Carol Flexer is a Professor of Audiology in the School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the University of Akron in Ohio, USA. Perhaps the world’s most respected advocate of optimizing listening conditions for all learners, this interview discusses the merits of teacher voice and student voice capture technology, and for speakers to distribute this audio throughout learning spaces.
One question Professor Flexer addresses relates to learners’ age, and whether older students benefit from soundfield.
Her somewhat provocative response is:
“We know that up through grade three children are listening to learn and more specifically, listening to learn to read. By fourth grade children are reading to learn. So classroom amplification is critical in pre-school through third grade as these children are developing the auditory –linguistic foundation that is essential for success in the years that follow. On the other hand, we don’t take lights away after third grade. We keep the lights on. We realize visual detail is necessary in any learning environment and so acoustic detail is also necessary in any learning environment.