CHECK OUT THE GROUP TUTORIAL LINKS
ON THE COMPENSATORY SOFTWARE and WEBSITES LIST
FOR EACH PROGRAM BELOW
My Study Bar
I really liked this program. I appeared to be quite portable and contained many useful and interesting features like Xmind (mind mapping that can be exported into a Word document), Sonar (to make the cursor bigger), Tinytype (will "ding" if you misspell a word), and Magnifier (changes size of text, color, etc). It also has the typical options such as text to speech, read aloud as you type, voice input recognition.
Kurzweil
I was very excited to learn about this compensatory program as it is the one that schools are using on a regular basis. I found a lot of similarities between this program and the one that my group was doing, WYNN. It has A LOT of options that are quite sophisticated in what they do. For example, you can click on a word and you are given the option to open a picture that describes that word. I REALLY enjoyed the testing/assessment advantages to this program! It was AMAZING to see how you could assess student learning through sticky notes, voice notes, and bubble notes. You can insert these notes throughout a piece of text that would have students answering true/false questions, multiple choice, etc. It is an excellent way to keep students focused on the reading and a wonderful way to assess comprehension. I had no idea the potential of this program and I don't feel that many teachers do. The disappointing aspect of Kurweil is that students have to have a particular diagnosis or recommendation to go on Kurzweil -- the "average Joe" can't utilize this amazing resource...it's only for a select few. All students could benefit from this technology.
I am very excited that we will be looking more indepth at Kurzweil in our next class. It will be nice to "play around" with the program to see exactly what it can do.
WYNN
This software was presented by my group. WYNN is an excellent program and quite similar to Kurzweil. It had color-coded toolbars like Kurzweil, but in this program, the toolbars rotated as you clicked the next button. It did not have the depth that Kurzweil had but very similar options, such as text to speech, voice recognition, dictionary access, web page readability, masking, etc. The main differences that I noted were the note options and access to over 1000 texts via the Kurzweil program. Each option, although similar in WYNN and Kurzweil, was more advanced/detailed/comprehensive in the Kurzweil program.
Natural Reader
This program, although much more basic, definitely has a valuable use in the classroom to support our students. The BEST thing about it is that it's FREE!! It is a great program for text to speech recognition. It could be used to support ESL students, students working at home without access to school-based programs, and for proof reading purposes.
TextHelp/Read & Write Gold
This program was very good, as well. It had many of the features of Kurzweil and WYNN, but did not have the same layout. Like Kurzweil and WYNN, you could highlight text and export it to Word documents, spell check, use a dictionary, check homophones, read text, predict words when typing, etc. The group presenting stated that they were developing an APP of this program, which will definitely make it more accessible to the "everyday person" at a more reasonable cost than WYNN and Kurzweil. I also like the fact mapper option that looked quite similar to Inspiration; however, you needed Internet access to use that option.
APPS
We then got to use the iPODs during class. I was a bit overwhelmed as I have never used an iPOD or APPS before. It was fun to check out the APPS available to us on the demo iPODs. A few of the APPSEALLY like the following APPS:1. iCoin - you can sort and count money -- very useful for students on IPPs who have money related outcomes -- very visual
2. Sign For Me - very interesting APP that allows you to type in a sentence and the avatar will teach you how to sign it
3. Prizmo - allows you to take a picture of text, scans it, and reads it aloud - amazing possibilities!
We looked at many APPS and will continue to do so in our next class. I am overwhelmed, now, at the classroom and real world application of APPS. There is literally an APP for EVERYTHING!!! If you want it, it's out there -- everything from grooming, life skills, stress relievers, academic supports, care taker supports, self improvement, goal setting, fun, entertainment... The classroom possibilities are endless! The portability and ease-of-use of most APPS is what makes this type of support for students with and without learning challenges so wonderful. THIS is where education is headed!
