Taking the stand of a student learning the topic on multimedia design, I did find the foreign voice (version 2) slightly annoying and difficult to catch at times. I would end up likely frustrated after trying to understand, and possibly switch off. Yet, the animation of the character could be entertaining at best.
The novelty of the Microsoft Agent did wear off pretty quickly with the monotonous voice, like it was rambling away; possibly pitch and tone of voice could be twigged for some difference between the voice of the two characters, Peedy and Genie to better follow through their conversation.
The Microsoft Agent could possibly be the choice for INTRODUCING a new topic with all its rigorous content. Since it has that intention of introducing, its dialogue should be kept interesting, short and memorable. It is to effect some curiosity or spark some interest in the student's mind. Thereafter, version 1 with its content, could likely be elaborated at a manageable pace by the teacher, which would be a good switch from the animation.
So a combination, version 2 followed by version 1 elaboration would possibly be synergistic in the deliverance of content.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Andrea,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the monotonous voice is a huge drawback. After listening to it for a while, one may likely drift off. In the case of the MS agent, there is also lesser user control as students are unable to choose what they want to learn.
I gather from your entry that you propose the two to be used in conjunction to maximise the learning process. Does it mean that without one, the other will not be able to fulfil its delivery in content? =)
This is an interesting proposal - using both versions. But depending how the two versions are delivered, there can be drawback as well because leaners sometimes are curious to know the differences between the two versions and they ended up trying both which becomes unnecessarily demainding. This is another area of research which is hard to reach conclusion.
ReplyDeleteHey Mr Woo,
ReplyDeletecould I check if you conveniently have any journal articles on Microsoft Agent used in educational multimedia purposes?
My group project intend to use Microsoft Agent as one of the ICT based tools and was wondering if you have any.
It is interesting you said that the synergistic use of both Version 1 and 2 has research but is difficult to reach conclusion? Is that what you're saying?