Michigan State University is part of a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to enhance early literacy and responsible artificial intelligence use nationwide.  

MSU Associate Professor Laura Tortorelli is one of the project’s co-principal investigators.  

The five-year grant will establish a Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI, headquartered at the University at Buffalo, or UB. The center will focus its efforts on improving “beginning reading skills of students, with an emphasis on students from underrepresented and underserved communities,” according to a UB press release. It will also develop a tool — the Artificial Intelligence Reading Enhancer, or AIRE — to “support K-2 students in independent reading by generating personalized text, providing real-time reading analysis and offering just-in-time literacy support.”  

MSU’s focus

“We will bring artificial intelligence together with what we already know about literacy teaching and learning practices,” said Tortorelli, part of the MSU Department of Teacher Education. 

Tortorelli, who will be part of the literacy team on the project, brings expertise on how young students learn to read and the instructional practices educators use. Her research has found that while teachers are open to using digital platforms to complement reading instruction and learning, often the tools aren’t detailed enough to meet the varied needs of learners, lack diversity, or the reading materials within the tools simply aren’t challenging enough for children.   

That is where CELRAI comes in.  

Together, the scholars will research, create and test a generative AI tool that will create personalized digital reading experiences for K-2 learners. Teachers can also use the tool to track individual learning progress.  

Tortorelli says the proposed tool will develop digital reading experiences based on each child’s unique interests, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and reading skills. Together with physical books, library and home reading time and teacher instruction will bolster – and ultimately improve – literacy learning and outcomes.  

What’s next

The project launched in Sept. 2024. In the first year, Tortorelli and other scholars will research if and how teachers use AI currently in their classrooms. They will focus on understanding the needs of teachers and students, as well as current barriers to existing technologies.  

Over the following years, the AI tool will be developed, then tested before its planned nationwide dissemination. Tortorelli serves as the project’s lead in Michigan. The project will also be tested in New York and North Carolina. At the project’s conclusion, the scholars hope for nationwide dissemination of the generative AI tool.  

X. Christine Wang from the University at Buffalo serves as the grant’s principal investigator. Including Tortorelli, nine co-principal investigators are on the grant, including additional scholars from UB and representatives from East Carolina University, Stanford University, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Read more about the project from the University at Buffalo. 

This story originally appeared on the College of Education website.