Bill Acton's Embodiment Blog: future

Showing posts with label future. Show all posts

Monday, June 29, 2026

What is your AI-dentity? Here is a somewhat novel, wAI to find out!

Fasten your seat belt . . .

Try this prompt with your favorite AI-mate: "in 50 words, describe me!" Simply that, nothing more. It will be . . . revealing. Here is what I got initially:

"Curious, tech-savvy retired educator in Chattanooga, you blend language teaching skill with AI literacy, digital security expertise, and entrepreneurial energy. You run, explore culture, create content, and champion legal and identity protection, especially for seniors and internationals, while constantly experimenting with AI tools in daily learning and teaching."

Wikipedia

I liked that, but then I followed up with this:

"That sounds a little too much like you are my agent. Recast that speaking directly to me, no one else, confidentially, being as realistic and frank as possible, especially in terms of my potential and limitations. Keep that within about 500 words."

Here's what I got (for starters) Bracing, but useful . . . .

You are an unusually high‑agency 82‑year‑old who still thinks, writes, and learns at a level many mid‑career professionals never quite reach, and you know it. You are also keenly aware that age, energy, and tech shifts impose real limits on what you can build alone, especially commercially.

And four sections followed. Here are just the headers, not the full content. Each was about 100 words in length. (Be happy to send you that material as well upon request, of course.)

## How I actually see you ## Your real strengths ## Your limits and friction points ## Your potential, framed plainly

## Potential ways forward . . .

Q.E.D.

wracton@gmail.com

www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

Friday, March 9, 2012

Pronunciation futures: the iPad (haptic) HD

Photo courtesy of Slashgear

If you have to explain what "haptics" is to a colleague or student, from now on just let them touch your new iPad HD. Delighted to see that the case is now closed on how effective haptic interfaces are in engaging the user/learner. Thanks to Apple, the research on haptics and widespread application to touch technology will quickly become available. I'm told by friends who work with iPhone programming that our work is a natural for that interface--especially now that the door has been opened in Cuperinto. Now, rather than buying a couple dozen research articles online, I'm going to get an iPad HD. Welcome to the future of pronunciation teaching. Keep in touch.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Future pronunciation: Hands-free "optic" anchoring (with eye tracking)

Clip art: Clker

Ever since seeing the Clint Eastwood 1982 film, Firefox, I have been intrigued with the idea of using eye tracking for teaching pronunciation. In the film, Eastwood flies a stolen, high tech Russian fighter--controlled by his eyes and a few spoken Russian commands-- back to the US. As noted in the right column, the work of Bradshaw and Cook in developing "Observed Experiential Integration,", which involves extensive, therapeutic use of eye tracking, was fundamental to much of the early development of the HICP/EHIEP framework. Here is, basically, a marketing piece for a company that has developed (from my perspective) an amazing range of eye tracking-based software applications. As I read the product list, it would take only two or three applications to allow a learner to do almost all of the protocols or procedures that we have developed, hands free.

In fact, the "optic anchoring" created simply by tracking the eyes across the visual field in roughly the same patterns that we do with arms and hands would be at least as effective, if not more so. Although we do use some eye tracking techniques in working with accent reduction, in general EHIEP work, no explicit eye tracking is used, in part because of the inherent potency of eye tracking procedures and the absolute necessity of being formally trained in working with it. This technology is certainly worth "taking a look at" now. It is clearly integral to the future of virtual reality-based language instruction.

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What is haptic pronunciation teaching?

Basically, it is using gesture, touch and movement to teach pronunciation of English (or any language). What makes this method unique is that it is based on controlled and systematic use of gesture in doing that. (Often the problem with gesture use in language learning is that it can be "crazy" or random or intimidating or inconsistent, or not well-developed and tied to clear outcomes.)

The earlier "Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation (EHIEP) approach," now KINETIK, does a better job of enhancing presentation, modelling, feedback and correction. The method is simple and easy to follow. Once a 30-minute module is finished, teacher and students have a set of techniques to use in class anytime a pronunciation problem or opportunity comes up!

Haptic Preliminaries

I often begin workshops or papers with the comment that in about 40 years in the field I have had just one idea: that the systematic use of body movement is essential to effective and efficient pronunciation instruction. That has never been more relevant than today, with the general deemphasis on pronunciation and introduction of technology into the field. From both perspectives, the "haptic" perspective approach developed here offers great promise. I can at least promise you a "moving" experience!

What is the KINETIK Method?

KINETIK is the name of the new v6.0 haptic pronunciation teaching system. About six years earlier we were using the acronym, "Haptic Integrated Pronunciation for Other/Extended Circle English Speakers" (HIPOECES)--still there in the url of this blog!

Haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation is:

A different way to learn pronunciation, based in part on Arthur Lessac’s notion of “Training the body first.” It is also based on research in the use of movement and touch in learning and training. It:

Looks somewhat like a combination of aerobics, sign language and Taichi

Provides a basic foundation for continued, self-directed pronunciation learning and classroom instruction

Designed for use by relatively untrained teachers but appropriate for all teachers (and learners) of all levels

Focuses on pronunciation used in conversation (not all words in English)

Is a highly “brain-and-body-friendly” system that promotes efficient learning of integrated tasks in general

Designed to promote integrated classroom pronunciation instruction and enable integration of conscious pronunciation work into spontaneous speaking.

Introduction

This blog was formerly named: HIPoeces (pronounced 'hI-pƏ-cIs), basically an approach to teaching English pronunciation to speakers of "outer and expanding" circle Englishes (including that population commonly termed: non-native speakers) but also compatible with the use of local models other than simply Standard" American" or RP. Using Kachru's "Inner, expanding and outer circles" model to characterize the breadth of Englishes and speakers of those, HIPoeces (now HICP) systems focus on developing haptically-centered pedagogical models and methods which can be adapted for teaching the pronunciation of various Englishes as they are spoken and taught by "owners" of those varieties.

In theory, the underlying principles can be applied to teaching the sound system of any language. Most language instructors intuitively use a great deal of movement and tactile anchoring in the classroom. The essential question is how to use that resource systematically, especially so that those learners who are less "haptic" in nature are also "moved" by the method.

Simply put, the HICP model/method is based on the idea of speaking along with arm and hand movement, not all that different from that used in sign languages. Most movement patterns are taken from either typical classroom pronunciation instruction practice or from related fields, such as psychotherapy or sports.

Most blog posts link to research that relates to the general HICP model, that is studies dealing with the role of gesture, touch, movement, learning modalities, learning in output, use of the visual field in learning, and experiential learning.

DEFINITIONS:

"Haptic" techniques- procedures that involve both movement and touch (Obvious examples include clapping hands, tapping feet, or holding an object and shaking it to the rhythm of a poem.)

"HICP techniques" - procedures that are haptic and also explicitly coordinated with phonological structures and/or discourse prosody (For example, clapping hands on primary stressed syllables in multi-syllable words, or doing a dance step on key words in conversational turns.)

"Haptic integration"- The haptic dimension probably functions as much to anchor visual and auditory material as it does to assist the learner in getting the "felt sense" of the sound or sound process. Lack of integration into spontaneous speech being such a serious potential shortcoming of instruction, haptic engagement seems a promising bridge to more accurate fluency.

"Visual field" - in HICP extensive use is made of the visual field in front of the learner. (For example, a modified version of the IPA vowel chart is anchored haptically in the imagination of the learner, directly in front of the upper body, and used for several purposes throughout the program.)