Another day, another adventure in technology. Today we examined Kurzweil 3000. Download it here. I have heard of the program before @ SPT meetings, but had no idea of what it was for. To start I was happy to finally know that it was for students with diagnosed LD and visual impairment.
My mood going into the program wasn't very positive because of all of the time spent downloading the program and reading about issues my classmates had with the download. I lacked faith and was worried that because I hadn't opened the program prior to class it wouldn't work. It did and all is well. I appreciate the time spent getting familiar with the program.
I appreciate all that it is UDL, but again, I could see all students benefiting from some aspect of this program, not just the students with LDs or visual impairments. It was super easy to magnify and zoom out and I really liked that you could adjust the rate of speed as your choice voice read to you.
Reads page to you. You can adjust speed of the
reader and have a variety of voices you could choose from. what pleases me most is the ability to have access to this program in French. I wasn't surprised that the cost for the French version was double that if the English version. Again the ability to highlight text, add stick notes and bubble notes could not only benefit students with ADHD and Aspergers. It allows the possibility of differentiation. Another noteworthy feature is ability to save the text into an MP3 format and just listen to it without the text.
A demo video made @ Newberry Elementary Schooll Floridain their inclusion classrooms, where students with special needs learn alongside their peers. The video speaks to the strength of implementing Assistive Technology such as Kurzweil 3000 within a whole class environment.
Exploring Wikispacces :
Starfall - is a Literacy Link that my 7 year old introduced me to. Her grade 2 teacher showed the class how to navigate the website. She can navigate this site independently, and does so happily. She's happy and motivates. the site uses kid friendly language.
Inkless Tales - is more a teacher site, than student site. Allows lower elementary teachers to find short stories (that can be heard as audio books) that reinforce particular site words. There is only one image per story but with the text, it could allow classes to visualize and create the images that go with the text.
Popplet is a simple built for for mind mapping and organization of thoughts. It gives students the opportunity to represent their thoughts in a clear and visual way. Students can import pictures they've taken or search for pictures on the Internet to support and add visual interest to their points.
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives a great website for interactive math activities with manipulatives. I appreciated that it was divided into Math strands and grouped by grade level.
I agree with you Mary, we should be able to use Kurzweil with any student, not just those that are diagnosed LD. I too was glad to learn all that Kurzweil could do, as I had only heard about it and had never had the chance to play with it and see its many applications. I see the ipad as being an alternative to Kurzweil, but who is going to supply them for us? Unfortunately the Department of Ed. has put their money into netbooks. I wish I could trade in my classroom netbooks for a couple of ipads. Do you think the Dept. of Ed. will go for it? :)
ReplyDelete