WanderBook is an augmented reality application that will assist young children from the ages 3-7 in reading, spelling, and pronunciation. It will allow children to engage in a fun activity while encouraging them to learn along the way. Apps and technological devices are increasingly common in helping young children in education. One of the most popular, LeapFrog SchoolHouse, has created their own patented technology called NearTouch, which allows the material to be touch-interactive (The Journal). There are also augmented realities that help enhance a child’s interaction with books. “These books merge traditional text with digital content using a piece of technology like a smartphone or a gaming console, and the use of an app which plays video, creates models from content, or allows for interaction with the text” (Levski). There is also an app where the famous Hungry Caterpillar comes to life through AR (StoryToys). However, there does not appear to be a book-free augmented reality application to help with and encourage reading. By creating this application, it would allow children to be able to learn on their own time without the need of a parent, provide a means for the child to be active while simultaneously learning, and help with pronunciation as well as enunciation.
Ideally, the application would provide augmented reality for the basic reading levels at the ages 3-5. One example of an augmented reality exercise is a letter scavenger hunt. This would require the child to run around their environment in search of hidden letters. Once a letter is found, the child taps on it to learn about it: the name, the sound, and words that begin with it. Another exercise is adventure mode which requires to child to complete multiple tasks in order to accomplish missions. An example may be to find five words beginning with the letter M to save the princess from the evil sorcerer.
Once the child’s reading level has increased, the level on the application changes. Adventure mode will still be applicable with more difficult tasks, such as searching for objects to fill in a sentence and spelling, but the child can also experience a story. This means that the child will see text that they will read aloud. The software will listen, and, if spoken correctly, the child will then see what happens in the story before following an arrow or a character guide to the next set of text. If the text is read incorrectly, the action will not take place. A set limit of attempts will be applied, and if all attempts are tried, there will be a negative consequence. For example, if the text is, “The frog jumps in the hole,” the frog may run off or get snatched by a predator, depending on the storytelling.
This product would require technical skills in order to create the app, and voice chip technology will be helpful in this endeavor. “Modern voice chip technology creates a simple, intuitive and interactive learning experience to help teach children phonemic awareness, letter names, letter sounds, spelling and reading” (The Journal). In order to be most effective, the voice chip needs to have a high quality of high to ensure children hear the sound as accurately as possible for clear speech. This technology also allows a child to listen repeatedly to the same thing and provides a means for accurate pronunciation further down the road. It can be used for phonemes, syllables, and words (The Journal). Another technology is voice recognition, similar to that of Alexa or Siri, where the application listens and understands what the speaker is saying. This is critical with the children who are reading text aloud and depend upon the application knowing if they’re speaking correctly or not.