Thibault Asselborn went on to graduate school while teaching piano. As students’ finger dexterity and muscle memory improve, he learns that the same concepts that can help or hinder students from playing Mozart or Chopin: pressure, velocity, acceleration, and hand tremor, can help improve handwriting. We found that this also applies to whether the text is legible or not. And once the weaknesses are corrected, the student will be able to accelerate his movements and perform better without thinking.
Asselborn received his PhD after completing research with the help of artificial intelligence at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. We have also released an app that helps elementary school students learn and improve their handwriting.
Asselborn, currently CEO of education technology company School Rebound SA, announced earlier this month that after five years of research, the technology was tested and built on data points from more than 20,000 students. Announced the US release of the app Dynamilis. A team of therapists and teachers from France and Switzerland. The subscription-based iPad application is aimed at children ages 5 to 12 and is available in five languages and 200 countries, according to a Nov. 16 news release.
Asselborn said in an interview Monday that improving readability is not the ultimate goal of the tool. If students can “automate” their handwriting, they can speed up learning in other subjects such as science and history, he said.
“The important thing is that if your writing is not automatic and it is not natural, there will be friction…and you should only focus on how you form the letters. “It will be,” he said. “The goal of this app is to take kids out of writing and bring all the different cognitive aspects into school. So it’s focus.”
Dynamilis’ video demonstration shows that the app includes analytics that identify students’ strengths and weaknesses based on their input in cursive and script. There are also 12 different activities where students learn proper handwriting techniques through gamification. In “Chase,” students use a pen to guide a character along a blue line. If your character leaves the line, you lose balloons and points. In “Chemist,” students must focus on when to lift the pen to write a word in cursive. If you lift the pen at the wrong time, the word will change color and you will lose points. And in “Pizzaiolo,” students operate scooters to deliver pizzas within an allotted time. If you get hit by a car or go off route, you have to go back and get a new pizza. This activity requires you to think about completing a route efficiently and accurately.
“In every game, they train certain aspects of handwriting,” Asselborn said. “So, for example, there are people who master pressure, and there are people who master the pen grip, and there are people who master speed, acceleration, and dexterity. According to the analysis that has been done, those are recommended.”
The U.S. release of Dynamiris follows a new state law in California that requires handwriting instruction in grades 1 through 6. Asselborn said that although the level of instruction in cursive and handwriting varies by state, European countries seem to place a high emphasis on handwriting. His company also develops software to help parents and educators teach proper handwriting techniques. This may be particularly helpful for students who have completed minimal handwriting instruction, struggle with writing, and then struggle with other subjects later in their academic career.
When it comes to piano lessons, Asselborn imagines that AI could one day help with piano lessons as well.
“Maybe in another life,” he said.