GewoonLezen

During Technological Learning Environment 2 (TLE2) I was assigned to a new team to build a project together. Our team was tasked with selecting a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and designing an interactive solution that addressed it. An SDG is a specific goal or target set by the United Nations to tackle global challenges and achieve a more sustainable future. The solution had to make use of one or more AI technologies. Over the following six months we worked intensively to realise our chosen SDG.

We chose the SDG “Quality Education”: ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning for everyone. After several brainstorming sessions, research, a “Google Design Sprint” and significant programming effort, this resulted in the creation of GewoonLezen.

GewoonLezen is a web application that works on both mobile devices and desktops. The main goal of the app is to improve the reading skills of people with low literacy. Users are presented with texts that they have to read aloud. The app then analyses what was read and provides the user with feedback. The texts to be read are generated based on the following factors:

• The user’s reading level.
• The mistakes the user made previously.
• The topic of the preceding sentences.

The app uses Text-to-Speech, speech recognition and GPT-3.5. The frontend was built with React and TypeScript, while the backend uses Express.js in combination with the OpenAI API. Within this project my responsibility covered both designing and developing the app.

Click here for more information and an explainer video of the app.