A FRAMEWORK FOR INTELLIGENT VOICE-ENABLED E-EDUCATION SYSTEMS

Although the Internet has received significant attention in recent years, voice is still the most convenient and natural way of communicating between human to human or human to computer. In voice applications, users may have different needs which will require the ability of the system to reason, make decisions, be flexible and adapt to requests during interaction. These needs have placed new requirements in voice application development such as use of advanced models, techniques and methodologies which take into account the needs of different users and environments. The ability of a system to behave close to human reasoning is often mentioned as one of the major requirements for the development of voice applications. In this paper, we present a framework for an intelligent voice-enabled e-Education application and an adaptation of the framework for the development of a prototype Course Registration and Examination (CourseRegExamOnline) module. This study is a preliminary report of an ongoing e-Education project containing the following modules: enrollment, course registration and examination, enquiries/information, messaging/collaboration, e-Learning and library. The CourseRegExamOnline module was developed using VoiceXML for the voice user interface(VUI), PHP for the web user interface (WUI), Apache as the middle-ware and MySQL database as back-end. The system would offer dual access modes using the VUI and WUI. The framework would serve as a reference model for developing voice-based e-Education applications. The e-Education system when fully developed would meet the needs of students who are normal users and those with certain forms of disabilities such as visual impairment, repetitive strain injury (RSI), etc, that make reading and writing difficult

Development of Telephone-based e-Learning Portal

The proliferation of mobile phones in Nigeria, particularly among the student community, has continued to inspire the development and delivery of e-Learning applications. Most of the existing web-based e-Learning applications do not support nomadic voice-based learning (i.e. learning on the move through voice), and consequently do not provide a speedy access to information or enquiries on demand. Internet access is required to get every bit of information from most school portal system, which is not directly available to everyone. Lack of provision for voice in the existing web applications excludes support for people with limited capabilities such as the visually impaired and physical disabilities. In this paper, we present a design and development of a prototype telephone-based e-Learning portal that will be used for course registration and examination. This study is part of an ongoing e-Learning project involving the following modules: enrollment, course registration and examination, enquiries/information, messaging/collaboration, e-Learning and library. The prototype application was developed using VoiceXML for the voice user interface(VUI), PHP for database queries, Apache as the middle-ware and MySQL database as back-end. A unified modelling language (UML) was used to model and design the application. The proposed e-Learning system will compliment the web-based system in other to meet the needs of students with a range of disabilities such as visual impairment, repetitive strain injury, etc, that make reading and writing difficult. It also makes multiple platforms available to all users as well as boosting access to education for the physically challenged, particularly the sight impaired in the developing countries of the world. In institutions where students are not allowed to use mobile phones or where cost is an issue, then the alternative is the use of PC-phone

Analiza percepcije informatike u popularnoj kulturi

U ovom radu pokušat ćemo proučiti na koji način je informatika prikazana u današnjoj popularnoj kulturi te koliko je taj prikaz vjerodostojan. Analizirat ćemo njene različite aspekte i pokušati ih objasniti. Među navedenima će biti prikaz Interneta, računalne sigurnosti i programa koji je omogućuju, razne programe koji se u uporabi te tehničke karakteristike računala koja su trenutno ili prije bila u uporabi. Također ćemo spomenuti reference na različita područja informatike i informatičke podrške koja se mogu pojaviti u raznim medijima

A speech recognition and synthesis tool

Many of the new technologies designed to help worldwide communication – e.g. telephones, fax machines, computers – have created new problems especially among the hearing and visually impaired. A person, who has severe hearing impairments, particularly to the extent in which deafness occurs, may experience difficulties communicating over a telephone as he or she is unable to hear the recipient’s responses. Conversely, someone with visual impairments would have little inconvenience using a telephone but may not be able to communicate through a computer because of the difficulties (or, in the case of blindness, impossibility) in reading the screen. The goal of this project is to develop a Speech Recognition and Synthesis Tool (SRST) that provides a solution to the communication between the hearing and visually impaired. SRST is free and does not require any additional equipment besides a computer. Additionally, SRST can be used in educational settings, regardless of students ’ or teachers ’ disabilities, as a teaching aid