Representatives of Amazon and Google made it clear at the
recent International Society for Technology in Education conference that
voice-assistant devices should not be used in K-12 classrooms because of
compliance and privacy issues.
While privacy issues is still a concern, the devices are finding their way into
campus dorms and classrooms.
Amazon donated 1,600 Echo Dots to engineering students at
Arizona State University, Tempe, and is providing grants to institutions that
create class curriculum using Alexa-enabled devices and mentorship.
Additionally, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, will give some students the
option to connect an Echo Dot device to their university accounts this fall.
Jason Hong, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon’s
Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has studied the home use of Alexa and
said the device isn’t quite ready for educational use. He noted they could be
handy in specific college situations, such as a lab where students need hands-free
interaction but added there are risks, such as demands to view the dialogue
history stored in the device.
“These
things are not geared for schools and for lots of people at the same time,”
Hong said, adding that could change as the technology improves. “I think it
could be really exciting, but also rather thorny.”
