Continuing the Conversation

Okay Google! I want to have a conversation. Imagine the possibilities of being able to have a conversation with a personal assistant device because this setting is now available. This morning my FETC co presenter on data privacy and using personal assistants in the school setting, Eileen Belatock, sent me an article with the question Have you seen this?

The title How to Enable Continued Conversations for Google Assistants struck a chord as I immediately began to wonder what having a conversation with the Google Home could mean. I read the article, which talks about this excellent feature and how easy it is to change the settings. I wondered if this was really an excellent feature for a classroom or to use with students.

My mind was racing as I began to ponder what this actually meant, so I decided to do some investigating. I followed the instructions of how to enable the conversation view to see what would happen, but as soon as I got to the toggle option to turn continued conversation on, I found my answer.

Wait a minute! Is it excellent that the mic will be turned back on after every response for the Google Home to listen? Do we want it to listen to us after we immediately ask it a question? Our class worked hard to develop a RUP and guidelines for the Google Home use in the classroom, and by turning this feature on we actually violate our own policy. We turn off the mic and unplug it after a question is answered. I asked Eileen what her tech director advice was, and she confirmed my own thinking. She said, “NO!” we should not be turning this option on.

I discussed this feature with students to gather their thoughts.

Owen shared we have no idea who can see our responses on Google’s end so we should not turn this feature on. Jacob did not think we should turn it on because it will hear other people talking around you and record that while it is waiting for a response. He felt it does not have the right to hear other conversations. Ava added that the Google Home should not be listening to us all the time. Chase also thought we should not turn it on because it could pick up questions students ask to the teacher. They are not asking the Google Home the follow up question, so it should not be recording. Jenny added one of our guidelines is to unplug it when we are done with it, so turning it on would not follow that rule. Emmeline asked why we even need it since we are asking one question. We do not ask multiple questions. The class voted and decided we do not need this feature. However, they felt some people might find it to be an excellent feature but here in school it is not one we want to use.

Therefore, our class will not be using this feature that I did not find excellent. Before you turn on a new feature, I always suggest doing some research, talking to people, and making sure it is a safe practice to use with students. I will leave you with a question. How much data do we need the Google Home to collect?