Change bLog

In my school we have a lot of students that are socially able but struggle academically.  This means that, whilst they can operate a computer better than a lot of the staff, they hit a brick wall when they encounter text.  Consequently,  they are alienated from the educationally beneficial (and fun) web 2.0 movement.  Enter Alex.

Alex is the current voice of my computer.  Using the inbuilt text-to-speech functionality on my Apple MacBook I can select almost any text in almost any program and instruct the computer to read it to me.  To do this in Safari (the Apple version on Internet Explorer) I highlight the text I want to hear, click on ‘Safari’ in the top menu bar, then click ’services’, then click ’speech’ and finally ’start speaking’.  With a little bit of know-how I’m sure this could actually become a button at the top of the web browser to save all the menu navigation (Users of older Macs won’t have the option of Alex, but will have a good choice of other voices which, whilst a bit robotic, are quite clear).  The implications of this are that my students go from being left out to ahead of the game, which provides a massive and much needed boost to their self-esteem and helps them access become a part of what’s going on. 

I wish there was a way in which my students could convert speech to text, but a lot of the solutions are more hassle than they are worth.  I was unfortunate enough to be lent some dictation software whilst completing my degree to help combat my dyslexia.  I gave it back.  My hope is that the students will be so motivated to contribute that they will start to use basic tools, such as the spell checker, to enable them write.  They manage to text each other without much problem, why should this be any different?!   

This entry was posted on 22 November, 2007 at 10:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.