Wells, Maine is at the forefront of technology applications which transform learning and they are receiving nationwide recognition. Mr. Bob Sprankle's third and fourth graders are profiled at the Apple K-12 Education site. He said, GarageBand 3 is so podcast-friendly; when we first started using it, the kids said, ‘Can we stay in at recess and learn how to do this?'
When was the last time YOUR students wanted to miss recess to learn a new skill? What are the applications in your classroom? How about the kids who have difficulty copying homework from the board - can it be podcasted daily? How about another way for parents to stay informed of classroom activities - have a student summarize the daily activities. The possibilities are endless for our students.
And you don't need GarageBand 3 to accomplish this although, admittedly, it does make it easier.
Here are some sites to get you started:
Do you typically bookmark or save URLs to your Favorites folder on your computer? What happens when you try to retrieve them from another computer? FRUSTRATION!
This is when Del.icio.us, a powerful social networking tool, comes in handy. Del.icio.us is a collection of favorites that are accessible from any computer. They are saved on the web and not on any particular browser. You can share them with others and tag them to help you organize your bookmarks in a way that is otherwise impossible. It's also possible to easily retrieve other educator's or student's bookmarks as well.
What can you do with del.icio.us? Besides using the bookmarks the way you traditionally did, you can now use this tool to help with research and collaboration. For example, students can save particular sites to a shared account that they can all access. As always, anything that is in digital format, is by definition, ACCESSIBLE! This tool is another example of universal design for learning which provides an additional method of representation and engagement. When combined with text-to-speech, all students have access to the links and the information contained in the links.
Interested in learning more? It takes seconds to get started to discover the power of this free tool for your students and for yourself.
(Please feel free to share your experiences!)
Here are some new freeware tools that I discovered and had a chance to play with this week:
1. Big Calculator - Offers text-to-speech, can easily resize the calculator, change the color settings. (This is available from OATS - Open source assistive technology software which has many other open source tools)
2. Vyew - a web-based conferencing tool for professional or student collaboration. This tool allows instant visual communication and "vyew's multimedia workspace enables shared viewing of presentations, files, photos and one's desktop. Included are tools for whiteboarding, annotating, text chatting, and phone conferencing.
3. Newsmap - A "mashup" current events site with links to the most up-to-date stories of the day. The links can be opened and used with text-to-speech for accessibility in the classroom.
4. Public domain photos - Available under a Creative Commons license
I have used these next two tools for quite some time and use them frequently.
5. PowerTalk - automatically speaks any text in a Windows based PowerPoint presentation! Very powerful tool!
6. Imagine Symbols - free symbol software
Need a laugh? Spend a few minutes watching these humorous, short video ads at the Apple website. Wes Fryer mentioned these in one of his posts today. Thanks, Wes!
A little off topic but it's good to laugh!
ADDENDUM: Ok, my son has informed me that these ads have been on TV for awhile. Shows you how out of touch I am. I still find them enjoyable and will share them expecting that there are others out there who were unaware of them like I was.
Looking for some better quality text-to-speech voices beyond Microsoft Sam and Mary? Sample these voices at TextAloud. Scroll down to listen to a number of different quality voices for use with text-to-speech. They have recently added Acapela voices which are very high quality. You can sample these here, prior to purchase.
This site is excellent for a wide selection of different voices at a low cost. In addition, they offer a variety of language choices as well. How would that work with our students learning other languages? A new instruction tool worth exploring??
The Mac has had text-to-speech built into the OS forever but the voice quality, though fun to play with (Bells! Zarvox!) was less than optimal. Enter Cepstral voices. Check these out at Cepstral. I think you will be impressed! I know, I was thrilled to hear that there are finally good quality voices available for the Mac.
The new school year often generates good intentions of trying to instill "good" habits in our kids. Today, I want to once again mention some free study skills software that can help with organization as well as studying. Are you tired of having your kids lose their study notecards? Don't have enough time to go through the flashcards with them when they are studying? You will definitely want to look into Cue Card and Study Stack. These aren't your mother's notecards for sure!
Here is a description of Cue Card from the download site:CueCard is a simple and intuitive flash card program. Just make up cards for what you want to memorize, and CueCard will quiz you on them. CueCard features smart testing, which automatically focuses on the cards you are having trouble with. It also offers printing (including custom page layouts and sizes), pictures and sounds on cards, Unicode support, card formatting, a multi-lingual user interface, Import/Export, a study time.
And here is a description of Study Stack from the website:StudyStack strives to help people learn what they want to learn. The StudyStackTM concept was designed to help people memorize information about various subjects. Using the StudyStack web site, you use your computer to display a stack of "virtual cards" which contain information about a certain subject. Just like flashcards, you can review the information at your own pace discarding the cards you've learned and keeping the ones you still need to review. However, unlike traditional flash cards, each card can show multiple pieces of information; and the whole stack can be automatically sorted by any one of the pieces of information. Also, when you enter the data for a studystack, the same data can automatically be displayed as flashcards, a matching game, a word search puzzle, and a hangman game. You can also export the data to your cellphone or PDA so you can review it when you are away from the computer.
I love the accessibility and customizability features of these tools! Great tools for differentiated instruction!
This blog entry is to sing the praises of text-to-speech software based upon personal experience!
Some of you know that my son has a language based learning disability that was identified in first grade. Well, he is now an almost 6 foot tall, junior in high school, thinking about his future. He has struggled academically but understands that he does need to put forth more effort than his peers to succeed.
Last night we were reading the short story that was assigned to him by his English teacher (Sophistication by Sherwood Anderson for those of you curious about the details). His ability to read more fluently, even the numerous multisyllabic words was immediately apparent! I mentioned this to him and he believes that his reading has improved as well. (Wow!)
So how has this happened despite the lack of specific reading remediation for the past two years?
What he believes has helped him is the use of text-to-speech software which we then convert to MP3 format so that he can listen to it on his iPod. He typically has the printed text in front of him so that he can follow along. Sometimes, he will use the computer which highlights each word as it reads it. We have customized everything - voice, rate, highlighting color, etc.
We use a variety of different programs including Kurzweil 3000, Read and Write Gold, TextAloud and even the text-to-speech built into Word 2003. It's incredibly exciting to me to see this kind of progress and to see that he believes his reading has improved is the best part of all. He knows what helps him to succeed (and it does help to have a mom who seeks out his help with new software.)
It's the beginning of a new school year! For those new to the field of assistive technology and learners with special needs, it's time to mention an excellent software program developed by a wonderful friend and mentor, Madalaine Pugliese. Stages is a developmental framework for describing a student's language and cognitive abilities and helps to assess and document change over time. In addition, possible curriculum activities that promote student achievement are included with the Stages manual. The website includes a database that correlates the stages of language and cognitive skills with specific software solutions. Some schools use this tool in combination with the Stages Report Wizard to create alternate assessment portfolios which objectively demonstrate changes over time. The Stages website also includes information about how Stages activities correlate to State standards.
I have used Stages with learners at all seven stages of cognitive and language development. One of the most gratifying experiences was when I worked with a 14 year old, non-verbal student with Stage One activities. How incredible it was to see the student respond to and engage with the material and maintain visual attention in a way that was not typically seen in the classroom!
Stages Assessment Software is highly recommended to help IEP teams address the needs of learners with language and cognitive challenges. It should be part of the Assistive Technology team's tool box in every district!
