SBIR Phase I: Linguistic Analysis of Web Content for 21st Century Inquiry Learning

This SBIR Phase II innovation is twofold. First, advanced natural language processing techniques are used to analyze the content of websites and identify features of the text that determine processing difficulty for the individual student. After the initial evaluation of text difficulty, the system becomes adaptive and automatically updates its decision for the suitability of a website by keeping track of the user's reading experience. This machine learning technology enables differentiated learning and, thus, enables fair access of web content to English Language Learners and special education groups. Second, the content of websites is characterized by advanced text analysis and classification to detect school subject areas. Elementary school students, for example, will find science content written at a level that they can comprehend, thus, being enabled to laser focus their attention to accessible content and engage with it critically. The proposed technology addresses the critical problem of information management and helps teachers teach their students the skills that they need to find, evaluate, and take advantage of available information in any context. The broader/commercial impact of the proposed technology will be in the integration of the recently articulated common core standards (21st century learning) in the K-12 classroom. The development of the proposed technology will offer unprecedented opportunity for differentiated learning and give students a life-long tool to help them understand and critically engage with the information available to them. Early integration of information literacy and inquiry based learning is enabled not only by identifying age appropriate resources but, also, by offering a total project management platform. Teachers and curriculum developers will save valuable time and effort because they will have community space to find curated up-to-the-minute resources and core projects, which they can edit, save, and share, assign them to students, and receive submitted work, all in one window. Students, too, have personal space to keep notes, automatically keep track of resources for later review and citation, collaborate, prepare, and submit their reports. The platform can integrate with school library resources, thus, becoming a powerful tool for librarians. Application Programming Interfaces can be developed for collaboration with publishers enabling them to smoothly integrate core standards in their curricula and update them for 21st century learning.