Modelling Spoken Multimodal Instructional Systems

Abstract

The use of speech and spoken dialogue is a relatively recent addition to instructional systems. As, almost invariably, human instructors and students talk during teaching and training, spoken dialogue would seem to be an important factor in systems that emulate aspects of human instruction. In this chapter, we describe the origins and state of the art of spoken multimodal instruction. We then discuss strengths and weaknesses of the speech modality, key roles of spoken dialogue in multimodal instruction, functional issues in current spoken teaching and training systems, commercial prospects, and some main challenges ahead.