Educational devices, systems and methods using optical character recognition

An educational device comprising:

• a housing having a feed channel defining a substantially linear path, the path including an infeed end and an outfeed end;
• a first object including a first indicium;
• a second object including a second indicium;
• an indicium reader supported by the housing that reads the first indicium on the first object and the second indicium on the second object when the first object and the second object are in a reading position, the first object being connectable to the second object;
• and
• a transporter supported by the housing that moves the first object and the second object along said feed channel.

A method of teaching and learning reading, the method comprising;

• providing an object bearing an indicium readable by a user;
• providing a self-contained educational device including a housing defining a substantially linear path, the path including an infeed end and an outfeed end, the device also including an indicium reader supported by the housing, a display supported by the housing, and an audio producing device supported by the housing;
• feeding the object into the self-contained educational device along the substantially linear path with a transporter;
• reading the indicium of the object with the indicium reader;
• audibly pronouncing the indicium of the object with the audio producing device;
• and
• displaying the indicium on the display of the self-contained educational device.