Embedded Files
- Text to speech: This is technology that turns digital text into audio speech for students to listen to. This feature can be used for many different things. It can be used by students who have difficulty decoding text or students who process text slowly. It can help students learn to read by allowing them to hear a word vocally and match it to its matching sequence of letters. This technology can make a huge impact on student reading comprehension.
- Word prediction: This technology predicts what a writer is typing. When the students types in the first letter, or first few letters, of a word a list of possible words appear for the student to choose from. Students who are asked to use paper and pencil to write face many potential barriers. When we ask a child to use paper and pencil we are assuming they are capable of writing, forming words, using vocabulary, etc.. Using this technology can assist students in writing neat, organized, and quality pieces of writing. Students who face these barriers will be able to write more without becoming frustrated and it will also assist in the student reading their written material.
- Speech recognition: This technology helps students to generate written output, improves writing products, promotes writing independence, etc.. It can benefit learners who may not understand the relationship between letters, words, and sounds. It can help students who have difficulty spelling, using fine motor skills (writing), and translating/presenting thoughts and ideas.
- Visual thinking tools: These are thinking strategies, such as concept maps and graphic organizers, that allow students to organize their concepts/ideas/facts and discover the relationship between them. These tools can be used for pre-writing or presentations. These techniques can help students of all kinds! They can be useful to students who have trouble organizing thoughts, students who are learning english, students who are problems with visual processing, or students who are emergents readers and writers.
Digital Text Reviews:
Digital Text Reviews:
The Baldwin Online Children's Project
Upon first looking at this site I thought it was kind of outdated. The list of stories are difficult to read because they are cluttered. However, when I chose a story to view (Aesop for Children: The Rat and The Elephant) I noticed a button that said "Customize Your Display Preferences". This lead me to countless options to change the font size, line height, font style, page numbers, and so much more. I played around with the controls and changed the story's text to my liking, and I was able to read the story much more easily! Before changing the settings the font was huge and a little overwhelming to me. However, once I was able to customize the page, the reading became very easy and visually pleasing. I believe this is a great website for students who require some additional support to read. The controls were not very hard to figure out, however, the website could use some updating. Overall, I think this could be a very useful tool for kids!
Children's Storybooks Online
Again, this website is a tad outdated. However, I really enjoyed that the list of stories were not cluttered, gave a quick synopsis, and were accompanied by a small picture. I am also very pleased that some of the books come in audio formats. These books are marked with a small yellow box with a speaker on it to make it easier for readers to locate audio stories. This is a feature is also simple to use. Each line has a speaker next to it that can be clicked to hear the text digitally. The stories on this website seem to have many pictures, which I think is great for beginning and emergent readers! They can follow along with the text on the screen, hear the text, and view an accompanying illustration. The only thing that I dislike about this website is the fact that you cannot customize the fot style or size, like you can on the Baldwin Project website.
Symbaloo Read to Me
This website was a little confusing upon first entering. However, once I figured out what to click on it became easy and quite cool! There is an entire playlist of books to choose from that are accompanied by pictures, so it is simple to know which one looks appealing! When clicked on, each picture leads to a video read aloud by someone famous. I believe this would be a great tool for kids to use if they choose to listen to a text. If a hard copy of the book was available to them they could follow along with the read aloud to make connections to spoken words and their symbols/sequence of letters.
Symbaloo National Geographic
This is the same website as the above review, so it is very similar! This link will lead you to another playlist of books. However, these books are all national geographic books for kids! Again, I think this could be a very helpful and engaging tool to use in the classroom and at home. These stories could be assigned for science instead of *or* in addition to a text book. Students can continue to make connections to spoken and written text, all while studying across genres.
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