Untrodden final presentation manuscript

• I would like to present about Kineto, which enables a classroom experience that transcends time. Thank you in advance.

• My name is Shota Aoyama, an 11th grader at Gunma International Academy High School. This is my profile.

• Until now, in my school life from elementary to high school, I have been taking face-to-face classes or online classes like Zoom, and I didn’t feel any inconvenience. However, when I started watching educational videos on YouTube for test preparation, I suddenly felt frustrated because I couldn’t do simple operations like pause, rewind 10 seconds, or fast forward during regular classes, which are common on YouTube. I realized that I couldn’t go back a little to review when I didn’t understand something, or pause the video to take notes calmly. These operations can only be done in video lessons. However, it doesn’t mean that all classes can be done on YouTube. Without face-to-face or Zoom classes, the communication among students is lost.

• The combination of communication among students and time control seems impossible without a secret tool like Doraemon’s. However, we achieved it with Kineto this time.

• Kineto is an app that incorporates the teacher’s speech in traditional classes and the communication among students.

• Students can write on the blackboard provided for students to write on with an Apple Pencil or stick sticky notes.

• The content being written here is what multiple students watching the class have written.

• This blackboard is not just a regular blackboard, but a blackboard with a timeline. The blackboard serves as the class video, and it allows us to control time.

• If we are watching the class synchronously, the same part will be displayed.

• If there is a time delay, the messages will appear later, like this.

• So, in short, we can call it a “blackboard with a timeline.”

• I will now explain how this “blackboard with a timeline” achieves the combination of communication among students and time control that I mentioned earlier.

• First, if we categorize the existing class environments based on synchronicity, we can divide classes into two types.

  • The first type is where students experience the same content synchronously, such as face-to-face classes or Zoom classes, and the second type includes platforms like YouTube or Nico Nico Douga.
  • The advantages of face-to-face classes or Zoom classes are that there is abundant communication among students, while the disadvantage is that asynchronous time control is not possible.
  • On the other hand, YouTube videos or Nico Nico Douga allow time control, but it reduces communication among students.
  • Comparing them, we can see that the need for rich communication among students and the need for asynchronous time control are in a trade-off relationship.

• The extent to which these two needs are required depends on the form of the class. Let’s take a closer look at when they are specifically needed.

• First, for communication among students, in classes where students only listen to the teacher’s lecture without any interaction, there is no need for a class environment that allows communication among students. However, it is rare that it is completely fine, and in many cases, it is better to be able to share emotions such as laughter or surprise. Recently, classes where students actively participate in the class have become more common, and in classes where discussions about questions take place, rich communication among students is desired.- And as for how much the traditional classroom environment covers these aspects, in reality or Zoom classes, everything is possible. On the other hand, with YouTube videos, it is difficult to do anything other than listen to the teacher’s lecture. With Nico Nico Douga, using a pseudo-synchronous comment system, student-to-student communication is possible, surpassing what is possible with YouTube. However, this communication is limited to sharing emotions like laughter or surprise, and sharing simple opinions.

• Next, this diagram represents how much time control is desired in various forms of classes.

  • In classes where students are just passively listening, time control is not necessary. However, if students are actively engaged in the class, they may want to rewind a few seconds if they missed something, take a quick break, or pause the class to take notes.
  • In terms of how existing classroom environments cover this, it is obvious that Zoom or in-person classes do not allow for any time control. On the other hand, with YouTube or Nico Nico Douga, you can freely play, pause, and fast forward.

• By combining these two axes, as shown in this graph, we can see that the current classroom environment covers the shaded area when focusing on synchronicity. There are specific examples of how this can be achieved, and I believe progressive schools are successfully incorporating these methods.

• However, on the flip side, it means that classes can only exist within this shaded area, and classes that require the ability to discuss among students while controlling playback, rewind by ten seconds, etc., cannot be realized.

• Filling this empty space, this unexplored territory, and expanding the way classes are conducted is what “Kineto” aims to do.

• As you could see in the first video, Kineto meets the need for time control. In reality or Zoom, you cannot manipulate time according to your own pace, but with Kineto, as shown on the screen, you can.

• In Kineto, in order to give students a synchronous experience similar to Zoom, we intentionally did not adopt a seek bar UI like YouTube and instead implemented a time control UI centered around the current position of the student.

• Applying this to the previous diagram, Kineto naturally covers everything in this way.

• And with Kineto, while maintaining this time control, students can also communicate with each other. I will now explain the three features of Kineto that make this possible: the sense of shared time, synchronized communication in context, and bidirectional dialogue through elastic synchronization.

• First, the sense of shared time. In traditional platforms like YouTube, you do not get the feeling of attending the class together with others. This sense is crucial as it directly affects the motivation to participate in the class and is considered a major drawback of on-demand classes. With Kineto, through comments written by others, you can confirm the presence of other students and experience the sense of shared time even with those who are not actually synchronous. Additionally, we consider the high resolution in the time dimension, how quickly the content changes, to be important for this sense. In Kineto, both hand-drawn and sticky note comments are shared in real-time, as shown here.- Second, one of the disadvantages of asynchronous classes is the inability to have “synchronously contextualized communication”. What this means is that in online classes like YouTube lectures, in order to exchange opinions with other students, you need to use the YouTube comment section or another shared document. However, when doing this, students who are at different points in the video end up directly communicating with each other, which may lead to spoilers from others. This may not be a problem in meetings, but in the process of learning in a class, it can result in the loss of the opportunity to think for oneself.

• With the use of Kineto in class, you can know what others were thinking or feeling at that particular moment in time. This allows you to avoid spoilers during information exchange and communication.

• And the biggest feature of Kineto is its third point, bidirectional dialogue through elastic synchronization. In YouTube or Nico Nico Douga classes, it is not possible to have bidirectional dialogue with other students during the class. With Kineto, partial bidirectional dialogue is made possible through the mechanism of elastic synchronization.

• Elastic synchronization is a system that synchronizes users who are asynchronously watching through automatic changes in playback speed.

  • In this graph, the horizontal axis represents real-time, the vertical axis represents the time axis of the video being watched, and the slope represents the playback speed.
  • In traditional classes, you could only choose between constant synchronization or constant asynchronization (as shown in the right figure).
  • This is where…

• I have explained the concept so far, but I think it may be difficult to imagine, so let me introduce a class example.

• In this way, we have tried various classes in different positions on this graph, but this time, I will introduce a class that is most representative of Kineto, the one in the upper right corner.

• It is a moral class taught by Mr. Takamatsu at my school, with seven classmates participating.

• This class discussed the trolley problem, and first, we did…

• In interviews after this class, we received opinions like this:

  • Read the feedback.

• Finally, I would like to talk about the future prospects that came to mind during the development of Kineto.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the people who cooperated with us.

Thank you very much.

• We have tried many things, so let me introduce one example.

  • Mr. Kiryu, Professor Inami, and others.
  • We filmed the usage.
  • We tested it in various environments, such as the bottom left and bottom right, but the class in the upper right corner is the most impressive, so I will introduce an example of that class.

• We received cooperation from Mr. Takamatsu at Gunma International Academy Middle and High School to create a moral class where students share their opinions on the trolley problem. We also created a clicker that allows voting for Option A or Option B for this class.

  • Feedback…
  • Showing a sense of synchronization…
  • It is good to be proactive and participatory.

• Lastly, let’s talk about something on a larger scale.

• Because there is a trade-off, it can only be done on the line y = -x.

  • Looking back at elastic synchronization from this perspective, it can be applied in various ways. - Let’s talk about something on a larger scale (such as a prelude). - It is possible to consider a world with diverse timelines. - Currently, everyone is connected to Chronos time. - For example, only during meetings at work, you can spend time elastically synchronized. - Moreover, when considering this world with diverse timelines…

          - Kineto...
              - Separated the "timeline of classes" as one aspect.
              - By doing so, the trade-off was resolved.
      - I have talked about something on a larger scale, but to summarize...
    

• Organizing the class, it becomes like this:

  • Students…
  • When trying to connect these…

• Future prospects- Many students mentioned that it is difficult to imagine the class when they approach the teacher, so our future plan is to accumulate unique teaching examples that are specific to Kineto, like the moral class we had earlier.

• In parallel, we will also enhance the teaching materials that the teachers desire.

In summary,

• We are still exploring, so if there are any educators who would like to cooperate, please let us know.
• Acknowledgments.

Questions:

• Business.
• Can we have interactive discussions even asynchronously?
  • Thank you for your question. I skipped explaining this in the current explanation to avoid confusion, but…

To-do:

• Explain that we have already considered the motivation of both teachers and students. When is the best time to do this? Maybe at the beginning?

• Also, it is possible to synchronize with the teacher in practice.

• For example, self-peer teaching.

• The videos should correspond to the content at the top of the explanatory page.

• Consider a better phrase for “necessity.”

• Transform dialogue into communication.