3rd/4th Year *** NEW ***

This project will develop a system that will enable primary school students to write letters of the alphabet with their finger on a computer device. The system will be able to check if the student has written the letter in the correct manner and will be able to record the information for the teacher.

This project idea is based on a real need identified by a primary school teacher. There is plenty of scope for expaning this project.

3rd/4th Year *** NEW ***

This project will develop a system that will enable the teacher in a primary school allow all the students in a class to answer questions on particular letters/words (not just limited to a few students). It will be deployed on an IWB in a real classroom setting and will involve Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the primary school context.

This project idea is based on a real need identified by a primary school teacher. There is plenty of scope for expaning this project.

3rd/4th Year *** NEW ***

This project will develop a system that will develop software to work with the Roamer

This project idea is based on a real need identified by a primary school teacher. There is plenty of scope for expaning this project.

3rd/4th Year *** NEW ***

This project will develop a harness research resources to make programming (and more importantly programming skills) available to primary school students. Roamer

3rd/4th Year *** NEW ***

This project will look at the needs of real-end users (primary school teachers) of Interactive Whiteboards and develop resources to enhance the deployment of IWBs in the classroom setting.
The project will involve all aspects of the software lifecycle and will be deployed in a real-life setting.

3rd/4th Year

This project will develop a User Interface to an Irish morphology engine, to enable it to be used for CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) purposes. The morphology engine allows the user to enter a word (e.g. the verb raibh) and show its underlying dictionary form (e.g. bí). Alternatively, the system can conjugate a verb. There is also a bilingual Irish/English component that could be exploited. This project will involve designing an interface to the existing morphology engine and developing a CALL program for Irish using the engine. This project should use a flexible technology (e.g. XML technologies) so that it can be incorporated into other CALL programs.

3rd/4th Year

This project involves migrating an existing web site for German Pronunciation
( http://www.spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de/LeaP/Deutschkurs/stunde1.html) to an XML-based CALL template (see
http://www.computing.dcu.ie/~mward/nawat/general/html/intro_eng.html for an example of a CALL program developed using the XML templates). The project involves developing a migration strategy for the current program and amending the XML templates if required. A working knowledge of German is welcome but not necessary.

3rd/4th Year

This project involves developing a morphology engine for Nawat (an Endangered Language of El Salvador). The project will use the Xerox XFST (Finite State Tools) to develop the engine. It involves writing regular expressions for the language, as well as other morphology related items. A similar morphology engine has been developed for Irish, which would serve as a model for the Nawat version. No prior knowledge of Nawat will be assumed. A Nawat website is available at http://www.computing.dcu.ie/~mward/nawat/general/html/intro_eng.html.

3rd/4th Year

This project involves developing a set of tools for developing a vocabulary learning programme. Many of the existing programmes for learning vocabulary are not very exciting and do not avail of many technical features that are possible. This project will aim to incorporate some of these techniques (as outlined by Tschichold, Universtiy of Neuchatel, Switzerland) and lead to the development of reusble, language independent tools that will enable the easy creation of interesting and pedagogically sound vocabulary learning materias.

3rd/4th Year

This project involves developing a set of tools for assessing the language skill of the learner. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is slowly gaining acceptance in education and is one of the most underexplored areas is Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA). The project will aim to develop tools that could be used to assess the language ability of Irish language skills in primary school in an unintrusive and pedagogically sound manner.

4th Year

This project involves developing a vocabulary learning tool that incorporates speech recognition. Speech recognition software is often difficult to use but if the domain is limited, success is more likely. The proposed domain for this project is the Irish vocabulary of primary school children in 3rd class (approx 7-8 year olds). Possibilities include the use of IBM Via-Voice software in conjunction with the Java speech API.