Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner

Supporting Universal Access and Universal Design for Learning

Monthly Archives: February 2011

February 28, 2011
by Paul Hamilton
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Twurdy — Search by Reading Level

“Everyone has different reading abilities. Some people searching the web are university professors and others are 5 year old children. Twurdy has been created to provide people with access to search results that suit their own readability level.” –Twurdy

I wrote recently about Google’s new option for searching by reading level; and now I’ve discovered another option that is perhaps even easier to use.

Twurdy

Twurdy is a search engine (powered by Google) that indicates the reading level of each page in a search result. Pages are given a reading level score, and results are color coded to make it easy for a user to recognize which results are likely to be most helpful.

Twurdy’s goal is to provide web searchers with information that is most appropriate for them. This will mean that 10 year olds doing school assignments don’t have to click through difficult material to find something they can use. It will also mean that phd students do not have to click through websites designed for kids in order to find what they are looking for.

Here are the first four results of a search for ‘Vancouver Island Geography’.   Predictably, the Wikipedia article yields a higher reading level than the other 3 results.

Twurdy 01

February 24, 2011
by Paul Hamilton
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Voki — Talking Avatars for Education

I’ve long been fond of Voki, but I’ve never written about it here.  With the advent of ‘Voki for Education‘, I think it’s time to change that. The avatar in the Voki above illustrates the potential of Voki’s “talking animations” very well. [I found this Voki more than 2 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't know who the author is  If you can help, please do so.  I'd like to ask for retroactive permission/give credit/take it down/whatever the author wishes!]

Voki 01

Voki for Education

Voki is a versatile and engaging free application that anyone can use to create customized talking avatars that may be embedded anywhere. What the avatar says can be entered as text and spoken by a text-to-speech engine.  It can be a recording of the user’s own voice that is recorded with a mic or even phoned in. Or, the avatar’s speech (or maybe even song) can be uploaded as an audio file.  The avatar itself can be personalized, clothed and accessorized in all manner of ways

There is no end to the possibilities, when it comes to possible uses of Voki in education.  Now the people behind Voki are eager to help.  They are offering a repository of lesson plans.  Vokis can be embedded anywhere.  Teachers can use them effectively to share information.  Learners can use them as a vehicle for creative expression or to show what they know.

February 22, 2011
by Paul Hamilton
1 Comment

Microsoft Mathematics Add-in for Word and OneNote: Do your math in a word processor!

[Please also see a related post that I wrote about this on December 28, 2011.]

Equation Editor 01

Until recently, an autistic eighth grader I support had never handed in a math assignment that he had completed for himself.  It had always been necessary for an educational assistant to write out his math work for him.   Everything changed for this young man when we introduced him to ‘Equation Editor’.  Within a very short time, this learner was not only completing assigned math work for himself, he was eager to do so!

Equation Editor 03

Equation Editor has been part of MS Word for a long time.  I believe it has been present in every version since Word 97.  Equation Editor enables the user to enter mathematical expressions right in the word processor, with all the required notation and symbols.  I think this is huge!  It really resonates on a personal level.  As a high school math student, I would erase my work until there were holes in my paper without ever making it neat enough to satisfy my teachers.

Unfortunately, the presence of Equation Editor has never been obvious.  As a result it seems to have remained relatively unknown.  I have assembled resources for installing icons on Word toolbars to make Equation Editor available in Word 2003 and Word 2007.

A few days ago, I had my first look at MS Word 2010.  One of the first things I looked for was Equation Editor, and I was disappointed.  Mathematical symbols are still available, but my initial exploration suggests they are not nearly as convenient to access as they had been in Word 2007.  (In my opinion, Equation Editor had also been far more robust in Word 2003 than in Word 2007!)

Mathematic Add-in

The long introduction above brings us at last to Microsoft Mathematics Add-in for Word and OneNote.  This is an add-in that installs directly into Word 2007 or 2010.  It adds a Math tab, and it more than makes up for any deficiencies of Equation Editor in Word 2007.  The math ribbon that is added is shown immediately above.

Perhaps the most helpful additional feature of the new Math add-in is that it will plot 2-D graphs in Cartesian and polar coordinates, as well as 3-D graphs in Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates!

February 19, 2011
by Paul Hamilton
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Readability has Evolved BUT Still Offers Fabulous Free Service

It’s almost 2 years since I first wrote about Readability.  Since then, Readability has become one of my favorite learning supports.  Readability is an elegant online application for ‘decluttering’ and customizing web pages to meet the needs of the individual reader.

With the click of a button, Readability removes advertising, sidebars and other distracting clutter from webpages. Content is presented in a style chosen by the reader, with preferred font size, margin-width, and contrast. I’ve shared no other application with educators that has drawn more emphatic exclamations of amazement and appreciation.

Readability New 01

Last week I was redirected to Readability’s new website.  Readability has incorporated two impressive new features–the option of saving modified web content to read later, and the opportunity to use readability on mobile devices.  For users who want to take advantage of the new features, Readability has moved to a subscription model, with a minimum monthly fee of $5.

[Readability will be paying 70% of revenue generated by its fees directly to the publishers and content creators of sites in a subscriber's reading list.   I'm not sure what to think of this, but it's an innovation that deserves further examination!]

At first glance, it looked as though the free application had been completely replaced by  the paid subscription service.  Some poking around, however, revealed that the original tool remains available without charge via a Firefox add-on. As well, the app can still be activated by bookmarklets in multiple browsers.

In actual fact, the free Readability tool has been refined and improved. The controls that adjust style, font size, margin width and contrast are now right on the modified page, and activated by slider bars.

The link to the Bookmarklet Page is found on Readability’s FAQ page.  The link to Readability’s Firefox add-on is at the very bottom of the new home page.

Readability – Enjoy Reading, Support Writing from Arc90 on Vimeo.

February 15, 2011
by Paul Hamilton
2 Comments

Qwiki — Experiencing Information in Multiple Formats

A fundamental tenet of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is that information must be available to learners in multiple formats.  Here’s a resource that presents information visually, with text, and auditorily by way of text to speech.

Qwiki

Qwiki‘s stated goal is to “…forever improve the way people experience information.“  Although Qwiki is still under development, I think they’re off to a great start!  There is nothing unusual about Qwiki’s search box.  It’s the multi-modal way in which search results are presented that is truly exceptional.

In response to a query,  Qwiki presents a slide show of related images, along with text that is read aloud in a high quality voice by a text-to-speech engine.  The slide show and scrolling text can be paused, and the source of an image is revealed by rolling the cursor over it.

When a ‘Qwiki’ ends, you are offered links to Qwikis about related subjects. There are also links to articles on the same topic in Wikipedia, Fotopedia, and Youtube, along with Google search results for the term.

Clicking on the ‘Contents’ tab of a Qwiki yields yet another way of accessing the information.  The text of the article is displayed next to the related images.  A convenient option for printing the article is available as well.  Qwiki articles can be embedded elsewhere, or shared via Facebook or Twitter.

Check out the Qwiki of the Himalayas that I’ve embedded below.