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Google Tools for Struggling Students
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Location: Room 395-6
Experience live: All-Access Package Year-Round PD Package Virtual Lite
Watch recording: All-Access Package Year-Round PD Package Virtual Lite

Participate and share : Interactive session

Eric Curts  
There are many tools, apps, extensions and features available for Google Chrome to assist struggling learners and students with special needs. Take an in-depth hands-on look at tools to address text to speech, speech to text, readability, reading comprehension, audio support, navigation, communication, behavior and focus, and more.

Audience: Coaches, Curriculum/district specialists, Teachers
Skill level: Intermediate
Attendee devices: Devices required
Attendee device specification: Laptop: PC, Mac, Chromebook
Participant accounts, software and other materials: The majority of tools covered will be extensions for the Chrome web browser, so participants will need to have a Windows laptop, Mac laptop, or Chromebook, and the ability to install Chrome web extensions, to fully participate in the session.
Topic: Assistive & adaptive technologies
Grade level: PK-12
Subject area: Special education
ISTE Standards: For Educators:
Designer
  • Use technology to create, adapt and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learner differences and needs.
For Students:
Empowered Learner
  • Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
  • Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.

Proposal summary

Purpose & objective

Technology can be a powerful tool to provide assistance and accommodations for struggling students and students with special needs. The vast majority of these tools are free and work within the Google ecosystem of products. Over the years I have collected a wide range of such technology tools, extensions, add-ons, web apps, and more. The purpose of this session will be to demonstrate how these tools can help any and all learners, as well as how to find, install, use, and manage these resources in school.

The major topics and resources covered will include:

1) Text to speech tools: Read&Write for Google, Immersive Reader
2) Speech to text tools: Docs Voice Typing, VoiceIn Voice Typing, Live Captions
3) Readability tools: Mercury Reader, Reader View, Dyslexia Friendly, OpenDyslexic, ATbar, MagicScroll Web Reader, Visor, High Contrast
4) Reading comprehension tools: Google Dictionary, QuillBot, SMMRY
5) Audio Support - Mote
6) Behavior and focus tools: Simple Blocker, Move It, uBlock Origin, Pear Deck, Keep
7) Navigation tools: Caret Browsing, Click-free Browsing, Vimium, CrxMouse
8) Assistive technology features built into ChromeOS

Outline

The session will cover the following information. Note: live links to the resources referenced below can be accessed at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JrkpV_nqKIMJGf9stP-8jgMZuXVuqRF7vtCSUti0-Ds/edit

1) Text to speech tools (10 minutes)
2) Speech to text tools (10 minutes)
3) Readability tools (10 minutes)
4) Reading comprehension tools (10 minutes)
5) Audio support tools (10 minutes)
6) Behavior and focus tools (5 minutes)
7) Navigation tools (5 minutes)

The entire session will be hands-on, as the participants will be encouraged to install and try out the tools as I demonstrate each one.

Supporting research

Much research has been done to show the benefits of assistive technology. An excellent summary of current research can be seen in the article "Benefits of Assistive Technology" by Mary Sagstetter, M.A.Ed at: http://www.csun.edu/~hfdss006/conf/2002/proceedings/16.htm

Among the many benefits cited from research, she includes:
Increased ability to participate in and contribute more fully to activities in home, school, work environments, and in communities.
Increased self-motivation
Increased independence
Expanded learning and life experiences
New opportunities for interactions and communication

More [+]

Presenters

Photo
Eric Curts, Stark Portage Area Computer Consortium

Eric Curts is a veteran educator who currently serves as a Technology Integration Specialist for the Stark County Educational Service Center in Ohio where he oversees Google for Education implementation, training, and support, as well as other technology integration initiatives. Eric is an authorized Google for Education Trainer and Innovator, and provides training to schools, organizations, and conferences across the country. Eric runs the award-winning blog ControlAltAchieve.com where all of his edtech resources can be found, and is the author of the book "Control Alt Achieve: Rebooting Your Classroom with Creative Google Projects".

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