ming Institute for Disabilities AT Professionals. Please reach out to Adele (adele@ai-learners.com) for presentation inquiries.
RESEARCH To further improve the AI-Learners website and help stu- dents learn math, Adele is working with two research labs at Cornell University. Adele committed to providing students with research-backed math games to optimize student learning outcomes. Upon her graduation from Cornell University, Adele will continue academic research to improve AI-Learners as she pursues a PhD in accessible educational technology. At the Future of Learning Lab with professor Rene Kizilcec, Adele is working on two research projects to understand better how the AI-Learners games can support children with cognitive disabilities. Her first project involves a review of AI-based adap- tive math games. She analyzes how children with cognitive dis- abilities are considered in the design and adaptivity of existing math tools by applying cognitive and neuroscience principles and pedagogy. She is also analyzing the type of research stud- ies and the validity of studies conducted with the math tools to understand the effectiveness of math games for students with disabilities. Motivated by limited research on the design of EdTech games for elementary school children with cognitive disabilities, Adele is also conducting a three-part study with lo- cal Ithaca schools. She developed a novel method of teaching early math to children. Interviews with teachers and observa- tions of kids playing games will help her translate the model to AI-Learners game designs. Lastly, a controlled experiment will evaluate the efficacy of the games with respect to student ac- curacy, enjoyment, and attention. Adele is also conducting research at the Enhancing Ability Lab at Cornell with guidance from Professor Shiri Azenkot to explore the accessibility of games for students with physical disabilities. First, Adele is developing an accessibility evalua- tion method to clearly define game accessibility for students with physical disabilities. To develop the evaluation method,
she analyzes accessibility guidelines with various techniques and interviews EdTech creators and users to refine the evalu- ation method. She will then use the final evaluation method to conduct an observational study with commercial EdTech games and clearly demonstrate the issues with existing EdTech games. Through this process, Adele hopes to gain more in- sights into game accessibility and understand what further research is necessary to support students with motor, vision, speech, and hearing impairments. Adele already identified that supporting students with physical disabilities as they learn to use assistive technology (AT) is non-trivial. To investigate this process, Adele is interviewing parents, teachers, assistive tech- nology specialists, and other professionals to understand the players and activities involved in helping children use technol- ogy. For example, how do parents select and acquire AT? How do parents learn to use AT, and who works with children daily to help them use AT? Through these studies, Adele hopes to understand better the inefficiencies and challenges present in the AT industry and then propose solutions to help improve the industry. NEXT STEPS Hundreds of students are already using AI-Learning and improving their math skills. You can now sign up for a free ac- count at www.ai-learners.com if you know a child who could also benefit from fun math games. Please reach out to Adele with any questions, advice, or in- quiries at adele@ai-learners.com
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