#9: The Story of Amira, Ello and the AI Reading Tutors that Actually Listen To You

Calling all teachers! I would love to interview you about your experience using AI in the classroom - please visit https://www.theaiwhotaughtme.com/stories to sign up!

--

Have you ever sat with a child who is learning to read? It's fun to listen to them sound out the words and offer gentle pointers to help them along their way. But up until recently, most edtech software couldn't do that: they just guide kids without being able to tell what they are actually saying out loud.

But that is changing. In this episode, we cover the ground-breaking science behind Amira Learning. It started out of CMU's Project LISTEN and they have earned an impressive body of research (including a recent study in Louisiana) showing large learning gains in students who use an AI tutor that can listen and offer specific corrections. Future work out of Digital Promise will continue to study these effects.

But the latest LLMs have impressive speech capabilities out of the box, and it has enabled a new generation of reading apps that can listen to kids. Ello has surged in usage among home schoolers, while Project Read, Buddy Books and eSpark Reading Lab all offer great programs to enable phonics instruction that actually listens to kids.

In the future, perhaps we'll even have built in support within the major models, or the ability to bring-your-own-book and have an AI tutor read with you. In any case, this is one of the most interesting and widespread uses of serious AI in schools today