Make Materials Accessible with Your Phone Using Snapverter
19th May 2015 -For those who aren’t familiar, Snapverter™ is a Texthelp tool that makes it easy for teachers to turn their paper worksheets and inaccessible files into accessible classroom content.
Snapverter takes files like images, inaccessible PDFs and Daisy books and converts them to accessible PDFs and ePubs. The app integrates with Google Drive, so converted materials can be easily shared with students and colleagues.
One of the most popular (and creative) ways that we’ve seen Snapverter used is on a smartphone or other mobile device. You can snap a quick photo of a document or worksheet and use Snapverter to convert it into a PDF – turning your smartphone into an OCR scanner!
Continue ReadingMaking Time for Voice Recording
23rd April 2015 -This week’s post comes from Chris Bugaj. Chris is an Assistive Technology Strategist and Speech Language Pathologist at Loudon County Schools in VA. He is also a blogger, speaker, podcaster, author, and all around busy guy. Thanks so much for the post Chris!
There are 168 hours in one week.
Meet Joey. Joey is a fourth grade student who has trouble with handwriting. Or, maybe he’s an eighth grader who can tell you what he wants to say but struggles getting it out in a written form. Or, maybe she’s a high schooler who has learned long ago that she’d prefer to be out playing field hockey than writing an essay.
If you’re an educator, you know Joey.
Continue ReadingDigital Supports for English Language Learners
16th December 2014 -The number of English Language Learners in the US today continues to increase rapidly. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an average of just over 10% of students in developed countries are learning in their second language. The US has almost double this number however. The disparity is even greater in many US schools where over 30% of the population is learning in a second language.
Continue ReadingGive Customized Feedback Using Google Forms
26th November 2014 -Last week I spent some time with a colleague showing teachers how to provide customize feedback to students using Google Forms. Typically Google Forms are used to create simple surveys or quizzes. The form results are then dumped into a spreadsheet that can be reviewed anytime. However, with just a few additional tweaks you can really take advantage of what Google Forms can do in the classroom.
Continue ReadingSpeech Input, Simplify and Summarize Now Part of Read&Write for Google Chrome!
9th September 2014 -The 2014 school year is now well underway for most schools in North America and what better way to start the new year than with a new Read&Write for Google Chrome update! New premium features including Speech Input for Google Docs, Highlighting and Vocabulary support for web pages, and a new Simplify and Summarize tool for the web are now available. Continue reading for details (and videos!).
Continue ReadingRead&Write 6 Gold for Mac Now Available!
29th May 2014 -Today Texthelp released Version 6 of Read&Write for Mac. The software has been completely re-written from the ground up and is now faster and contains many new features and enhancements.
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