Author: Yonnel Bécognée, teacher
Co-author: François Varlet
I am a teacher at a French school in Managua (Nicaragua). I teach kindergarten or elementary school, depending on the year. Not all of my students speak French (yet), but more importantly, some students do not have French-speaking parents at home to help them.
Being self-taught in programming, I had the idea of putting plain text into a QR code so that it could be scanned and then read aloud by a small mobile app: MAEL Scan, created with Mit App Inventor (Scratch for Android).
So I added QR codes (created with an online generator) to the educational materials that the children took home.
🎉 ✨ They could finally listen to words or short phrases in French at home. This proved very useful for their learning and made me want to improve the system.
Little by little, MAEL has become a useful tool for several language teachers. Currently, I use it every day with my second and third grade students.
- So I created a small QR code generator called MAEL Gen (python) that is more convenient than a website.
- I added a “Dictate” mode that hides the text read by MAEL Scan.
- I added a “Spell” mode that spells out the letters instead of reading the text.
- I added light encryption of the QR code content (for those clever people who use a standard QR code reader to prepare their dictation 😜 ).
- I kept the option to use 55 languages (at least for the read and dictate modes for now).
In addition, inspired by a colleague, I began developing a JavaScript application that allows users to create sentences independently from images.
This was the birth of MAEL Phrase.
🔥 Several tasks are currently urgent:
-
MAEL Scan requires an iOS version because there are quite a few users who have iPhones (already started in Kotlin).
-
MAEL Phrase is only a small, limited page (among other things, it does not use Gemini 2.5). It needs to become a true platform with student activity tracking.
-
MAEL Scan for primary school children is yet another opportunity for children to have a phone in their hands. So I started developing a version that runs on a Raspberry Pi.
⌨️ List of ongoing developments:
| Anwendung | GitHub-Repository |
|---|---|
| MAEL Scan | Available |
| MAEL Scan Pi | Soon available |
| MAEL Gen | Available |
| MAEL phrase | Available |
| Phonofouille | Available |
In addition to my classroom work (preparation, grading, etc.), I no longer have enough time to train myself and continue developing the MAEL project at the pace it requires.
🏆 MAEL Scan is currently being used in several classrooms in Central America and North America, where teachers are suggesting improvements.
- 📯 The project is supported by Zone AMLA Nord (our regional academy) and its educational advisors. But I can't keep up with the pace: developing Raspberry Pi, creating the platform, the iOS version of MAEL Scan, improving MAEL Gen...
- To make up for my shortcomings.
- To speed up the development of this application, which can enable many students (children and adults) to learn a new language. 😁
🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 🇧🇷 🇮🇹 🇩🇪 🇷🇺 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇰🇷 ...
This is the first application created.
🗣️ It allows students to listen to the content of a QR code placed on a paper document by the teacher.
The QR code can contain:
- 📄 a word or text that will be read by a synthetic voice, or
- 🎤 a link to an .mp3 file 🎵 (currently hosted on Google Drive).
The first version of MAEL Scan was developed using MIT App Inventor (block-based coding). This allowed us to quickly create a functional version. However, this language is insufficient for future developments.
On the other hand, only a compilation for Android is possible. So, several families bought a basic Android phone to be able to use MAEL. 😒
Kotlin MP is designed to enable the creation of applications for multiple platforms from a single source code.
To overcome the limitations imposed by the MIT App Inventor language and to be able to create an iOS version of MAEL, I started learning Kotlin. (But also to develop the back-end of MAEL Phrase.)
For the moment, only the interface has been coded. I am currently stuck on implementing the QR code reader module and the speech synthesis module.
Being aware of the problems posed by excessive cell phone use among young children, I quickly felt remorseful about putting one in the hands of preschool and elementary school children.
💡 So I started developing a version of MAEL Scan (Python) on a Raspberry Pi board equipped with an E-paper display. An initial prototype is already functional.
It is planned that “MAEL Scan Pi” (provisional name) will become an attractive 3D-printed object loaned to families, a tangible symbol of their entry into a new learning experience.
MAEL Gen was developed (Python) to facilitate the creation of QR codes by teachers. It runs on computers (Linux/MacOS/Win) and allows you to easily configure the content of QR codes by seamlessly adding the necessary tags.
MAEL Phrase aims to enable students to create sentences independently.
Programmed in HTML/JavaScript/CSS, it currently uses the free (but limited) API from Gemini 2.5 Pro to generate conjugated and agreed sentences.
It is expected that teachers will be able to design their own customized activities for the students in their class.
MAEL Phrase will offer a default word bank (and image bank) that teachers can add to as they wish.
In order to create their own activities, teachers will need a search engine to select words from the database.
📑 However, criteria such as searching by sound, position of the sound in the word, type of word, theme, or number of syllables would be very useful.
💡 So I developed Phonophouille (python/SQLite) to explore the feasibility of such a search engine.
Please email me at this address for more details:
We need contributors who have:
- Python skills,
- Proficiency in Raspberry Pi and module management,
- Kotlin skills (backend),
- Kotlin MP skills (Android and iOS),
- HTML/JavaScript/CSS skills,
- PostgreSQL skills.
- ✏️ We also need an illustrator to create a library of royalty-free images for MAEL Phrase.