Abstract

Current collaborative learning systems have effective in improving comprehension in math and science domains, but other disciplines have been largely ignored. One such area in need is reading comprehension, where recent studies have shown that skill level among American younger readers (grades 1 through 3) is below standard. Many technological efforts have been implemented to improve reading comprehension in the classroom, but few of these focus on developing cognition. Other strategies have been implemented that stress cognitive development, but do not involve use of technology in their effort. The proposed work makes the case for development of a mobile learning system that combines a collaborative, interactive environment with proven reading comprehension strategies to strengthen reading comprehension skills of younger readers. It proposes the incorporation of Question-Answer Relationships (QAR), which guides students in being able to extract main idea and content information from text through question answering, identifying and generation. The system is designed for the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) platform, and facilitates students working in teams using interactive tools to enable communication, cooperation and feedback. This system also incorporates speech recognition as an input mechanism, allowing younger students (for whom stylus input could be difficult) to use voice input to aid in communication. Student progress and performance is monitored, and students are able to progress and build their knowledge at their own pace. The researchers propose that the advantages seen in previous research combined with the gains in comprehension seen in QAR research, when coupled with this innovative technology, will lead to improved comprehension skills of readers significantly over the traditional method of developing reading comprehension.