Tag: design

The Future of AI Voices: A Story, A Shock, and A Question

Um. Hi. Yeah, it’s me. It’s been a while, I know. A lot has happened.

So, where to begin?

How about a quick story—something that felt strangely destined to happen and still has me questioning its implications for humanity?

Melodramatic much?

Welcome to the brain of Dave Goodrich.

But I digress.

A Throwback to the Amiga 500

Commodore Amiga 500, 16-bit computer (1987)

When I was about the age of my oldest son, Gibson—who’s 14 and about to enter high school—someone gifted our family an Amiga 500. We had no clue what it was, so by default, it became mine.

One of its coolest features? Text-to-speech. I could type something, and the computer would read it back to me. Mind. Blown. That moment sparked a lifelong fascination with speech synthesis.

Since then, I’ve used text-to-speech (TTS) technology almost daily for nearly two decades. It’s been a game-changer for my reading habits, my studies, and my ability to consume content on the go.

A few of my go-to tools:

  • Apple products (built-in screen readers)
  • Voice Dream (a fantastic mobile app for reading PDFs, articles, and books)
  • Speech Central (another great TTS app)

But this week, I had an experience that shook my assumptions about AI voices.

A Conversation That Changed Everything

I was having lunch at MSU’s library when I overheard two people engaged in a deep, heartfelt conversation. The way they laughed, paused, and responded to each other—it was something only humans could do. Right?

I thought to myself:

“There is no way AI voices will ever capture this kind of emotional nuance.”

Two hours later, I stumbled upon a video of a guy chatting with an AI-generated voice on a website called Sesame.com.

I couldn’t believe my ears.

The AI’s voice wasn’t just realistic—it had tone, pacing, and personality. It sounded… human.

Then, my colleague Jay mentioned that you can upload PDFs to Notebook.LM and generate an AI-voiced podcast of the content. Curious, I took the terms of service from Sesame.com, fed them into Notebook.LM, and—boom—I had a surprisingly engaging podcast about terms of service.

Seriously. It was interesting. It was entertaining.

And it got me thinking…

What Happens Next?

  • How does this technology make you feel?
  • How could AI-generated voices be used for good?
  • How could they be misused?
  • How do we embrace innovation while protecting ourselves from its risks?

I don’t have all the answers. But I do know this—things are changing fast, and we need to pay attention.

What do you think?

Holy bananas, Batman, OLC Accelerate is next week!

I’m so excited to be heading to Washington DC next week for the OLC Accelerate conference! This will be my first time attending since the pandemic and I’ve missed it. I’m also looking forward to presenting on “Design For Change: Building DEI Training Hiring Committees At MSU,” which has been a rewarding project I have been able to be a part of this past year.

View from above to Washington DC, US Capitol Building. Constitution Avenue. Free to use under the Unsplash License from Vlad Gorshkov

OLC Accelerate is one of the premier conferences for online learning professionals. It brings together over 2,000 attendees each year to discuss the latest trends, research, and best practices in online education. I’m really looking forward to learning from the excellent keynote speakers, thought leaders, and practitioners who will be presenting.

The timing couldn’t be better either. Our university is working to grow and improve our online programs. I plan on attending sessions on instructional design, online student engagement, and using data and analytics to enhance the student experience. I hope to discover new strategies and tools we can implement to take our online offerings to the next level.

Networking is another benefit I’m eager to tap into at the conference. I’ll have the chance to connect with peers from other institutions, vendors, and online learning experts. Building these relationships will be invaluable as we continue innovating. I’m excited for the opportunity to exchange ideas and get feedback on the work we’re doing.

Washington DC is such an amazing city as well. I’m looking forward to exploring some of the history and culture during my free time at the conference. This will be my first visit to the nation’s capital. I can’t wait to see the monuments and museums, take in the architecture, and sample local cuisine.

Attending OLC Accelerate is an investment in my professional development and growth as an online learning leader. I’m confident I’ll return with fresh inspiration, knowledge, and contacts that will help strengthen our university’s online offerings. I can’t wait to immerse myself in the latest ideas and connect with fellow practitioners who are as passionate about digital education as I am. It’s going to be an amazing experience! I’ll be Tweeting (or Xing is it now?) from my account here during the conference next week and look forward to meeting you in person if you are there!

See you soon!

-dave

Fitness Coaching Failure

{ …commentary on the traditional over-emphasis on the pedagogy of lecture… }

“I stood in front of that class each day for six weeks and demonstrated perfect form in my workouts. They all took great notes. Why didn’t they get in shape?” -Hypothetical Failing Fitness Coach

Man lifts cats as weights
LOL Cat Fitness Fail Shared by James at FITBODYBUZZ

It is a common misperception about teaching that the educators job is solely to instruct. Placing this concept in the context of an athletic or fitness coach can help reveal the flaw in thinking here. It isn’t that demonstrating good form or good practices isn’t important. Quite the contrary. But if that is all that happens without space and feedback provided for people to practice on their own or with others, the value of that instruction is prone to be wasted in the ether.

Eric Westervelt and Carl Wieman ascertain in this NPR Interview that:

“…undergraduate Higher Ed still worships at the old false idol called the Big Lecture and doesn’t seem to want to ask whether it’s working.”

It is possible to be incredibly in shape and fail at helping others to do so.

Similarly, it is possible to be incredibly smart and unable to impart it on others without a fundamental understanding of how people learn.

Let’s get smarter together on our shared values of teaching & learning as educators.

learn. design. reflect. – a podcast

Conversations about learning, design and the immeasurable value the practice of reflection provides for both.

Dave Goodrich
Dave Goodrich at the Jackson Young Professional’s New Years Party, 2017

Hello, my name is Dave and you are listening to the first ever learn, design, and reflect podcast.

I get to help create engaging online, hybrid and technology enhanced courses with smart and caring instructors.

This podcast is an attempt to further connect with a rich and growing professional learning network on the topics of learning, design and the immeasurable value the practice of reflection provides for both.

My goal is to not waste your time. If you are like me, you are subscribed to a rich and growing library of podcasts that far exceed any human capacity to keep up with. In light of this, I want to limit most episodes to under 5 minutes. This is a challenge to myself to get to the point and only share the most valuable ideas and resources I can.

I want to earn your trust as a listener. Honestly, there are so many amazing resources out there to help you connect, learn and grow as an educator or designer. I hope to cultivate a learning dialog here that contributes meaningfully to the larger conversations in the field. Thanks for joining me.

Again, my name is Dave and you’ve been listening to the learn, design, reflect podcast.

learn. design. reflect.
learn. design. reflect.
learn. design. reflect. - a podcast



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hello, world!

Gibson and me at Binder Park Zoo
Gibson and me at Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, MI

Friends,

They say you are a writer if nothing makes you more excited than a blank page.

Maybe that makes me a writer?

I don’t know, I think a writer is someone who writes and writes often because it is in their bones.

I’m excited to start a brand-new writing and reflective practice here in this space. Much of it will be for my own learning and growth as someone considering the prospects of being a PhD candidate, but I also plan to reflect on my life as a husband, a father, a musician, an educator and a learning designer.

I look forward to connecting with those of you who might join me in the practice of writing as reflection as we trod our learning paths together.

Thanks for stopping by!

IDEO HCD Process

The folks at IDEO have made a reputation of being an award-winning global design firm that coined the “human-centered” approach to design thinking.

 

Description of framework

screen-shot-2016-09-26-at-10-14-30-amThe folks at IDEO have made a reputation of being an award-winning global design firm that coined the “human-centered” approach to design thinking. They use this strategy effectively to help a diverse portfolio of organizations to both innovate and grow. IDEO’s president and CEO Tim Brown describes design thinking itself as:

“… a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

So, what does this look like?

For one thing, it isn’t necessarily linear. In fact, IDEO recognizes that each project and client they work with invariably has its own context and character. At the same time, they do identify three primary phases that each design thinking project experiences. Conveniently, each phase begins with the letter “I”:

  • Inspiration
  • Ideation
  • Implementation

These three phases create space for the designer to do three primary things:

  1. Inspiration: Build and nourish deep empathy for individuals and communities they are designing for.
  2. Ideation: Inform the design of new solutions around improved understood of the problems they face.
  3. Implementation: Creating space to test ideas and prototypes of these solutions before implementing them.  

IDEO goes on to explain that the way organizations can transform the way they develop products, services, processes and strategy by thinking creatively like a designer. They propose that it is possible for professionals to use the creative tools of designers and approaches they use to solve a vast array of challenges even if they have never had formal training as a designer. This is because they describe design thinking itself as a deeply human process that draws on tacit knowledge we all intuitively have which can be overshadowed by more conventional problem-solving practices.

The IDEO website describes design thinking as a method that “relies on our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that are emotionally meaningful as well as functional, and to express ourselves through means beyond words or symbols.”

They caution that over-reliance on methods that are strictly analytical or rational can be just as risky as running an organization on feeling or intuitions alone. As IDEO walks with clients into new visions of what their operations could look like in the future, they use a holistic mix of both analytical tools and generative techniques. They do this using design thinking as an integrated “third way” that isn’t pigeonholed into just one way of thinking.

This results in activities that integrate business model prototyping, data visualization, innovation strategy, organizational design, qualitative and quantitative research, and IP liberation. Each of these methods is done with conscious consideration of both the capabilities of the clients and the needs of their customers. Before a final solution is designed, there are multiple iterations that are relying on feedback loops and assessments that inform each rapid modification. The goal is to deliver appropriate, actionable and tangible strategies that result in new and innovative options for growth each of which are grounded in business viability and market demands.

According to their website, IDEO’s approaches have helped them achieve some of the following milestones as an organization:

  • Ranked as one of the most innovative companies in the world by business leaders in a global survey by Boston Consulting Group
  • Ranked #10 on Fast Company’s list of the Top 25 Most Innovative Companies
  • Winner of 38 Red Dot awards, 28 iF Hannover awards, and more IDEA awards than any other design firm
  • Ranked #16 on Fortune’s list of 100 most-favored employers by MBA students
  • Awarded the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s National Design Award for Product Design

References

You can read more at:

Wiley on OER and Open Course Frameworks

In it, Wiley mentions that, “The biggest barriers to OER adoption are the time and effort it takes faculty to find resources, vet them for quality, and align them with course outcomes.”

Commons, Creative icon | Icon Search Engine | Iconfinder http://goo.gl/6DoMBThis recent post by David Wiley will be stirring a another good conversation with interesting links that I couldn’t resist sharing here:

 

  • Open Course Frameworks: Lowering the Barriers to OER Adoption | iterating toward openness http://goo.gl/j1B4y
In it, Wiley mentions that,
“The biggest barriers to OER adoption are the time and effort it takes faculty to find resources, vet them for quality, and align them with course outcomes.”
He asserts that Open Course Frameworks can help solve these problems by helping institutions adopt evidence-based approaches to using OER for eliminate textbook costs and improving student success.

LearnDAT Farewell Post

Together, each member of the LearnDAT team makes up an amazing pool of talent, creativity, knowledge, skill and experience in the field of distance education.

LearnDAT Holloween Party 2012
LearnDAT Halloween Party 2012

For over the past year, I have had the privilege of working with the incredibly talented instructional and educational media designers at LearnDAT (this is a picture of some of us at our 2012 halloween party). Together, each member of the LearnDAT team makes up an amazing pool of talent, creativity, knowledge, skill and experience in the field of distance education. I will miss them very much.

Friday is my last day in LearnDAT as I have accepted a new instructional design position at Jackson Community College. I look forward to venturing into this new role that is closer to home and plan to stay in touch with my colleagues here at Michigan State. Thank you, for everything!

The team assembled here is so innovative, creative, collaborative and effective. Since being here I have learned so much from each person. There is a rich history here and notoriety not only in the MSU community, but in the field of instructional design and instructional technology in general. It makes me incredibly proud to have been able to contribute to a handful of the ongoing great things going on here.

Interview of Carrie on Google Presentation Collaboration with Students

I had a great conversation today about using Google Presentations for collaborative learning with Carrie Heeter and Keesa Muhammad from LearnDAT.

I had a great conversation today about using Google Presentations for collaborative learning with Carrie Heeter and Keesa Muhammad from LearnDAT. Check it out:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l14KQzwO50]

 

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