Technology

Over the course of the semester I have collected information on different kinds of technology that can be helpful in the classroom. In my CEP class, we had an instructor come in and talk to us about different assistive technologies that can be used in the classroom for computers. One interesting program that is free and can be downloaded online is Microsoft Reader. It is a program that reads text that is on the screen to students, a huge tool that could be useful for students with visual impairments, or for students who are just struggling with reading. The program can even work with Spanish and French languages, making it useful for ELL students. There are other programs such as this one that will read the text on the screen to students, including NaturalReader, and an add-on to Firefox that will read to the students. We also discussed some speech recognition software that can be used. Some examples include the IBM ViaVoice, along with a program withing Windows Vista, even though there have been problems that are still being worked out in the Vista program. Below are some links that can be used for information and how to use these programs.

http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.asp
http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm
http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/918/
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/voice/viavoice/
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060808/vista-speech-recognition-screencast/