Websites for Instruction in the Classroom

In all of my blogs I have talked about Assistive Technology and different types of it. Today I want to take a closer look at different software that could be used in your own classrooms.

The first site I want to look at is Inspiration. This is a visual learning website and software for students to use. 

"What is visual thinking and visual learning? 

Visual thinking is a learning style where the learner better understands and retains information when ideas, words and concepts are associated with images. Research tells us that the majority of students in a regular classroom need to see information in order to learn it. Some common visual learning strategies include creating graphic organizers, diagramming, mind mapping, outlining and more.

Visual learning helps students organize and analyze information
Students can use diagrams and plots to display large amounts of information in ways that are easy to understand and help reveal relationships and patterns.

Visual learning helps students integrate new knowledge
According to research, students better remember information when it is represented and learned both visually and verbally.

Visual learning helps students think critically
Linked verbal and visual information helps students make connections, understand relationships and recall related details."

This website and software could be used when a student needs to write about a specific topic. They could make a concept map with visual pictures and comments to get their ideas on paper. It could also be used as a formative assessment to see what the student knows and has learned. Here is an example of one:

This software is user friendly and kid friendly. It is inviting with colors and pictures and easy to access and use. It is not expensive if you were to purchase it for one computer which would be &39.965. If you wanted to purchase it for 20 computers in your school it would cost $640.00. 

http://www.inspiration.com

Another software I found was Write:Outloud. Students who are reluctant to write, have moderate grammar and spelling challenges, and write better with auditory support would benefit from this. It costs about $84.00 per computer but the more computers you buy it for the cheaper it becomes. 

This software comes with a new speech engine, talking spell checker, dictionary, homophone checker, bibliographer, standardized test mode. 

This software is user friendly and looks almost like Microsoftword but with a few more buttons. When you type something it then will read it for you. 

A great way for students to use this device is while they are writing an assignment in the classroom they can use this to help them. 

http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html