require students to be physically present in the same location as the lecturer. This can be a disadvantage for students who are with disabilities, live in remote areas, or may have mobility issues. This also enables larger and more diverse classroom experiences, enabling students from different localities to collablorate and learn together, while also being resource efficient with regards to lecture hall space availability, and teaching resource management.
5. Quality of instruction: ASR technology can power tutoring services powered by AI, or instructors who are able to provide high-quality instruction, whereas traditional classrooms may not always have access to highly qualified teachers.
6. Saves time and Effort: Rather than spending hours preparing and transcribing lectures, teachers can use ASR technology to quickly and accurately create written records of their lessons. These systems can even auto generate quizzes based on the material, and even provide study plans or templates based on the subject matter complexity and time taken by the tutor to cover individual topics. This can free up more time for teachers to focus on other aspects of their job, such as grading assignments or providing one-on-one instruction to students.
7. Cost-effective: ASR technology can be more cost-effective compared to traditional classroom education as it requires fewer resources, such as physical materials and teachers. Teachers and students alike can spend less time traveling and focus more on the process of learning and collaboration. Automated reports help teachers keep track of all students, and even help more effectively surface learning difficulties to parents, when needed.
8. Improved assessment: ASR technology allows for improved assessment of student progress and understanding by enabling automated grading systems, report generation and analysis of spoken responses.

Drawbacks of using STT in Classrooms

While there are several advantages of using ASR (automatic speech recognition) technology in classroom education, there are also a few drawbacks to consider, particularly relevant to classrooms with a diverse student base:

1. Limited language support: ASR technology may not support all languages, or have limited support for some languages, which can be a disadvantage for students who speak languages that are not supported by the technology.
2. Lack of personal interaction: ASR technology lacks the personal interaction and human connection that can be beneficial for students in a traditional classroom setting. However newer language models are coming out, whcih can work in tandem with ASR systems, and provide increasingly advanced conversationality and comprehension as tutors.
3. Difficulty understanding accents: ASR technology may sometimes struggle to understand students with heavy accents or dialects, which can lead to inaccurate feedback and a frustrating learning experience, and may even disadvantage students from diverse backgrounds.
4. Initial setup costs: Implementing ASR technology in the classroom may require initial setup costs for hardware and software, which may be a burden for some schools.
5. Technical issues: ASR technology or related functionality may rely on internet connectivity and may be prone to technical issues such as slow loading times or connectivity issues. This can disrupt the learning process and be frustrating for students and teachers, and may disadvantage students who do not have access to a sufficient internet connection.

Exemplary AI can help you in your educational journey

With Exemplary AI, you can build apps where students can now review, rewatch, and relearn an entire Teacher-Student classroom session with just a click away. With our approach to analyzing classroom learnings, you can use our cutting-edge ML techniques and leverage large language models to seamlessly extract knowledge and generate intelligent insights based on your needs.

3 Step process to using Exemplary AI:

1. Record clasroom sessions to the cloud or via our dashboard (Instantly accessible to students, educators and parents.)
2. Access automatically transcribed recordings (Transcribes with >95% accuracy along with time stamps.)
3. You may play the recordings, edit the transcripts, and access extracted insights using Exemplary AI's powerful editor

In Conclusion:

ASR technology has the potential to greatly enhance the traditional classroom experience. By providing written transcripts of lectures and discussions, it can improve access to education, allow students to review material at their own pace, and save teachers time and effort.

As ASR technology continues to evolve and become more accessible, it is likely that we will see an increasing adoption of this technology in schools and classrooms. Combined with newer AI models, we will see a transformation in how we learn, and how we transfer knowledge.

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