GatorReads

Inspiration

We were inspired by the dire state of literacy in America's youth from across the country to here in Alachua county. When we researched the issue further we found a concerning gap in the literacy rates between white and black students, the gap was almost 50% here in Alachua county. This is largely because of how areas are zoned and what schools get the most funding. To help solve this issue and bridge this gap, we wanted to provide a free resource where kids of any economic status could use it to learn how to read, be corrected on mispronouncing words, and be encouraged to read; this is why we made GatorReads.

What it does

It will read along with a child listening for mistakes in its reading, and when they do they will be there to help the child learn the word and the correct pronunciation. If a child wants to read something specific they can request it and the AI agent the child is working with will display the text for that piece and will keep on the screen what section they are reading together.

How we built it

We used a Vite React framework implemented with Javascript/Typescript to create the website. To accomplish the speech to text and text to speech functions we used an ElevenLabs AI agent we trained and called to the ElevenLabs API. We also incorporated calls to the Merriam-Webster dictionary API to retrieve accurate definitions for words.

Challenges we ran into

Because my teammate and I were both working on the same project we ended up with many merge conflicts. There were times where poor handling of these conflicts caused countless bugs. We also had a steep learning curve with API's never having used one before.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Being able to entirely incorporate the Merriam-Webster Dictionary into our project with just a double click.

What we learned

We learned a lot about how to prompt models. We had to make Elevenlabs's model understand that it was working with a young child and that it needed to correct the child when making a mistake. We also needed to make it be able to communicate with our code at the same time as communicating with the child, to be able to display the text on screen.

What's next for GatorReads

What's next for GatorReads We are planning to add integration for various languages so GatorReads could help kids internationally, add support for older kids who want to learn more advanced subjects. We are also planning to implement a highlight feature to highlight the word being said.

Built With

• css
• dictionaryapi
• elevenlabs
• googlefonts
• html5
• javascript
• node.js
• react
• tailwind
• typescript