Class #4 - Kurzweil assignments + the writing process

Although the presentations on our Kurzweil assignment took most of the morning, it was interesting to see the variations and creativity of the possibilities for using Kurzweil in a variety of ways. Obviously, we took more time in doing this assignment than a classroom teacher is typically going to have time for, however: it was a great opportunity to take time to learn the program. Unfortunately, with many of these technologies, the front time-load is heavy as one has a steep learning curve at the beginning!

Some things I learned about Kurzweil from my classmates that I didn't discover on my own:
* button functions can be read aloud to support comprehension
* in the newer version of Kurzweil, there's a graphic organizer option to support writing
* you need to do zone editing BEFORE you begin text adaptations; or these will be lost once you do the zone editing!
* in order to keep the scanned size of text consistent, you need to set this BEFORE you scan, by going into Tools/Options
* you can get Kurzweil to read French text but there are limitations with this... unfortunately the French version of Kurzweil is very expensive!

In the afternoon, we worked on the writing process - we did a detailed task analysis of what skills are required for us to write. We learned that it's incredibly detailed - it's a wonder really, that we ever learn to write at all, and yet we do this so effortlessly. As soon as Barb asked us to 'write about the rest of the weekend' - I was writing in a split second, with barely giving a THOUGHT to the task... ideas just started flowing and I was writing with NO thought to what skills were required or what I needed to do... Amazing, really. In reflecting on this - I realize the difficulty one might have in determining just the breakdown might occur for a student who is having difficulty with the writing task - there are so many possibilities!!

My goal is to spend time exploring Clicker 5 in the week ahead. While I have had some experience with this software, and have created some basic activities for students, I hope to learn more this week. I also want to find out if we have Close Pro in our school board (another Crick software program - similar to clicker 5) to spend some time learning it as well.

Have a good week everyone!