How Was the 2024 Act of the Year Born — Tallinn University’s ELU Project: Creating Learning Content for the TADA Smart Pen?

Kaire: To tell the truth right from the start — it’s all “Heddi’s fault.” In the spring of 2023, she sent me a link to an online store where she had come across some suitable digital tools. I looked closer at the products and discovered the TADA smart books and pen. I contacted their manufacturer, the Slovak company Geniuso (https://www.geniuso.sk/tarkpliiats), through their representative Marek Frohlich — they were very interested in collaborating with us, and that’s how it all began.

Elyna: And well, Kaire is also “to blame” because she’s our great leader and teacher, really the heart and soul of the TADA project, who motivated us and has a clear overview of the whole TADA process. You could confidently say that TADA is her little baby.

Is your project something that could serve as a model for other educational technology projects?
Elyna: You have to keep the bigger picture in mind. For us, the most important thing in this project was the Estonian teacher and the Estonian child. This wasn’t a business project but a student project, through which our students learned and experienced how to collaborate with a company and what the core activities are that lead to a successful final outcome.

How did you divide roles within the project?
Kaire: There were many roles in the project. At first, I was a bit like the “emotional supporter,” and later I shared that role with Elyna.

We had to do everything — be mentors for the students, be team members among the four of us, working together to discuss and agree on the necessary activities. We had to act as communication specialists, sharing our work across different media channels. We needed to teach how to use the technology (such as the recording studio, audio file editing, etc.). We also had to communicate with external partners.

Heddi: I was responsible for the music-related aspects. What kind of music helps with language and speech acquisition? How should we sing, and how should we not sing? What vocal range should the melody have so that even children can sing it?

Kerstin: Actually, we were one team, and our role as a group was to mediate collaboration between the students and the company, to plan, to follow plans, and to take responsibility. Individually, we had different roles because we were responsible for different areas. In addition to creating Estonian-language content, we also supported students in organizing learning events and creating educational materials.

What obstacles did you face, and how did you overcome them?
Kaire: The main obstacles I’d mention were staying within the time frame and ensuring the quality of the content we produced. The time frame tended to affect quality, but we didn’t give up. That’s why we had to re-record and re-record some parts…

The content created for the smart pen (rhymes, texts, etc.) had to be factually correct, linguistically and grammatically accurate, and of the highest quality.

Elyna: I think the students experienced a lot of realizations and admissions — recognizing what they could and couldn’t do, and whether they were ready to admit it and take action.

We felt the same as mentors. For example, I’m not as good at coming up with rhymes as Kaire, or I don’t have as nice a narrator’s voice as Kerstin, but I really enjoyed refining the texts translated by the students, helping to localize them into Estonian and embed Estonian context and culture into the materials.

As the work progressed, the students realized that if they weren’t strong in one area, they needed to tell the team and find another important task to focus on.

So, we combined and swapped roles — rhyme masters and audio editors. At first, this was more of a challenge, but by the end of the project, it became part of the success formula. It was like a skills exchange.

Kerstin: I agree — the time frame kept us constantly on our toes, because this wasn’t the only thing we were working on; life was moving forward as usual. So, there were times when we sat in the studio recording over the weekend or held meetings late at night after the kids were asleep. But I think that for a good cause, all those inconveniences were worth it.

Did you use any new technologies or methods you hadn’t tried before?
Heddi: For the students, recording songs in the professional BFM sound studio was a completely new experience.

Elyna: Maybe we can’t call these technologies “new,” but most of the students involved in the project hadn’t had the chance to personally try and experience these kinds of solutions before. There’s great value in doing “real” work during your studies.

When the smart pen and book manufacturer gives you access to their files, and we start working with them, seeing how an English sentence turns into a beautiful Estonian rhyme, that’s a moment of success. And then that rhyme needs to be recorded in the studio. And afterward, edited a bit and finally added to the pen. This isn’t everyday work for the participants. They weren’t creating the kinds of content they usually make in their academic courses. But this is an experience for life — knowing you can apply the knowledge and skills gained from this project in other fields.

Has working with the smart pen inspired you to create new ideas or projects?
Kaire: We have several ideas. We’re continuing our collaboration with Geniuso because, beyond the TADA books, the smart pen has plenty more possibilities. Thanks to this collaboration and the TADA smart books, a pilot project has been launched together with the Tallinn Education Department and Insplay, which we hope will continue in schools this year. See here: https://haridus.insplay.ee/blogs/ajaveeb/manguline-keeleope-tallinna-lasteaedades-tada-pilootprojekti-kogemused-ja-opetajate-tagasiside

Elyna: We really enjoy working with companies, and some ideas have already sparked new initiatives from the TADA project. We see that students are eager for and want these kinds of projects because this way, their studies don’t remain just abstract theory but lead to practical solutions.

What advice would you give to others who want to achieve similar results?
Kaire: My advice is to thoroughly think through all the activities required to achieve the result and set a time frame for them. Of course, both the activities and time frames will need adjusting, but it’s still good to keep them clearly in sight.

Heddi: You need to collaborate with people who share your vision and values. The “spark” people who came together as mentors in this project would achieve success in any situation.

Elyna: If you want results, you need to stay focused on the goal — to do something good. We ourselves made sure to clarify (and explained to the companies — by the end, we actually worked with two) that this was a student project, and the ground rules were slightly different. The “payment” was course credits, which meant lots of goal-setting, meaningful activities, and discussions.

Kerstin: Yes! You need to have a vision and the belief that something good will come of it. There’s no point in starting something you don’t believe in yourself. I would also emphasize the importance of time frames and clear goals.

What were the most memorable moments in this process?
Kaire: For me, the entire process was memorable, full of great joys as well as challenges and obstacles. What brought the greatest joy was seeing the students wholeheartedly invest themselves. And of course — those moments when we first heard the smart pen speaking and singing in Estonian!

Heddi: When children heard their father’s or their own voice coming from the TADA book — the sheer joy, and the connection — “Ah, so that’s what we were recording!”

Elyna: Our wonderful Estonian language. The way we got to reflect in the comment threads with the students on which word fit or didn’t fit, and whether we were interpreting each other’s comments the same way. That virtual giggling, excitement, and thrill when finding the right and fitting words — it was really fun.

Kerstin: Recording audio in the studio, especially in a larger group. You could laugh yourself silly: “Let’s do it again!”, “Let’s do it again!”, “Say it again!”, “Wait, I breathed at the wrong time!” And of course, the first time the pen actually spoke the Estonian text — that was an awesome feeling.

Kaire: It would be a shame not to mention our team. Maybe we’re already taking for granted how we’re there for each other and doing something together. So this shared journey with “my people” has been the greatest joy.

Did the project change your understanding of the role of educational technology in education?
Elyna: In that respect, it didn’t change — I still firmly believe that we can bring real-life experience more into the university, and what’s done at the university can have a real impact on society. Educational technology allows us to deliver that understanding to students here and now and give them that experience. This project rather reinforced my belief that it’s possible and gave our students the sense that their knowledge and skills have value and impact, and they can apply them immediately, not just three years after graduating.

Kerstin: I’d also say it didn’t change — such tools support learning, and we already knew in advance what opportunities they offered.

What do you expect from educational technology in the future, based on this experience?
Kaire: My hope is that when companies develop new solutions, they come to practitioners — whether that’s universities and students or teachers. From our experience, I can say that the participants, many of whom are future or current teachers, gained the understanding that the best solutions are born through collaboration, and they all have what’s needed to create a good educational technology solution.

Kerstin: Yes! I agree! There are many solutions “on the market,” but is the content educational? Does it align with the national curriculum? How can it be used in learning activities? Are there supportive learning materials or game descriptions created for the solution? The teacher shouldn’t always have to figure everything out themselves — their life can be made easier by offering such solutions.

And honestly, I’d also hope that when we see a really good product somewhere that can be used for educational purposes, companies would be interested in collaboration.