Innovation Forum

On this occasion, our aim is to offer a brief look at the voice resource, specifically Voice IP, which, although not a new technology, as we know, we felt it would be interesting to look at it by highlighting some modern voice applications and considering in the last instance the possible educational aspects of its properties.

Why VOIP?

Because voice signals encapsulated in data packages use the same internet protocol (IP) so that they can be routed and broadcast using the same data networks as the internet uses.

From the outset, this confers an increase in the number of networks, naturally including wireless ones, so that voice can be carried to its destinations. Therefore, the number of devices and applications that can access it grows, which quickly and easily translated means better access to more information.

The convergence of voice and data afforded by this technology has enabled the appearance and integration of different network services, such as instant messaging services, videoconferencing and advance telephony services, to name but a few.

Before we go on to name some of the applications and functions that they have, we will first give a brief run-through of the pros and cons of this technology.

Pros:

• The most commonly known is the reduction in costs of calls between voice IP users, which are generally free between any provider over a connection such as the internet.
• Their transmission requires very small bandwidths.
• They enable communication in areas with scarce mobile network cover.

Cons:

• Depending on the bandwidth, there may be delays or latencies and bindings in the quality of the service.
• Connections use up quite a lot of energy, especially in Wifi connections, so the consumption of mobile batteries is an aspect yet to be considered.
• In the mobile telephony segment, the difficulties for interoperability or passage of traffic to the switched network. Although it is possible for voice IP calls to go, for example, from Wifi networks to mobile networks such as 3G-HSPDA, in practice, due to the evident interference in the mobile telephony and voice calls market, this option is either normally restricted or, if it occurs, it is usually through contracting costly data traffic plans or additional plans that sometimes have hidden small print.

In this sense, EU telecommunications regulators have an immense amount of work in their constant analysis of the conduct of the mobile telephony operators that affect services such as voice IP.

VOIP and the Web

As we mentioned earlier, the fact that voice can be encoded in datagrams and travel over broadband allows this information to penetrate web structures and integrate with their systems and tools, which gives rise to numerous possibilities.

Many of us have already integrated the so-called “Softphones” into our daily lives, software that simulates a telephone on a computer and which, acting as an IP telephone, allows us to make VOIP calls to softphones of other computers or to conventional telephones. Some of the most widely known on a lengthy list are Skype, Zoiper and Gizmo.

Some of them incorporate applications so that they can be installed on mobile devices or terminals such as telephones, PDAs and iPods and can make VOIP calls using Wifi connections (Jajah, Nimbuzz, Truphone, Skype, among others).

Voice applications and importance to e-learning

So far we have looked at the main characteristics of VOIP, but ¿can this technology help favour the improvement and fostering of teaching in e-learning environments? The answer is without doubt a yes insofar as it improves communications and, as we mentioned earlier, its ability to enter the web “garden”.

To offer a better picture of what we are describing, imagine for a moment that in a virtual learning environment or platform, be it e-learning or mobile learning, we could integrate or connect to it, at a more or less attainable and universal scale at the user level, voice-based communication and basic or advanced telephony resources of the likes of:

• Attendance monitoring or online attendance: to know the people available to talk to, being able to establish privacy policies (e.g. Bria, Microsoft Office Comunicator, Zoiper Communicator).
• Call quality monitoring: to know the bandwidth quality (e.g. Gizmo).
• Possibility of establishing call mapping: to know the location of each call (e.g. Gizmo).
• Videoconferencing or videocall systems (e.g. Zoiper, Skype).
• Advanced instant messaging and integral contact management options: allows the synchronous operation of several instant messaging networks and the combination of their multiple contacts in a single dynamic profile (e.g. Fring ).
• Multi-conference or group conversation services: to make calls to several users and speak with a number of contacts simultaneously. Linked to this aim, numerous applications offer the possibility of creating the so-called “conference rooms” for communication, allowing a series of options for recording meetings (e.g. Skype, Gizmo, QuickConference, etc.).
• Voicemail services: allows the management and sending of voice messages by e-mail or texting, to be saved or left pending to recover later. Recording messages to make them public or keep them private. Integration of agenda with e-mail manager. There are also voicemail text transcription options (e.g. Google Voice, SpinVox).
• Possibility of sharing the desktop with other contacts (e.g. Skype).
• Advanced call filters: create automatic and personalised replies (voice message, MMS, SMS, etc.) based on specific events and conditions (e.g. MoBots).
• Caller ID: allows the ID management of calls, their identification, their secrecy, etc.
• Call transfer: diverting calls to other terminals when for example your telephone is disconnected (e.g. Skype).
• Call recording (e.g. Zoiper Communicator).
• Automatic opening of url addresses (e.g. Zoiper Communicator).

There are also many other functions commonly known as “push to talk” for speed dialling, “callbacks” to receive calls on the telephone that connect with the destination, “click to call” to receive calls without having to give the contact telephone, etc.

We should relate another important element to this whole range of voice applications and functions offered by this specific software, namely internet or IP Telephony numbering, through which calls made by contacts from different network accesses can be routed to a specific location where the destination IP terminal is. This way, if the contacts are in the same country or destination as the internet number, they only pay local calls.

In light of these voice tools and applications that offer advanced communication services, that interact with websites from simple, user-friendly interfaces, and that very often offer multiple combined services (as in the case of Google Voice), little by little we are led to consider and ponder the concept of “voice mashups“.

In effect, the possibility of constructing voice applications on the basis of open-source codes and standards (such as Voice XML, CCXML, SIP protocol), gives rise to the so-called “voice mashups“, which, as one author has defined them, are:

“Different voice services that come from different places and providers that are combined to create a new integrated service or product”

In his blog, Alec Saunders (http://saunderslog.com/) offers an example thanks to the union of Gizmo5 and Google Voice.

For the time being, we will leave it here, without going further into the field of “voice mashups“. The main aim of the post was to offer a few pointers on VOIP and some of its most common voice applications and functions in an attempt to lead to a debate on its potential in e-learning.

However, we do not want to conclude this entry without first presenting an innovation project linked to this field and developed by the UOC Open Innovation Office (http://www.innovauoc.org/), jointly with the ItemFormación company (http://www.itemformacion.com/), based on an experimental development for active learning using mobile devices, embraced therefore by mobile learning methodology.

This innovation project is supported on voice IP as one of the main elements of communication in the learning process, introducing different functions of those described above, such as multi-conferences, conference room creation, voice message editing and management, to name just a few. Later on, more information may be consulted at this blog and at the innovation space of the UOC portal.

Reference sources

- IDG Communications ( www.idg.es )
- Baquia knowledge Center ( www.baquia.com)
- Gizmo ( www.gizmo5.com)
- Truphone ( www.truphone.com)
- Fring ( www.fring.com)
- Skype ( www.skype.com
- Voip for beginners ( www.voipnovatos.es)
- Nimbuzz ( www.nimbuzz.com)
- The Future of the Internet III ( Pew Internet & American life Project) http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2008/PIP_FutureInternet3.pdf.pdf
- The Demand of Future Markets and Mobile Communications Services in Europe ( Simon Forge, Colin Blackman and Eric Bohlin)
- VozTelecom ( www.voztele.com )

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