At Cals College Nieuwegein, they are concerned about the reading skills of their pupils. More than a third of the HAVO and VWO pupils score below the target level. This worrying trend has been evident nationwide for some time. Cals College aims to tackle the decline in pupils’ reading skills in the coming years. However, it is a complex and labour-intensive task to design personalised learning pathways for pupils in an effective and efficient manner. Individual reading support is slowly gaining ground, and smart technology could be of great added value in this regard.
Enjoy learning to read: the kick-off
The kick-off of the co-creation project “Enjoy learning to read with AI” recently took place in Groningen. In this project, Cals College Nieuwegein, Dia and scientists from Utrecht University investigate the question: How can smart technology help both students and subject teachers to improve and support reading motivation and reading skills?
Personalised reading skills support
In the field of education, both in the workplace and in academia, there is a growing awareness that integrated reading comprehension and subject specific-teaching promotes reading motivation. But how can this be put into practice? Cals College, Diataal and Utrecht Unviersity see possibilities for the AI application Leeswijzer.ai to facilitate the process of personalised reading skills support and progress monitoring for teachers.
Core team meeting
The project kick-off took place in Groningen at Dia, known for the adaptive Dia pupil tracking system. Those present, representatives of the participating school, scientists from Utrecht University and employees from Dia, together form the core team of the project. Dia’s Diana Jonkman welcomed everyone and opened the meeting. NOLAI’s Ramon Moorlag, the co-creation manager for this project, provided fresh Limburg vlaai from his home province. He then explained the rationale and objectives of the co-creation project.
Perspectives and expectations
Moniek Schaars from Utrecht University took the lead in presenting different perspectives. She also brought the perspectives together based on expectations, expertise and experiences in the shared ground under the project group’s goal. After a tour and a lunch, it was project leader David van Alten’s turn. He presented the different types of AI to the members of the core team. Under his supervision, mixed groups then considered their wishes and dreams for the to-be-developed tool.
Strong triangle
Where will we be in three years time? This question was discussed further during the coffee break. Insights and ideas were then analysed and categorised based on attainability and originality. Project leader David van Alten: “During the kick-off, the promise of the strong triangle under the project really took shape. We have all the ingredients to get off to a flying start. On to the first prototype!”
Contact information
- Organizational unit
- National Education Lab AI (NOLAI)
- Theme
- Artificial intelligence (AI)