Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

Texthelp Blog - Our latest thoughts from the world of technology in education & the workplace

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As Richard Branson says: “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients."

Taking this a step further, researchers at Harvard have found that, if employees in an organisation have more negative perceptions of their organisation at one point in time, the bottom line of the company is likely to be weaker in the future. 

So, if it is people that makes the difference between business success and failure,  those people need to be different from those that your competitors have - right?

Those people need to have unique talents and skill sets. We, as business leaders, need to harness those talents, and optimise what they can deliver into our business, making us different and better than our competitors.

If you were pulling together your ‘dream team’ to innovate on a new product or service, what talents would you look for?

seeing things from a different perspective?

You’d probably want all of these talents in your ‘dream team’ - but where would you find this level of talent’?  The answer is not where, but how - by looking to neurodiversity. 

I’ve had the privilege of working with individuals and organisations who are embracing neurodivergent talent. Neurodivergent staff bring a different perspective and a different set of skills to your workplace.  Neurodivergent staff are extremely valuable within an organisation because such employees have unique skill sets and strengths.

Neurodiversity is an umbrella term for a group of hidden disabilities and neurodifferences.  A non-exhaustive list might include dyslexia, autism, Asperger’s, dyspraxia, ADHD and others. The most common of these is dyslexia, which affects around 10% of people in the UK. 

We’re seeing increasing numbers of organisations all around the world creating competitive advantage by harnessing the power of neurodiversity

For example, GCHQ (MI5) actively seek to recruit spies and codebreakers who have  dyslexia and similar neurodivergent conditions. They recognise that the dyslexic brain has a unique ability to solve complex problems and see situations from a different perspective.  It has been proven that this group can spot patterns others do not see.

The BBC has realised that individuals with autism can make excellent software and technology developers. The ability of deep concentration, fine detail processing and extraordinary attention to detail makes people with autism ideal candidates for these roles. (Creating A Positive Environment project)

Neurodivergent individuals are often drawn to specific sectors such as blue light services, engineering, IT, architecture and the health sector, for example, also nursing and caring professions. Indeed the Royal College of Nursing recognised recently that as many as 14% of student nurses have dyslexia. The Blue light services is another sector with a high occurrence of neurodiversity. 

Approximately 13,000 graduates each year have dyslexia, so that means that you’ll almost certainly already have some neurodivergent staff on your payroll (Prof Peter D Pumphrey FBPsS, 2006/7). 

We design our organisations for neurotypical people, measure everyone against standard performance measures. But as business leaders, we need to think differently about “different thinking” because neurodiversity can transform the fortunes of organisations.

We live in an increasingly diverse society and successful businesses are ones which recognise this and reflect the diversity of the public they serve, in the staff they employ.

Looking outside of our workforce, these talented people also become our customers, suppliers and competitors –  something to consider  if we are to truly achieve business success.

Festival of Workplace Inclusion 2023

A Guide: Neurodiversity in the Workplace

Reading & Writing Tools for the Workplace

Neurodiversity - Opening the doors to competitive advantage

Many of the world’s most successful business people will tell you that the difference between success and failure in business comes down to your staff.

When you first log-in to EquatIO mathspace, you will automatically be sent to your personal EquatIO dashboard, which houses all of your EquatIO mathspaces. For a quick introduction to the EquatIO mathspace dashboard, watch this video from John McGowan, Product Manager.

As John speaks to in the above video, the latest update to the EquatIO mathspace lets teachers create assignments for their students, keep track of responses, and provide instant feedback.

When you’ve created an EquatIO mathspace, just click on the blue Share button in the top right corner of your EquatIO mathspace, and you’ll see a pop-up that asks you to select your sharing type. Choose “Make a copy for each person and expect a response back.” This will generate a link that you can share directly with your students or via Google Classroom.

Once your students have completed the assignment, they can click on the blue Send button to share their response with you. You will receive a Chrome notification that a new response has been submitted, which can be easily viewed under the Assignments tab in your EquatIO dashboard.

As Grant Wiggins writes in Seven Keys to Effective Feedback, “As educators, we should work overtime to figure out ways to ensure that students get more timely feedback and opportunities to use it while the attempt and effects are still fresh in their minds.” Thanks to the immediate sharing between student and teacher, EquatIO mathspace is the ideal platform to provide timely feedback to your students.

When you open a student’s response, you’ll notice that there is now a slider at the top right of the EquatIO mathspace that says “Feedback View”. When toggled on, you can provide feedback directly within your student’s response, without messing up their work. As soon as you’ve provided your feedback, you can send it back to the individual student through the Share button.

But the feedback doesn’t (and shouldn’t) end there. As Wiggins continues to explain, “Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement.”

Therefore, once the student receives your feedback on their EquatIO mathspace response, they can toggle on and off your feedback in order to continue working on the problem, while taking into consideration the feedback they’ve been given.

From there, they can send their updated response back to you, and the feedback loop continues.

To see the whole thing in action, check out our How-To Video:

EquatIO® mathspace: Assignments & Teacher Feedback

Start making formative assessments with EquatIO mathspace today

From now until mid-April, the new Assignments and Teacher Feedback features in EquatIO mathspace are free for all users to try out. After that, your students will need to be premium users in order to respond to assignments with rich math input tools, and submit to you for feedback. As free users, they can continue making and sharing their own EquatIO mathspaces, as well as view those sent to them. Click here to learn more about our free and premium features.

Because EquatIO mathspace is part of our EquatIO offering, which is FREE for teachers, educators can get all of these features free, forever. If you have not yet identified yourself as a teacher, head over to our Free for Teacher sign-up form to get set up.

Once you’ve done that, simply visit equatio.texthelp.com on your Chrome browser to get started. Just be sure to login with the same email address that you used in the Free for Teacher form to ensure you are given the correct access.

Looking for more tips on how to use EquatIO and all its features in the classroom? Check out Ben Rouse's pre-recorded webinar series on how to make maths (or math) digital in your classroom. Ben is a renowned educator and technology specialist who now works as a Google for Education trainer with AppsEvents. So, he knows what he's talking about! Access the series right here.

Have you checked out EquatIO mathspace lately? What started out as a digital whiteboard that could be passed back and forth between teachers and students has become a full-fledged assignment-giving, feedback-providing, formative assessment tool.

EquatIO mathspace - now a formative assessment tool

How, you may ask? Keep reading to find out!

For premium users, Read&Write will now support over 60 additional languages for single word translation, including Arabic, Dutch, and dozens more!

Several of the new languages will also support text-to-speech, meaning that the translation will be read aloud in the native language. To know if a language is supported, simply look for a play button in the translation window.

To view what new languages are available, click the Translation dropdown menu under Speech options.

You can now use Talk&Type in the notes area of Google Slides! Great for anyone who needs to include presentation notes or draft a speech, Talk&Type can now be accessed directly from the Read&Write toolbar in Google Slides.

In addition to the new features mentioned above, this update also includes behind-the-scenes enhancements that will improve the quality of the text-to-speech while using it on the web or in Google Docs. We hope you will notice an improved experience while using Read&Write.

PDF Reader now Integrated with Google Classroom

While we’re on the subject of updates, we would also like to share a recent improvement that we made to Texthelp’s PDF Reader: Google Classroom is now integrated directly in the PDF Reader for teachers and students! 

This means teachers can assign PDFs to students via Google Classroom directly from the PDF Reader. Students can then use annotations and other tools to complete their work and submit it via a newly added “Turn It In” button.

To use Google Classroom in the PDF Reader, both teachers and students will need to already be using Google Classroom, and they will need to check off the “Classroom Integration” box located in the Options tab (access the Options by right clicking the PDF Reader extension icon in Chrome - see image below).

Check out the video below to see how it works. 

Read&Write for Google Chrome™ - Google Classroom Integration

As always, these updates are the results of requests and feedback we’ve received from our 13+ million users all over the world. So, give them a try and let us know what you think. 

A new update for Read&Write for Google Chrome will be making its way out to users this week. The update will include additional translation languages, Talk&Type for Google Slides, PDF Reader integration with Google Classroom, and more.

New year, new features for Read&Write for Google Chrome

A new update for Read&Write for Google Chrome will be making its way out to users this week. The update will include additional translation languages, Talk&Type for Google Slides, PDF Reader integration with Google Classroom, and more. Keep reading for the details...

Check out the video below and read on to learn more.

Read&Write for Microsoft Edge™ - How to use on the web

You can now access many of the Read&Write tools you know and love, like Text to Speech, Word Prediction, Dictionaries, and more, right inside the Edge browser. Read&Write for Microsoft Edge can be easily installed from the Windows Store, and is accessible by just clicking the purple puzzle piece when you’re working in Word Online, OneNote Online and on the web.

Check out our Video Playlist to learn more.

Install Read&Write for Microsoft Edge from the Windows Store now to try it out! You’ll get 30 days of access to all the features, and then Text to Speech and Translator stay free forever. If you’re an educator, don’t forget that Read&Write is free for teachers - and that means Read&Write for Microsoft Edge too! Just register for Free for Teachers with a Microsoft email, and then sign into Read&Write with the same email for premium access.

If you’re already using a Microsoft or Office 365 account to sign into Read&Write, just use the same one with Read&Write for Microsoft Edge. And if you’ve got a Read&Write product code, you can enter it on the About screen to turn on your premium access. Check out our Support Site for more information on getting started.

To learn more about Read&Write for Microsoft Edge, visit: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/read-write-for-microsoft-edge

We are excited to announce an update to Read&Write for Microsoft Edge.

Check out Read&Write for Microsoft Edge!

We are excited to announce an update to Read&Write for Microsoft Edge, the extension that brings powerful reading, writing, research and study tools to the Edge browser. Microsoft’s new browser provides a faster and richer internet experience for Windows 10 and 10S users, and now Read&Write helps take it to the next level.

For those that have never heard of Desmos, let’s take a step back. Desmos is the creator of the best-in-class HTML5 graphing calculator, which is already used by millions of math & STEM students around the world. The graphing calculator enables you to graph functions, plot data, evaluate equations, explore transformations, and so much more. Desmos has a ton of great resources at learn.desmos.com to dive deeper into the extensive functionality of their tool.

By integrating Desmos’s robust graphing calculator into EquatIO, we’ve finally made EquatIO a one-stop-shop for making math and other STEM subjects digital. For teachers, this means you can easily create problem sets, worksheets, and quizzes without restrictions - incorporating formulas, geometric shapes, and graphs all in the same digital document, across all of your math & STEM lessons.

For students, this means they now have one tool that offers them multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression - ideal for math & STEM classrooms that practice personalized learning or support accessible solutions for all students. For example, if a student is a visual learner, they can now use intuitive, dynamic graphing to visualize and explore a written equation that their teacher has asked them to evaluate.

What’s more, it is now even easier to create graphs in Desmos thanks to EquatIO’s prediction feature. Teachers and students alike can simply start typing the math function or expression they want to use in their graph and EquatIO will offer up suggestions. No tricky math languages or codes to learn.

Want to see the integration in action? Check out our how-to video of Desmos graphing in EquatIO:

EquatIO®: How to use graphing

Have you used Desmos in EquatIO? If so, please share tips and tricks in the comments section below!

Today, Desmos graphing has been FULLY integrated into EquatIO across all platforms - EquatIO for Google, Windows, and Mac, and the web app, EquatIO mathspace.

The Plot Thickens: EquatIO now includes graphing from Desmos

The Plot Thickens: EquatIO® now includes graphing from Desmos

Back in September, we announced a partnership with Desmos, which would introduce dynamic graphing into EquatIO. Today, Desmos graphing has been FULLY integrated into EquatIO across all platforms - EquatIO for Google, Windows, and Mac, and the web app, EquatIO mathspace.

The Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) is the first major conference of 2018, and will be held in Orlando, Florida from January 23 - 26. In it’s 38th year, FETC brings together thousands of educators from the around the world for an “intensive, highly collaborative exploration of new technologies, best practices and pressing issues.”

We’ll be participating in the event this year, as we have for the last couple of years, both as speakers and exhibitors. John McGowan, EquatIO Product Manager, will be running a Learning Lab entitled “UDL Math and Science to Empower and Engage Your Students.” In his session, John will detail how you can engage and empower students in math and science through digital notation and leveraging technology in the classroom. So be sure to check it out.

Our Texthelpers will also be at Booth #1044 for the entirety of the event and would love to meet up with you to discuss edtech, personalize learning, digital math, literacy solutions, and more!

Can’t attend? Follow along on Twitter with the conference hashtag: #FETC

Hot on the heels of FETC, our UK contingent will be off to BETT in the London ExCeL, January 24 - 27. BETT is an annual innovative learning technology event, which gives educators the opportunity to check out the latest education technology and hear from industry experts from around the world. We’ve been exhibiting at BETT for many years, and with over 35,000 people attending each year, it’s one of the world’s largest education shows.

This year, we’ll be exhibiting at booth C141. BETT is free to attend so make sure to register soon. Once you’ve got your badge, drop by our stand to experience some of the great speakers who will be hosting short 15 minute sessions on everything from “Enhancing Learning Through Differentiated Instruction” to “Top tips to help teachers save time in the classroom.” We’ve got over twenty sessions across the four days so you won’t miss out. 

Can’t attend? Follow along on Twitter with the conference hashtag: #BETT2018

The Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) annual conference is unique among this list, as its focus is specifically on assistive technology as opposed to general education technology. The conference, taking place in Orlando, Florida from January 31 - February 3, is an incredible opportunity for the AT community to come together to “network, learn and share.”

Texthelp has TWO sessions at this year’s conference. Jason Carroll, Global Product Manager, will be leading a session called, “Got PDFs? Check Out Texthelp’s New Collaborative PDF Reader.” Our second session, which is being hosted by Jeff Levinson, Territory Sales Director, is all about “Accessibility and UDL in a Collaborative Math Classroom.”

We’ll also have our wonderful group of Texthelpers stationed at Booth #506 throughout the conference. They’ll be more than willing to discuss our suite of assistive technology, including Read&Write and EquatIO!

Can’t attend? Follow along on Twitter with conference hashtag: #ATIA18

The fun doesn’t stop in January! The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Convention and Exposition will be taking place from February 5 - 9 in Austin, Texas. TCEA has over 1,000 sessions and workshops “for educators to learn best practices for integrating technology into their schools, classrooms, and libraries.”

Two of those sessions will be led by John McGowan, EquatIO Product Manager, along with some awesome friends of Texthelp: Efren Rodriguez and Alice Keeler. John and Efren will be hosting a session entitled “Making Science Digital with Google Workspace for Education and Classroom,” and John and Alice will be having a discussion about “Math in the Google Workspace for Education and Google Classroom.”

A group of Texthelpers will also be at Booth #1617 over the course of the conference to answer any questions you may have about our products, edtech, personalized learning, and more!

Can’t attend? Follow along on Twitter with the conference hashtag: #TCEA18

Later in 2018, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference & Expo will be taking place in Chicago, Illinois. From June 24 - 27, over 16,000 attendees will come together to “engage in hands-on learning, exchange ideas and network with like-minded thinkers seeking to transform learning and teaching.”

Though it’s a little too early to provide any of the details, you can guarantee we’ll have a group of Texthelpers on the ISTE floor. Keep an eye on our blog or follow us on Twitter to receive updates as the conference gets closer.

Can’t attend? Follow along on Twitter with the conference hashtag: #ISTE18 or #NOTATISTE18

If your school is using Google Workspace for Education, we’d also highly recommend attending an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education. ‘Google Summits’ are typically weekend-long events, which take place at schools already successfully implementing Google Workspace for Education. There are over 100 Google Summits scheduled across the globe for 2018 and new dates/locations are always being added. We’re a platinum sponsor of these events and try to exhibit at as many as possible through the year, so hopefully we’ll get to meet you at some of these. You can learn more about Google Summits and find one near you at https://www.edtechteam.com/events/.

We’re attending lots of other national events throughout the year, including:

21CL Hong Kong - Hong Kong, January 17 - 20

EdTechReview Summit & Expo - New Delhi, India, February 2 - 3

GESS Dubai - Dubai, February 27 - March 1

CSUN Assistive Technology Conference - San Diego, California, March 19 - 23

AHEAD 2018 Conference - Albuquerque, New Mexico, July 16 - 21

Closing the Gap - Prior Lake, Minnesota - September 26 - 28

Although not an extensive list, hopefully this gives you a few ideas of what events are coming up and where you can go throughout 2018 to gain some new inspiration and skills. Enjoy!

We wanted to do our part to get the new year started by sharing some of the edtech conferences we think you’ll want to keep an eye on in 2018. Whether you’re able to attend in person or simply follow along on social media, these are the events that are sure to educate and inspire educators in 2018.

Blog

Neurodiversity - Opening the doors to competitive advantage

EquatIO mathspace - now a formative assessment tool

New year, new features for Read&Write for Google Chrome

Check out Read&Write for Microsoft Edge!

The Plot Thickens: EquatIO® now includes graphing from Desmos

The Conferences You’ll Want to Keep an Eye On in 2018

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