Digital Accessibility Tool: Speech To Text Tool (TTS)

After Debbie Grants presentation on the multiple tools available for educators, I was most impressed by the different speech to text tools.  Most importantly the one that is avaliable through your internet browser.  I use Safari so I  first highlight the text I wanted to hear, then on the top bar under EDIT you click SPEECH, and lastly click START SPEAKING.  When Debbie presented this tool, I could not believe what I was seeing.  I can see how people with a reading disability can help them learn, although they are not able to read the text.  Like for myself, who often gets distracted when reading and end up reading the same sentence over and over because I loose the spot I left off.  

The first thing I did to try to find more information on this tool was google and found a website which listed 19 free text to speech tools for educators.  Here is the link:   http://elearningindustry.com/19-free-text-to-speech-tools-educators-tts-teachers.  From this list I  noticed that many did the exact thing, as the SPEECH tool on my computer, but one that caught my attention was PowerTalk.    Unlike the others, power talk is used when you are using a slide show or presentation in PowerPoint.  
PowerTalk

1. PowerTalk is a free program that automatically speaks any presentation or slide show running in Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows. You just download and install PowerTalk and while you open and run the presentation as usual it speaks the text on your slides. The advantage over other generic 'Text To Speech' programs is that PowerTalk is able to speak text as it appears and can also speak hidden text attached to images

I am still in shock that I had never discovered such great tool and most importantly that it is completely free.  I hope that I can spread the word about this build-in tool that can help those that have difficulty reading or simply do not have the energy to look at a computer.  

-Yessica 

CAST UDL Book Builder

I was able to explore the website  bookbuilder.cast.org.  This site was designed for users to create, share, publish, and read digital books that will help different kinds of learners.  I was mostly interested to see what kind of books they had available so I can share them with my students.  At first, I was not impressed because I would have like to see some audio used.  However, after playing around with some buttons and scrolling down I was able to find the right button to play the sound.   I was impressed! I was able to find a variety of books under the "Public Library Books" section to use in the classroom to support all learners.  I am not sure if I would use this site to write a book, but definitely a new way to integrate technology into the classroom.

My Personal Learning Network

You may wonder what is a Personal Learning Network? I was not sure of the definition before my last class discussion and came up with a concise definition. It is a network of individuals, organizations, resources that can help you learn, access resources, find experts, achieve mastery, inspire, provide support with any subject matter. Listing all of these ways a network can help I was able to realize I am getting this at Antioch, my current placement, cohort, and professors. But my PLN will continue to grow if I seek opportunities and search for growth. Especially now with the world wide web I am able to access anything on any given time at any given place. We are unstoppable!!!

I have found myself stuck for hours on this new thing called Pinterest. I had heard about Pinterest, but I had always associated with cool arts & craft projects. Now I have found myself looking for projects and lessons to create engaging activities my students. It is also through Pinterest that I discovered different blogs from teachers who have been generous enough to share their ideas and creativity with the world…sometimes for FREE!!!

However, I feel that no website or textbook can provide as much learning as I have gained throughout my time student teaching. Being in front of the students I am able to read their actions and modify my lessons wether its a stretch, singing, or switching the lesson plans. It is through being with my students that I am able to grow personally and professionally. I wish I had the time to explore different classroom around the world to It is through my personal experiences and relationships that I feel I can count on to keep growing professionally.

(I added color to this blog. :) I hope to one day have a cool BLOG!)

First Blog Ever!

Hello everyone!

This is my first blog ever and I hope I can learn and grow professionally from this experince.  I will be blogging about my graduate course TEP 519: Technology for Universal Design at Antioch University Santa Barbara.

-Yessica Rangel