Using Kurzweil

 

There was a grade 6 student who was reading at a grade 3 level. He was unable to access the information in this article because it was too challenging. He was unable to decode words, couldn't pronounce some others and was unable to comprehend the text. When he was done, he didn't gain anything because he was exhausting himself on the decoding and missing key pieces of information. How could this all change? Kurzweil can change all this. We need to start thinking compensatory, not remediation. Kurzweil can give students access to this information.

My Colleague Bev and I explored Kurzweil 3000 together and learned a lot about the program. Here are some bullet points about the program.

• Versions 10, 11 and 12, with 4 tool bars ( red- main; yellow- reading; green- study skills; blue- writing.)
• Collapse a tool bar to make it more user friendly and less busy.
• For kids who require compensatory strategies starting in Grades 3 and 4 if needed and have diagnosed LD in HRSB; but NOT just for kids with LD!
• Take a hard copy document, photocopy or enlarge to make a kesi file- ANY info can be scanned
• Reading, writing and ESL translation
• Auto defaults to Kesi folder
• Scans in 15 secs ( Saving the California CONDOR) Kids who are reluctant readers benefit from magnification of the text- UDL!!
• Hit read- it highlights and reads, by sentence and word by word. If too fast, you can adjust the synthetic speech to a slower speech level
• It becomes a multisensory reading activity!
• Self paced for kids with working memory, ADHD, Autism Spectrum, longer processing time, phonological issues etc.
• It provides access to the  text at their level- visual and auditory strengths , as well as prior knowledge issues
• You can also change the size and colour of the cursor to help teachers and students
• It works as a defaut dictonary as well( American Heritage children's) which helps for kids with vocabulary and comprehension difficulties
• Change dictionaries- reference, select dictionary, recommend rate of speech feedback, size of font and American Heritage children's dictionary
• Online translation- through gogle translate
• Synonym and pronounce works the same as a dictionary- kids with ESL, articulation or decoding issues can have words broken down, or word by word
• Syllable breakdown is great decoding help for kids with auditory processing issues- cursor in front of the word
• The HELP menu is awesome and provides an online information and help session
• The tool bar is well organized and you can also save in many different ways - might want to save in a text file, so students who require conversions to text and can take it to a natural reader without kurzweil format. ( file, save as kesi file, rtf- rich text format- takes away the formatting)
• Reading toolbar( yellow tab) Self paced is set in sentence at reading unit, so visual tracking issues would follow along better, as well as kids with CP, for example.
• You can adjust and modify settings to help different children
• Rate of speech feedback is really useful for kids with advanced auditory processing, as you can move to 3-400 wpm( words per minute)
• Page thumbnail is good for kids writing exams- with anxiety as it shows visually where you are on the page.
• Thumbnail of whole document helps kids segment the 15 pages of the document, for example.
• The biggest problem is that classroom teachers find it as a lot of extra work ( time, training, and additional time investment!)
• you can use camera, scan to PDF, voice reader, speech selection and read to loud with the ipads to do similiar activities!
• If the text was already digitized, UDL, life becomes a lot easier!
• Dept. of Ed printing company should be providing UDL for all text in the board!
• Making curriculum accessible is where this technology is headed.
• Study tools toolbar- is great for kids missing the main points, and highlighting is often an adaptation for students, where you can also give directions, instructions or do a sticky note for a student to reply, respond or drag over word choices. It will read aloud to the student, and you can move the sticky note( yellow background). Doing exams in Kurzweil, you can do text notes for word prediction, for example.
• It is a very comprehensive tool for kids with executive functions ( column notes), and bubble notes are cool as they can be used for comprehension assessment, attention, self regulation, and encourages independence. The down side is that they do take time to produce.
• Go to tools, note, and add bubble note, and provide a definition. Then choose cloud, size, open option ( open after unit is read), read note on open, and question options, then text answer. When
• You can scan as a pezi file, import, copy paste text, import and have read aloud or convert to pdf. You can also save, export as an audio file ( convert to an mp3 file to be really portable for students) You can also email it out and put it in output audio file.
• We need to be able to read and with written output. ( file, new- word processing doc.)- kind of like Inspiration built into Kurzweil. We need to provide extra support through the Word rediction ( crystal ball) You have to make a topic dictionary ( ie: cowriter- great filter) open a kezi file, tools, and word lists, set up word lists, new and create word list from kezi file. Word prediction is great for kids with phon awareness issues, and takes so much less brain energy- think about how much time the reading and writing process takes. Research shows that because they are involved and interacting in the writing process, they become better spellers!

Bubble notes can be added to a document in Kurzweil. There are a number of uses:

Assessment

Chunk assignments

Engage those with attention issues

Students attend more because hey know there is a question.

Create study questions

Automatically read questions for testing.

EPA could create bubble notes with student.

Students can respond to questions with voice notes.