PLM Progress Report: Improving Learning Technologies and Systems
Ron Cole
University of Colorado
During my presentation at PLM 2003, I threatened to return to PLM 2004 to describe hoped for advances in human language and communication technologies and learning tools within the Colorado Literacy Tutor Project. I am pleased to report that sufficient advances have occurred that I do not need to recycle last year’s abstract or talk. The learning tools, which use lifelike animated characters, called virtual tutors, to teach children to read and learn from text through natural spoken dialogue interaction, have been improved in terms of the capabilities of the underlying speech recognition and computer animation technologies, they have been expanded to several new languages, and they include many new learning exercises and with increased functionality. The literacy program is now deployed for daily classroom use in about 30 Kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms in Colorado and Oregon, and is being used by typical children, and by children with cognitive disabilities and profound hearing loss. Formal evaluation of learning outcomes is underway. I will describe and show these new system features, and hopefully generate enthusiasm for future collaboration with colleagues in Poland.