Hey readers,
For this week’s assigned blog post, we have been assigned to try out an AI tool that was discussed in last week’s class. I checked out a few of them, but the one I enjoyed the most was an AI app called Speechify.
It took me a while to figure out how to get extensions working on my web browser, as I am not super familiar with them, but I managed to get Speechify to work and had it read out a google document for me! My first impression of it was that it is indeed kind of creepy for AI to be able to generate the voices of random people throughout the world.
It’s like a dream come true to hear people like Mr. Beast or Snoop Dogg reading my writing!!
Just kidding.
But all jokes aside, having features like this is a fun novelty… and having options like this could also improve student engagement with the app. I personally hate the robotic Microsoft text-to-speech voices, so I could definitely see myself using this program in instances where I am too busy to read but want to listen to a more human-like voice… Does that make sense? I generally struggle to engage when it’s Microsoft Mary reading a chapter of my textbook to me.
And that’s where I see the usefulness of this app in contexts of education. It’s a fairly simple app that can be usefully applied to pretty much any grade-level, and could be used to help elementary students who may struggle with their reading or high school students who just don’t enjoy reading, all the way up to post-secondary students who may just be trying to multi-task. I also think for students who are visually impaired, having a more human-like voice reading to them is a lot more engaging than the previously mentioned Microsoft text-to-speech voices.
Another nice thing about Speechify is the customizable speed of the text-to-speech. You can slow it down or speed it up to whatever speed is most conducive to your learning.
As an English minor, I admit that I am kind of biased against the use of AI, and am overall worried about its uses in the context of education. With tools like Speechify, I find that my stance on AI kind of softens, as it serves a purpose of providing further accessibility to students who may struggle with reading.
I wonder how much things like Speechify are going to affect the reading levels of kids in our future classrooms. I mean, if they never have to read anything because Snoop Dogg reads everything to them, how badly is their reading ability going to drop?
Bernice
It would be really fun to use Speechify to hear a conversation with a celebrity. I believe there are only celebrities, right? I imagined Abraham Lincoln speaking with me. It is also scary; they can create fake audio recordings.
I like the customizing part: “Another nice thing about Speechify is the customizable speed of the text-to-speech. You can slow it down or speed it up to whatever speed is most conducive to your learning.” It sounds to me like a voiceover. I can give it a try and see how it works for me.
Thank you for your post.