Blog 1: Google Translate Interesting Finds
Welcome to my first blog entry for this course. This isn't my first time blogging but it is my first time blogging my personal thoughts as well as using google alerts for my content. When I looked back at my google alerts, at first I was a little concerned that I may not have chosen the best topic for alerts as I wasn't getting many articles with content that was relevant to me. I finally stumbled upon two articles that caught my interest and seemed relevant to teaching. Both described new technology advances that are similar to Google translate. I currently use Google translate to communicate to the best of my ability with my L2 students, so I thought it would be great to either find out what is new with this current tool or find out more about similar technologies.
In the first article by Terena Bell (https://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/is-neural-machine-translation-ready-for-marketing-content/) she explained how when Google translate first came about, people tried to translate popular songs and quickly realized that it wasn't accurate. I had no idea that people had tried this and those were the results which after reflecting, is probably the reason why many of my L2 students still don't always fully understand what I communicate to them through Google translate. It makes perfect sense since many of our English language words can have double meanings and our language is so complex. It also uncovered that there is a new technology called neural machine translation. This is mostly being used by companies, but it is translation machines that simulate actual human neurons when using for translation.
The second article was the article that I was the most excited to read about because it could be very useful for my L2 students in school but also socially help them interact with their peers. Angela Moscaritolo (https://www.pcmag.com/news/364074/swiftkey-for-android-adds-in-app-translations-for-texts) a new in-app translator powered by Microsoft but only for Android. The app is called SwiftKey that isn't new to the technology world but it now allows for in-app translation. The person texting can now translate the message into the correct language before sending it as well as receive the message already translated. This makes for seamless conversations to take place. The only negative I can foresee so far is that it is not available for iOS yet at this point and many districts utilize Apple products.
Once again I wasn't sure how the whole Google alerts process would go, but I am pleasantly surprised at what new things I have found and learned in just our first week of completing this!
In the first article by Terena Bell (https://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/is-neural-machine-translation-ready-for-marketing-content/) she explained how when Google translate first came about, people tried to translate popular songs and quickly realized that it wasn't accurate. I had no idea that people had tried this and those were the results which after reflecting, is probably the reason why many of my L2 students still don't always fully understand what I communicate to them through Google translate. It makes perfect sense since many of our English language words can have double meanings and our language is so complex. It also uncovered that there is a new technology called neural machine translation. This is mostly being used by companies, but it is translation machines that simulate actual human neurons when using for translation.
The second article was the article that I was the most excited to read about because it could be very useful for my L2 students in school but also socially help them interact with their peers. Angela Moscaritolo (https://www.pcmag.com/news/364074/swiftkey-for-android-adds-in-app-translations-for-texts) a new in-app translator powered by Microsoft but only for Android. The app is called SwiftKey that isn't new to the technology world but it now allows for in-app translation. The person texting can now translate the message into the correct language before sending it as well as receive the message already translated. This makes for seamless conversations to take place. The only negative I can foresee so far is that it is not available for iOS yet at this point and many districts utilize Apple products.
Once again I wasn't sure how the whole Google alerts process would go, but I am pleasantly surprised at what new things I have found and learned in just our first week of completing this!
Your points about Google Translate are extremely important! Two years ago, my district had a huge shortage of ESL instructors. While there were 27 ESL students in my school, they were served by an instructor who spent her mornings in another building. Many of my fellow teachers relied heavily upon Google translate in their classrooms. As you point out, it can be a useful tool, but it is certainly not flawless. We need to understand how best to implement technology just as much as we need to understand how to use it!
ReplyDeleteI love SwiftKey! I have been using it for years on my phone for texting, but did not realize that they added the translation feature. My district tries to discourage students from using Google Translate as a crutch because as you mentioned, it can be unreliable, especially for multiple-word meanings. Many of the students in our foreign language program will try to use Google Translate for their homework assignments and I have been told that it is very easy for the teachers to tell when they do this because of the answers they get. Have you ever seen the feature in the Google Translate app to translate images into different languages? It's really neat! (Here's a brief video of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l89ipulWLc)
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