Addaptive Technology

Kurzweil

More info

This is a software that IU offers to it students for free. The basic purpose I use this resource is to have the computer read my textbooks and PDF’s for me. I can get my textbooks put online at adaptive technology services and then when I have to read, all I need to do is press play. If I don’t want to take forever reading, I can increase the speed of the computer generated reader to get my work done faster. Even if I check my facebook for a few seconds, the reader will continue so I am not wasting my time. Other features are the annotation tools. I can ‘highlight’ the text throughout and then later extract everything I highlighted into a new document. This is more efficient then having to write down notes as you go because you will have all the direct quotes. If you didn’t want to sit at a computer to hear a text being played, you can convert the audio into a mp3 file and play it on your Zune or other mp3 device. Also, for those of you who take your laptop everywhere, instead of taking all your text books to class, you can have them stored on the computer. This is a great free tool to take advantage of while in school.

Now that you know about this tool, how could this help you with your students? I know as a child, I didn’t like reading. I have difficulty understanding the stories while I read. Having someone other than my parents read to me helps me comprehend the things I read much better. This is especially valuable for students who are mentally challenged. For students who might have trouble following along, the software highlights the current sentence in yellow and the current word in green. This could be a great tool for any time a student is giving online articles to read because if they put Kurzweil in their web browser all they need to do is press play. Each student can get their reading done in their own pace in their own format and giving students this extra option helps out students who might have difficulty in reading.


Stop Watch
I know I have used this tool when timing speeches for class. I would press go and start talking to see if my speech was long enough. Math teacher would also put on the timer during tests to show us how much time we have left. This could sometimes be intimidating but it gets a point across about when we will be done. A few weeks ago I was in another w200 course and the teacher would constantly lie to the students about how much time they had to work. She will say that students have an hour to work and then 20 minutes later would say to stop what you are doing.

This tool could help the teacher be more credible by setting the time allotted initially. This tool could be used to help students manage time. A student can set a time for themselves to get a task done and when time runs out, the student can more on to a different assignment.


Smart Audio
When I was in summer school, this one girl always carried this box thing around her neck. Every day before class, she would hand a microphone to her teacher. The teacher would put it on and speak. This wireless microphone was used to help the girl hear better by amplifying the noise from the microphone.

When we were in a group discussion time, all my peers and I had a fun time using the microphone for her to hear better. This tool can help students hear the teacher better. This would help to make sure the student was on task because if the teacher talks quietly enough, the student can receive a secret message.

This tool seemed like a fun way to be supportive of one another as a whole class.