U9D1: Kindergo

This week, I read an article titled, “Education Through Storytelling Inspires Global Literacy App.”  This app is used by 127 countries worldwide. The creators of the company, Kristen Souvlis and Nadine Bates, saw a decline of literacy in children in the Western world with a rise of need in quality English as a second language tools for an increasing immigrant population.  Together, they decided to team up and do something about it, which is how they came up with the idea for Kindergo, along with their parent company, Like a Photon Creative. They have built literacy into engaging digital stories for younger children.

Their goal is to allow Kindergo to be for any child, of any language, at any reading ability, and would like to continue developing and advancing it so this can be possible.  Their next launch will be a Kindergo app focused specifically for ESL learners. They want to reduce the education gap for ESL kids in the US. I think that it’s wonderful that they are working on developing an app aimed specifically at targeting ESL students.  It is an app I look forward to using with my ESL students in the future. The article also mentioned how they have recently received many accolades as well as funding, which will help make all of their feats possible. I hope that they will continue to grow their company and reach more students around not just the US, but the world.  

https://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/entrepreneur-profile/education-through-storytelling-inspires-global-literacy-app.html

U8A1: Bolo

The article that really caught my attention this week was titled, “Google has built a free app to teach English to children in India.”  The reason this caught my attention was for a couple of reasons. First, the fact that it was created by Google interests me, as Google is such a large corporation and usually creates quality products.  Second was the fact that it is a free app that is helping another country. It was definitely something I wanted to read more about, and I’m glad I did.

The app, called Bolo, was designed to work completely offline and work in rural areas with poor mobile coverage.  According to the article, it is optimized for native Hindi speakers and uses Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech technology.  It is geared towards primary aged children and includes cartoon characters and a voice assistant, Diya, to help them learn both English and Hindi in a fun and meaningful way.  There are stories in both English and Hindi for students to read and practice, as well as word games. Diya helps children with pronunciations and automatically detects problematic words.  

A startling fact is that in India, only 44% of grade 5 students are capable of reading books that are written for grade 2 students.  In a pilot scheme of 1,000 children, 64% of children were able to improve their reading skills after using the Bolo app.  It is designed to encourage children to love reading and make it become a daily habit. Google also noted that Bolo was released in the name of philanthropy and does not wish to monetize the app in any way.  They will continue supporting the app and want to continue improving it as well.

I think it’s amazing that Google is making a difference in the world by creating apps like Bolo.  I know that I obviously do not live in India, however there are students in my building that speak Hindi as their native language.  This app can be a useful tool for those students in my building just learning English. I also have had students who speak Hindi, but cannot read or write it.  I think that not only could this help those students learn English, but it would be a wonderful app for them to even learn how to read their own native language as well.  I’m excited to see how Google will continue to grow this app and what others they will develop in the future. The most amazing part is that they have made this free and have vowed to always keep it free, while still developing it to make it better.  Shantanu Sinha, Director of Product Management (Google Al), says, “It’s critical that we ensure that everybody on the planet has a shot at creating a better life for themself,” and I couldn’t agree more.

https://www.androidpit.com/google-has-built-a-free-app-to-teach-english-to-children-in-india

https://bolo.withgoogle.com/intl/en/

U7A1: Snow Days = Digital Days

I read a really interesting article that isn’t necessarily specific to ESL, but it caught my interest so much, that I couldn’t help but to blog about it.  It was titled, “Snow days turn into 'digital days' at some Minnesota schools.” This article clearly takes place in Minnesota, where they recently had a stretch of dangerous, subzero temperatures.  The superintendent at Robbinsdale was confident in his decision of closing schools due to the fact that he knew learning would still continue. In his district, every 4th-12th grade student had access to laptops and there were built in “flex-learning” days in the school calendar.  Our district is not fully 1:1 yet, but we are moving in this direction. We have 3 built in snow days throughout the school year, but almost always end up needing more. When we are finally 1:1, I absolutely love the idea of having these built in “flex-learning” days and allowing children to continue their learning while at home, safe and sound.  

The district that this article was about had teachers prep videos ahead of time to coach students through their assignments throughout the day.  It was stated that both students and staff were appreciative of the fact that learning could continue. One student even stated that it was fun doing schoolwork while in pajamas.  By allowing for these built in digital days, Robbinsdale is able to stick pretty closely to its original schedule and avoid extending classes into spring break, holidays or staff training time.  

However, the important thing to note is that this e-learning method will only be successful if students have access to the internet at home, as well as know how to navigate through the technology.  It is stated that it takes a lot of time to plan good e-learning modules. One ESL teacher mentioned how it is especially difficult for her students. “We’re looking at what can students do independently on their own or in a limited English proficiency household.  That is a very significant challenge,” said Melissa Davey (French & ESH teacher).

While I think these digital days are a great idea, I don’t know if they could fully replace an entire school day.  I have assigned my students Flipgrids on snow days before, but never make them “required” assignments and not all of my students are able to access them at home.  I think that digital days replacing snow days could definitely become more popular in the future.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/25/snow-days-minnesota-schools-digital-learning