This return is being enabled by AI, in particular Natural
Language Processing but also through other AI techniques such as adaptive
learning, machine learning, reinforcement learning. AI is largely invisible,
but it doe have to reveal itself through its user interface. AI is the new UI
but because the AI is doing a lot of the smart, behind the scenes work, it is
best fronted by a simple interface, the simpler the better. The messenger
interface seems to have won the interface wars, transcending menus and even
social media. Simple Socratic dialogue seems to have risen, through the process
of natural selection as THE interface of choice, especially on mobile.
So can this combination of AI and Socratic UI have an
application in learning? There are several reasons for being positive about
this type of interface in learning.
1. Messaging the new
interface
We know that messaging, the interface used by chatbots, has
overtaken that of social media over the last few years, especially among the
young. Look at the mobile home screen of any young person and you’ll see the
dominance of chat apps. The Darwinian world of the internet is the perfect
testing ground for user interfaces and messaging is what you are most likely to
see when looking over the shoulder of a young person.
So one could argue that for younger audiences, chatbots are
particularly appropriate, as they already use this as their main form of
communication. They have certainly led the way in its use but one could also
argue that there are plenty of reasons to suppose that most other people like
this form of interface.
2. Frictionless
Easy to use, it allows you to focus on the message not the
medium. The world has drifted towards messaging for the simple reason that it
is simple. By reducing the interface to its bare essentials, the learner can
focus on the more important task of communications and learning. All interfaces
aim to be as frictionless as possible and apart from speculative mind reading
from the likes of Elon Musk with Neuralink, this is as bare bones as one can
get.
3. Reduces cognitive
load
Messaging is simple, a radically, stripped down interface
that anyone can use. It requires almost no learning and mimics what we all do
in real life – simply dialogue. Compared to any other interface it is low on
cognitive load. There is little other than a single field into which you type, it
therefore goes goes at your pace. What also matters is the degree to which it
makes use of NLP (Natural Language Processing) to really understand what you
type (or say).
4. Chunking
One of the joys of messaging, and one of the reasons for its
success, it that it is succinct. It is by its very nature chunked. If it were
not, it wouldn’t work. Imagine being on a flight with someone, you ask them a
question and get a1 hour lecture in return or imagine. Chatbots chat, they
don’t talk at you.
5. Media equation
In a most likely apocryphal story, where Steve Jobs
presented the Apple Mac screen to Steve Wosniak, Jobs had programmed it so say
’Hello…”. Wosniak though it uncessary – but who was right? We want our
technology to be friendly, easy to use, almost our companion. This is as true
on learning as it is in any other area of human endeavour.
Nass & Reeves, in The
Media Equation, did 35 studies to show that we attribute agency to
technology, especially computers. We anthropomorphise technology in such a way
that we think the bot is human or at least exhibits human attributes. Our
faculty of imagination finds this easy, as witnessed by our ready ability to
suspend belief in the movies or when watching TV. It takes seconds and works in
our favour with chatbots, as dialogue is a natural form of human behaviour and
communication.
6. Anonymity
If you have qualms about chat replacing human activity,
remember also, that many learners are reluctant to ask their tutor, lecturer,
manager or boss questions, for fear of embarrassment, as it may reveal their
lack of knowledge. Others are simply quiet, even introverts. Anonymous learning,
through a chatbot, then becomes a virtue
not a vice. Wellbeing bots may also want to preserve anonymity. In this sense,
chatbots may be superior to live, human teachers and bosses. Time and time
again we see how technology is preferred to human contact – ATMs, online retail
and so on, in learning, in some circumstances we also witness this phenomenon.
7. Audio possible
The brain is a social organ, likes to receive stuff in
chunks and interact when learning. We are social apes, grammatical geniuses at
age 3 and learn to listen and speak long before we learn to read and write
(which take years). Chatbots, such as Siri and Alexa already exist and, with
the addition of text to speech and speech to text, turn chat into the exchange
of speech. Reading and writing are replaced by listening and speaking.
Conclusion
Of course, one must be careful here, as chatbots have real
limitations. They work best in narrow domains, with a clear purpose. Their
ability to deliver full-milk, sustained dialogue is limited. Nevertheless, they
can deliver learning functions aright across the learning journey from on-boarding,
learner engagement, learner support, mentoring, teaching, assessment, practice
and well being.
Chatbot interfaces can be fully scripted using no natural
language processing at all or they can use varying levels of NLP to allow for
variations on input. At the simplest level it can cope with synonyms and
different word order. Large services by the big players, such as IBM and
Microsoft offer much more naturalistic interfaces. Whatever your choice, regard
the dialogue interface as something separate.
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