Study Skills using Technologies

Mrs E.A. Draffan

Speaker Notes:

Study Skills using Technologies.

Mrs E.A. Draffan

Activities related to studying…

Speaker Notes:

Activities related to studying…

organising time and work.

finding out information.

reading and understanding.

organising information.

writing and making notes.

learning and remembering.

revising and doing examinations.

Speaker Notes:

Using ‘Assistive’, ‘Access’ or ‘Enabling’ Technologies?

Umbrella terms to describe devices which can include anything from computers, software, recorders, calculators to book rests and pencil grips plus the assistance that may be needed to choose and use the equipment offered.

10% of population has a significant disability, assistive technology is a growing market.

Everyone has different needs and it is important that, because there are not many choices when deciding which software packages to have, you make sure to adapt them to your needs

Seeking training may be necessary to ensure you make full use of the programs. Time spent making mistakes is never lost…we tend to learn by our faults and experimenting with software is also worth while.

Various Types of Tools

READING

Talking books, e-books, DAISY

(Optical Character Recognition transforms the image of a text into editable text)

SPELLING AND WRITING

STUDY ENVIRONMENT

Speaker Notes:

Various Types of Tools

READING

Talking books, e-books, DAISY

Scanner + OCR-program

(=Optical Character Reading; transforms the image of a text into editable text)

Scanner pens

Translation tools

Speech synthesisers

SPELLING AND WRITING

Spell-checkers

Grammar checkers

Digital dictionaries

Speech recognition

Word-prediction systems

STUDY ENVIRONMENT

Digital note takers

Digital recorders and organisers

Digital whiteboards

”Visual Thinking” – mind mapping

On-line tools

Points to consider when choosing technology

Speaker Notes:

Most suitable input method

Does the individual prefer one over another – e.g. speech recognition or a QWERTY keyboard?

Growth potential

User abilities change, situations change. How easy will it be to upgrade or adapt the aids?

Reliability

Must have very good back-up and the aids are often depended on to such an extent that the user is unable to work without them.

Durability

Is the technology suitable for the environment

Portability

Where is the equipment going to be used, does it need to be portable? If portable is it light enough?

Speed

Very important when considering communication systems and access to computers.

Ease of learning and use

Is it going to be difficult to use and how much training will be necessary.

Compatibility

Make sure the system is compatible with those used in the work place or study situation.

Cost

Do the material benefits weigh favourably against the cost?

Preference

Time to think carefully about how the user feels about the equipment and what is available in the circumstances.

Notes adapted from Technowledge-able printed by the University of Wolverhampton (1996)

How can we help?

Speaker Notes:

Sample critical remarks about assistive technologies taken from a survey of 455 students in Higher Education in UK

Perhaps by looking at issues in more depth…

Speaker Notes:

Perhaps by looking at issues in more depth…

Text to speech and text highlighting.

Spelling and word prediction.

Alternative formats including audio and graphical.

Scanning and optical recognition.

Trying free programs to test the water and to avoid expensive mistakes.

Simpler training guides for all technologies.

Voices are improving? Same voice – different software program

The Chislehurst cave entrance will entrance you, with Roman and Druid remains. There you’ll lead us with great effect, but watch it, as the compass will be affected by the red lead in the rocks. Also, particles will not diffuse in this atmosphere, it’s too diffuse. Do you think you’ll be all right?

Texthelp Read and Write

Word and PowerPoint

Speaker Notes:

Voices are improving? Same voice – different software program

The Chislehurst cave entrance will entrance you, with Roman and Druid remains. There you’ll lead us with great effect, but watch it, as the compass will be affected by the red lead in the rocks. Also, particles will not diffuse in this atmosphere, it’s too diffuse. Do you think you’ll be all right?

Voice files taken from TextHelp Read and Write speaking aloud in Word and PowerPoint.

Highlighting Differences?

Speaker Notes:

Highlighting Differences? Between TextHelp Read and Write with next slide Claro Read.

Which one suits the user best?

Speaker Notes:

Highlighting Differences? Between last slide TextHelp Read and Write and Claro Read.

Spell checking

Speaker Notes:

(http://jset.unlv.edu/16.2/Montgomery/first.html) has written about those with specific learning difficulties using spell checkers. Her paper illustrates the type of mistakes that fail to be corrected, the importance of flagging phonetic mismatches and achieving a correction within the first three possible replacements. It appears that only 53% of the misspellings had replacements and only 26% were found in the first word on the list. Montgomery suggests that students need strategies to learn to untangle their error types and this is what Keyspell offers with its banks of words that can be divided in various ways to help the user find the mistake. This type of support requires explanation and when used independently may not always be an easy or quick solution.
The Call Centre's chosen group of spell checkers included Write Outloud, which performed best, Word 97, Keyspell, and TextHelp 98. The chapter in (http://callcentre.education.ed.ac.uk/SEN/5-14/Writing_aids_FFA/Features_SW_FFB/Spell_SW_FFC/spell_sw_ffc.html) describes the programs in detail and offers some useful advice.
All the checkers mentioned above offer alternatives within 5 words in their latest versions. However, after five or more attempts very little is gained from having a longer list of corrections available. The lists can become confusing, and time is wasted making choices, but if the words are complex or very bizarre in their misspelling TextHelp is able to find even the most obscure ones. A comparison chart has been designed by (http://www.dyslexic.com/database/articles/spellcheckers.html) provides an overview.
Write Outloud uses the Franklin spellchecking dictionaries but when checking the same words through a hand held spell checker the options offered varied and were often more complex on the DMQ440 plus at times being in US spelling which was not what was expected with the UK dictionary. Write Outloud will not work with Mac OSX - only in classic mode.
TextHelp spell checkers for both Mac and PC are able to learn from a user’s errors and thus improve accuracy over time as well as provide reports on the mistakes made and improvements. TextHelp also offers a customisable calculator and other features for teachers.
Spell Catcher uses the word 'curious' to alert the writer to a spelling mistake but does not read out the word at any stage on PC ﾖ the Mac version has speech. It has a UK dictionary for Mac and PC and access to a thesaurus plus foreign language and technical words. The latest version of Spell Catcher due in UK soon will work with Mac OSX.
Keyspell allows for sections of the dictionary to be partitioned into subject or assignment specific words, has a homophone checker and speech as well as good customisation.

Word Prediction

Word completion and word prediction liberating or limiting?

Penfriend

Speaker Notes:

Word prediction programs offer different prediction strategies with word lists based on:

If Word Prediction Can Help, Which Program Do You Choose?

http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/wordprediction2001/index.htm

The Ace Centre have a PowerPoint slide show on Word Bank and Word prediction software issues What are the differences between wordbanks and predictors? How do you choose between them when assessing a pupil's needs? March 2002

Don Johnston have a new version of their word prediction software Co:Writer that runs on the AlphaSmart 3000. It has a 6000 word UK dictionary and features abbreviation expansion and grammatical prediction. Up to five topic dictionaries can be externally created and installed.

Penfriend, CoWriter, Soothsayer, WordQ, Aurora and TextHelp all offer

Wordlists, pointer & keyboard interaction, supportive speech output

From Illegible to Understandable: How Word Prediction and Speech Synthesis Can Help

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/technology/word_prediction.html

Writing: Word Prediction from Landmark College.

http://www.landmarkcollege.org/natlinst/assistive_technology/writing/wprediction.htm

Scanning and OCR

(ViOi - b(6i))

/foft,<p) = exp [Igg m)) + c{Vi, 4>))

Speaker Notes:

Scanning and OCR

Scanning and Optical Character Recognition

Speaker Notes:

Scanning and Optical Character Recognition

Check the program can automatically orientate the document

Select the document style which matches your original document

Check to retain all font settings and formatting for identical reproduction, or to have one column of continuous flowing text ideal for using with a text-to-speech program.

Scan using at least 300 dots per inch (DPI) for the document to be recognised and if there are faint or broken characters then increase up to 600 DPI.

Examples of specialist scanning software for those with visual impairments include Kurzweil 3000 and Kurzweil 1000 for the Blind. Descriptions of the programs can be found on the Sight and Sound website along with the types of scanners best used with these programs. Scan and Read Lite or Scan and Read Pro are available from Modern Word Data and Dolphin has the Cicero Text Reader with many automated features. All the programs allow the user to view the document on the computer screen with large font sizes. There is also a choice of font types and background colours. Freedom Scientific now publishes Wynn, which has been specifically designed for those with specific learning difficulties, along with Kurzweil 3000, it has many of the notetaking and colour facilities and highlighting aids that assist dyslexics plus L&H RealSpeak voices for text to speech. Wynn uses IBM’s Via Voice OutLoud Two other programs with OCR capabilities are TextHelp Gold and Wordsmith which work with Microsoft Word and have elements to help with writing skills such as spell checking and dictionaries as do Wynn and Kurzweil 3000.
More notes on the technicalities of scanning are offered by Scansoft (http://www.scansoft.com/scannerguide/) in relation to their products and other Scantips (http://www.scantips.com/) are available from Wayne Fulton. He covers aspects of graphics scanning as does JASC software (http://www.jasc.com/tutorials/scantip.asp) in their ‘Scanning Tips and Techniques’.

Recording Devices

Speaker Notes:

Recording Devices

Recording devices include examples such as the Olympus DS 40 which has very good tactile buttons, good LED and easy connection to PC works, well with speech recognition.

The ipod and Zune offer audio storage and PC/Mac links. Recording and notes storage.

Treo and smart phones offer added PDA type organisation support with diaries and address lists etc.

Dragon NatuarllySpeaking can be used for notes, assignments and all writing but there is a cognitive overload and sentence structure as well as the realisation that not all words will be accurately represented is important.

Mind maps or concept maps

Concept maps are mainly used for:

Speaker Notes:

Mind maps or concept maps

Concept maps are mainly used for:

Making the right choices – choose from the look of the map?

Its the process of making the map that matters.

Speaker Notes:

Making the right choices – choose from the look of the map?

Maps can be altered visually in a myriad of ways. Its the process of making the map that matters.

Samples of similar maps using different programs to illustrate the issue.

Making the right choices ––based on a features list?

Speaker Notes:

Making the right choices ––based on a features list?

Feature List Inspiration MindFull Spark Space MindGenius Mind Manager

Symbol Pallet x x x x x

Automatic creation tool x no x x x

Notes Function x x x x x

Hyperlink to web pages x x x x x

Outline view x x x x x

Link to other maps x x x x x

Export to other programs x x x x x

Rearrange tool x x no x x

Idea colour changes x x x x x

Link colour changes x x x x x

Import pictures x x x x x

Spell check x no x x x

Attach sound files x x no x x

Non-hierarchical mapping x x x no no

So it is about being aware of:

Speaker Notes:

So it is about being aware of:

The user's preferences

The user's skills

The environment the program is going to be used in

And making sure that there is time to

Assess ICT/AT skills

Trials

Videos & examples

Checking users’ priorities and regularly reviewing the situation!

Free Programs

Speaker Notes:

Free Programs

Word Processing – OpenOffice.org 2.2

Dictionary/Thesaurus - WordWeb 5.0

Spellchecker in Explorer – IEspell with UK dictionary.

Typing - Senselang Touch Typing

Concept Mapping – Freemind

Text to Speech in Word – Word Talk from Call Centre, Reader from Sensory Software Int. ReadPlease.com etc

Daisy Book Reader - TPB Reader

Colour changing – Colour Explorer from MicrolinkPC.

Thank you

For more information about technologies mentioned

University student study strategies August 2008

E-mail

Speaker Notes:

Thank you

For more information about technologies mentioned

http://www.emptech.info

University student study strategies August 2008

http://www.lexdis.ecs.soton.ac.uk

E-mail ea@emptech.info