Google has launched an educational site for children learning to read
Google has released a browser version of its Android application Read Along – a special site for children that facilitates learning to read. It is currently in beta testing.
The Read Along site includes hundreds of illustrated stories for several different reading levels. After choosing a story, the child begins to read into the microphone of his device. Words are highlighted in blue after reading, and misspelled words are highlighted in red. After clicking on the underlined word, virtual assistant Diya will say it.
The site supports work with Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers. Google promises to soon add support for other browsers, including Safari. Stories on the site are available in the following languages: English, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Spanish and Portuguese.
Google has also added new stories to the Read Along collection, which will be available later this year in both web and Android versions. These include content adaptations from children’s video creators USP Studios and ChuChu TV, as well as alphabet and phonetics books from educational company Kutuki.
The Read Along app for Android was launched in 2019 and has since been used by over 30 million children. The advent of the web version will not only give children a greater choice of available devices, but also allow many to read on large screens. Teachers previously noted that this would be important for younger students, especially those with visual impairments.
