Abstract:

The recognition of cursive handwritten words, common during the orthographic phase of literacy development, presents a significant challenge for technologies such as Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) due to handwriting variability. This study proposes a collaborative application to support literacy, in which children practice reading and transcribing cursive handwritten words. The proposal is based on collective intelligence, enabling children to contribute to a database while learning, potentially improving handwriting recognition algorithms such as HTR.

The application incorporates gamification elements designed to motivate children and sustain their engagement during literacy activities. Visual rewards, such as a happy star for correct answers and a sad star encouraging another attempt after incorrect responses, provide immediate feedback that reinforces learning. In addition, the progression structure represented by levels and scoring mechanisms contributes to maintaining children’s interest and persistence while practicing the reading and transcription tasks. These elements aim to create a playful learning environment that supports motivation throughout the interaction.

The application design is also inspired by the logic of reCAPTCHA, which leverages collective intelligence to solve computational tasks through large-scale user participation. In this context, children interact with cursive handwritten words by typing what they read, and their responses may contribute to a collaborative dataset. Instead of relying on a fixed answer key, the system conceptually adopts a collective consensus mechanism in which agreement among multiple responses can support the validation of the correct transcription. This approach connects educational practice with collaborative contributions to improving handwriting recognition technologies.

Gamification strategies can play an important role in encouraging participation in educational digital environments. Elements such as rewards, progression indicators, and interactive feedback can increase user motivation and persistence in completing tasks. In the proposed application, these mechanisms encourage repeated interaction with cursive handwritten words, supporting literacy development while contributing data that may improve handwriting recognition systems. By combining playful interaction with collaborative participation, the design promotes both learning engagement and collective intelligence.

We evaluated a prototype with no functional implementation of the database or reCAPTCHA through usability evaluation and pedagogical assessment conducted with early literacy teachers to examine its potential for children. The application obtained a System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 74, indicating a favorable usability perception. Participants highlighted positive aspects, including an attractive and colorful interface, an innovative gamification approach, ease of navigation, and pedagogical potential for working with cursive handwriting. They also identified points for improvement, such as fixing bugs that interrupt the activity flow, improving readability on small screens, ensuring consistency in letter presentation, and preventing the system from revealing the correct answer prematurely. Overall, the prototype was positively received but revealed technical requirements that should be addressed before testing with the target audience.

Keywords:

Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), Cursive Handwriting, Literacy Education, Collective Intelligence, Gamified Educational Applications.