Meet Merlyn, a digital assistant helping teachers around the clock

Meet Merlyn. Merlyn is not only a big language model similar to ChatGBT - it is also a great tool for teachers and students and represents a simple solution.  Merlyn is the first digital assistant specifically developed for educational purposes. 

In a post-pandemic Europe, characterised by an economy filled with uncertainty, worsening social and political problems, and the rapid pace of the digital transition and the deployment of emerging technologies, more and more people feel as if they have been left behind. This is also very much the case worldwide: surprisingly (or not) - even in IT, one of the most dynamic of all sectors in terms of change - one quarter of American professionals are planning to switch careers in the next 6 months. 

If we take a look across sectors, we find other similarities. In education, burnout and depression often lead to a change of one's career path. This may be due to a variety of reasons, but especially in terms of breaking barriers between new technology types in an education context, and also between different ways of teaching. 

Digital assistants: benefits, drawbacks

Photo: Pexels

Education technologies introduced after 2020 and inspired by the pandemic, are constantly gaining traction in classrooms. On one hand, teachers and students can benefit from new opportunities and broaden the experience-based experience process. On the other, it can make things a bit stressful especially for those educators and teachers that are already close to burnout. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and collaborative digital assistants and machine assistants can be a means of reducing burnout by making the best possible use of new and emerging technologies. Over time, more and more teachers will be able to access such digital assistants, and hopefully receive the support and time they need to get to know them, and how they can be used in an educational context. In this way, their students can really take advantage and make the most out of using digital assistants, and build a closer connection to their teachers. 

A smart loudspeaker in the classroom or so much more? Meet Merlyn 

Merlyn Mind, the Symphony Classroom, developed and launched in 2021, is the first digital assistant technology with voice and remote control, developed specifically for educational purposes and use in K-12 education (i.e. primary and secondary schools). 

The advertisement, with which Merlyn was promoted, featured the quote 'smart loudspeaker for classroom use'. One of the goals behind Merlyn is to enable teachers to use the technologies and related services in a more natural way, and in order to facilitate their work. But convenience comes with a cost: the price of a 3-year subscription for AI and software use is EUR 1,632.

Photo: Merlyn Mind

Satya Nitta, Co-Founding Director of Merlyn Mind, said that rapid ‘selection’ of technologies is particularly important now, as teachers and students are experiencing the most difficult period in the education system. The assistant was developed together with educators over a 3 and a half year period. Before commercialising the product, 20 schools were tested in more than 50 rooms, with continuous fine-tuning to reduce the complexity of school technologies.

But why a digital assistant? Merlyn was needed to solve some critical problems posed by increased technology use in the classroom. It also helped to make other digital tools used more manageable - and transparent. With Symphony Classroom, the teacher can operate from any point in the room, as long as they have their own laptop or smartphone. The assistant is equipped with several USB and HDMI ports, allowing for the seamless integration of other software and devices, 

Merlyn the Wizard

Digital assistant is the term we use to refer to software that responds to voice instructions and assists the user in carrying out tasks. Amazon’s Alexa is the best known and popular example of a voice assistant out there. 

The assistant to Symphony Classroom is Merlyn - an AI agent designed to support teachers. California teachers said that it is already better used by learners in primary education compared to their parents. Beta tests were considered particularly useful. They have shown that AI really knows how to navigate between tabs in the browser, how to search, play and stop YouTube videos and set timers.

Photo: Merlyn Mind

Thanks to the assistant, teachers can ensure the classroom is managed well, without having to sit permanently next to their table, making the educational experience itself better and more effective. If the students ask questions, the teacher does not need to go to the table, type the question, or search in a browser. Instead, they can simply say “Hey, Merlyn!” and have AI deliver the answer quickly. 

Time is a problem for many children and the visual timer point helps to address this. The visual timer is set by the teacher (by voice or via remote control, and displayed on the screen. If students see a change in the indicator, which is steady and continuous, they can calculate the remaining time (e.g. 15 minutes left), and gain a better understanding of how much they can do within the time frame they have left. Such an approach also eliminates the idea that time is running out, and therefore helps to reduce exam time stress. While the technology itself is simple, the possibilities are huge: children progressively learn how to manage time. 

Getting ready for the world of work

In a world increasingly marked by more and more AI models, privacy and security is key. Merlyn has also taken into account personal rights (privacy) issues that are becoming increasingly problematic, raising concerns, and being amplified by the use of digital assistants in the classroom. The assistant is designed in such a way so as to ensure maximum compliance with privacy and security requirements and to ensure all actions are monitored by the school’s IT specialists and teachers (also from a pedagogical point of view).  If needed, remote microphones can be switched off, and AI can be set to only respond to remote control, and not a voice command. 

Photo: Pexels

It is precisely because of remote control options that students praise the technology - and many are barely waiting to use it themselves. Merlyn and Symphony Classroom can also prove especially useful for children and youngsters with special needs - for example, Merlyn has shown some remarkable results in teaching kids with speech impairments how to pronounce words in a structured and comprehensible way.

Children also find it easier compared to adults to talk and communicate with AI - and the assistant can support this even further. Kids as young as age 6 nowadays know how to communicate and talk to AI software: a trend which is bound to only increase further, together with AI adoption and deployment. Using AI software like digital assistants will also be the first go-to option in many more contexts, as AI software and technology itself is improved. Awareness of AI holds so much potential and can be helpful in a variety of ways: but mostly with regards to the world of work, as interested students can now get better prepared for the job market of the future.