Hachigome Meeting Presentation Manuscript

Untapped2020 §

• 👨‍💻 Shintaro Aoyama

• 🏫 Gunma International Academy, 11th grade

• I will proceed with this flow.

• 📕 Project Overview

  • First, let me explain the overview.

  • In short, it aims to restructure the synchronous and asynchronous aspects of classes to create a new format that combines the best of both worlds.

    • There have been changes in direction since the Boost conference, so I will also talk about that.

  • As background, synchronous classes refer to those where interactions with other students and teachers are involved, such as face-to-face classes or Zoom sessions. However, they lack control over the pace of playback.

  • On the other hand, asynchronous classes allow for such control, but communication becomes limited, unlike in synchronous classes.

  • There is a trade-off between these two approaches.

  • In synchronous classes, there are two types of dialogues:

    • Teacher-student
    • Student-student

  • We are reevaluating the synchronicity of these two dialogues.

  • During the Boost conference, the focus was mainly on the synchronicity between teachers and students, with student-student interaction being considered as an additional aspect. However, there has been a shift in direction, and now the main focus is on how to facilitate communication among students.

  • Teacher ⇄ Student

    • This is a straightforward concept.
    • It involves operations like pausing, rewinding by 10 seconds, similar to when watching a YouTube Live video.
    • By doing so, we can control the pace of the class, which is one of the advantages of asynchronous classes.
    • The previous slide shows that such actions are possible, and it allows students to match the speed of receiving and understanding the information from the teacher.
    • Although it is referred to as teacher-student interaction, it actually includes materials used in class by the teacher.

  • Student ⇄ Student

    • When we make teacher-student interaction asynchronous, we lose the synchronicity among students.

    • If there is no interaction among students, it becomes similar to just watching a lecture video on YouTube.

    • The value of synchronous classes lies in the communication among students.

      • Student-student dialogue can be pseudo-synchronous.
        • It means that a message from a student who is ahead in the timeline is seen by other students who are behind.
        • Since they are experiencing the same class video, it can be considered pseudo-synchronous.
      • For example, in this diagram, when B’s message connects A and C, A is connected to C.

    • As a medium for dialogue, we use annotations on the video.

    • This allows for dialogue while still performing the traditional task of taking notes.

      • For example, if we use a commenting system like Nico Nico, it would be difficult to keep up with the class while also making comments.
      • In practice, it would look something like this.

    • In the previous slide, I mentioned that there is both pseudo-synchronicity and synchronicity.

    • In terms of usage, we assume that even if it is not completely synchronous, students can listen simultaneously by aligning the playback position.

      • I will discuss this in more detail in the prospects and consultation section, but by adjusting the playback speed and achieving partial synchronization, we can switch between synchronization and pseudo-synchronization.

  • The actual environment for implementing this includes both in-person classes where students wear headphones and watch the screen, as well as an online format.

  • In summary, this project aims to dissolve the synchronicity of classes and create a new form of communication that combines pseudo-synchronicity and synchronicity, allowing for the best of both synchronous and asynchronous classes.

• ✅ Progress Report- What can be done

  • We have created the necessary tools to enable the minimum requirements for delivering and sharing comments in a class.
  • Video streaming is done using RMTP and HLS, and the delay is currently minimized to about 5 seconds.

• User testing

  • Seven classmates from school and other friends participated using their own iPads and Apple Pencils.
  • We explained the project overview and tested to see how communication would take place.
  • For the class video, we borrowed a video used by a Japanese language teacher during an online class.
    • Since the purpose of this test was mainly to test student communication, we used pre-recorded videos.
    • The videos had audio explanations along with slides.
  • We will discuss the findings, such as the communication that occurred and the problems that were identified.
  • First, there were cases where…
  • Unexpected events and issues that occurred included…
  • There were also instances where the content overlapped, not just the position.
    • While we anticipated overlapping positions to some extent, overlapping content was unexpected.
  • In terms of the communication that occurred…
    • First, there were acknowledgments.
      • Even in an environment that is not completely synchronous, having acknowledgments suggests that the students feel like they are synchronized with their peers during the class.
    • We also observed a chain of comments like this.

• In summary,

  • We noticed conflicts in position or content.
  • Furthermore, during last month’s presentation, we were unsure if there were any differences compared to Nico Nico Douga, but we were able to identify specific differences and the unique advantages and problems of this comment-based pseudo-synchronous system.
  • We also discovered details such as the speed at which text disappears.

• As for the current implementation of the video, only basic pen functionality has been included, but it is expected to be easy to implement features such as different colors and thicknesses.

• Additionally, although I didn’t do anything myself, I had a school friend create a logo like this. (Briefly mentioned)

• 💭 Outlook / Consultation

  • First, regarding the issue of overlapping positions or content,
    • For positions, I believe the problem can be solved by showing a glimpse of the near future when someone is about to write in an overlapping area. However, I am still searching for a solution to the problem of overlapping content.
    • If you have any ideas or thoughts related to the meaning of the comments, please share them.
  • Regarding how to display on the teacher’s side,
    • The teacher’s side will always be ahead in time, but I am unsure how to present comments related to slightly older content.
      • Simply displaying all comments from past videos is not feasible due to limited screen space, so I would appreciate any suggestions regarding the UI design for presenting comments.
    • Additionally, we have not yet conducted user tests to evaluate the teacher’s experience, so we would like to focus on that in the future.
  • Adjusting each user’s experience
    • In a previous slide, we discussed the idea of pseudo-synchronization and synchronization by adjusting the playback speed to facilitate dialogue between users with minimal time differences.
    • Originally, we were developing a system with a conductor-like central role to manage and synchronize the time of each device.
    • However, we are currently considering whether it would be better to distribute and decentralize this adjustment to each device.
    • The reason for this is that the communication itself follows such a decentralized structure, so we believe it would be a natural implementation.- Also, since each student may have unpredictable movements (such as suddenly stopping or going back), I think it is better for each device to make its own judgment based on a certain degree of unpredictability, rather than trying to manage it centrally.

• Additionally, I think this implementation seems more interesting.

• As for the phenomenon of fireflies being attracted to each other, where each individual blinks and gradually synchronizes, I am considering something similar to that.

• However, I am still unsure if this direction is good, so I would like to hear your opinions.

• How to actually promote the use of this technology:

  • I am considering targeting classes where only information exchange is required, so subjects like physical education are not currently included.
  • In that case, I think high schools and universities are more suitable than elementary and middle schools.
  • Currently, I am developing it for iOS, but since the class can still function even if not everyone uses it, I plan to introduce it in a way where students can use it optionally, only if they want to, as long as the available platforms are limited.
  • In this situation, I would like to hear your opinions on what approaches are possible to promote the adoption of such technology.

• That concludes everything. Thank you very much.