Language barriers: taking the stress out of mastering English
14th April 2016 -Learning a new language is a big deal at any age. Mastery of their mother tongue is a child’s passport to understanding the world and interacting with others. Later on, grasping a second language – or a third, or fourth – can have an impact on employment and relationships that’s literally life-changing.
With almost a billion native and non-native speakers combined, English is one of the world’s most widely spoken languages – and it’s certainly the most important in terms of international communication.
Continue ReadingRead&Write is Still Free for Teachers
30th March 2016 -With over 4 million users, Read&Write for Google Chrome™ continues to be the top literacy support tool for Google Apps for Education users across the world. But did you know it’s completely free for teachers?
Continue ReadingTop 5 Tips for using a computer reader in exams
24th March 2016 -It’s fast approaching exam season again here in the UK and with the ability to now use a computer reader to help struggling readers in exams, we thought we’d ask our Trainer, Richard, to give you his top 5 tips for preparing to use software to read exams for your pupils.
Continue Reading11 Ways to Increase Technology Usage on Campus
23rd March 2016 -Too often in the EdTech world we spend the majority of our time finding the right technology, getting funding approved, installing, etc., but much less time promoting technology to ensure that it is actually being used by students and staff. This “getting the word out” is especially difficult in the university setting, where students are more independent and scattered about on and off campus. In addition, much of the technology available for students is not a requirement but an optional support for those who know where and how to access it.
To help, we’ve collected some tips from universities across the country who have had success getting students to use newly adopted software. Not only can this help to justify the cost of technology purchases, but also to increase the retention and achievement of the students who use those purchases. While these tips come from those in higher education, many can also benefit others, including K-12 schools and corporations who are looking to get the word out about technology.
Continue ReadingFree Speech to Text in Google Docs
3rd March 2016 -Ever wish you could speak your thoughts into a document instead of writing or typing them? Doing so may be easier than you think. Speech-to-text technology has been around for decades in one form or another. It was made popular by technology companies such as IBM, the Department of Defense, and medical offices.
In this post we’ll take a look at how speech to text technology is used in classrooms, and how you can access it for free in Google Docs.
Continue ReadingPDFs are now even more accessible with Read&Write for Google Chrome
25th February 2016 -Read&Write for Google Chrome™ helps make PDFs more accessible by allowing users to hear text read aloud, see and hear definitions with talking and picture dictionaries, create and collect highlights, look up facts and more.
Today we released a new update to our PDF Viewer that includes some of our most popular feature requests from customers. This includes the addition of both Word Prediction and Speech Input for our Typewriter Annotation tool, and a few other improvements that you’ve been asking for.
Check out the quick video below, and read on for more details.
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