Many people already know what Alexa is for, a virtual assistant that, from voice commands and networkswifiorbluetooth, communicates with other devices, allowing us to ask her to turn on the light, set an alarm or ask her to play a song. However, its functionalities go beyond: Alexa can assist in the learning process, inclusive in leisure moments, whether for practicality or fun.
How Alexa works
Alexa's activity execution process is based onmachine learning(machine learning), that is, she "learns" according to the commands she receives. Furthermore, she creates adaptations and functionalities according to the personal needs of the users, how to tell jokes and even make the grocery list.
For that, the tool has an online database that performs its searches. Like any machine that can be trained, over time it becomes increasingly efficient in its responses, according to the user's commands.
"Besides being an excellent personal assistant, Alexa brings a series of specific benefits in the teaching-learning process for both children and adults, explain Victor Haony Ribeiro de Oliveira, educational assessor of Mind Makers
Benefits of Alexa for teaching and learning
The use of this tool helps make the process of interacting with technology more organic in daily life, what can be useful even for those who usually fear technological tools. After all, when interacting with Alexa, the process becomes common for those who carry it out, incorporating it into your daily activities
Furthermore, it has many educational and fun resources, like games, interactive stories and challenges that can assist in learning various concepts in a playful way
"Alexa can help", also, in the development of cognitive skills, as problem solving, logical reasoning and vocabulary expansion, especially in environments where the assistant is used to help with educational tasks, explain Haony
Thinking about these conveniences and benefits, the specialist selected5 Alexa activations that combine practicality and fun, to create amazing moments on vacation, holidays and weekends. Check it out!
1.Weather and traffic information – very useful for preparing for road trips or trips to the beach.
2. Music reproduction – nothing like reproducing thatplaylistthat livens up any Sunday barbecue using just a voice command. The same goes for that unmissable podcast, that is often heard during moments of relaxation on the couch at home.
3. Reading books – reading a book is, for many people, a common habit. But how about gathering friends in the living room and asking Alexa to read a suspense book? Creating a scenario for this activity can make it even more immersive, how to choose lower lights and prepare that popcorn.
4. Question and answer games– When enabling the optionDaily Quiz, Alexa asks three questions of different levels (easy, medium and hard) and it is only possible to access the next question by getting the previous one right. Another similar option is theMillion Dollar Show, a quiz game based on Silvio Santos' show, that presents general knowledge questions worth points.
5. Guessing game Another fun activity to do with family and friends using Alexa is to enable the skillAkinator. Here, the virtual assistant will fulfill the role of a "genie in a lamp" who will try to figure out which character, fictitious or real, you imagined, based on a sequence of questions.
Mind Makers Born in Belo Horizonte, Mind Makers is an educational solution from the Somos Educação group that aims to enhance the quality of education through innovative subjects, created from an exclusive methodology. Combining hybrid teaching techniques, active learning, socioemotional and sociointeractionist, is a pioneer in Computational Thinking and Creative Entrepreneurship in Brazil, curricular subjects that seek to encourage their more than 95 thousand students to get hands-on and bring their ideas to life, protagonizing your study process. Currently, Mind Makers is the only Brazilian company to have its programming environments accepted for the globally promoted Hour of Code campaign, of the NGO Code.org
