What is the name of your solution?
Cross-platform, Multi-language and literacy program
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Gamified Interactive Multilanguage literacy and numeracy platform that uses language autocorrection tools.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Language and literacy skills are essential to being successful in school and the workplace globally today. Roughly 15% of the world is still illiterate. The literacy rate for all males and females that are at least 15 years old is 86.3%. Males aged 15 and over have a literacy rate of 90%, while females lag only slightly behind at 82.7. However, massive country-to-country differences exist.
Even those who are literate, still face a great deal of bias if their language proficiency and pronunciation is not on par with native language speakers. This becomes a huge problem for immigrants and refugees. This type of bias can take a significant psychological toll. University of Pennsylvania researcher, Dovchin, found that many people who are shamed or excluded because of their language develop inferiority complexes, and start to believe that they’re actually less intelligent. At worst, linguistic racism can lead to deprivation in education, employment, health and housing.
Current language and literacy programs don't allow for enough practice, particularly with pronunciation at the phonemic level which affects both language and literacy proficiency for both native and nonnative speakers of any language. Additionally programs don't provide a feedback loop for pronunciation correction at the phonic level nor do they provide an immersive environment where users can practice language skills to become truly proficient.
This effects both learners of new languages and young native speakers who have trouble learning to read correctly without direct phonic/phonemic instruction. It also inhibits non-native English (or other language) speakers from speaking in public for fear of a lack of mastery. This is a catch-22 problem because new learners need to practice sounds and get feedback to learn to improve their speaking skills without feeling judged.
Languages are generally learned in classrooms that have no authentic connection to the culture they are learning about without getting to experience the customs and energy of different countries. This tends to isolate the language learning experience whereas with current technologies we can open up a much more immersive experience that can develop a deeper understanding of otherness through positive cognitive orientations that foster a sense of global community and friendship.
What is your solution?
Our solution is a multilanguage platform that works teaching multiple languages and literacy skills, is adaptable to work at the student's level, and can work alone or with schools and/or teachers.
Lucky Cat Language & Literacy is a cross-platform (mobile, web, XR), multi-language program that currently features 3 languages but is in the process for developing language learning activities for 14 languages including: English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Bengali, Swahili, Japanese, Korean, Italian, French, German, and Arabic.
It features a base platform that provides mini videos that show how to pronounce each word on a phonemic level and then provides activities for students to practice the words using an AI tool while providing auto-feedback. Then students practice spelling the word and building sentences using the correct subject/verb agreement. Following this mini-lesson introduction, players are transported to a gamified simulation with more sophisticated voice tools that work at the phone, word, sentence and conversation levels where they are given prompts to practice what they've learned in both a realistic and/or fictionalized scenario. For each correct answer they are awarded points which can be applied for real life coupons and travel purchases, with exception of school based subscriptions. Simulations are tailored to fit varied age, grade and skill levels, allowing students to work at the skill level that is right for them, personalizing their learning experience.
The simulations offer direct practice for what was learned in the mini-lesson and that are applicable to how language is used in natural settings but we've also developed a fun, adventure based curriculum that incorporates the socio-historic aspects of the culture. For example, when learning Mandarin, one of our adventure based learning series explores the discovery of silk by Empress Wu (an underrepresented female in history) and the development of the Silk Road. Students have to use both their language and literacy skills to advance in the gamified choose your own adventure narrative. This is intentionally to encourage student choice in their learning journey as well as allow students to connect more authentically with the historical and social developments of how the language in a region evolved over time.
Beyond the mainstream program, we are creating specialized work simulations to help refugees learn new language and literacy skills as they transition into a new culture. We are currently working with some of the diaspora from the Ukraine who are resettling and creating language specific work modules to help them transition into their new home so they can find local jobs and have an easier time assimilating into the culture.
We are using the base of our program to work as a mainstream language and literacy app that anyone around the world can use, for school development, for refugee skill development and to tie in with local historical and tourism boards.
This platform and curriculum can both work with schools and teachers to lift the burden of online education being dependent on a teacher lecturing for several hours via a Zoom chat by allowing students to progress and take a more active stake in their own learning process. It also helps target and reports to teachers where students are having trouble learning so individualized learning plans and/or help can be given where needed. This could help teachers then arrange students into small group instruction to teach at the right or for peer to peer scaffolding.
The game also allows for cross-cultural communication and eventually we plan to make a new version of pen-pals where schools can partner with each other across the globe and students can work in a multiplayer format to learn about eachother's cultures and work together to generate SOLUTIONS to world issues while enlivening student creativity, connectedness and imagination.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution is open to all learners. Our focus is on language and literacy programs that are easy to use, fun and assume the learner has little to no knowledge of speaking, reading or writing on any level. This is specifically so we can work with learners at all levels and they can personalize their own learning speed to work to their own optimal potential.
Our programs work as progressive web apps, which cache the pages for low levels of internet connectivity in order to help minimize the use of data and need to be constantly connected to the internet.
We are working directly with several refugee groups to create and tailor programs to help ease the transition with lessons specifically geared towards helping them acclimate to their new country.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Our programs have been created by members of Learning through an Expanded Arts Program, Inc. (LEAP)’s Active Learning Leads to Literacy program that was administered in over 200 New York City public and charter schools and found in longitudinal and qualitative study conducted independently by NYU to have academic gains of 87% over the control.
We have the background in creating multi-sensory, highly-engaging learning experiences for learners that are effective.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Enable personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who are most at risk for disengagement and school drop-out
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
New York, NY, USAOur solution's stage of development:
PilotHow many people does your solution currently serve?
5,000
Why are you applying to Solve?
Our main goal is provide a comprehensive language and literacy solution where all persons, regardless of age or income level, can become literate and develop language skills that will help them advance intellectually, socially and economically. MIT and the community around Solve have the institutional building capacity to effect change on a policy level, which is where it is most effective. Having such a dedicated community of deeply reflective beings surrounding SOLVE is what is necessary to bring about change on a large scale to truly open access to large groups of marginalized people.
MIT's programs foster real skill building, creativity and ingenuity. We strive to encourage students to develop their own sense of innovative thinking. The landscape of the world we live in and the nature of work will change dramatically over the upcoming years. Students need to develop skill sets that help them become more in tune on a global level. While we are working to help tackle part of this overall issue, MIT's guidance and expertise would be invaluable in helping us build better, stronger and more effective programming.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Human Capital (e.g. sourcing talent, board development, etc.)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Shawna Doherty
What makes your solution innovative?
Our solution is innovative because it targets language and literacy development on a large scale. Additionally our solution includes:
AI based Pronunciation Autocorrection: AI Tool that autocorrects speech at the phonic level so learners begin speaking a new language with the correct sounds from the outset, providing accent reduction. This tool will also support literacy development for younger students.
Cross Platform for Mobile, Web, and XR: Cross platform (mobile, web, AR, VR, XR) solution that works as a progressive web app which allows pages to cache so users who have limited access to WiFi can practice at least part of our program on a continual basis.
Interactive Platform for Simulated Practice: Provides an immersive environment for students to practice new language and literacy skills without feeling judged. Our platform provides: a base instructional interactive deep learning platform, immersive simulations for general and specific practice for work, academics and fun, and an open world concept so learners can truly make the learning process their own
Active, Fun Engaged Learners: Studies have proven that most students learn more through active engagement with content than with passive direct instruction. Our platform fosters interactive content, realistic and adventure bases simulations that require students to apply the knowledge they've learned to advance through a series of fun and challenging activities that are tuned directly to their own learning level so they can advance at their own speed.
Remote Tools for a Globally Diverse World: The pandemic showed us that it is important to have high quality remote tools for learners. Part of the struggle with remote education has been that students are forced to learn by sitting in front of a Zoom classroom, which no matter how motivated the student or teacher, can become monotonous. Our platform takes pressure off both while making learning fun and nurturing diverstiy, tolerance and an understanding of cultural nuance which will give them a competitve edge in a global workplace.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
We have currently developed the base of our program for English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Hindi. We are going to release the base of the program soon for at least English, Chinese and Japanese.
For the next year, we are still developing simulations and refining some of our tooling. We are beginning a research study with the goal of refining some of our autocorrection tooling to refine accuracy levels to higher than 95% and to expand it to more languages.
Within the next five years, we plan to have developed a wide range of partnerships with local governments, ngo's and stakeholders in at least 20 countries.
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
We have begun beta testing of our service but we plan to run full randomized control studies later on to assess our effectiveness. Currently, we are in the process of beginning a research study on our English program with second language learners to assess both our language tools and learning program effectiveness to further refine them both to meet the needs of the learners.
What is your theory of change?
Our theory of change is as follows:
Activities: By using the interactive language and literacy platform, learners will increase either 1st language or 2nd (or more) language proficiency that will help them to learn the language quicker, more efficiently and understand the culture better.
Short Term Changes: Becoming literate. Learning their local or a new language. Learners are able to pursue higher levels of education. They build self esteem. Second language learners feeling more confidence. Positive orientations with otherness and diversity. Refugees and immigrants feeling more connected and have more understanding of the cultural mores and customs of where they've moved to. Encouragement of cross-cultural communication and tourism including more experience to lead to increased open mindedness.
Middle Term Changes: Higher middle and high school graduation rates. More children staying in school instead of working on the farm or in another way to support their families. School becoming more fun and engaging. Developing a sense of adventure, exploration and innovation. Taking an active role in their educational process. Better assimilation of immigrants and refugees into their new homes with more economic opportunities. More international friendships.
Long Term Changes: Happier citizens who are able to be fully immersed in their communities with higher levels of completed education including college/university, better health outcomes, a much wider array of potential economic opportunities to them. Brighter communities on a local level and on a wider level, higher potential for increased GDP. More girls and women being able to enter the workforce. The lessening of child labor and early childhood marriages over time as more economic opportunities open up and girls stay in school longer. Encouragement of cross-cultural communication and tourism. Fostering a sense of global community and interconnectedness.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
We have a deep learning platform that is developed to work on a cross-platform basis including web, mobile, AR, VR, XR via a progressive web app that caches pages for a lower need for constant connection to WiFi. Some of our language modules work offline. The deep learning platform is designed to garner user insights and make suggestions to improve the overall learning process.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new technology
How do you know that this technology works?
The base of the program works because we've tested it out. We are in beta testing for language tools we've developed to increase their accuracy level.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
How many people work on your solution team?
6
How long have you been working on your solution?
2 years
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
We were awarded a grant from Upwork for $25,000 which allowed us to work with people from all over the world. For our language modules we employed talent that was from each geographic region we wish to serve. We felt people who are locals could best inform natural language use for each geographic region. We also felt they were our best resource in describing their cultural customs, celebrations, rites, and the nuance that arises from traditions among groups of people living in the same region. In the development of our platform and language tools we've had people from all over the world, of every religion and every gender identification or sexual orientation, work on our products ranging from Vietnam, Serbia, Ukraine, Philippines, Guatemala, Malaysia, China, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, the UK, the US, Spain, Benin, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Cambodia, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco, the UAE, and more. We hire based on skill level, experience and openly embrace diversity. We don't only embrace diversity, we celebrate it and highly value how each team member adds to our organization, lending to build rich programs that reflect the people who work with us and those that we serve.
What is your business model?
We are registered as a low profit, mission driven organization (l3c) through Wyoming. Being a mission-driven organization allows that to be our main focus while monetizing whatever products we can to reach that goal and grow our program offerings.
Our business model includes freemium to paid services. We make all our services available for all persons for free online use and take in advertising revenue through our language and literacy gaming platform. We also are working with several companies to tie in a points program for travel partnerships for language and literacy modules that are targeted towards the tourism industry. We have developed relationships with international tourism boards, hotel brands, airlines, and credit card companies. We are also exploring working with coupon deals. For our mainstream online app, points are awarded to players as the master language and literacy skills. (This is not available in school subscriptions for obvious reasons). This allows us to drive mainstream users to our site, develop sponsorship partnerships and monetize our service while being able to offer our service without cost to learners, some of whom may want to use it for their next vacation, to learn a new language or will use it as their primary and possibly only language and literacy development resource.
Additionally we plan on offering additional services for purchase to school districts which will offset our donation model to schools that cannot afford products.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
According to Forbes, the Global Ed-Tech market is set to reach up to $252 million dollars in 2020. With in-class instruction facing major set-backs due to the Coronavirus pandemic and with many school systems being forced to use Google and Zoom where teachers are unable to engage with students directly during lessons, learners and teachers are facing unprecedented challenges. That is where the Lucky Cat Language and Literacy program comes in. We provide engaging content that works at the level of the learner and provides an adaptive looping system to better serve student and teacher needs. For individual subscriptions, families are also able to provide their children with many fun, easy lessons and activities that are student centered and engaging.
Our top competitors have have company valuations ranging from ABC Mouse at $1 Billion, VIP Kid at $4.5 Billion, Duolingo at $1.5 Billion, Education.com at $1 Billion Valuation, and Hooked on Phonics at $100 million annual sales at their peak.
Our main app is a freemium model that allows all learners to use our system for free. We will charged for uninterrupted services at a rate of $9.99/month.
Additionally we will offer school subscriptions. Many of the companies that sell to schools also do so at a very high price point whereas we are looking to contribute a viable solution to the language and literacy development crisis at a reasonable cost structure with high quality educational resources.
1. Mainstream market app store Free with advertisements to subsidize business and continued development costs, $9.99/month without ads and unlimited play time. Advertising revenue will be our main revenue source.
2. School Subscriptions per student basis $10/student and grants
3. Workbook Orders for schools $10/student
4. Workbook Orders for homeschooled students $14.99/student
5. Print books $24.99 each or less
6. E-Text books $9.99 each or less
7. Live Instruction Group Classes $25/class
8. Individual Instruction $35/hour
9. Literacy App Games Freemium without interruption to $.99 to $1.99/month
10. Offering to buy one, donate one for our refugee, at-risk, displaced and those afflicted by natural disasters
11. Grants for development of programs that are offered on a completely free basis for refugee and other marginalized populations
Solution Team
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Our Organization
ABC Club.org, Lucky Cat Language and Literacy Program