Prof. Kay Berkling, PhD
Professorin Fakultät Technik
Erzbergerstraße 121, Raum E511
- Telefon
- +49.721.9735-864
- kay.berkling @dhbw-karlsruhe.de
Vita
Kay Berkling obtained her PhD at the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology (today OHSU) in 1996 in the area of Automatic Language Identification of Telephone Speech in Computer Science. Since then she has published in Language and Automatic Dialect Identification. Her expertise lies in joining linguistic knowledge with statistical information and combining know-how across disciplines.
After working for Lincoln Laboratory, MIT she joined Ubilab, the innovation lab of UBS. The following five years she collaborated on a number of international projects in the financial industries and gained extensive experience on projects and managing the interface between IT and Business. In 2004 she was named Full Professor at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico in the area of Software Engineering. She has a number of publications in project estimation and teaching methods.
In 2008 she immigrated to Germany where she added a degree in teaching to her repertoire in order to extend the research into German language and didactics. Her most recent publications are in automatic diagnostics of spelling errors for learners of German handwriting leveraging speech technology.
Current projects relate to applying these diverse technologies to computer-based learning for children in the context of gamification, thereby integrating research projects with teaching of Software Engineering Projects. Kay Berkling mostly teaches Software Engineering and Algorithms at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg. In her free time, she teaches student teachers how to integrate technology in the language learning classroom.
Forschungsprojekte
- Automatisierte Rechtschreibdiagnose
- "Phonics" in der deutschen Sprache? Fibeltexte in der Analyse
- Gaming und Gamification
Areas of Interest and Teaching
- Speech Recognition and Synthesis Applied to Child-Computer Interfaces
- Gamification
- Project Management Tools for Software Engineers
- Algorithms
- Language Learning with Modern Media in the Context of Research Projects
ResearchGate
Current Research Projects
Topic: Cross-disciplinary Software Projects for Education and Computer-Supported Individualized Language Learning in the Context of Gamification
The following projects are at various stages of maturity from planning to publication and listed in that order:
- DFG-funded automatic diagnosis of spelling errors using speech technology, a joint project with PH, Karlsruhe (University of Education) and KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. (We know that many children in upper grades still have difficulty with German spelling. If your child wants to learn with us, please send us email – berkling) – see publications @dhbw-karlsruhe.de
- Integrating Research and Teaching: Implementation of Research Projects in the Software Engineering classroom – see project above
- Working with Explode The Code Online and German children in 3rd and 4th grade who are learning English from home. A joint project with DHBW, PH Karlsruhe (University of Education) and ETC School Specialty. (If your child wants to learn with us, please send us email at berkling) – ongoing @dhbw-karlsruhe.de
- Integrating Research and Teaching: Theoretical foundations of gamification, didactics and business applications in the DHBW classroom
International Research Tasks
Committee Work and Reviews
- Elected Member of ISCA board (http://www.isca-speech.org/iscaweb/index.php/about-isca/isca-board) starting August 2015
- Organizer and Co-Chair of L1TLT L1 Learning, Teaching and Technology Workshop 2015
- Member of Technical Committee on Speech and Language IEEE 2013-2015, Senior Member of IEEE
- President Special Interest Group SIG-CHILD (ISCA)
- Member of ISCA Electronic Access Committee
- Committee IEEE Odyssey on Speaker Identification and Language Identification
- Co-Chair of WOCCI Workshop on Child Computer Interaction: 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014
- Co-Chair SEAFOOD – Software Engineering Approaches For Offshore and Outsourced Development 2008
- Member of Technical Committee on Speech and Language IEEE 2005-2009, Senior Member of IEEE
- President Special Interest Group SIG-CHILD (ISCA)
- Local Chair Odyssey 2006
- Local Chair ASRU 2005
- Reviewer Interspeech, ICASSP, ASRU
- Reviewer IEEE Transactions Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Elsevier Speech Communication
Guest Editor
- Special Edition ACM Transactions on Speech and Language Processing. Children’s Speech for Child-Machine Interaction Applications. Volume 7, Issue 4, August 2011.
- Springer, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, Vol. 16. Second International Conference, SEAFOOD 2008, Zurich, Switzerland, July 2-3, 2008.
- IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, Special Section on Speaker and Language Recognition, Volume 15, Issue 7, September 2007.
List of Publications
2018
2017
2016
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(2016) : Gamification Behind the Scenes - Designing a Software Engineering Course: Computer Supported Education - 7th International Conference, CSEDU 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, May 23-25, 2015, Revised Selected Papers, 583: Springer (Communications in computer and information science), S. 274-292. Online verfügbar unter http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29585-5_16
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(2016) : Gamification Behind the Scenes - Designing a Software Engineering Course 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, May 23-25, 2015, Revised Selected Papers In: Zvacek, Susan; Restivo, Maria Teresa; Uhomoibhi, J. O.; Helfert, Markus (Hg.): Computer Supported Education - 7th International Conference, CSEDU 2015, Lisbon, Portugal, May 23-25, 2015, Revised Selected Papers, 583: Springer (Communications in computer and information science), S. 274-292. Online verfügbar unter http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29585-5_16
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(2016) : GamES MOOC: Conceptual Ideas and First Steps Towards Implementation of a MOOC for Children In: SciTePress: International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU)
Abstract: This paper presents conceptual ideas and a first prototype towards establishing a GamES (GAM)ified (E)lementary (S)chool MOOC for children who do not have access to schools. The project is being developed across several Bachelor student projects in collaboration between Cooperative State University, Karlsruhe and the German University of Cairo. A hybrid architecture is designed to support children on mobile devices with intermittent Internet access. Upon access, current learning status and new content are updated. The content consists of leveled games addressing skills defined by the US common core standards for K-5 in subjects Mathematics and English (that can be adapted to other languages). The children’s MOOC combines ideas of adaptive user interface, off-line personalized learning, common core standards, and game-based learning. The child’s user interface is gamified and after initial registration designed to be manageable for K-5 graders. A second interface addresses the community of game developers who are interested in donating games for certain core skills. In a next step, assessment and government certification of achievements will be tackled. The MOOC software is intended as open source to allow for community development.
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(2016) : Progression in Materials for Learning to Read and Write - a Cross-Language and Cross-Century Comparison of Readers: Workshop on Child 2016, S. 1-9
Abstract: This work is part of a larger effort about understanding the effects of didactic materials on acquisition of reading and writing in German. In this paper, the focus is on progression in primers (beginner readers). Texts in various languages are analyzed in terms of complexity, as measured by entropy between letters and phonemes, from the point of view of reading or writing that text. The assumption is that a good teaching text would start low and increase gradually in complexity. At the same time, languages have different requirements on progression depending on their orthographic depth. The goal of this work is to compare German primers to various other languages for the beginning stages of reading skill acquisition. We show that there are difference across languages and a large span of approaches in primers of presenting material to the learner.
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(2016) : Wortstruktur, Orthographie und Didaktik:Die Relevanz der Vokallänge: System, Norm und Gebrauch - drei Seiten einer Medaille?: Orthographische Kompetenz und Performanz im Spannungsfeld zwischen System, Norm und Empirie, 22: Hohengehren: Baltmannsweiler: Schneider (Thema Sprache: Wissenschaft für den Unterricht), S. 201-229
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(2016) : Personalizing Game Selection for Mobile Learning: With a View Towards Creating an Off-line Learning Environment for Children In: SciTePress: International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU)
Abstract: Online education nowadays plays a very important role in enhancing the educational processes mostly for adults. Given this maturing technology and the number of children that lack access to safe education, mobile education for children is a logical next step and opens options that change their prospects. This paper is part of a larger project on mobile learning with games for children without access to schools. Games can motivate children to learn without the necessity of a teacher. The goal is to recommend learning games based on children’s preferences of past choices and ratings, which can supplement other recommender systems. The resulting implemented algorithm is designed as a plug-in to exisiting learning platforms that use games. Such a system was implemented and evaluated in a feasibility study on adults. We show that a prediction based on user’s choice and rating of games corresponds to a direct survey to determine the gamer types in 66% of the cases for 61 participants.
2015
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(2015) : WISE: A Web-Interface for Spelling Error Recognition Description and Evaluation of the Algorithm for German: International Conference of the German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology: Gesellschaft für Sprachtechnologie and Computerlinguists (GSCL), S. 87-96
Abstract: This paper evaluates an automatic spelling error tagger that is available via web interface. After explaining the existing error tags in detail, the accuracy of the tool is validated against a publicly available database containing around 1700 written texts ranging from first grade to eighth grade. The precision of the tool ranges from 83% to 100%. Some basic statistics about spelling errors in the existing data set are given to demonstrate potential research areas. The site can be used to further explore this data. In addition, new data can be donated and explored. This process will be described in detail.
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(2015) : Systematic Acquisition of Reading and Writing: An Exploration of Structure in Didactic Elementary Texts for German: International Conference of the German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology: Gesellschaft für Sprachtechnologie and Computerlinguists (GSCL), S. 87-96
Abstract: The work presented here is part of a larger study that looks at the impact that struc-tured teaching materials have on improving orthographic skills. The first step is an analysis of the current status of linguistic structures in common primary readers (primers) since their key purpose is to lead children along a systematic learning path towards becoming proficient readers and writers. Using text processing tools detecting morphemes, syllables and sentence structures, several popular primers are automatically examined with respect to their systematic approach to language at the phonics/syllable, word and sentence levels. It can be shown that there is little apparent structure in today’s school texts at any of the examined levels when compared to some older schoolbooks (1877, 1904) that have a systematic and explicit progression at all examined levels.
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(2015) : Phontasia - a game for training German orthography Communication Association, Dresden, Germany, September 6-10, 2015: International Conference of the International Speech Communication Association: (ISCA) International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech), S. 1874-1875. Online verfügbar unter http://www.isca-speech.org/archive/interspeech_2015/i15_1874.html
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(2015) : German phonics game using speech synthesis - a longitudinal study about the effect on orthography skills Education, SLaTE 2015, Leipzig, Germany, September 4-5, 2015: Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education, 6: ISCA(ISCA) International Speech Communication Association (SLaTE), S. 167-172. Online verfügbar unter @http://www.isca-speech.org/archive/slate_2015/sl15_167.html
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(2015) : Preparing children’s wirting database for automated processing In: Berkling, Kay; Lenhard, Wolfgang (Hg.): Language Teaching, Learning and Technology: (ISCA) International Speech Communication Association (LTLT), S. 9-15. Online verfügbar unter @http://isca-speech.org/archive/ltlt_2015/lt15_009.html
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(2015) : A Semi-Automatic Word-Level Annotation and Transcription Tool for Spelling Error Categories Conference, HCI International 2015, Los Angeles, CA, USA, August 2-7, 2015. Proceedings, Part I In: Stephanidis, Constantine: HCI International 2015 - Posters’ Extended Abstracts - International Conference, HCI International 2015, Los Angeles, CA, USA, August 2-7, 2015. Proceedings, Part I, 528: Springer (Communications in computer and information science), S. 587-592. Online verfügbar unter http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21380-4_100
2014