I am inventing a program or device that teaches children (or adults) to read, simply by them watch T.V.
It works by showing the printed word in the center of the screen, everytime that a word is spoken. I’d love for it to use the closed captioning that already exists, but it needs to be big and center screen where it won’t be ignored. Also it needs to show ONE word at a time, not a whole sentence. That means the words will flash very fastfor right brain learning.
So far I’ve got the idea. If anyone knows what to do next, I’d love your help. It could be that a simple computer program could do this for DVDs as a starting place.
Love,
Jennifer
Hi JenifferJoy, I m using program Little Reader. You can find this in this website. It is same as you saying. Very fast flash is available for right brain learning. You should try. It is a nice one.
I have and love Little Reader and Your Baby Can Read. Even with the program I’m inventing Little Reader will be a very useful program for encyclopedic knowledge.
I’m looking for a program that will turn any T.V. show into an early reading program. My son loves to watch Bob the Builder at his grandparents house, and Thomas the train. They hold his attention better than “Your Baby Can Read.” If any T.V. show or DVD could be converted simply by playing it in a special computer program, then teaching would be even easier. It would also open the doors of early education to children who’s parents don’t take the time and effort to do it. On a personal level it would help me because my husband feels it is important for David (3) to watch Spiderman and Ninja Turtles, which I see as useless. Almost everyday, he ask me if I let David watch them. It has been a source of conflict with us. If David could learn to read by watching Spiderman, that would be wonderful for me, because my husband and I would both get our way. I would no longer feel like Spiderman is a complete waist of time.
I know that this could happen. I just need help finding out how, to make it happen. It could be as simple as a change in Windows Media Player, that made the closed captions center screen and single word flash. I don’t currently have the knowledge to do that. I’m looking for someone who does; or knows where to find it.
Thank you for you ideas,
Love,
Jennifer
Love,
Jennifer
I have been researching games for learning, like leapfrog Leapster console, fisher price interacTV. vtech vsmile etc. They have educational games which include spiderman, batman, bob, thomas and other boyish or girly interests. They teach varied things, from simple things such as identifying shapes and colours to reading, languages, maths. Ebay and amazon sell consoles and games. I’ve been using Leapfrog Little Leaps, which is very simple, but can be played in English, German, Spanish and French. It has some onscreen words. I’ve now purchase some harder gaming toys (all 2ndhand). You can checkout those companies websites for info and video clips, as well as YOutube to see kids using those products. I found a Thomas video in a 2ndhand shop for $2 which is in mandarin. If you buy dvds you can use them on other language settings, so at least he’s learning something…
OK, I think I understand what you’re trying to do.
Basically, it’s like if I have Spiderman showing on TV, then as Spidey speaks, you want the words (1 word at a time) to flash in the center of the screen as Spidey speaks, so that the child will see the words flashed on the screen as he hears the words. Right?
Well, technologically-speaking (based on today’s technology), that would be extremely difficult to do, and virtually impossible to do it correctly all the time. This essentially requires many things, including speech recognition technology. Today’s Sp. Recog. technology is already much better than before, but still a long way away to getting the type of accuracy that would be needed. Until you get that accuracy, you would risk flashing wrong words to your child, which would be likely with the common usage of slang, foreign accents, and the occasional foreign words.
Thank you KL. You understand exactly what I mean. I hoped your post would say “Oh, I can do that easily.”
Perhaps if I took my vision down a few notches it would become more realistic. Could a program be designed that enlarged the closed captions that already existed and then moved them to the center of the screen? That would be an improvement to DVDs like Spiderman.
The next step would be a program that also highlighted those closed captions from left to right during the time they were on the screen. It wouldn’t be timed perfectly, but it might be close enough to get reading results. It would at least naturally teach reading concepts. It would need more testing then my original plan to see what results it got. What do you think? Would this be hard for a really smart programer like you, or someone you know?
Love,
Jennifer
Its totally worth holding your vision and seeing where it leads…Maybe when tv screens themselves are wraparound or somehow 3 D or whatever might become the norm then the words can sit alongside more fully? However mum reality check here- animated graphics are BIGTIME and saving the world too!
…superheros are fab material! Along these lines there are beaut animation software-real easy to place every word wherever you feel and time it with each frame yourself-write it and direct it all.You can create your own cartoon characters and or use the ones provided. Both comic strip software and animated cartoon versions. Even better its easy to allow your child to generate their own story and write any text together in speech bubbles/frames plus voice over and or open source sound effects music etc.
According to my own observations LittleReader/Maths etc could benefit from an animation software…? StarFall is holding my 4 year old sons attention for much longer periods than slideshows ever will.
I see that variations on these very tools will be the norm for learning by the time our children are in high school but likely even before that.The transformation in education is that youth are leading and the teachers are having to follow! Think animated graphics, think Games…and think augmented reality.
OMG the GoAnimate site is so cool! i will MAKE it educational just to get to play with it. thanks for the great link!
and jenniferjoy… i’m sorry, i giggled a little at your husbands plea for spiderman. i thought i was really cute. i would have the same reaction as you (well, one less proactive perhaps) though. i think it is really cool you are trying to make it work.
octaviaorca,
Thanks. I’ve recorded dots and words with Spiderman in the back ground. I sped up the words so they were at a 200% spead with a high pitched voice. lol It was really awful to watch and drove my husband nuts. David watched it though. I don’t know if worked, but we (I) finally gave up on it. Now I’m searching for somthing a lot less trouble some.
Love,
JJ
Would require extremely intelligent software to do that, which would cost a ton of money, and unfortunately doesn’t seem feasible at all (cost vs benefit analysis). You’re better off working with content providers to embed the word info into the DVD in the form of special coding so a special software can recognize and display it (in which case your original idea would become easy). Would require content that supports this format though.
for those ages, definitely. Which is why our stories use pictures which have animations. Over time they will get more and more elaborate as we put more resources into them.
why don’t you turn the captioning on it helps my girls. Some time when they hear a new word they see it on the screen too believe me it helps and it costs nothing. The kids just get use to seeing words everywhere and one day they will surprise you…
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