[school-discuss] web application to teach reading

[Jonathan Polacheck <jonpol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My brother and I have a concept for an open-source web application.

The concept is a website that will allow individuals with reading 
problems to learn effective reading.  The approach is inspired by the 
work of Dr Dee Tadlock with a methodology based on Interactive 
Constructivist principles.  For a concise explanation of Dr Tadlock's 
innovations in the area of literacy acquisition, reference her interview at:

http://www.readright.com/news/An%20Interview%20with%20Dee%20Tadlock%20About%20Read%20Right12-7-2005.pdf

For a more complete and comprehensive explanation with theoretical 
overview and references, read her monograph at:

http://www.readright.com/whitepapers/Monograph.pdf

Based on these ideas, we believe that individuals with reading problems 
can learn to self resolve them by interacting with a website that allows 
them to compare their oral reading abilities with a synthesized or 
pre-recorded voice model and their own speaking style.  The student 
would log on to the website and use mouse and a headset/microphone 
interface with the computer's sound card.

Proposed scenario:

Student clicks on a green circle marked "GO"

Step 1-Student hears a three word sentence by synthesized or 
pre-recorded voice (V) and is asked to repeat the sentence into the 
microphone.  Student's vocal input is saved.

Step 2-Student is presented with the same sentence in text form along 
with V reading of it.  V instructs student:  "Please try to read the 
sentence silently.  If after reading it silently, you would like to try 
reading it aloud, click the green circle and begin.  If you would like 
to hear the sentence again, click the yellow circle."

Step 3-If student clicks green, this vocal input would be saved.  The 
student then hears V say:  "This is your voice saying the words"  
(Playback)  "This is your voice reading the words."   (Playback)  "Do 
they sound the same?  Were you comfortable reading the sentence?"  If 
the answer is yes, click on the green circle.  If the answer is no, 
click on the yellow circle."

Step 4a-If the student clicks yellow, the V repeats the sentence 
material and the instruction:  "Please try to read the sentence 
silently.  If after reading it silently, you would like to try reading 
it aloud, click the green circle and begin.  If you would like to hear 
the sentence again, click the yellow circle."

Step 4b-If the student clicks green, the student hears another three 
word sentence as in Step 1, and Steps 1-4 follow.

When the student chooses Step 4b ten times without choosing step 4a, the 
sentence length is increased to four words, with a one word increase 
every time this criterion is met.

The crucial piece we do not yet know how to provide is the recording 
capability.  Some kind of plug-in would most likely be adequate.  I 
found a likely resource at http://www.jsresources.org/, but I an not 
enough of a java programmer to evaluate or implement the code provided.  
It has been suggested that the speex codec would be well suited to this 
application, and there is a java implementation of this codec 
(http://jspeex.sourceforge.net/).  But I would still need help in using 
this code.

It was also suggested that a browser based implementation  with a java 
plugin would have trouble accessing the local hard drive to write the 
generated sound files, and that using a "web start" type application 
would avoid this problem.

Any feedback or suggestions you could provide would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jon Polacheck