Week 3

-

    The reading this week provided twelve different examples of assistive technologies that can be used in the classroom. For this blog posting, I have chosen to summarize and expand upon Speechify as well as Clicker. However, all of the programs listed in the article are great to familiarize myself with, in case I am ever put into a scenario where I need to assist a student who needs a specific type of support. 

    Speechify is a program that uses text-to-speech. It takes text that is selected and turns it into audio. Speechify can take any bodies of text that can be found in the classroom, which can include: textbooks, online worksheets, books, webpages, and more. This program, amongst the other ones, stood out to me immediately, as I was able to quickly realize how helpful it could be in the classroom. Whether a student struggles with dyslexia, has Specific Word Reading Difficulties (SWRD), or any other reading disability, this program would be such a wonderful support for that student to have. The student can select a passage or word they may be struggling with, and listen to it as many times as they would like, without any judgment. Another scenario in this technology would be great if the class is required to silently read to themselves, whether that be a book the class is all reading together, or their own chosen book, the student would be able to pop in their own headphones and have the book read-aloud to them, without the teacher's assistance. Many books are easily found online, in PDF format, so I believe ninety-nine percent of the time, this would be a great strategy to lean on. 

The second program I have chosen from the article provided is a program called Clicker. Since I knew about Speechify previously, I was able to connect with it faster and have a good understanding of it without doing further research. I have no background knowledge of Clicker, and after doing some further research on it, I have learned how great of an assistive technology it is. Clicker is a program that assists students with the writing process. They are provided with an image and a word bank, which allows them to form a fitting sentence for that visual. Once the sentence is created, it is read aloud to the student, so they can then further hear what they wrote. Each word from the word bank can be heard; this can further assist the student if they are unsure of what the word is. As the student becomes more and more advanced in this skill, the program can go up levels, to make sentence building more difficult and challenge the student. This is such an amazing application, and I believe it would be best suited for students who may struggle with sentence building, may have dyslexia, autism, or be a first-time English language learner. The bright, fun visuals will be so motivating for the students and can provide them with a connection to a word they are trying to find, as well as assist them with the sentence they are trying to write. The word bank is also advantageous, as the students will be less overwhelmed with trying to come up with words that may best fit the image. I can absolutely see myself using this tool to help a student with their sentence-building and writing skills. 

As I have mentioned previously, I believe that all of these tools are so great for us to have in a classroom. Students can build their skills judgment-free and practice them as many times as they'd like. They can even be motivational and fun, so the student is encouraged to practice these skills and keep up their great work. 

“Clicker.” Crick Software UK, 7 May 2025, cricksoft.com/clicker/.

“Free Voice AI That Reads, Talks & Answers: 500,000+ 5-Star Reviews.” Speechify, speechify.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqSU4ON1zQ7B3eiKyD6FbUw0qn0er91kKS0aKaTj09lmJZGkiwu. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1

-
     As we become more and more technologically advanced as a society, the rise of technology being used in classrooms becomes more and more common. One of my goals as I navigate through this class is to find and understand the sweet spot with technology. How can it benefit students, while also posing as a negative, and potentially becoming a distraction? I would also love to learn the best tools for assisting students with learning disabilities. I feel as though there are so many tools out there that provide many different supports for different subjects or learning disabilities. I would love to be able to, by the end of this class, have a select few that I retain in my memory, and can pull out if I am faced with a student who needs it. Finally, a more general and personal goal is to just stay on top of assignments. As I am now balancing three classes, it's filled with more important dates I have to remember. I've found that using a planner has truly helped me succeed wi...
Read more

Week 6

-
       This week's post is primarily focused on technologies that provide math support for students. This week has especially interested me as I was, and am, someone who struggles with math. A majority of the technologies I learned about were things that I wish I had access to in elementary, middle school, and high school. I feel as though if I did have access to them, I would've done better in math, or at least felt more motivated. Part of my biggest problem that fueled my bad grades in math was that I was afraid of it. I struggled with understanding the values of numbers, and I felt that I was constantly falling behind my classmates. In reality, I just didn't have the support that I needed or the tools that could help assist me with things like memorization and understanding values in numbers.  The first example of a math technology support I have chosen to delve deeper into is multiplication charts. Multiplication charts are quite self-explanatory. These char...
Read more

Week 4

-
     Students in the 21st century are lucky to have a wide variety of technological tools to support their reading. Throughout this week's discussions, class meetings, and readings, I have been able to learn more about these different tools and their advantages. Two of the technological tools that stood out most to me were Raz-Kids and Google Read & Write. Both of these programs, I have experience using throughout my education journey when I was a student, and I recall finding them engaging and especially useful.  Raz-Kids is an online program that assists students (usually K-5) with reading by providing online books that match the students' reading level, as well as comprehension quizzes, interactive activities, and awards students with points, to keep students engaged and motivated. Students who may be struggling with reading will be able to read books that better suit their level, and they will be provided with tools that can assist them, depending on what the...
Read more