An exploration of the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition to assist and enable receptive communication in higher education

The potential use of Automatic Speech Recognition to assist receptive communication is explored. The opportunities and challenges that this technology presents students and staff to provide captioning of speech online or in classrooms for deaf or hard of hearing students and assist blind, visually impaired or dyslexic learners to read and search learning material more readily by augmenting synthetic speech with natural recorded real speech is also discussed and evaluated. The automatic provision of online lecture notes, synchronised with speech, enables staff and students to focus on learning and teaching issues, while also benefiting learners unable to attend the lecture or who find it difficult or impossible to take notes at the same time as listening, watching and thinking

17 ways to say yes:Toward nuanced tone of voice in AAC and speech technology

People with complex communication needs who use speech-generating devices have very little expressive control over their tone of voice. Despite its importance in human interaction, the issue of tone of voice remains all but absent from AAC research and development however. In this paper, we describe three interdisciplinary projects, past, present and future: The critical design collection Six Speaking Chairs has provoked deeper discussion and inspired a social model of tone of voice; the speculative concept Speech Hedge illustrates challenges and opportunities in designing more expressive user interfaces; the pilot project Tonetable could enable participatory research and seed a research network around tone of voice. We speculate that more radical interactions might expand frontiers of AAC and disrupt speech technology as a whole

Speech-to-Text Technology as an Inclusive Approach: Lower Secondary Teachers’ Experiences

Speech-to-text (STT) technology enables pupils to write using their voice. This qualitative study explores six teachers’ experiences with introducing STT technology in a whole-class environment at a Norwegian lower secondary school. The aim was to explore the benefits and challenges of using STT as an inclusive approach for writing instruction in lower secondary education. The teachers in the study stated that most of their pupils found STT useful when beginning longer writing assignments (for example, as an aid for brainstorming and drafting) and producing texts in foreign languages. Reported challenges were pupils distracting each other, inaccuracy of the technology, improper use, and pupils whispering because they were too embarrassed to speak out loud. The teachers’ views were initially consistent with a broad definition of inclusion, as they saw the educational opportunities of introducing STT to the whole class. However, after implementation they were concerned with structural challenges, including formal assessment of writing and individual adaptation of the curricula, which suggests a narrow interpretation of inclusion.Speech-to-Text Technology as an Inclusive Approach: Lower Secondary Teachers’ ExperiencespublishedVersio

A scoping review on the use of speech-to-text technology for adolescents with learning difficulties in secondary education

Conclusion The scoping review shows that very little research has been conducted on the use of STT for adolescents with learning difficulties in secondary education. Findings from the studies identified five areas of interest: writing related skills, text assessment, writing processes, accuracy of the technology, and participants’ experiences. Findings indicate that writing performance among students with learning difficulties improves when using STT. Parents, teachers, and pupils report positive experiences with the technology, particularly for students with severe reading and writing difficulties. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION There is a great need for more robust research on the use of speech-to-text technology (STT) in educational settings, especially on its effect on writing skills Studies describe STT as either an assistive (a compensatory aid for poor writing performance) or instructional technology (aiming to improve learning in general). It is important that practitioners are aware of the different aims and possible consequences of introducing STT to learners with writing difficulties. STT provides both opportunities and challenges for writers with learning difficulties in secondary education. Findings indicate that writing performance among students with learning difficulties improves when using STT, yet inaccuracy of the technology was presented as one of the main challenges. Parents, teachers, and pupils report positive experiences with the technology, particularly for students with severe reading and writing difficulties.publishedVersionPaid open acces

Reflections on measuring disordered thoughts as expressed via language

Thought disorder, as inferred from disorganized and incoherent speech, is an important part of the clinical presentation in schizophrenia. Traditional measurement approaches essentially count occurrences of certain speech events which may have restricted their usefulness. Applying speech technologies in assessment can help automate traditional clinical rating tasks and thereby complement the process. Adopting these computational approaches affords clinical translational opportunities to enhance the traditional assessment by applying such methods remotely and scoring various parts of the assessment automatically. Further, digital measures of language may help detect subtle clinically significant signs and thus potentially disrupt the usual manner by which things are conducted. If proven beneficial to patient care, methods where patients’ voice are the primary data source could become core components of future clinical decision support systems that improve risk assessment. However, even if it is possible to measure thought disorder in a sensitive, reliable and efficient manner, there remain many challenges to then translate into a clinically implementable tool that can contribute towards providing better care. Indeed, embracing technology - notably artificial intelligence - requires vigorous standards for reporting underlying assumptions so as to ensure a trustworthy and ethical clinical science

Assessing the Potential Involutionary Effects of New Copyright Laws: A Techno-legal Analysis Based on the Impact of Web 3.0 on Copyright Protection

As Internet technology evolves, legal professionals and academics must stay current and adapt to these inevitable technological changes. This article investigates the extensive influence of the latest version of the World Wide Web (the Web)—Web 3.0—on copyright laws based on a techno-legal analysis that considers the opportunities and challenges of this new technology. The principal version of copyright laws, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), was enacted in 1998 during the Web 1.0 era, signifying an impending need for appropriate updates in the new Web 3.0 era. This article traces the historical development of U.S. copyright laws by positing it has undergone three phases: illegalization, institutionalization, and criminalization. The article then explores the possible development of new legal frameworks to address the unique challenges of Web 3.0 and the formulation of novel technical solutions in the new phase of decentralization. The article also assesses the possible involutionary effects of new copyright laws that can detrimentally impact privacy, freedom of speech, and fair competition on the Internet. Finally, this article provides recommendations for establishing new copyright laws’ parameters in the forthcoming decentralization phase

The role of telehealth technology in the remediation of pediatric feeding disorders

Teletherapy, the use of video conferencing technology to deliver therapy services, has the potential to provide ongoing services to children that might not otherwise be able to receive traditional intervention that it essential for them to thrive. Among children who are diagnosed with developmental disorders, as well as those who are typically developing, feeding related concerns are highly prevalent. The current report discusses the nature of feeding disorders in children across the continuum of development and diagnoses, synthesizes the current literature of feeding and non-feeding related intervention programs for children in various settings, and discusses their value for future clinical use and research.Communication Sciences and Disorder

ERAWATCH country reports 2011 : Malta

Acknowledgement: The University of Malta would like to acknowledge its gratitude to the European Commission, Joint Research Centre for their permission to upload this work on OAR@UoM. Further reuse of this document can be made, provided the source is acknowledged. This work was made available with the help of the Publications Office of the European Union, Copyright and Legal Issues Section.The main objective of the ERAWATCH Annual Country Reports is to characterise and assess the performance of national research systems and related policies in a structured manner that is comparable across countries. EW Country Reports 2011 identify the structural challenges faced by national innovation systems. They further analyse and assess the ability of the policy mix in place to consistently and efficiently tackle these challenges. The annex of the reports gives an overview of the latest national policy efforts towards the enhancement of European Research Area and further assess their efficiency to achieve the targets. These reports were originally produced in November - December 2011, focusing on policy developments over the previous twelve months. The reports were produced by the ERAWATCH Network under contract to JRC-IPTS. The analytical framework and the structure of the reports have been developed by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the Joint Research Centre (JRC-IPTS) and Directorate General for Research and Innovation with contributions from ERAWATCH Network Asblpeer-reviewe