Technology Assisted Reading Acquisition (TARA): Children Acquiring Literacy Naturally

Society faces increasing challenges in the ability to support the infrastructure of a literate world. Virtual teachers, the internet, and the ceaseless access to information hold promise. To date, however, these potential solutions do not consider research in cognitive science and the potential of the learning brain. As background, the talk reviews our previous research, technology, and applications in speech perception and language learning using our computer-animated face, Baldi. Included is a project to enhance the ability of hearing-challenged and deaf persons to understand conversational speech in face-to-face spoken interactions. The talk offers the possibility of how universal literacy can be achieved with minimal cost, allowing a revolutionary new age that challenges the survival of our educational institutions and society as we know them. It questions the commonly held belief that written language requires formal instruction and schooling whereas spoken language is seamlessly acquired from birth onward by natural interactions with persons who talk. The objectives are to prototype physical systems that exploit developments in behavioral science and technology to a) automatically recognize speech, objects, and actions and b) to display corresponding written descriptions. The goal is to create an interactive system TARA to allow infants, toddlers, and preschool children to acquire literacy naturally.

Speaker: Dom Massaro, UC Santa Cruz

Room 5101