Tuesday Tech Tip: 3 Ways to Use Audio Accessibility Features to Support Students

When working in digital learning environments, technology provides quite a few ways to help students access and create content.  We had the opportunity to collaborate in the past week with specialists from our Student Achievement Services and Assistive Technology departments, and we thought it might be a good idea to post publicly about some of the accessibility options our students (and teachers) have when working with digital content.

1.  Voice Typing in Google Docs

This is a relatively new addition to Google Docs, and for students who could benefit from speech-to-text, it's a great option.  Only available when in Chrome (and right now, only in Google Docs), the "Voice Typing" option under the "Tools" menu lets you speak into your computer's microphone, and it will type what you speak.  While not perfect, it does a pretty good job. You can pause recording if you need to chunk material, and then you can make your edits.   

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2.  Read&Write for Google Chrome

We've posted about this before, but this free Chrome extension does a great job with reading text to students from a web page or from within Google Docs (the paid version has more features, like predictive text).  So, in the example above, a student could record their thoughts into a Google Doc and then use Read&Write to listen to their written work.  And for us, this can be used while students are taking assessments in Schoology.  Students can highlight the text they want read aloud, and Read&Write will both highlight the sentence and the words being read to the student.

3.  Audio Recording in Schoology

We've posted about this before as well, but since that post, Schoology made some enhancements to their video/audio recording tool.  In the Enterprise version of Schoology, we have the ability to record either webcam video or audio directly into updates, discussion boards, assignments, and assessments. For teachers, that means you can record yourself giving directions or reading portions of text out loud for students to hear.  For students, it means that they can provide an audio or webcam response in a discussion board or an assessment.

Any time you see a microphone icon in Schoology, you'll get this window when you click it.  You have 11 minutes of recording time with audio, 10 minutes of video recording time per recording.  

And, even better, we can provide audio feedback directly to a student when in a Schoology assignment submission.  While you can also type a comment, giving students audio feedback can make it more meaningful for the student and give comments a more personalized feel.

Bottom line:  for students who have accommodations as part of an IEP, these tools may not meet the needs of the student, so be sure to check with someone from the Special Education/Student Achievement Services department about your options.  However, when thinking about solutions for our students when audio can enhance learning, these are worth exploring.

Tuesday Tech Tip: Reading, Writing, & Listening with Online Discussion Boards

When we think about giving students opportunities to synthesize ideas from multiple sources, it typically involves providing different articles for kids to read and synthesize.  However, in addition to reading and responding to written sources or graphics, our students must also be good online listeners, able to "integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally."*  As teachers, we need to be sure we're providing opportunities to have kids read, write, and listen in a digital environment.

One option for this type of activity is to use Schoology's discussion boards. Not only are they a great entry point into digital writing, but they also provide a way for students to listen, share ideas and "participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively."**  Here are a few suggestions for including a listening component into a discussion board.

1.  Use the recording tool built into Schoology.  As Enterprise users of Schoology, we have the ability to record up to 11 minutes of audio or 10 minutes of webcam video into just about anything, including discussion boards.  If you want to record into Schoology, use the microphone icon (and you can record audio and video on iOS and Android devices as well).  You could read aloud the version of a story or article, provide a link to another resource, and ask students to respond (or have students record themselves and have their peers listen and respond either in writing or using audio).

2.  Upload an audio or video file.  If you have something already stored on your computer or mobile device, you can upload it into the discussion board using the file icon or by choose "Image/Media" under the "Insert Content" menu.  (Be very mindful of copyright, and don't repost something that we can't legally share with students.)  If you are looking for materials you or your students didn't create, the Open Educational Resource Commons is a great place to look (and all copyright permissions are listed for each resource).

3.  Embed web-based video or audio content. If you can get embed code, Schoology allows you to put that into almost everything -- tests/quizzes, assignments, pages, and (you guessed it) discussion boards. You can either paste in the embed code using the link icon, or you can use the "Insert Content" icon to paste in the embed code into the actual topic itself (see animated example on the left).

Need help on using embed code?  See this post.

Don't forget that you can add multiple types of sources into an online discussion.  Images, files, recordings, and links can be included or embedded in a single post so that students can draw from multiple sources for their responses.   For those who are familiar with Google Presentations, those can also be used to embed multiple sources into Schoology (see Amber Paynter's post for more information).

*CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2
**CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1