15 Ways To Use A Tablet In The Classroom @ Tech Edvocate

15 Ways To Use A Tablet In The Classroom

Tech Edvocate: 3.13.2018 by Matthew Lynch

81 percent of teachers think tablets can enrich classroom learning, so let’s look at how tablets may be used effectively in the classroom to engage students and further learning.

Virtual Field Trips

It is unlikely you will be able to take your students on field trips to every destination you cover in class; however, with a tablet, your students can go on virtual field trips anywhere. Some websites are even designed with this mind providing 360-degree video.

Research

Tablets are mobile internet devices; therefore, it is a portable research tool for the classroom. Students can research topics without having to leave their desks.

Reading and Listening to Books

E-books are specifically designed for use on tablets, so it makes sense to allow students to use their tablets for reading in the classroom. Additionally, tablets have speakers, which allow for easy listening to audiobooks or text-to-speech e-books.

Radio and Podcasts

Using apps such as Tune In Radio, students can listen to music, radio shows, and podcasts from all over the world on their tablets.

Presentations and Projects

Poster board projects are a thing of the past. Now, students can have tons of options for creating multimedia projects, comics, books, music, and more on a tablet. These projects can be shared and shown on your Smartboard.

Photography

Tablets have cameras, and with the right photography editing app, your students can work on creative projects or simply document class activities.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. Old

(Tenth to Eleventh graders)

SCLLN TUTOR / LEARNER RESOURCES

Adult Learner LINKS

Organizations - Blogs - Exercises - Pronunciation & More

https://bit.ly/2N5nsem

San Diego Public Library ◯ READ San Diego ◯ Google Read and Write

Google Read and Write

READ/San Diego Adult Literacy Program: 5.06.2020

Check out this reading aid from Google- "Google Read and Write."

Read and Write for Google

Summary of the Read and Write for Google

R&W for Google is an extension for Google Chrome that is primarily a reading support, but also provides writing supports.  There are two different versions of R&W for Google, a free version and a premium version.  The Premium version is available for free for teachers to explore and costs $99 for a yearly subscription for student accounts.

Free: The free version provides text to speech and dual highlighting (yellow & blue) for any text on any website! (AWESOME!)  It also provides an in the text translator.

Premium: The premium version provides the same text to speech, dual highlighting, and translator features.  It also includes supports for Google Docs, specifically, multi-highlighting options for active reading, extracting highlights, a vocabulary chart, a regular and picture dictionary, and word prediction.

Limitations

Premium Version: $99 a year for students
➧ Premium version will read PDFs in Google Docs, not free version

Free version - limited options

➧ Text to speech ONLY READS TEXT (no flash supported)

➧ Tools run on internet speed, causes a lag for word prediction and text to speech.

➧ Word choices have to be clicked with a mouse (no number hot keys or arrow down and enter to select)

➧ Limited voice speed options (only 4)

Conclusion
I would highly recommend the free version of Read and Write for Google to be downloaded on every computer so that ALL students can have access to speech to text while reading ANYTHING online (for pleasure or school assignments).  If your school district works heavily with Google Docs I would also recommend the premium version to reinforce active reading and studying. But, take advantage of the FREE version for teachers and explore away!  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Readability Consensus

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 12

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 17-18 yrs. old

(Twelfth graders)

10 Lesser Known iPad Apps To Learn English Language ◯ ebookfriendly

10 Lesser Known iPad Apps To Learn English Language

ebookfriendly: 2.25.2020 by Piotr Kowlczyk

Are you determined to improve your English speaking and writing skills?

Check out these helpful but lesser-known iPad and iPhone apps:

Recommended iPad apps to learn English

eGrammar – the best way to practice English tenses

eJoy – advanced video-based app for learning English

Oxford English Grammar – grammar rules in one place

Hello – learn English from your mother tongue

ABA English – the most advanced way to learn English

Instead of popular language learning iPad and iPhone apps, find in this list only the one that are most helpful to master English language at every level.

You can find several English learning courses online (and some of them are free, at least to a certain extent), but why sit at the computer every time you have a few spare minutes for personal development?

Your iPad and iPhone can be a great companion in your determination to improve your English, no matter what level you are currently at.

The thing is that most round-ups of language learning apps for iOS include the ones that help learn multiple languages, and English is only one of them. Most of these apps are addressed to native English speakers who would like to learn or master a new language.

Instead of featuring popular language learning apps you already know about, such as Duolingo or apps offered by British Council or BBC, we’ve focused on lesser-known apps that don’t appear on the top of search results in the App Store.

Many of the apps that are featured in other roundups have not been updated for a long time. We list only the ones that were added or updated in recent months. They are compatible with the latest version of iOS, and use the latest language learning technology.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 12

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 17-18 yrs. Old

(Twelfth graders)

Assistive Reading Tech ◯ Single Word Single Word ◯ Rewordify ◯ Text To Speech

Assistive Reading Technology

Single Word ◯ Rewordify ◯ Text To Speech

Speed Reading Apps

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

This minimizes eye movement by displaying one word at a time in quick succession; the fastest setting is 3000 words a minute, for the bravest of us.

Accelareader

Readsy

Spreeder

Spritz

Sprint Reader - Speed Reading Extension

Sprint Reader is an easy to use speed reading Chrome extension.

Simply select text on a webpage, right-click and select 'Sprint read selected text' from the menu. This will launch the reader window, the selected text is displayed word-by-word in a fixed focal position. The duration of each slide is calculated based upon a word-per-minute (WPM) setting.

10 Speed Reading Apps To Help You Tackle Your TBR (To Be Read)

Book Riot: 10.29.2018 by Brandie Derusha

Rewordify.com

is powerful, free, online software that improves reading, learning, and teaching. Intelligently simplify difficult English, for faster comprehension

Effectively teach words, for building a better vocabulary

Help teachers save time and produce engaging lessons

Help improve learning outcomes

Text To Speech

TTSREADER - TEXT TO SPEECH ONLINE

Reads out loud any text with natural sounding voices

Free & simple, directly from your browser

Supports inline-editing as well as txt. files, pdf’s, ebooks, etc

Auto-saves so you can continue listening from where you left it

Natural Readers

Powerful Text-to-Speech for at home, work, or on the go

Upload text and documents or convert to mp3 to listen to anywhere anytime

Let’s Make Better Slideshows via Cult of Pedagogy

@cultofpedagogy

Let’s Make Better Slideshows

Cult of Pedagogy: [Podcast 22:25]

OK, look. We need to have a talk. A lot of you are out there giving lectures, presentations, and workshops, and your slideshows need work. Maybe not all of them, but definitely most. I thought I got the message out there a few years ago when I urged people to read Presentation Zen, the book that forever changed my own slideshows. But I didn’t have much of an audience back then, and since that time I’ve seen far too many PowerPoints and other slideshow presentations that still appear to be suffering from some very fixable problems.

So I’m going back in. I’ve put together a list of seven things you can do to make your slideshows better. A lot better. Here we go.

1. PUT IT IN PRESENTATION MODE (PLEASE!!)

I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat down to listen to a presentation, and watched in horror as the presenter simply scrolled through the slides while still in editing mode, where the featured slide takes up about half the screen, the thumbnails of the other slides are visible on the left, and the editing toolbar is still visible across the top. No no no no nooooo!!!

In both PowerPoint and Google Slides, there’s a button you can click to put your slide deck in presentation mode, where the entire screen is filled with just one slide and the animations work as they are supposed to. Doing this gives the audience a rich, full-screen experience with each slide, one at a time, which is much more pleasing than looking at the back end of it all.

2. CUT WAY BACK ON YOUR TEXT

Slides are meant to supplement and enhance your presentation, to provide visual interest and add new dimensions to your message. If your presentation is going to be memorable, the audience should get something from both you AND the slides. The slides themselves shouldn’t BE the presentation.

This seems like common sense, but somehow we have arrived at a place where many, many presenters use the slideshow to deliver the whole presentation: They put ALL the information on the slides and assign themselves the role of simply dictating that information to the audience. Once your audience realizes this is what you’re going to do for every slide, they immediately start looking for ways to occupy their brains for the foreseeable future.

➧ Shorten your bullet points. Instead of writing long sentences or phrases on your slides, try sticking to just short phrases. Then use the notes panel to script out what you’re going to actually say.

➧ Make more slides. Take one slide that has a lot of information and spread that text over several slides, rather than cramming it all together on one.

➧ Create a handout. Many presenters and instructors want to put lots of information on their slides so they can provide those slides to students or audience members after the presentation, for reference.

3. UPDATE YOUR ASSETS

One of the simplest ways to improve your slideshows is to update outdated artwork and fonts.

═════════►

NEED SOME FRESH TEMPLATES?

I have just created a set of four slideshow templates that you might want to get for yourself. They’re available in PowerPoint for Windows and Google Slides. Each one contains 27 different slide designs, and they also come with a separate template for a 2-page handout, styled to look similar to the slideshow, so you can create a PDF to accompany your presentation.

The templates also come with a collection of video tutorials that show you exactly how to customize them for your use. Click on each design below to preview the whole template, or scroll to the bottom to get the bundle of all four designs at a discount!  READ MORE >>

Redlands Library :: Technology Enhances Redlands Adult Literacy Program

Technology enhances Redlands Adult Literacy Program

Redlands Daily Facts: 10.17.2015 by Dottie Pokolak, adult literacy coordinator A.K. Smiley Public Library

Technology has become an essential part of our daily lives. We rely on computers, tablets and smart phones to communicate with family and friends, keep up on the latest news, apply for jobs and even do our banking.

The ability to use the various electronic devices that are available to us is integral to every area of our lives. Perhaps we have even grown to take for granted the ability to send an email or do our shopping online.

However, for some in our community, technology and access to the Internet are just as much of an obstacle in life as learning to read and write.

The Redlands Adult Literacy Program is committed to helping those in the community who desire to improve their reading and writing in English. In tandem with that, the program seeks to bridge the technology divide by including computer literacy as a key component of the program.

By offering technology services to those with limited computer access, the program can help participants begin to realize the benefit that learning these skills provides.

This technology initiative is supported with the enthusiasm of a group of volunteers called tech coaches. These tutors are trained to assist learners in accessing the various technology resources the program provides. They meet with learners to provide support as they use their new technology skills.  READ MORE !

'Spritzing' One Word at a Time !

CLICK 
take it for a test !

Spritz Reinvents Reading on Mobile Devices,

One Word at a Time

PRNewswire: 2.23.2014

Reading is inherently time consuming because your eyes have to move from word 2 word and line 2 line. Spritz streams text 1 word at a time, without forcing your eyes to spend time moving around the page. It enhances readability even more by using horizontal lines and hash marks to direct your eyes to the red letter in each word, so you can focus on the content that interests you.

Spritz enables the brain to focus on each word, promoting faster reading speeds and higher information retention rates.

Spritz technology currently supports English, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Korean, with more languages on the way. With multiple reading speeds to match a user's comfort level ranging from 100 to 1000 words per minute, "spritzing" is easy to learn for all ages. Users typically become accustomed to reading in this new format within a few minutes of their first spritz. Available with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Gear 2 this Spring.  READ MORE !