Our partnership with a University of South Florida professor helps unlock English language using latest technologies, which is how students prefer to learn.
Sara Smith had a seemingly simple goal.
She wanted to take traditional education techniques and add technology to make it more fun and accessible for bilingual children who wanted to learn English.
After being introduced to 302 Interactive in Orlando, Fla., through the Tampa Bay Wave accelerator program, she thought the company was perfect to realize her vision.
“They had what I was looking for as far as being able to create something beautiful and visually appealing while keeping a gamification component,” Dr. Smith said about 302, which cofounders Kyle Morrand, Bobby Torres, and Eric Peterforf launched in 2014.
The result was a recently released mobile app on both Android and iOS platforms that teaches children English by using a series of AR-enhanced flashcards built by 302 Interactive.
Using the app, a student reads a word while a 302-created cartoon sloth and his pal serve as fun avatars for students to interact with.
Is a student learning the word “swoop?” Then make a swooping motion along with Ivan and his sloth companion Watson as you say the word.
The motion attached to the word along with the visualization make it easier for students to learn, said Dr. Smith, a professor at University of South Florida’s College of Education.
“That’s why we love augmented reality,” she said. “AR coexists with the real environment and it enhances it.”
The motivation behind this app was simple for Dr. Smith.
The result was a recently released mobile app on both Android and iOS platforms that teaches children English by using a series of AR-enhanced flashcards built by 302 Interactive.
Using the app, a student reads a word while a 302-created cartoon sloth and his pal serve as fun avatars for students to interact with.
Is a student learning the word “swoop?” Then make a swooping motion along with Ivan and his sloth companion Watson as you say the word.
The motion attached to the word along with the visualization make it easier for students to learn, said Dr. Smith, a professor at University of South Florida’s College of Education.
“That’s why we love augmented reality,” she said. “AR coexists with the real environment and it enhances it.”
The motivation behind this app was simple for Dr. Smith.
She understood that children are already immersed within these technologies.
That opened the door for her and 302 to create what she called “a magical and fun experience.”
“It’s like Pokemon Go but the Pokemon are there to teach you a new language,” said Dr. Smith, referencing one of the most visible and successful uses of augmented reality in recent memory.
For the team at 302 Interactive, working with Dr. Smith presented an opportunity to use their technical skills to build products that will help others.
It’s part of their “Game Designers Saving the World” campaign, which highlights uses for video game-related developer skills to impact society in positive ways.
“This project aligns very closely with what we want to do, who we want to be as a company and the work we want to put out in the world,” Morrand said. “We have been able to contribute to so many positive projects, including this one and another that could help kids with speech impairments communicate better."
"We are just scratching the surface as an industry on how AR can be used for good and we plan to be at the forefront of that innovation.”
-Kyle Morrand, CEO and Co-Founder of 302 Interactive
Dr. Smith said she had worked with her own designers to create Ivan and Watson.
But 302’s redesign of the characters “made them cool.”
“What I’m doing could be really boring, let’s be honest,” she said. “It’s flash cards. But 302 made it more like play and that was really appealing to me. I come at it from a language researcher perspective. They brought the fun component into it.”
One of the more rewarding moments when working with 302 Interactive’s app for Dr. Smith is when a young student experiences augmented reality for the first time.
She compared it to how adults react when they find a new filter on apps like Snapchat.
Despite their knowledge of technology, adults are still thrilled, she said, when they see themselves as a hot dog on Snapchat.
“Think about the first time people used the hot dog filter on Snapchat,” she said. “Now imagine that from a 4-year-old’s perspective. That first encounter, when they recognize the magic and there is suddenly a cartoon character on their desk, it is so magical. They look behind the device to see if the character is actually standing there.”
