I met a young graduate student today who has dyslexia. She described the accommodations she receives from her university, which includes digital audio recordings of all text, extra time to complete assignments, and tutoring services when needed. She is a successful student who feels strongly that her accommodations are important ingredients of her success.
Our conversation made me wonder, how do dyslexic students fare in virtual school? I wondered how students with other specific learning disabilities manage virtual school courses. And from a teacher's perspective I wondered, how do virtual school teachers with hundreds of students have the time to provide accommodations like those my acquaintance receives in her face-to-face graduate classes?
In their article, "An assistive computerized learning environment for distance learning students with learning disabilities," Klemes, Epstein, Zuker, Grinberg and Ilovitch said 5 to 20% of people in the general population have learning disabilities. This is an astounding number of potential distance learning students. The authors found that many distance learning courses are text-centered so students with reading centered learning disabilities (like dyslexia) struggle. Although distance learning programs offer these students several advantages, such as extra time and assignment flexibility, many have difficulty processing the large quantities of text inherent in the courses.
Commercial products such as speech synthesizers help many students, but many others encounter flaws with the synthesizers. Few are available in languages other than English and many of synthesizers feature voices that are difficult to understand, cost a lot, and are time consuming (Klemes, J., Epstein, A., Zuker, M, Grinberg, N. & Ilovitch, T., 2006). The authors urge educational technologists to continue to explore technologies that support learning disabled students and to improve the quality of the tools that exist.
When I consider the sixth grade language arts class I'm observing, I realize it is rather text intensive. When my virtual school teacher returns from her well deserved vacation in a few days, I will ask her which technologies she uses with learning disabled students.
Klemes, J., Epstein, A., Zuker, M, Grinberg, N. & Ilovitch, T. (2006) An assistive computerized learning environment for distance learning students with learning disabilities. Open Learning (21)1, 19-32.
5 comments:
Jeanne,
All of the online courses that I have experienced (both university and k12) are text heavy. At the same time, I see technologies evolving very quickly that will support audio and video streaming. I think we are just a small step from more audio/visual intensive courses. That scenario will again change the way online teachers teach and/or instructional designers create courses. I can see a situation where students have a choice between reading text or listening to audio. I agree that the text to speech tools are still very monotone and challenging to listen to for long periods. At first, perhaps the audio will be recorded human voices. As text-to-speech improves, that will change. I've also been day dreaming about creating student interactions that are audio/visual. For example, rather than typed discussion forums, why couldn't students record their opinions? Then it becomes more like a real discussion.
You do present a worthwhile question. How do you best serve students with text-based learning disabilities in the virtual school environment? Well, apparently the virtual school we are working with has already considered this. My host teacher has said that they realize that the courses are mostly text based and are working to roll out new courses next year, like English IV, that feature more audio-visual content. I think this is in an effort to not only better serve students with learning disabilities, but different learning profiles and those who might be less proficient readers. I think the ability to "read" and communicate visually is only going to be become more important as our world becomes more globalized.
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We thought you might be interested in a better spell checker for people with Dyslexia
Ginger Software has developed groundbreaking text-correction technology that is unparalleled in the industry. Ginger Software is the only automatic text correction software available today.
With Ginger in the mix, you get:
• Automatic correction of entire sentences
Ginger automatically replaces incorrect words with accurate alternatives. Other spell checkers require users to review each individual error and manually select an alternative.
• Correction of unusual spelling mistakes
With a single click, Ginger automatically corrects unusual spelling mistakes at a level unmatched by other spell checkers. For example: “phisik is my faverd sudgekt” is automatically changed to “physics is my favorite subject“.
• Correction of misused words
Ginger identifies and automatically corrects misused words that other spell checkers do not pick up. For example, “Which which is which” is automatically corrected to “Which witch is which”.
• Accurate results that make your point
Ginger's unique technology corrects words by analyzing their context. Other spell checkers perform limited, if any, contextual analysis. Ginger makes accurate word replacements by taking your intention into account.
• Successful Beta trials
Ginger is used by schools, universities and dyslexia organizations in the US and the UK.
Ginger Software’s beta version is available for download FREE OF CHARGE at: Ginger Spell checker
Sincerely,
The Ginger Team
www.gingersoftware.com
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