Speech-to-Text, Google Voice Typing

As a district we have moved to 1:1 enviornment.  Every YCS student has access (or can have access) to a district issued device.  Take a moment to consider your students. Think about the ones who struggle to get their ideas onto paper. How about the students who struggle with spelling or have fine motor control issues.

Speech to Text is a tool that can help these students and many others. Speech to Text is an Accessibility feature built into most computers today. It is a tool that allows a writer to dictate their thoughts and ideas into a document. Many Speech to Text options also allow you to speak the punctuation and a multitude of other voice commands for editing purposes.

Google Docs has a built in Speech to Text option called Voice Typing.

Google offers a fairly comprehensive instructional guide for Voice Typing. The guide includes a list of languages supported by Voice Typing as well as a list of punctuation that can be voice enabled. The guide also includes a list of voice commands for formatting or editing your document in the sections under “Voice commands”. There are also some troubleshooting tips located near the end of the guide.

Voice Typing is also available on iPads via the microphone icon that appears next to the keyboard when typing.  

Give it a try! Your students will love it (and so will you)!

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Voice Typing is also available as a built-in features on the staff MacBooks.  Please reach out to me if you would like a tutorial on how to set it up for your use.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone!  I hope you all had a relaxing summer break!

If you are new to my Blog, let me give you a quick overview.  In this blog I provide you with Assitive Technology and Universal Design for Learning tips and tricks.  These bits of information can be used with students and staff, everyone that uses technology.  

Starting next week I will post a new blog each week.  I hope you find these tips and tricks helpful!  

Have a great school year and I am excited to be back!

Summer Break

Summer Break is upon us. Here in YCS this is our last week. We have exciting things planned for the summer with our Grizzly Learning Camps.  

Unlike past summers, I will not have the time to do a weekly learning series.  I will try find new things to share during the summer, and if time arrises I will post what I can.  I look forward to communicating new information next school year with all of  you!  

Have a great summer!  See you in the Fall!

Free Digital Fidgets

Do you have some students that need an activity that provides them with a moment to redirect their own attention or disruptive thoughts / actions? Is there a way to provide this opportunity without having physical, hands-on materials available?

Try some digital fidgets!

Digital Fidget Spinner  (https://www.fidgetspin.xyz/)

Sand Swirling  (https://apps.amandaghassaei.com/FluidSimulation/)

Virtual Bubble Wrap  (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/66060262/)

FREE RESOURCE: Fine Motor Strengthening At Home

Are you looking for some fine motor strengthening activities to do at home?

XceptionalED has a free resource available, a great PDF list of fine motor activities that can be done at home. Check out this free resource at:

https://resources.xceptionaled.com/blogs/post/Fine-Motor-Strengthening-At-Home

Captions in Google Slides

Did you know that in Google Slides you can turn on automatic captions to display the speaker's words in real time?  

This can be helpful for individuals with hearing impairments as well as those learning to read.  

Follow the link below to get to Google Support for more information.  

https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9109474?hl=en

New EDU in 90 episodes

Check out Google for Education, EDU in 90. This YouTube channel offers short videos with news and updates on important topics for educators, administrators, and school leaders.

https://www.youtube.com/googleforedu/featured