When technology joins storytime

Look at this pattern at the end of the pattern of figures. Thinking a lot about how to use this interactive technology or emerging technology to really empower children and families to be the main player in their learning. The undergrads that participate in research at Virginia Tech are really getting the opportunity for hands-on working with children, working with parents as well, and kind of navigating that component. We have a bunch of different projects going on. Overall, they're just looking at how young children respond and interact with AI, more so with how their learning abilities develop. One project that I worked on last semester, we determined if reading with an AI agent, along with an interactive storybook, if it increased their mathematical language learning over the course of the experiment. What we did was take some storybooks that were already developed by Purdue University's early learning labs and actually made them larger format to where the AI will actually be reading the book, but then the experimenter can help the child flip the page and along the way the child is following along. And then there's these dialogic reading questions where after reading the text, they're going to ask children questions about the story. And this is helping with comprehension. I think the overall goal is to understand better how we can use technology to help parents connect with their children through reading. And especially how the supports can help children learn. I think the important direction is, personally, and also I'm interested, is how we use this technology not to take away what children or parents can do, but how to empower them to really own their learning.