Text to Speech!

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This week we were assigned to explore a technology we think would be useful in our future classroom.  As I have stated previously I am TESOL minor so I am looking for anything that will be able to help me with ELL (English Language Learners) students. I found something called text to speech.  It is software you can download for free onto computers.  The teacher is able to allow there students to read the text while at the same time listen to the text.  This way the students are able to go at their own pace so you are not holding anyone back or losing students because you are going to fast. There are many different setting the learner can choose from, they can only have the words they are struggling with read to them by highlighting the words they need help with, they could have all of the text read to them, or the teacher can have premeditated words read to all of the students.  The students can choose from a male, female or even foreign voices which will read the text out loud to them.  They also are able to choose how fast the voice will read the words, this way the student is able to hear and comprehend what is being said.  It also allows the student to look at a word and hear exactly how it is pronounced.  The students are also able to take notes while going through this with the voice reading the text to them.
  Teachers are able to download old documents they already have or make new documents for students to access.  They can put up a wide range of material for their students to use such as

• worksheets
• tests
• textbooks
• supplementary materials
• books

I found this website which gives teachers ideas on how to integrate this program into lesson plans and step by step instructions on how to use the system.  It is very useful and you might find it will help you save a lot of time if you look it over.
I think this use of technology could be very useful for ELL's because usually everyone is at a different developmental stage in their learning and this would allow the teachers to help accommodate students with the material they need to develop even further.  It will ensure students are not being pushed just because they are ahead of the rest of the class and with this program they will not have to wait for the rest of the class to catch up to them.  however the down fall to this program is that every student would need to have a computer available for their use.  This could present a problem because most classrooms do not have enough computers to accommodate every student in it.

My Introduction to Technology

Today I walked into my CEP416 class not knowing how this semester is going to go. I grew up in a house with out the internet for my entire life, so when it comes to using the computer I am not the most knowledgeable. I can do the basics and I am getting much better at using search engines. But when it comes to creating a blog and a twitter account I am lost. Twitter is a foreign idea to me, but opening the account was not nearly as complicated as I thought it would be. I feel like twitter is a great way to connect to people instantly. The only thing that has been holding me back from writting in a blog or a twitter account is the lack of competence when it comes to technology.

When I was in middle school my family did not even own a computer, if my sisters and I needed to type something for homework we would use the typewriter we had. Let me tell you a typewriter is much more complicated then a computer! So needless to say I have little to no knowledge when it comes to using technology. This course has already doubled my ability with what I know how to do with technology! If I can make a blog and twitter account then I am confident that anyone is able to! I look forward to learn how to implement more technology into my teaching style! Stay posted to see how a very technologically challenged person can learn how to make her life so much easier by learning the ropes with this foreign idea of technology!