OrCam Learn transforms learning experience for dyslexic students

Moon Hall is a specialist dyslexia school in Reigate in Surrey, educating students between the ages of 7-16. As a school dedicated to empowering students with reading challenges including dyslexia, dyspraxia, and vision impairment, Moon Hall decided to provide its students with access to the OrCam Learn. The artificially intelligent handheld learning solution provides students and individuals with learning challenges with a transformative, independent learning experience, empowering them to unlock their full potential.

The portable, hand-held device can read text aloud from any surface, test user comprehension, and measure and provide feedback on the user’s learning and improvement. OrCam Learn supports students to improve their reading and learning productivity, parents to provide additional support to their children, and teachers to increase equality and excellence in their classes.

Specifically designed for learning challenges

Michelle Catterson, Executive Headteacher at Moon Hall, said: “The OrCam Learn is fantastic. It’s designed specifically to cater to the unique needs of individuals with learning challenges. When students are using it, it puts them all on a level playing field. So, no matter what their reading ability, they can all access their educational resources in lessons. Using the Orcam Learn has really helped our pupils. They find it fun, engaging, and really easy to use.

One of my targets for our pupils is that they are as independent as possible and a key to that independence is being able to access assistive technology. If they don’t have access or are not confident using it then they are reliant on an adult – something our older pupils especially do not feel comfortable with.”

Michelle explains: “Instead of scanning line-by-line like other devices we’ve used, with the OrCam Learn, you can very easily just take a picture of any book or computer screen and it reads it back to you. The student can even ask questions about the text and the school can measure and give feedback on the pupil’s learning and improvement.

It has been cleverly designed to avoid any frustrations sometimes experienced with other assistive technology. It is very easy to use and the student can alter the speed of reading aloud from their desired text from any surface.”

Evaluating learning progress for ongoing development

Reading aloud is known to be the best way to practice reading. OrCam Learn’s breakthrough Reading Pal feature gives students the ability to practice reading fluency by reading text to the OrCam Learn, and then receiving live positive feedback and reporting via a companion app.

The companion app tracks and evaluates the student’s progress for teachers and parents to identify areas in need of focus, and adjust the learning process accordingly. It monitors the student’s progress throughout the school year with in-depth reports and identifies areas for improvement.

Michelle explains: “The companion app enables us to track the progress of pupils’ reading and helps us to see how well they are improving and whether they need any specific interventions, which is a really useful tool for teachers and really helps to fast track pupils’ learning.”

For children with reading difficulties, specifically dyslexia, the feedback is incredibly important. OrCam has worked hard to make sure that this feedback is always positive for the user. The OrCam Learn emulates what we are trying to do as teachers, which is to make sure that the learning environment is positive so that our children can thrive.

The OrCam Learn is a gateway to independent learning for children with learning challenges. It gives them the ability to learn independently and not be completely reliant on teachers or adults to read to them aloud. The Orcam Learn has made a really positive impact on all of our pupils here at Moon Hall School.”

Students are also able to benefit from the OrCam Learn in exam settings. As the device is fully operable offline. This means that pupils can benefit from help with reading exam papers and texts while complying with JCQ examination guidance. Allowing them to concentrate on demonstrating knowledge, not reading ability.

Empowering teaching and learning
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Both pupils and teachers at Moon Hall are seeing the benefits that the OrCam Learn has brought to the school.

“I’ve been incredibly impressed with the OrCam Learn.” said Kate Eastwood, Head of English. “It is a completely different solution compared to the reading pens that we’ve used in the past. When we’ve used other reading pens, we found that, unless the text is spaced in a certain way, or in certain fonts, students can struggle because the reading pen doesn’t pick up the text.

But with the OrCam Learn it is just so much more intuitive for them to use. Our students are all masters of technology, and with the OrCam Learn it works much more like a phone app so for them it’s very much just a ‘pickup and use’ device. Our pupils love using the OrCam Learn. They get very excited about its capabilities, the fact they can by voice control ask it to speed up or slow down the text, that it can read off posters, on screens, as well as from books. It really is a very useful learning aid in the classroom.
The OrCam Learn gives pupils better opportunities to study more independently, revise with past exam papers, and work at a higher level than before. The device gives our pupils the chance to be much more independent in their learning. They love being able to self-direct their learning and by removing the need for specific adult support, the OrCam Learn gives them back their independence and self esteem.”

Describing his experience of the OrCam Learn, Winston, a Year 9 student, explains: “The OrCam Learn is an amazing device, I love it. It is the size of a pen and it can fit easily into your hand and also into your pocket. The reading is so advanced, it can read both portrait and landscape which really helps me in lessons.

The OrCam Learn is like a teacher, I am not joking! It’s the OrCam Read, plus a teacher. The reading it can do is amazing. I don’t usually like reading but the OrCam Learn helps me in my lessons to do some of the trickier things. The OrCam Learn is a small device with a teacher in it!”

Learn all you need to know about our OrCam Learn.​