How ‘hearables’ could soon help us out at work and school while remaining virtually invisible
If only we can figure out how to cram long-lasting batteries into our ears
What hearables aren’t
To accompany traditional forms of classroom education or online education, hearables can support the delivery of lectures, educational podcasts, notifications and reminders through a wide variety of applications while supporting interactivity.
With hearables, instant replay and recording of words are also possible, so students could check their understanding of a lesson. Intelligent hearables could even determine the context and choose the right time and place to deliver the best content.
Another important feature for education is the ability totranslate between languages.
In music education and language teaching, hearables are poised to play a significant role aslistening is at the centre of both music and language comprehension. Music and language students could access relevant content from anywhere and practise their lessons. In addition, the biometric capabilities of the devices allow for measuring health and fitness variables, and so can be useful in health education.
Learners could use hearables almost anywhere with internet connectivity to communicate with teachers and other students. For example, while commuting, students could collaborate on projects and access content with text-to-speech technologies and talk directly with their teacher for advice.
Beyond using hearables in formal and informal educational and learning settings, these devices can also be well-integrated into the normal life and activities and used for more than learning — for instance, using voice commands to control home devices.
Professional training, independent learning
Hearables could be used by workers in manufacturing facilities or other professional settings. They could empower users to search for and access instructions while they are hands-on with their tools, without the distraction of a screen.
Outside formal education or the workplace, hearables can also help learners take control of their own learning. A rise in popularity ofeducational lectures as podcastsmay have helped open the door to relying on audio in new ways and using different kinds of audio devices.
Language learning for native speakers could also be improved with hearables, as these devices could be used for improving skills of public speaking, presenting, interviewing or working in teams. With AI, hearables are also well-placed to support adaptive personal learning tailored to individual learner’s personal characteristics and situation. Hearables could become one of the principal ways learners of any age interact in learning.
Challenges, limitations
There are, however, significant challenges in using hearable devices. The most important to date are technical limitations. The need to reduce power usage and battery size, increase battery life and for more reliable connectivity,remain significant obstacles to be addressed by manufacturers.
Battery longevity and high bandwidth connections are essential to support natural language communications, particularly in language translation. In the immediate future, this may only be available in larger citieswhere 5G capability is now being set up. This fifth generation of wireless technology allows for a major reduction in energy consumption, which is needed to support extended battery life and high-speed internet. Fortunately, it is now incorporated in the latest operating systems and could soon become ubiquitous.
There are also major concerns related to social acceptability, in addition to privacy, when it comes to people talking out loud in a public space or office.
The comfort of these new lightweight devices could help to destigmatize their use, related to perceptions of hearing aids. Some hearable companiesare focusing on stylishnesswhile others promote them as “wearable tech for your ears.”
Perhaps hearables could be the earrings of the future?
Rise of ubiquitous devices?
Smart mobile devices are now ubiquitous among students. This cannot be said for hearable devices yet, and it could take some time before they achieve a similar level of ubiquity, if ever.
On the other hand, lessons designed for hearable device use can be easily accessed by students on their mobile devices or other computers.
Hearables will soon be here to stay both in wider society and the educational community. Astrend forecaster and marketerPiers Fawkes has commented: “Maybe instead of people staring at their screens, they are going to be staring off into the distance. What’s it called? The thousand-yard stare.”
This article byRory McGreal, Professor and UNESCO/ICDE Chair in Open Educational Resources,Athabasca University, is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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