It seems like 2010 is making itself out to be the year of free word prediction software. First Google Labs comes out with Scribe; then Ontario educators and students learn that WordQ will be licensed by the province by the last day of the year; now we have the innovative new AI Type. Whereas Google Labs Scribe is an online tool, AI Type is a free download that uses a cloud-based prediction engine, so it works only if you have an Internet connection.
this is me typing using AI Type software . it's really pretty good, especially when you consider that it's free. Since the prediction engine is cloud-based, Like Google Labs' Scribe, it can predict current pop-culture phrases; for example, start a sentence with Lady and it predicts Gaga, or type in Justin, and it predicts Timberlake and Beiber. (Just note that it doesn`t capitalize proper nouns or the start of sentences automatically; you need to hold down the shift key to while selecting the word to have it capitalized.
I don't like the way it doesn't fix the spacing on the terminal punctuation. however i do like the way you only have to type in some of the consonants in a word; this will help not only dyslexic users, but also people who may have difficulty with typing because of a physical disability. Being able to set the amount of time and/or the number of characters before the prediction list appears is a nice bit of customization that most people who type fairly well will appreciate . There are other nifty settings, such as being able to automatically disable the program for certain applications. The prediction box and the program in general also look really slick, better than anything else I've seen in word prediction software.
On the other hand , the coloured bolding of the letters you type can easily lead to miscues , especially since it has no built-in text-to-speech. Correcting is also a little awkward if you try to backspace on an incorrect prediction choice; the better way is to use the left arrow key to undo the previous selection, then type and/or select again. Takes a little getting used to, but if you end up using it a lot, it will become second-nature fairly quickly.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this for people with serious dyslexia; WordQ and Co:Writer are going to be much better in those cases. However, if you need just a bit of help with spelling or typing, this is probably all you'll need.
WordQ came out in a new version today, amidst other branding changes for the word-prediction software. The publisher is now called goQsoftware, and they've totally built a new website from scratch.
I downloaded the WordQ 3.0 30-day trial version and had some trouble with missing topic lists that the installer was looking for. The software itself looks almost the same. The SpeakQ microphone is now located to the left of the Words and Speech button in the toolbar, and the Playback button (which I had trouble getting to work properly on my computer) is gone.
Don't expect many new features in version 3.0. Perhaps the biggest new feature is a built-in thesaurus. It works in a similar fashion to the example sentence feature for confusable words: hover on certain words (indicated with a diamond) and a list of synonyms will appear and be spoken by the TTS.
There is an abbreviation expander (found under Options / My Words / Abbreviations) that lets you type in a shortcut for a longer string of text. When this feature is enabled, you can type the shortcut and it will automatically be replaced with the longer string. Another new feature, under Options / Preferences, allows you to choose to automatically launch WordQ on login... a convenient feature which will encourage students who need the software, to use it. The Help menu adds a link to online how-to videos and checking for updates.
For Ontario schools and teachers, version 3 has been licensed by OSAPAC, so it will soon be on computers across the province, replacing Co:Writer as the word-prediction software chosen by the province. The especially great news about this acquisition by OSAPAC is that Ontario students will have the right to install the software on their personal computers.
I didn't get a chance to try out SpeakQ 3.0 (they synchronized version numbers with WordQ by skipping SpeakQ version 2.x), but I don't think there will be too many differences. I didn't see any new features in the User's Guide.
If you already own version 2.x of WordQ (version 1.x of SpeakQ), I don't really see the need to pay for an upgrade. I didn't see any discount for owners of previous versions (granted, the website's only been up for a few hours and that info may be coming soon).
WordQ 3.0 costs USD$199 and WordQ + SpeakQ is USD$279.
For over two years, my district school board's IT folks have had difficulty provisioning Co:Writer in classrooms despite it being licensed by the government of Ontario for use in all schools. First there was a bug with version 5 that needed patching, then it wouldn't "play nice" with other software on the standard image. Therefore, I've been searching for a free, preferably web-based, word-prediction software to fill the gap.
Well, just as the IT department finally rolled out an updated image, with Co:Writer working properly, I've learned about Google Labs' Google Scribe. It's web-based word prediction, and it comes at my favourite price point: free.
Google already uses prediction algorithms for searches, and who can rival its data on usage of word combinations? However, as a "Labs" product, Google Scribe is not quite fully polished. For some reason, they haven't filtered out spelling errors from the prediction list. (I saw "speshul", "spechal", "acomodation", and "speling", for example.) It would be great if Google could apply its excellent "Did you mean...?" spelling correction algorithms to misspelled words in Google Scribe.
Fortunately, Google has blocked out foul language and crude word combinations from the prediction box.
What's really ironic, though, is that I tried using Google to search for free word prediction software again just now, and Google Scribe didn't show up. Maybe that will change soon as word gets out about this product.
A careful look at Blio's official Twitter feed confirms their intention to launch in August 2010, but a mere day and a half before that deadline was to expire, a new tweet casually mentions that the much-anticipated e-reader is slated to launch "next month." And even if this latest revision is to be believed, they are only claiming that the Windows version will be ready then; iOS, Linux, WebOS, and possibly other systems will have to keep on waiting.
One reason for the delay may have something to do with acquiring rights to high-quality TTS voices from Nuance. In a press release from only one week ago, Nuance announced that its voices "Tom" and "Samantha" would be reading aloud your Blio content. (Ford Sync users may recognize Samantha.) Since Nuance can trace its corporate history back to Raymond Kurzweil and his ground-breaking technologies, it seems fitting that this partnership should form.
Aaaaaaanyway... we can't give up on Blio yet. It's apparently still coming, although with this many delays already, one can hardly bank on a September release, despite what they say on Twitter. Will it be worth the wait? CyberSERT promises to let you know.
UPDATE:launch postponed again to September 28
When I check my Google Analytics statistics for this blog, it's surprising to see how much traffic comes here looking for information on K-NFB's Blio e-reader. When Blio failed to launch as expected in February (and still hasn't yet), no revised release date was given. Thanks to blog The Digital Reader, we now have indications that Blio will be released in August 2010. Yikes, that's a few weeks from now! (I don't think they're likely to miss the boat again, given the amount of time they've had to iron out the kinks -- whether technical or legal -- and the embarrassment that would result from making the same mistake twice.
The Digital Reader blog has a lot more information on Blio than I do, so I will refer you to that site for now. Once Blio is released, I'll be one of the first to try it out and review it from an assistive technology / special education perspective.
I was speaking to a former Math consultant who returned to the classroom. She is very much into technology and had put SMART Notebook Math Tools to the paces in her high school math classes. Unfortunately, she found the software to be unreliable when it comes to stability and performance. She gave up using it because it would often crash or not work properly. She hopes that SMARTtech improves this soon, because she'd really be interested in using its features, but she can't be wasting her students' time with software that doesn't consistently do what it's supposed to.
I was sorry to hear about this. I myself haven't had very much opportunity to try the Math Tools, but I've used other SMART software and found it to be solid. I am hesitant to paint such a negative picture of a piece of software based on the experiences of one user (which I'm getting second-hand), but I wanted to make sure I provided balance after being so optimistic in my earlier review. If you've used Math Tools, please leave a comment about your experiences: is the code buggy, or has it been a trouble-free ride for you?
Update: Cambium has changed the Sopris website so the how-to videos are no longer where they used to be. I'm not sure if they're gone forever, or just hiding somewhere else. If anyone finds them, please leave a comment.
Most people know about Kurzweil's built-in how-to videos. Many may even be aware of the difficult-to-find online versions of the same videos on the Kurzweil website [general features] [new features from version 11]. But I'm confident that not a lot of people know about additional tutorial videos from Cambium that demonstrate some other features of their most popular piece of software. Kurzweil Educational Systems is just one subsidiary of Cambium Learning. Sopris is another, focused on curriculum. One of the Sopris resources on their website is this page that links Kurzweil functions to their Language! series. There are 6 strands or "steps" covered by this curriculum, and each one is linked to a table that describes a Kurzweil function, shows the toolbar icon, and has a tiny "view video" link. Both Windows and Mac versions of Kurzweil are covered. Although users of the Language! product from Sopris will appreciate the direct link to their curriculum, anyone can benefit from these videos and how they're linked to language and literacy subskills, regardless of what curriculum they're using. (Which may be why Cambium isn't making these videos easier to find. But then, that's what CyberSERT is here for!)
After a training session, I was eating lunch at a school I've never visited before. I overheard one teacher talking to another about a website that was good for French class (compulsory here in Ontario) or for English Language Learners. Immediately, my eavesdropping ears perked up. This sounded like it could be useful. I asked for the URL, and I was glad I did. That's how I learned about LanguageGuide.org. There are the 13 languages at present; after selecting a language you can choose a topic (from letters of the alphabet to organs of the digestive system). A series of visuals represent concepts within that topic, and when you hover your mouse over each one, you hear a voice say the word in the specified language. Just make sure you give the audio a chance to load because you'll see the visuals before the audio becomes available.
It's great for all types of language learners and students who may have communication problems or who may be visual learners studying one of the topics.
And all this comes to you for the low, low price of FREE!
I came across a truly unique, free, open-source piece of AT software called Dasher. It is an alternative input method for Windows, whereby a user can "type" without using any kind of keyboard (physical or on-screen). It works by stacking the alphabet on one side of your screen and letting you steer and drive into the letters and words you want. The action is similar to some video games, but there are no spaceships or bad guys. You can use a mouse, an eye-tracker, or other devices. Primarily designed for people who don't have full use of 10 fingers for typing, it can be a fairly efficient means of inputting text thanks to its built-in word prediction. According to the website, "Tests have shown that, after an hour of practice, novice users reach a writing speed of about 20 words per minute while taking dictation. Experienced users achieve writing speeds of about 34 words per minute, compared with typical ten-finger keyboard typing of 40-60 words per minute."
It's going to be very difficult to give you a sense of how it works without a video demonstration, so here's a screencast I made that demonstrates how to use Dasher and adjust some of the many settings. Be sure to check out the Dasher website for tips on getting started. It will feel a bit awkward to use at first, but once you get past that, it is actually pretty fun. I found it addictive, to tell you the truth! That's why I think it's also a great way to get a kid who may be physically able to type or write but is very reluctant to write or has high anxiety around the act of writing to start stringing letters together.
There's even a special version of this software called Speech Dasher. It works with speech-recognition software by Microsoft or Dragon NaturallySpeaking; you dictate and use Speech Dasher as an interface to select and correct words based on your dictation.
I love Dasher. I think it's brilliant. But I do have some wishes to improve it. A simple one is to make the text-to-speech function say each letter rather than only say each word or a string of words. My other wish is to make a version that is graphically like a modern video-game. Make it more like a 3-D driving or flying game that will engage kids more.
I had a chance this past Friday to check out some new AT software I've been interested in: Kurzweil 3000 v. 12, Co:Writer v. 6, and Conceptua Math's free online fraction tools. The setting was the Bridges to Learning conference for educational technology. This was the Canadian unveiling of Kurzweil 12 (and only the 3rd showing worldwide). It was also the first showing Conceptua Math has given to a special-education audience.
Kurzweil 3000 v. 12
Cambium Learning Technologies is about a week or two from making version 12 demos available for download to the public, so this was an opportunity to get a sneak peek at the new software. Unfortunately, I had a workshop to run off to, so I didn't get to spend as long checking out the new K3000, and I didn't get a hands-on opportunity myself, but I did get to see some of its new features in action. Cambium's Director of Sales, David Bradburn, demonstrated Version 12's hyperlinking ability. You can create a hyperlink on a word in a text that can jump to any other part of the document (so if you have a text followed by comprehension questions, you can jump back and forth between them); or it can open either a web page or a file of any type to give additional information on a topic or direct the student to additional reading or tasks. I also saw the translate function in action: all you do is highlight a portion of text, click on the Translate button, choose the language and it will provide Google Translate's rendition of the text in the given language. It worked very smoothly and intuitively.
From my School Board's perspective, we were very interested in the Web licencing option. David Bradburn told us that Version 12 would allow a district to create a roster with every student's name, and students could download and install the software on as many computers as they want. They can activate the licence with their unique code, and the Board only pays for whatever maximum number of concurrent licences to be available. So if you have a population of 100,000 students and staff, but only expect a maximum of 2000 to be using Kurzweil at any given time, you only pay for 2000 licences. This will have tremendous potential for expanding the reach of this technology in our Board, as we currently purchase standalone licences for individual computers, and teachers currently have minimal access. Another web licence feature is that districts or schools can create centralized libraries of e-text for use by anyone on its roster. The web licence also has reporting tools for administrators that show usage histories and how many users were denied access in case licences run out due to a spike in usage. What's really cool, though, is that if teachers create documents with bubble note questions, it will track each user's answers for assessment and evaluation. [Update: I just found out that this will be an extra feature that will be free for the first year of the web licence but will require yearly subscription thereafter.]
Unfortunately, although new high-quality Spanish TTS voices will be included with Version 12, there are still no new English Voices. VW Kate and Paul were great when they first came out, but they're hardly state-of-the-art anymore. I'm also hoping that the next Kurzweil 3000 will be re-written from the ground-up to improve the user interface, which I think is far below standard for a modern Windows application. And when, O when, will they give us a Canadian dictionary?
A couple other notes about Version 12:
Version 12 will come on a single DVD-ROM.
The French edition of K3000 will skip Version 11 and will go straight to Version 12.
(By the way, if you're using Kurzweil v. 11, a new update -- v. 11.05 -- is available. In Kurzweil, click Online, then select Updates...).
Co:Writer 6
This one I did get to test drive. Although there have been massive improvements made in Version 6, as a WordQ user, I have to tell you that I'm not ready to switch. First the good stuff: the user interface has been simplified. It can switch from one application to another much better, and if it doesn't happen to switch successfully, you can refresh the connection and it will work again. A very important new feature that was inexplicably missing in previous versions is the ability to select any portion of text and have the TTS read it back to you. What I like the most about the new version is that word lists can now be displayed alongside your writing (like Kurzweil 3000's floating word lists), so you can have a list of vocabulary words, linking words, or sentence starters visible to click on and use any time. They can be displayed in a word cloud format or a standard list. Check out Don Johnston Inc's YouTube channel for a demonstration and how-to videos.
Version 6 also is available in a Canadian edition, with Canadian spellings (are you getting that, Cambium?). Now the bad news: Co:Writer still gives the impression that it's not entirely comfortable running in Windows. It doesn't seem to run anywhere nearly as smoothly and seamlessly as competitor WordQ does. Although WordQ could certainly benefit from the floating topic lists (and the extensive number of topic lists) that Co:Writer has, overall WordQ just works better. You select a predicted word in WordQ, it appears instantly in your application. In Co:Writer, it appears to spell out the word one letter at a time in rapid succession. WordQ also provides example sentences to help distinguish between confusable words (e.g., here, hear, hare, hair, etc.). And the user interface in WordQ is second-to-none as far as elegant simplicity goes.
Conceptua Math
I'll probably go into more detail on this in a future post, but I just wanted to bring to your attention this free online fraction teaching tool from the former leaders of Intellitools. It works great with an interactive whiteboard (such as a SMARTboard), has accessibility features such as Text-to-Speech (which I think may be coming soon... as an online application, improvements are constantly being made) and Intellikeys compatibility. (It may also be switch-accessible, but don't quote me on that.) A premium version is coming soon, and at $2 per student per year, is fairly affordable by North American standards. Coming from the folks who brought us Intellitools, you can be sure that this software is high quality, research based, and created with Universal Design principles in mind.
I was testing my links for the entry I just posted and I noticed on the KurzweilEdu.com website that Kurzweil has a new version. I downloaded the pdf flyer and the file properties showed that the pdf was created yesterday morning, so I think this should be news to most people.
To quote the website, here are a list of new features:
Expanded support of electronic content
Internet Explorer® 7 and 8
NIMAS
DAISY 2 and 3
MathML – opens up the world of mathematics and science text translation
Additional PDF related functions
Bookshare.org
Additional support for the English Language Learners
Picture dictionary with more than 1300 graphics in English and Spanish
Human voice pronunciations from American Heritage® Dictionary
Language translations "on the fly" with Google™ Translate
Multi-language recognition option
NeoSpeech Violeta for Spanish text to speech [TTS]
Enhanced writing supports
A Start Writing button and newly re-organized Write menu help to streamline the starting points for writing, making it easier to access Draft or Brainstorm templates
New, comprehensive set of writing templates in Brainstorm format for writers and learners who work well with graphics, rather than with the text-based draft writing templates
A new Create Draft button converts the Outline to a draft that is ready for expansion and reworking into prose
A new Review Button brings the writing checklist directly to the toolbar
More spelling support comes with word underlining and Right Mouse Button corrections
Personally, I'm really excited about the picture dictionary, the math support, updated OCR and voices (hopefully not just Spanish), and enhanced ELL support features. I can't wait to try it out. When I do, you can expect a review here on the CyberSERT blog.
I originally envisioned the CyberSERT blog as being mostly video tutorials, but somehow it hasn't turned out that way. Nonetheless, I do have another how-to screencast for you for Kurzweil. It always surprised me that Kurzweil's own how-to videos did not feature anything on zone editing, and I've long intended to make my own to help others learn the skills that took me much fumbling through before I finally mastered them.
If you're a little familiar with Kurzweil 3000 but not so much with the art of zone editing, the explanation below should give you an idea what the purpose of it is, while the video tutorial will show you how to do it.
When reading a block of text, you go from left to right and top to bottom. But when there are several blocks of text on a page, it's not always straightforward how to read. Also, when there is a mixture of images and text on a page, computers sometimes have difficulty discriminating between words and pictures. Finally, not all text on a page should be read. Page numbers, headers, and footers have their uses, but a Kurzweil user usually does not want these read aloud on every page.
Zone editing in Kurzweil 3000 allows you to take control of how Kurzweil handles these elements on the page. One of the drawbacks of zone editing, however, is that it can be time consuming and tedious, especially when preparing documents that are hundreds of pages long. Different users have different needs; some may rely on zone editing, while others can navigate a text with total independence. Texts also vary in complexity, and some will need little or no zone editing changes.
Microsoft has created a free plugin for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 called Mouse Mischief. It allows multiple mouse cursors in PowerPoints, so you can give several students their own mouse and have them engaged with your presentation. Watch the demonstration (warning: like most MS marketing videos, it's a bit cheesy) to see how students can answer questions and interact with slideshows in your lessons. If your district (or your personal laptop) has a newer version of PowerPoint, you will surely want to try this freebie out. http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/
Cloud-based note-keeping software Evernote recently profiled in its blog a user with traumatic brain injury who uses the software as a sort of prosthetic memory. In the feedback section, several other people with memory problems also sung the praises of Evernote. I also recommend it for students who have difficulty taking notes in class. They can photograph the teacher's notes from the chalkboard. Once uploaded into Evernote, all text, whether printed or handwritten, is recognized by the system and is searchable. The student doesn't need to worry about organizing a binder full of notes from different classes (although it can help if he adds tags to notes he uploads). If he just types in "Othello" for example, all his notes containing "Othello" (including those written by his English teacher and captured with his smartphone's camera) will come up, and when he clicks on one, it will be displayed with all instances of "Othello" highlighted. Evernote comes in free and paid/premium versions.
Looking for fun activities for kids who use switches? HelpKidzLearn.com has a bunch of simple, free, online activities and games that can be controlled with a switch or a mouse. Just look for the little red switch icon in the menus for switch-accessibility.
Besides games, there are stories and creative activities that let the user design a model railroad, a greeting card, or a sand castle, with switches (or mouse). Be sure also to check out the section for Parents, where you'll find links to more switch-accessible activities, and also a free download for creating an interactive visual timetable; it's easy to use, with many pictures included, plus the ability to import your own pictures.
Storybird.com lets you create simple picture books online using its bank of professional-looking illustrations and user-friendly interface. No cheap, cheesy clip art here; these pictures are as beautiful as any you'll find in children's books anywhere. Besides being motivating for reluctant writers who may appreciate good art, they also spark the imagination for kids who think they're not creative, like that classic Chris Van Allsburg gem, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick does.
[Note: updated information can be found here.] This weekend, people who signed up for updates about Blio got the following e-mail. It doesn't say when it's actually going to be released (after missing its initial February 2010 launch date), only that they are "putting finishing touches" on the product and will notify subscribers to updates when the software is available for download.
----------Quote------------
Thank you for your interest in Blio.
We sincerely appreciate your desire to begin using what many have said will be the breakthrough eBook platform on the market. We can assure you that you will be among the first to enjoy its rich user experience, and that time is fast approaching. As soon as Blio is finalized for free download we will notify you by email.
We are currently working with our many partners to put the finishing touches on this revolutionary software and a library of more than one million novels, biographies, cookbooks, travel guides, how-to books, textbooks, art books, children’s stories, and magazines.
As you know, Blio will be the first eReader to preserve the image-rich format of books and magazines, including their layout, typesetting, images, color and graphics, while also supporting full media functionality, including video, graphics, and web links.
With our cutting-edge, 3D book technology and the vast collection of online books that we have jointly collected from the world’s leading publishers, we believe we have the key to transform the book industry. And we’re excited that you will soon be part of that transformation.
You are receiving this email because you signed up for Blio updates.
For more information, please visit www.blioreader.com
---------End Quote-------------
Well, we shall stay tuned indeed. Meanwhile, the competition isn't going to sit still. Microsoft Reader has many similarities with Blio, including that it's free. I still have a hunch Blio is going to be better than MS Reader, but you know what they say: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
If you've ever used a SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard, you know that SMART Notebook is an excellent piece of software for teaching in the 21st Century. Recently, SMARTtech came out with the Math Tools plug-in for their Notebook software. Out of the box, Notebook itself is already a fantastic tool for teaching math, especially if you've upgraded to version 10.6. Besides the standard geometric shapes in the toolbar, it's got dozens of math-related clip art images and interactive Flash files. You could easily cover all the strands of elementary math, and there was plenty of ways to use Notebook in secondary math (or any subject, actually) as well. So when I heard that SMARTtech was going to start charging extra for a Math plug-in, I didn't really think it would be worth buying the cow when you could get the milk for free. (A site licence of SMART Notebook is free if your institution owns a SMARTBoard.) However, when a representative from SMARTtech came to demo the Math Tools for me and my colleagues, I was sold. It's powerful software that's elegantly simple to use. It's got a unique feature set that any math teacher (possibly even university-level) would love to have. It's literally a math teacher's dream come true because it was designed based on a wish list from math teacher SMARTBoard users. In my current role, I don't really get to teach math any more; when I saw the demo of Math Tools, I yearned for the day that I can return to teaching math, hopefully with my own SMARTBoard and Math Tools. Rather than tell you about the features, which should really be seen to be appreciated, here's a link to a demo video from SMART's website.
As great as this software is for general education, this blog does tend to focus on Special Ed. So, how can SMART Notebook Math Tools be used for special ed students? First off, it's an engaging way to teach math. We all know that engagement with the curriculum increases a student's chances of success. Second, it's highly visual and tactile for kids who learn better that way. Third, it makes it easy for the student to review the lesson (or part of it) if needed. Fourth, a student can use the software on a PC or laptop for the virtual manipulatives. Students who can't properly hold a compass, for example, can use the virtual one. Fifth, students who have fine motor issues can show their work in math neatly using the equation editor, gallery images, and drawing tools.
These are my impressions after viewing the demonstration. As you can tell, I was impressed. However, I did not get a chance to try the software out myself in-depth. If this review sounds a little unbalanced, I just want you to know I'm not getting anything from SMARTtech. I might be a little biased because it's a Canadian company, but I don't think that would affect my opinion too much. What I'm trying to say is that this is not an advertorial or blogvertisement. SMART software has a pretty good reputation for being solid and easy to use. I think it's pretty safe to say that this piece of software is unlikely to disappoint. If you've tried it, I'd love to hear from you in the comments. Feel free to post your opinions, positive and negative.
This is a repeat of what I posted on the AT in Education group on Diigo.com.
Karen Vitek had asked if Dragon was still the gold standard in Voice Recognition and whether it was appropriate for younger students.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is absolutely the most accurate and most powerful voice recognition software on the market. It can be effective with younger students, especially if you definition of younger is ages 11-14.
There is another program to consider, called SpeakQ. It is actually a plug-in for WordQ word prediction software (www.wordq.com). Since it uses the Microsoft voice recognition engine, its accuracy varies from individual to individual, so be sure to use the 30-day trial before you buy. The beauty of SpeakQ is its simplicity.
Dragon was designed for and is marketed to the business person, the medical professional, and the legal professional; it assumes a high degree of literacy skill in the user. SpeakQ, on the other hand, was designed with special needs students in mind.
There are two main differences between the user experience of DNS versus SpeakQ:
(1) The voice training process in SpeakQ uses a speech synthesizer to prompt the user, who listens to and repeats the training text a few words at a time. This is useful when the user has reading difficulties. Dragon does not do this.
(2) SpeakQ offers instant voice feedback of its recognition, so for the user with reading difficulties, it's clear whether or not the software recognized the voice accurately. It lists the different possibilities of what it "thinks" was said and the user can hear the different choices before selecting. For example if I say, "Ice cream," there might be a list with "Ice cream", "I scream" and "I screamed", and I can hover the mouse over those 3 choices to hear them before I click and select the one I actually said.
SpeakQ does not work for commanding your computer the way Dragon does. With Dragon you can open other programs, click menu items, etc., with your voice.
I recommend SpeakQ (if it works OK with the individual's voice) for students with weaker reading skills, weaker computer skills, or students who are cognitively not ready for the complexities of using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I recommend DNS for students who can handle the reading and the complexity, students with speech impediments, foreign accents, or physical impairments that require them to have voice control over the Windows environment.
EDIT: I have to mention that my experience with SpeakQ is based on using it under Windows XP. Since the voice recognition engine is Microsoft's own, the version of Windows makes a big difference. I've been told that running SpeakQ under Windows 7 greatly improves the recognition abilities, so if you've got Windows 7, the playing field between Dragon and SpeakQ is a little more level. Ultimately, I suggest the 30-day trial version of SpeakQ, because you will know for sure how well the software is going to work with your voice.
Last Fall I posted about the then-upcoming Assistive Technology webinar series from Atomic Learning. (That post has now been deleted to make room for this one.) I wanted to post a link to the archived webinars for anyone who's interested but missed some or all of the series http://atomiclearning.ning.com/page/webinar-archive
Registration is free, but you should be aware that Atomic Learning is a business, and offering these webinars is a way for them to connect with potential new clients for their technology how-to services. I've received 2 phone calls and 2 or 3 e-mails over the past few months as a result of signing up for the webinars. (Atomic Learning's how-to resources for Assistive Technology are quite extensive, and are certainly worth considering if you need that type of thing and your jurisdiction can afford them.) The webinars themselves aren't bad, but aren't great. I'd recommend them if you're new to AT and you have a bit of time to spare.
I was working with a girl yesterday whose speech was affected by early hearing impairment. My job was to find a voice-to-text solution to help her spell and write better. Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9, which was ordered for her a few years ago, was not successful. SpeakQ was not successful. I had my doubts that anything would work for her because her speech was not very clear and she always spoke quietly and got many of the words wrong during voice training. Then we decided to try Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10, which I recently got on my computer. We chose the "special" training option, where we don't get feedback during the training process; she would just read a passage for 10 minutes, mistakes, mumbles and all. I was not optimistic.
After voice training, Dragon spent SEVERAL minutes processing her voice sample. (I had to send her back to class because it seemed like it was going to take forever.) But after it was done, we tested it, and we were AMAZED! Very high accuracy, despite all the factors working against us.
I guess I should have had more faith. I use DNS v. 10 without a headset; that's right, I just use my laptop's built-in microphone (and I don't even know where on the laptop it's located). Granted, I myself have pretty clear speech, if I do say so myself, but still, using a built-in microphone for something that usually requires not just any headset, but a high-quality headset? That's impressive. Oh, did I mention, I did ZERO voice training for DNS 10? So, out of the box, using my built-in microphone, I can get an accuracy percentage in the high 90s.
So did the mighty Dragon smoke SpeakQ in my books since version 10 came out? Not exactly. There are still times when SpeakQ is better. The user experience with SpeakQ is so much simpler, making it my first choice for most elementary students and for secondary students with more pronounced reading difficulties. DNS, is, after all marketed towards adults, while SpeakQ was made specifically for special-needs students.
If the makers of SpeakQ and/or Dragon happen to be reading this post, may I make a humble request? Please get together. Please combine the best of each product to make a DNS-powered SpeakQ or a simplified DNS! Our kids deserve it!
Ray Kurzweil's latest venture, the Blio Reader, missed its announced February launch date without any explanation on its website. I'd signed up for Blio updates via e-mail but have yet to hear any news from them. In fact, it's been pretty quiet since the Consumer Electronics Show in January, when the February launch was repeatedly promised by Dr. Kurzweil himself. What happened between then and now? Well, there was the launch of the much anticipated Apple iPad, and since Blio was supposed to be available for the iPhone, it could be that its developers are tweaking the iPhone version to be compatible with its larger cousin. In any case, I'll keep waiting for news from Blio and keep you posted.
Math can be tricky enough for students without special needs, so any help we can offer our kids in this department is a definite plus.
Jenny Eather has created a site she calls "A Maths Dictionary for Kids" which I like very much. She has provided definitions with visual illustrations and interactive activities for elementary math terms for every letter of the alphabet. Handy as a reference or study tool, especially for kids who are visual learners. Many of the interactive screens would work well with an interactive whiteboard for a tactile experience or for large-group lessons. If I had one criticism, it's that sometimes the page is visually quite crowded and some kids won't be able to process all that's there.
Virtual manipulatives are another type of tool to consider. They're not only for students who are visual learners, but also for those who may have difficulty handling regular manipulatives. Also, if you've already got the computers, you're not paying for real manipulatives, so you don't need to be a math wizard to figure out that they can save money, too. Most teachers already know about the excellent National Library of Virtual Manipulatives, which comes in a free online version and a low-cost downloadable application as well. I love the base-ten blocks. Try moving a hundreds block into the tens column and watch it explode into ten 10's. Select ten blocks and they automatically group together to effortlessly stick them together. Works great on an interactive whiteboard!
As for "drill & kill" math games, there are a million of them on the web, but one really stands out. Timez Attack from BigBrainz.com teaches and drills multiplication facts in an exciting graphical environment. The developers are Playstation programmers, so they know what kids like. Timez Attack comes in a free version and a paid version. The paid version has more graphical environments to play through, but both teach the times tables from 1 to 12.
Here are a couple of free online games for kids with autism to work on reading facial expressions. The first is The Feelings Game, a simple interactive game where you click on the face that's happy, disgusted, angry, etc.
The other one is just called Facial Expressions; this one is not so much a quiz game like The Feelings Game, but more for exploring different features of facial expressions. You can manipulate individual elements of a facial expression, such as the eyebrows, the shape of the mouth, etc. There are presets for standard expressions as well. I wish the graphics were a little more smooth, though. I've seen more realistic images on my cousin's VIC-20. Both games are from Do2Learn.com, a company that also has some pretty slick-looking software for special needs, but most of them fall in the not-so-free and not-so-online category. There's Faceland, for example to stick with the skill of reading facial expressions. Looks pretty fun, actually, but at that price tag ($179), I hope they have some proof that autistic children can generalize the learning from the software and apply it in real life.
Now back to my favourite price tag: free. Here's a downloadable game along the same theme, called Girl Face Matching. At least the graphics are not bad.
With all of these software choices, I would recommend regularly reinforcing the learning with actual humans' facial expressions after playing the computer game so that the connection with the real world is more likely to be made. Children with ASD are, after all, prone to have difficulty generalizing learning, especially the complexities of social behaviour.
I'm still making my way through the list myself, but I've found plenty of gems in very little time here: 50 Best Blogs for Special Ed Teachers. It's got a healthy Assistive Technology section, and although CyberSERT didn't make the cut, I'm pleased to pass on the link to my readers.
CyberSERT is back after a bit of an extended holiday (at least, from blogging) with some exciting news. Assistive technology's living patriarch, Raymond Kurzweil, has unveiled a new e-book reader called Blio. It boasts several features familiar to users of Kurzweil 3000: preserving the layout & colours of the original text, text-to-speech, sticky notes, highlighters, and the ability to add voice notes. While Blio is not likely to have the full complement of features found in Kurzweil 3000, it will have some features that sets it apart from K3K: most notably, (1) it rings in at everyone's favourite price-point -- FREE -- and (2) the user interface is not butt-ugly... In fact, Blio has some veritable eye candy (whereas K3K's looks could arguably be compared to eye gruel). There are 3D animation effects, including pages turning. Something I like about Blio is that it not only has synthesized speech for reading texts, but it also allows bimodal reading with recorded human voices. So the words being spoken by the author or actors are highlighted in real-time. You can have human expression and different voices for characters; e-books can truly come to life.
Another interesting difference is that this app will be available not only for PCs, but iPhone as well. There are vague mentions of netbooks (Linux?) and other mobile devices, which we may see in the future. What is clear, though, is that Blio, while free, will have some kind of e-book store where you would download copyrighted materials for a fee.
What impact will this have on the AT marketplace, and particularly on Kurzweil 3000? I'm not sure whether Ray Kurzweil is the least bit involved any more with the software that bears his name, with Cambium Learning Technologies, now owning the brand. While I doubt that Blio will have enough features to compete directly with K3000, having a high-quality reader available for free will undoubtedly eat into the grossly overpriced K3K's market share.
I'm very curious as to how the paid content will impact our schools. Right now, schools are purchasing hard copies of books, and students with disabilities have the right to make a digital copy of the texts the school supplies for them. Whether by scanning the materials or accessing pre-scanned versions, schools have not had to pay extra (at least not directly) for e-texts for disabled students. What's this going to do for school budgets? On one hand, the software is free, but on the other hand, the e-texts are not. Would this be penny-wise but pound-foolish to adopt? Stay tuned as details about Blio emerge. The release is expected in February 2010.
in the menus for switch-accessibility.
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