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“A lot learned, a lot more to learn…” The growing prospect of primary and post-primary school teachers using the Kurzweil 3000 Text to Speech tool in the 21st century.
The purpose of this presentation depicts a study which explores primary and post primary teacher’s experiences of operating the Kurzweil 3000 program as part of an Information Communication Technology (I.C.T) in Special Educational Needs (S.E.N) programme. This course was delivered as part of a Continuing Professional Development programme in an Education Centre and a post primary school over two blocks of 5 weeks (i.e. 10 weeks in total). Fourteen out of twenty one teachers fully participated in the course and were also taught how to use other Assistive Technology programs. The results which evolved in the study yielded high outcomes and positive benefits in using this application. Teachers believed that Kurzweil 3000 would be more versatile for their students needs than using other Assistive Technology applications. The facilities which the teachers found to be of extreme benefit were: the Reading tools, Definitions facility, Synonyms button, Spell Check tool, Font facilities and Mind Mapping tools. The most negative facilities found were the Bookmarking facility, Column notes tool, Floating Word Lists and Word Prediction tool. All teachers were very satisfied with the quality of training and found Kurzweil to be easy to use.
You can access the PowerPoint slides for this presentation by clicking here.
John Phayer completed an M.A. in Education by Research in Mary Immaculate College under the supervision of Mr. Brendan Barry which explored the different types of Assistive Technology hardware and software used by third level Dyslexic students. In particular, John examined how these types of students use the Text to Speech application, TextHelp, in their studies. For a number of years, John has taught students with Dyslexia how to operate these types of applications as well as investigating how these programs address their difficulties. His interests include: how Reusable Learning Objects can be used more effectively in Education, ICT for Special Needs students as well as having an interest in all aspects of ICT in Education. John delivers ICT in SEN courses in many Education Centres as well as in third level colleges.
Contact Information: Name: John Phayer, email: johnphayer@yahoo.co.uk