Ep #9: In this episode, I chat with Ethan Pierce, founder of Adaptive Reader. Adaptive Reader is a platform making classic literature accessible to all students. Ethan shares his personal journey from struggling reader to Harvard scholarship recipient, highlighting how pivotal moments and supportive teachers shaped his path. This is what’s led him on his mission to bridge reading gaps using AI and large language models. 

We dive into how Adaptive Reader rewrites novels at various reading levels and translates them into multiple languages - including Spanish, Vietnamese, Urdu, and Filipino - ensuring all students can engage with the content. A term I learned in this episode is “dignified differentiation”, meaning how to get students to engage in the same content without feeling singled out. Ethan shares the design elements that he has considered, which allowed this to happen, maintaining the integrity of the learners and the original text the study.

This is also a great episode for edtech founders that are building a product and need honest teacher feedback, because Ethan shares very tactical advice for each stage of his development process. You can listen on to hear how that teacher feedback even changed many features Ethan was originally considering. Enjoy the episode!

Topics:

01:48 - Ethan's mission when it comes to education, teachers, and learners

03:44 - How Adaptive Reader improves reading literacy

05:58 - AI, LLMs, and literacy indexes

09:05 - Tactical advice for teacher involvement in the development process

12:24 - Paperback versus digital books

17:00 - Design elements that protect dignified differentiation

18:30 - Measures of success, assessments, outcomes

23:50 - Giving students agency to pick their reading level

26:20 - The most important thing we can do for students amidst technology

Links:

Follow Ethan's journey here

Check out Adaptive Reader here

Follow The EdTech Lab here