Oct. 17 - Assistive Technologies

THe Write:OutLoud, Co:Writer, etc. programs were really interesting to play with. I can see how a student who had trouble writing could really make progress with something like that, especially when it reads it back to him so he can hear if there is something wrong. I wish I could give something like that to my own students, even those who aren't struggling readers, because they all need writing help. It's so funny how much trouble they have getting their thoughts down on paper when they text all day long! I especially liked the predictive word feature where you started typing and it suggested a word for you to use. A student who had trouble with voice and word choice could certainly gain a log from a program like that. I wouldn't take off the points for it either becuase the ideas would still be his own, he just had some help with the wording. I actually think that's where our testing gets things wrong.