Group items tagged

"Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which affects the ability to adopt the automatic reflexes needed to read and write. Several studies have sought to identify the source of the problems encountered by individuals with dyslexia when they read. Little attention, however, has been paid to the mechanisms involved in writing. Sonia Kandel, Professor at the GIPSA-Lab of the Université Grenoble Alpes (CNRS/Université Grenoble Alpes/Grenoble INP) and her team [1] decided to look at the purely motor aspects of writing in children diagnosed with dyslexia. Their results show that orthographic processing in children with dyslexia is so laborious that it can modify or impair writing skills, despite the absence of dysgraphia in these children. The findings of this study are published in the November 2017 edition of Cognitive Neuropsychology." A serious problem that can influence aspects of language learning.

"Subtext and Tellagami are two amazing free apps that can expand the way you discover information about each student's reading comprehension. By using their combined power, students can produce and publish valuable information about their reading comprehension to help their teachers better understand them as learners." Meets Common Core standards for bringing visual material into readings. Gives students a way to read and answer questions collaboratively, then respond with an avatar speaker in Tellagami. Powerful combination.

This is another way to turn a PowerPoint presentation into something more useful. You can start with pictures or PowerPoint files, then add text to describe each slide. The text will be converted to speech (20 languages/ 70+ voices) as a voiceover. The completed slides and audio are then converted to video and published on YouTube. This might be a fun project for students, and may possibly help with their writing skills.

blogging - "Blogs offer connection - between pupils and between schools, and sometimes with surprising results. Chris Alden looks at how some schools work with the medium, and wonders why more don't ."

"Create page turning publications and share them online. Get noticed and captivate your audience with interactive online brochures, magazines, portfolio's and more..." Create your own or your students ebooks or ejournals. Free tool.

Have your class make an e-book, including photos, videos, and of course, text. Set Lulu to "private" and give the password only to families of the students so they can share in the creativity.

"Turn Twitter and Facebook into online newspapers in just a few clicks." The design is fun--looks like a newspaper, with a ToC on the side linking to articles. Students could make a newspaper out of their Web finds, or teachers could create the "news" for their students' study. For an example for teachers, see The Online Educator by Sandra A. Rogers

An audio Web service that allows recording from any phone, including Skype or an in-browser widget. Recordings can be shared with aFlash widget, embedding, RSS, download, etc. Staring at $4.95/month.

You can upload fairly large videos (up to 500 MB), and comment on them with tags in the timeline, or using text or the "respond with video" feature. Also supports Webcam recording.

" StoryJumper is a free, online storybook maker. With awesome resources for teachers, StoryJumper provides an easy way for to empower students to make their own storybooks. Students write the story and illustrate them with artwork from StoryJumper, or by uploading their own images. Student books can be shared online for free, or purchased in paperback or hardcover format. It's a great way to inspire a passion for writing." The teacher starts by creating a class so that students can enter the site and write privately. Students must be over 13 to participate. The teacher can also set up a collaboration option to create group books.