For dyslexic children, the multi-sensory approach to learning — from sight to sound — is a struggle, which is what a team from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) hopes to address with an enhanced teaching tool.
Called the ProCubeX, the cuboid-shaped gadget works with an application loaded with lesson plans of varying difficulty levels.
The cubes display letters electronically and users use them to spell and form words.
Both the cubes and the app also incorporate features such as facial recognition and learning history to build a profile of the student.
NYP student Eugene Lee, 21, who is part of a three-member team behind a third-edition of ProCubeX, said that the app will designate a lesson plan according to the experience, weaknesses and strengths of the user.
Another feature of the ProCubeX is that it allows teachers to monitor the progress of their students through the use of cloud storage.
NYP lecturer Mr Chng Jit Heng, 43, the other mentor for the team, said that the backend function to retrieve a student’s progress data was added to the device after inputs from the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS).
The association’s head of publicity and publications, Ms Deborah Hewes, said: “When teaching young children (with dyslexia), we are always looking for good resources that our teachers can use to help our children understand language. When we saw the ProCubeX and the potential of what can happen in the classroom, we really liked the concept.”
However, she noted that the device is still in its early stages, and there is still some work to do before it can be rolled out in a pre-school setting, such as how well it can withstand damage.
There are plans to test the use of the device in DAS’s classrooms. At the moment, teachers at DAS use teaching aids such as phonic cards and worksheets.
As Mr Lee was starting to work on the third version of ProCubeX, he met with the teachers to find out more of what they do and need.
The NYP team is refining the product, in preparation for the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2018 World Final in Seattle, United States. The annual global technology competition is organised by Microsoft for students to create and develop applications that support work and play.
Team 7x, as they call themselves, won the Singapore leg of the student technology competition in April, and they will be representing Singapore in Seattle this month, where they will showcase the ProCubeX.
Read more here.
Source: TODAY, 2 July 2018