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Ai-Media, Nesta and University of Melbourne Join for UK Teacher Improvement Project

  • Published November 26, 2013 10:22AM UTC
  • Publisher Wholesale Investor
  • Categories Company Updates

MEDIA RELEASE, 26 November 2013

A new education technology project, led by the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education with industry partner Ai-Media and UK innovation champion Nesta, will help lift teaching quality by providing teachers with transcripts to better analyse their lessons and build their performance.

The technology will be trialled in eight English primary schools from January to September 2014, with £366,030 (A$625,300) in funding from the UK’s Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

The project will use Ai-Media’s Ai-Live speech to text technology to capture teachers’ spoken lessons in real time. After every lesson, teachers will receive a full transcript of their lesson along with visual indicators for high level improvements. Participating teachers will also receive extensive professional development and support throughout.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Janet Clinton said the project team is excited about the potential for this technology to lift teaching quality.  “The potential impact of this technology is huge,” she said. “Providing useful feedback for teachers in real time, based on sound educational pedagogy, empowers them to adjust their own practice and work with colleagues to continuously improve.

“Also, from a research perspective, building a database of lesson transcripts gives us a huge resource for conducting educational research, particularly into the impact of how teachers talk in the classroom. It’s really exciting.”

Tom Kenyon, programme director of Nesta’s education in a digital environment programme said: “We’re excited to be working with one of the world’s leading educational research teams and Ai-Media’s innovative technology to help UK teachers and students”.

Ai-Media’s Chief Executive Tony Abrahams said: “We are delighted to be working with committed educators, the EEF, Nominet Trust, Nesta and the University of Melbourne. In our project, teachers can review the text of their lessons using Ai-Live and we will test how they adjust and enhance their delivery and improve their classroom skills as a result. Our experience in Australia was that teachers really liked it, and change happened quite quickly.”

The UK’s Education Endowment Foundation and Nominet Trust announced the Ai-Media project as one of several they will fund to test whether new technology – including iPads, texting parents and online preparation for lessons – can help less advantaged pupils achieve better results. The outcomes could lead to new curriculums to assist students and teachers.

Further information:

Janet Clinton, Associate Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education University of Melbourne +61 3 9035 3697

Tony Abrahams, CEO, Ai-Media +612 8870 7700

 

Nesta is the UK’s innovation foundation. Nesta helps people and organisations bring great ideas to life by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills. Nesta is an independent charity and its work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery.
Nesta Operating Company is a registered charity in England and Wales with a company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833. Registered office: 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE. Please visit: www.nesta.org.uk  

The Education Endowment Foundation was founded in 2011 by lead charity The Sutton Trust, in partnership with Impetus, with £125m funding from the Department for Education. The EEF is a major grant-making charity dedicated to raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in English primary and secondary schools. Their vision is to break the link between family background and educational achievement, ensuring that pupils from all backgrounds have the opportunity to fulfil their aspirations and make the most of their talents. For more information: www.educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk

The University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education is home to a number of internationally recognised education experts, and was ranked world number 3 in education in the QS World Rankings by Subject 2013. Please see: www.education.unimelb.edu.au

Ai-Media is an Australian and UK-based for profit social business that provides high quality speech-to-text solutions for broadcast, government and education clients. Ai-Live uses a microphone on the original speaker, then the spoken words are sent live to a trained stenocaptioner or “re-speaker”, who uses software that converts speech into text that is sent back over the internet to screens read by the client in the originating classroom or meeting room. Learn more: www.ai-media.tv  and www.ai-live.com

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