Wordweb English thesaurus and dictionary

When students with learning difficulties start using text to speech programs they are often confronted with a lot of words they normally would have skipped over in their normal reading activities.

I usually encourage students to use their text to speech program to read and explore the meaning of any unknown words with a digital dictionary. Wordweb is a very good program that is available in a free version.

Features of the free version include:

Definitions and synonyms Related words 5000 audio pronunciations 65 000 text pronunciations

150 000 root words 120 000 synonym sets Look up words in almost any program

 

Students who tend to use safe words in their writing can also highlight any repeated words and use the thesaurus feature to make their writing more interesting.

The program starts in your computer’s start up process which makes it available at any time, and can be used in almost any program.

Wordweb is available for download from the following link  http://wordweb.info/free/

Fx Toolbar

The Fx Toolbar was created by the same software developer (FX Software) that has tools such as the Vu Bar (some of my clients are finding extremely useful), which are included in the Mystudybar ( previous post below). http://www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm

This tool was created to work in an add on tab in MS Word 2007 and is definelty worth a trial with your students. The Fx toolbar gives you options to highlight and collect parts of the text from one MS Word document into a new document, it will speak highlighted text, identify confusables(honomyns), change the case of the selected text and identify if your sentences are overly long. A must for anyone studying if they are using Word 2007. Give it a go and let us know if you like it. Please explicitly teach all students, not just those with learning difficulties how to use the toolbar.

Below is an example of the Fx Toolbar idenftifying confusables (in red) and long sentences (in blue) from a section of my daughter’s year 12 essay for art.

Visual Search Engines

Visual search engines can enable students, both learning disabled or not, to quickly  judge if a web site will have information that is useful for their project. A visual search engine allows one to get past misleading meta data, or meta tags that are used to describe the keywords and content of webpages for search engines.

A visual search engine also makes it easy for teachers who are trying to teach their students which websites are more likely to have the information they need.

The visual search engine content will be governed by the parent controls and filters you use in your home or school. For instance if your school blocks YouTube the students will not be able to see content from YouTube.

Below is a link to a visual search engine I regularly recommend in consultations.

http://search.spacetime.com/

SpaceTime3D a visual search engine

MyStudyBar

Excerpt taken straight from the RSCs website where you can download this fantastic toolbar for free.

http://www.mystudybar.org/?page_id=7#Download+MyStudyBar

Please be aware there are different versions for XP uses and Vista/Windows 7 users

For specific advice as to which assistive technologies will suit your specific learning difficulties

 please contact Sandy Russo at SPELD SA 8431 1655

 

“MyStudyBar is a tool which helps overcome problems that students commonly experience with studying, reading and writing. The tool consists of a set of portable open source and freeware applications, assembled into one convenient package. Easy to install, simple to use, handy and effective, MyStudyBar provides comprehensive learning support at the desktop, where it is needed. And if this is not already attractive enough, a further eye-catching feature of MyStudyBar is that it is completely FREE to download and free to use.

MyStudyBar has been produced by the same team at RSC Scotland North & East which created the award-winning AccessApps software suite. Although MyStudyBar is designed to support learners with literacy-related difficulties such as dyslexia, the toolbar can offer potential benefits to all learners.

Features of MyStudyBar

 MyStudyBar puts a whole range of individual and essential tools at your fingertips. Together, these have been designed to support the complete study cycle from research, planning and structuring to getting across a written or spoken message. MyStudyBar has 6 sections; each has a drop down menu offering personal choice, flexibility and independent learning, particularly for those learners who require additional strategies to support their learning. With over 15 apps to choose from, MyStudyBar is the perfect study aid.

The webpage provides step-by-step tutorials to get you started with the applications on MyStudyBar

Examples include: Xmind for planning and organization; T-Bar for customising font and colour backgrounds; Lingoes for when you need a talking dictionary; LetMeType for help with text input, and Balabolka for converting text to audio. And if all that’s not enough, there’s even a speech-to-text app which allows you to talk to your computer.

You can use MyStudyBar straight from a USB stick (if, for example, you are using a machine that is not your own) or you can install it directly to the desktop. (Technical staff in colleges or universities also have the choice of installing it on the network for everyone to use). “

Audacity

Audacity is a sound recording/ mixing program that allows people to create sound files.  The created files are easily edited and can be used in many different applications on your computer, MP3 Player and online with Web 2 applications.  Audacity can be used for educational purposes and save you time in your classroom.

Many computers already have Audacity loaded their computer,  if not you can download it free for both Macintosh and PC computers by using the following link http://audacity.sourceforge.net/.

For training manuals on how to use Audacity can be sourced at the following link http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/

Watch the SPELD SA SPRING 2010 Newsletter for an article on how the program can be used for educational purposes and save you time in your classroom.

Natural Reader

Free Natural Reader version 9, is a text to speech program that allows any text that can be highlighted with a mouse to be read aloud.

Natural Reader 9

This program is a great way to trial text-to-speech programs on your home or school computers. Get everyone using the program, not just those with learning difficulties.

The program can help people read single words, sentences, paragraphs, emails, the web, MS word, PDF files and more.

A paid version is available for those wanting better quality voices.

For more information on how to use this and other assistive technology you can make an appointment with the SPELD SA Software Team on 08 8431 1655. The advisors will show which programs are available, and guide you to which ones would best suit your specific needs. We  demonstrate how to use the program and how simple they are to load on your PC.

Update MS Word Talk

FREE assistive software update!

MS Word talk 2009

A new version of MS Word talk was released early 2009.

This version has many new features and some that have been redeveloped.

You only need to install the one file that can be downloaded from http://www.wordtalk.org.uk/Home/

If you have an earlier version of MS Word Talk, please uninstall it through control panel/add remove programs, along with the configuration file that will be in the same list, before loading the new program.

New features include:
• a talking spellchecker on right click of word
• speech feedback by clicking on a word
• turning text into a spoken wav or mp3 file
• echo words (the word is spoken once you press the spacebar)
• echo sentences (the sentence is spoken with highlighting when the fullstop is added)
• clicking on a correctly spelt word to get a list of synonyms
• replacing synonyms with a click

SPELD SA Software Advisory team recommends that all schools update to this new version.