Recently, Jamie Martin (@ATdyslexia), assistive technology consultant and trainer, presented the webinar "New Apps and Chrome Tools for the New School Year" hosted by Understood.org. The focus on the webinar was to discuss various assistive technology tools to get your students or children ready for the new school year.
*Update: Congratulations to our randomly selected winner: Holly F.! Be sure to check out each day's giveaways!*
Today's bundled giveaway is another incredible value and one not to miss....
Where It's AT Subscribers will have the chance to win a copy of the "must-read" book Using Technology to Engage Students with Learning Disabilities bySharon LePage Plante and Billy Krakower. And when talking about using technology to support struggling learners, it would be remiss to not include in the giveaway downloads of several of my favorite iOS apps [valued at over $100] including:
Leverage technology to engage students with learning disabilities! Harness the power of today’s technology to improve learning and engagement for students with learning disabilities. By engaging students with learning disabilities using the technology already at your fingertips, you’ll see your students begin to thrive and grow in exciting new ways. In this volume in the Connected Educators Series, you’ll discover:
New ideas for using assistive technology to teach core subjects and study skills
How to build positive opportunities for students to show what they know
Tools to provide better content accessibility
How to help students connect and share through technology tools
About the Authors...
Billy Krakower (@wkrakower) is a full-time teacher at Woodland Park Public Schools in Woodland Park, New Jersey, where he has taught computers and special education to grades 3 and 4 for over eight years. He is the Chief Financial & Event Officer for Evolving Educators, LLC (evolvingeducators.com). Billy co-moderates two weekly Twitter chats, #NJed chat and #satchat (for educational leaders). He co-hosts “SatChat Radio,” a weekly show interviewing educators on BAM Radio Network and available on iTunes. Billy is one of the lead organizers of edcampNJ and edcampLeadership North NJ. He is on the teacher advisory board for ReadWorks. Billy is a 2014 ASCD Emerging Leader, and a member of the NJASCD Executive board and serves as the Technology Committee Chair. He also served as co-director of NJ-ASCD Northern Region (Fall 2013 - June 2015). He has presented at more than 20 local and national technology conferences on topics including Twitters & You, The Science Behind a Mystery Location Call, and Connecting Beyond the Classroom. Billy has an Advance Certificate in Educational Leadership and a dual Masters Degree in Special Education & Elementary Education from Long Island University. Billy is a Google Certified Educator and an Edmodo Certified Trainer. You can read more about Billy, his awards, and his presentations at www.billykrakower.com. He is passionate about helping every child and adult enjoy and learn using technology tools in easy, fun and empowering ways.
Sharon Plante, (@iplante) an educator with over 19 years' teaching experience in special education, has been an educator at Eagle Hill-Southport for over eleven years, as well as currently serving as Director of Technology. She holds a B.A. in Child Development from Connecticut College, a M.Ed in Special Education from George Mason University, and a certificate in Administration and Leadership from Sacred Heart University. Sharon utilizes her educational training and love of technology to engage students with learning disabilities in building their skills and finding success. She has presented at Everyone Reading, EdRev, Edscape, ATIA (Assistive Technology Industry Association), IDA (International Dyslexia Association), and New York Chapter of ALTA (Academic Language Trainers Association), as well as at several Edcamps, on using technology to empower the dyslexic/LD learner. Sharon is the 2015-2017 chair of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools Commission on Technology, as well as a member of the board for Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities. Additionally, she hosts a podcast for Bam Radio Network on Learning Differently bringing together the voices of those working in the many aspects of special education and blogs at iplantes.com. Sharon is a co-founder of #edtechchat, a weekly twitter chat and podcast. Additionally, she is the co-organizer of EdCampSWCT and EdCampCAIS.
This year I was introduced, through the ATIA conference, to a new text-to-speech app called Claro ScanPen, developed by Claro Software. Claro Software is a world reknowned company known best for their development of
assistive software for students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, visual processing issues, working memory deficiencies and other language-based delays and disabilities.
How it works...
ScanPen, is an app that is used in combination with the camera on
your Apple device to scan a photo of printed text. Using the built in OCR (optical character recognition)tool, the scanned text is then read aloud using the built-in
text-to-speech feature. The OCR tools of the app are impressive due largely in part to the top-quality ABBYY OCR engine. Another added perk of this app is that it does not require a Wi-Fi connection making it accessible virtually everywhere!
This app is simplistic in it's functionality making it easy for even the youngest users or those less adept to technology to learn quickly.
Features... ScanPen lets you snap a photo of a page of printed
text and then reads it back to you using your chosen voice and swipe
settings. When you first open the app, the camera is active and ready
for taking a picture and there are just 3 buttons on the screen for
clicking – super simple, right? The gear icon at the top right will take
you to some of the settings and options (we’ll get to those later), the
circle centered at the bottom takes the photo (as you’d expect), and
the icon at the very bottom right will let you choose an existing photo
from an album or gallery on your device.
ScanPen Selection Modes...
Once
you’ve taken or selected your picture, you just swipe your finger
across the text to hear it read aloud in real time. The
default voice is the standard iOS voice for your country (USA, UK, etc.)
and the default swipe/read setting (labeled ‘selection modes’ in the
settings) is to read by line. Reading by line means
that when you swipe across a part of any line of text, ScanPen will read
back any of the lines you’ve touched starting from the very left side
of the page and continuing to the end of that line. Keep in mind though,
ScanPen doesn’t care if that line contains whole sentences or not. It
will read complete lines of text from left to right regardless of
whether those points are the beginnings or ends of sentences.
The other selection modes are ‘All’ and ‘Words’. Choosing the ‘All‘
setting will tell ScanPen to read the entire page from beginning to end
in response to any swipe anywhere on the screen of text. Choosing ‘Words‘
will tell ScanPen to read just those words that are specifically
touched by your swipe. Again, please be aware that when you swipe by word,
ScanPen does not disseminate if your swipe covers a full sentence or crosses
down into multiple lines. The Words selection mode does exactly as it is designed to do.
Additionally, upon initially using the app, the voice and speaking rate will be set to a default. Both of these can be adjusted. To change the voice, you can purchase, through in-app purchase, additional voices that suit your needs.
Students more accustomed to text-to-speech technology will be able to
start at a much faster speaking rate and probably even increase from
there over time. In fact, people who use text-to-speech products really
regularly will quite often listen at a rate that sounds almost
indecipherable to those of us with less experience. This allows students
using AT products to get through text at a speed similar to that which
their non-disabled peers read naturally.
Versatility Within the Classroom and Home Settings...
An app like ScanPen, which is a lightweight OCR and text-to-speech tool, means that students who might
have shied away from higher education or loftier career goals in the
past due to their disability now have the confidence to reach higher
than ever before. Students who have learning disabilities that impact their ability to read with independence and confidence now are provided a "secret weapon". Not only can students who are below level in reading now read grade level materials presented, but they can also approach grade level word problems which cause great difficulty for many struggling readers.
In addition to being a great go-anywhere tool for people with reading
difficulties, ScanPen can also be used by those with little to no
vision at all. For example, a user who is blind could use VoiceOver,
which is already built-into iOS devices, to snap a photo of a piece of
text and then navigate the menus to set the highlight to “all” to
trigger ScanPen to begin reading the scanned text.
OCR and text-to-speech tools like ScanPen are quickly
becoming nearly indispensable to students with dyslexia and other
reading disabilities – especially within the upper grade levels. The students, families and teachers I have shared and implemented this app with are sure to find a great value in this app
as a diagnostic and everyday support tool.
To learn more about Claro ScanPen, visit the Claro App's website.
If you already own this app and are looking for more information, watch
the video below that demonstrates how to use this app in line mode.
Cost...
The app costs $6.99 for a single license
For bulk purchases or purchases made through MDMs, you can purchase the app through their VPP!
You can download Claro ScanPen on the App Store now!
**Information from this post was adapted from the article "A Review of Claro ScanPen by Michelle Paley.**
Recently, Jamie Martin (@ATdyslexia), assistive technology consultant and trainer, presented the webinar "New Apps and Chrome Tools for the New School Year" hosted by Understood.org. The focus on the webinar was to discuss various assistive technology tools to get your students or children ready for the new school year.
