Finding Their Voice: Voice AI for Literacy Support

Voice AI is having a moment in education. As schools grapple with declining literacy scores and stretched teaching resources, voice-enabled tools have the potential to help. But what's already working in real classrooms, and what challenges remain?In this episode, Libby and Owen speak with Kristen Huff from Curriculum Associates and Amelia Kelly from SoapBox Labs about the emerging field of voice AI for literacy support and assessment. Together they explore how automatic speech recognition technology  helps teachers identify reading challenges earlier, provide more frequent assessments, and give students personalized feedback on their oral reading.They discuss the practical realities of developing and implementing voice AI in education, from navigating noisy classroom environments to building teacher trust in AI-generated assessments.Links:Ed-Technical episode with TeachFX about voice AI and teacher feedback Ed-Technical episode with Professor Peter Foltz about voice AI Ed-Technical episode with Dr Carmen Strigel about use of voice technology for teacher feedback in low resource settings Guest biographies Kristen Huff, MEd, EdD, currently serves as the Head of Measurement at Curriculum Associates, where she works with a team of assessment designers, psychometricians, and researchers in the development of online assessments integrated with personalized learning and teacher-led instruction. Kristen has deep expertise in k-12 large scale assessment, and has presented and published consistently in educational measurement conferences and publications for over 25 years.Amelia Kelly, PhD, is an AI engineer and pioneer in voice technology with more than 15 years of experience in speech recognition and natural language understanding. She is a Fulbright Scholar and Eisenhower Fellow, holding a PhD and master’s in linguistics and speech technology. Amelia currently serves as chief technology officer of SoapBox Labs and vice president of data science at Curriculum Associates, where she leads the development of child-specific speech-recognition technologies.Join us on social media: BOLD (@BOLD_insights), Libby Hills (@Libbylhhills) and Owen Henkel (@owen_henkel)Listen to all episodes of EdTechnical here: https://bold.expert/ed-technical Subscribe to BOLD’s newsletter: https://bold.expert/newsletter Stay up to date with all the latest research on child development and learning: https://bold.expertCredits: Sarah Myles for production support; Josie Hills for graphic design; Anabel Altenburg for content production.