Class 4

In this class we explored a variety of tech tools that can be used to assist students in their learning.  We completed a treasure hunt which had us explore several websites.

I started with www.starfall.com/ This website has a wide variety of literacy activities for young children.  I spent some time exploring the I'm Reading section.  In this selection children can select an web based e-book from across a number of genres.  The e-books are written in age appropriate language and have colourful illustrations.  Children can choose to either read the book on the website themselves or they can click on a word that they difficulty with to hear it pronounced out loud for them.   The books are easy to use and would be engaging for many students.

Next I visited www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html  in all honesty I didn't like this site.  I found the interface noisy and it didn't feel intuitive to me.  I addition I use a Mac and many of the activities would not work on my computer.

My next stop on our treasure hunt was www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm.  This company offers a piece of software called natural readers which can be used to convert text to speech.  It has a variety of speaking voices that are quite natural and easy to follow.  The free version of the software has limited options while the paid version has more options including save the text as an audio file as well as scanning.

I think lots of students could benefit from using this software.  I often tell my students that reading their work out loud would help them in the editing process.  They could just as easily have their work read to them.  This software might also be an alternative for students who don't require the full features of Kurzwell but who would benefit from some text to speech technology.

My final stop of the treasure hunt was http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/  This website is a treasure trove of resources that will be useful to all teachers.  It includes links to math and literacy tools, research, text to speech tools, study skills and Multimedia and Digital Storytelling.  If you are looking for something to support or engage your students chances are there is at least one link on the site that will be of interest to you. I will be recommending this site to everyone I know.