Among the news arriving at home Microsoftthere is Reading Coachand reading tutor based onartificial intelligence.
The new application is already available for free on the web, with the arrival of a version that will find its place within Windowsin a short time.
Furthermore, in the near future, the program will be integrated into a suite of systems for learning management which will have several tools inside, including Canva.
Microsoft Reading Coach, how it works
Microsoft Reading Coach is based on Reading Progressthe education plugin present within Teams for Education e Immersive Readerwhich aim to help users read and understand a language.
Its operation is simple and, through a series of personalized exercises based on AI, offers students different learning paths.
The application automatically recognizes (after reading the text) the words that students have the most difficulty with, focusing attention on these terms to improve reading and understanding.
Among the latest features, it has also arrived on board the software Choose your story than through services Azure OpenAI by Microsoft allows users to “build” their own story one step at a time.
The function, obviously, always has an educational purpose and works a bit like an interactive book that allows students to “play” on the plot created, leaving the AI the task of interpret any problems in reading and judge learning progress.
Alternatively, it is also possible to start from one of the stories already present in the application archive and work on that, without the need to create any content.
What changes for students
With this new tool Microsoft aims to make learning (and specifically reading and understanding a text) much more engaging and close to the educational needs of individual students.
Many teachers, already today, have understood and appreciate it the potential of artificial intelligence applied to education, positively evaluating the help it can give to students in difficulty and beyond.
Clearly it’s a working tool adjusted and used properlyabove all to prevent it from becoming an “alternative system” to the study and work to be done in class.
On the other hand, many consider these software as something that cannot be used to evaluate students’ understanding and level because may be affected from (deliberately) incorrect management of the device on which it is used.
However, if used correctly, and with the assistance of adequately trained teachers, AI solutions such as Microsoft Reading Coach can be of great help in helping students (especially those in difficulty) improve their reading and understanding of any text.
To know more: Artificial Intelligence: what it is and what it can do for us