ScholarWorks@UNO

MICE Technology (Multilingual Interactive Children's Educational Technology)

In order to keep pace with the influx of bi- and multilingual residents of the southern region of the United States (specifically the quickly diversified population in the New Orleans Metropolitan area following the wake of Hurricane Katrina), the focus of M.I.C.E. Technology is to establish a branding concept that promotes identifiable, quality educational toys that function electronically to educate native English-speaking children in the area of multilingual skills and abilities; skills that will enable them from an early age to quickly adapt to the rapidly evolving linguistic and socioeconomic landscape. Following in-depth market and educational research, a prototype for this technology has begun development and is targeted toward children in the 4-6 year old age bracket. Plans include placement of completed prototypes in a live learning environment through a partnership with local school and other early-childhood educational entities. Prototypes will feature capabilities that allow tracking of a child’s progress through audio and video monitoring. Regular evaluations of the child’s interaction with the prototype(s) will be reviewed for product enhancement in the areas of technical functionality and lesson plan development. The eventual goal is to adapt a variety of off-the-shelf toys which allow development to focus around a refined, quantifiable subset of language skills with each adapted toy.