Kathygavin's Blog

wKathys Favorite Tech Tools and Links

October 17, 2009

Collaboration Tools

Skype

http://skype.com/

TIME magazine has named Skype one of the 50 best web sites to visit for 2009.

With Skype, you can virtually connect with anyone, anywhere, at anytime for free.

With a web-cam, a microphone and Skype, you can easily communication long

distances, share documents and send live text messages.

Skype also makes it easy to get virtual help from a virtual tutor when help is

needed, at a time that is convenient for your family.

Google

With a free Gmail (email) account, you receive 3 Gb of storage, the ability to

colaborate and share documents with others, and more!

http://mail.google.com/

Zoho

Work online

http://www.zoho.com/

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Collaborative+tools

Zoho contains a comprehensive suite of web based applications that allow you to create, share and store your files online FREE. Zoho includes a word processor, a spreadsheet maker, a presentation tool, a wiki editor, an e-mail client and more!

http://writer.zoho.com/home?serviceurl=%2Findex.do

EtherPad provides an instant collaboration option on documents that you want to share with others.

http://etherpad.com/

http://etherpad.com/IFG9PWn1fw

Delicious is a social book-marking site which allows access to your book-marks from any computer. You may invite others to view/share/use your bookmarks.

https://secure.delicious.com/

http://delicious.com/kbgavin

Scribd is an online document sharing service. You can even embed a document viewer into a website, blog or wiki. Scribd is a handy resources.

http://www.scribd.com/

Posterous is a FREE, easy-to-use tool that can be used to publish text, images or video. Send an email to your posterous site and it is posted!

Check out my link:

http://learninglinks.posterous.com/

Get your own

http://posterous.com/main/register

Literacy and Learning Tools

Speech to Text and Text to Speech Tools

Dragon Naturally Speaking (Not Free)

MacSpeech Dictate

This program is not free, but it is worth its weight in gold.

http://www.macspeech.com/

Windows Speech Recognition

http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/speech.aspx

Vocaroo

Record and send voice emails

http://www.vocaroo.com

ReadTheWords

Type a message in the box and choose a male or female avitar to read to you.

http://www.readthewords.com/

Text Readers – Do you understand material better when it’s read out loud? Try out these FREE Web tools.

WordTalk

“For people with reading and writing difficulties, having text reinforced by hearing

it read aloud can be very useful.”

http://www.wordtalk.org.uk/Home/

ItCanSay:

http://www.itcansay.com/

http://www.itcansay.com/?page=reader

Learn to pronounce words

http://www.itcansay.com/?page=learn

Text to Speech

Simply enter your text, select a voice, listen and download the mp3 file to your

computer. Maximum number of characters is 500.

Read Please

Cut and paste text or type it directly into the input form on this site and the program will read it to you. It can be a very useful tool for making sure essays and projects are written correctly.

http://www.readplease.com/

Click Speak for Firefox

CLiCk, Speak is an open source, freely available extension for the Firefox web browser. It reads web pages.

http://clickspeak.clcworld.net/downloads.html)

Natural Reader for Internet Explorer

http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm)

Text2Speech

http://www.text2speech.org/

Adobe Acrobat Reader includes a feature that will allow the contents of the document to be read out loud. This is another wonderful resource for students who are auditory learners and/or who struggle with reading.

http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Electronic Books and Online Resources: Explore online reading ithrough interactive stories, articles, and books.

Challenge: Use these online resources to involve students/readers in writing stories, adding to stories, writing new endings, creating illustrations, and facilitating discussions.

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm

Free Audio Books

The link below offers free audio books – a good tool for auditory learners.

http://librivox.org/

LearnOutLoud.com provides free audio and video learning through (over 20,000) educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos.

http://www.learnoutloud.com/

Audio Books

This site offers current books that you can purchase, download to iTunes and listen to through a computer or MP3 player.

http://www.audible.com

Microsoft Word

Did you know that Microsoft Word has accessibility features?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP101320101033.aspx

Ghotit

Follow the link below to view a brief movie about an awesome program designed to

help students who struggle with spelling and writing.

http://www.ghotit.com/home.shtml

BrowseAloud

This tool helps those who struggle with reading to browse the Internet

independently.

http://www.browsealoud.com/page.asp?pg_id=80094

Visual Research Tools and Organizers

Tools for Gathering and Organizing Information and Ideas

Graphic Organizers

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Graphic+organizers

Interactive Fishbone

is an online graphic organizer that helps students to plan and organize writing

assignments.

http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fishbone

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

Enter a definition, and let the dictionary find the word/words that you need.

http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

Wordnik

This word tool will tell you everything you want to know about a word and more!

http://www.wordnik.com/

Visual Thesaurus

This online tool is great for learners who benefit from seeing images with text.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

VocabGrabber

is another tool with multiple features. Use this tool to analyze, sort, filter and

rank lists of vocabulary and/or spelling words.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber

Spezify

Visual search tool.

http://www.spezify.com/

Visuwords

is an exceptional online graphical dictionary and thesaurus that contains features

to help with a variety of writing tasks.

http://www.visuwords.com/

Bookgoo

Highlight documents.

http://www.bookgoo.com/

Mindmapping Tools

Bubbl.us

Brainstorm online.

http://bubbl.us/

Mindomo

Create and share mind maps anytime, anywhere

http://www.mindomo.com/index

Mindmeister

Collaborative mind mapping. Brainstorm, share ideas, think visually.

http://www.mindmeister.com/

http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/23944412

Automatic Text Summarizers

Below are links to three different online summarizers. Each summarizer tool

contains slightly different features. The most important benefit is that a student

can paste text into this tool and the information is reduced. Check out the

following links to discover what tool/features you and your child prefer:

Text Summarizer

http://www.nling.com/summarizer/

GreatSummary

http://www.greatsummary.com/highlight.html

Text Summarizer

http://search.iiit.net/~jags/summarizer/index.cgi

MathTools

Mathway

http://www.mathway.com/

emath homework help

http://www.education.com/e-learning/math-homework/

Math Dictionary

This dictionary is animated, interactivee and explains over 500 common mathematical terms in simple language.

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Math

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Number Navigator

A program that assists those with fine motor problems to set out columnar arithmetic, without the need for a spreadsheet.

http://www.oatsoft.org/Software/NumberNavigator

Creativity/Motivation Tools

Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/

Fuzzmail

http://www.fuzzmail.org/

BeFunky is a website that allows you to applyf fun effects to photos.

http://www.befunky.com/

More Tools to Check Out:

Academic Skill Builders is the place to go when you want to playfully practice and gain fluency with basic academic skills.

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

Go to Tutpup to find a variety of games that will reinforce numeracy and literacy. You can play real (annonomous) people who also want to sharpen and practice skills.

http://www.tutpup.com/

Online Spreadsheets – EditGrid

http://www.editgrid.com

Additional Free Tools

Literacy

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Literacy+tools

Writing

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Writing+tools

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Free+text+to+speech

More Math Tools

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Math+tools

http://udlselfcheck.cast.org/resources.php

Useful Links

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Useful+links

Multimedia and Digital Storytelling

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Multimedia+and+digital+storytelling

Kathy Gavin MA Ed.

Email: kbgavin@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stlkbgavin

Tools and Links:http://post@learninglinks.posterous.com/

Blog Author: http://tutorsanywhere.com/

My Blog:http://kathygavin.wordpress.com/

Twice Exceptional Support Group Schedule:http://kathygavin.com/

Gifted Education Specialist, Special Educator, Technology Coach, Science

Specialist, Blog Writer, Advocate for Children, Parent Support FacilitatorF

Posted in Learning Links, Technology | Leave a Comment »

September 10, 2009

Parent Day NAGC

Posted in Gifted Support | Leave a Comment »

Special Invitation to NAGC Conference, Nov. 7

September 10, 2009

Dear Friends,

You are invited to attend Parent Day at the NAGC Conference which will be held in St. Louis on Saturday, November 7, 2009.

Please the attached info for more details, and share the information with others.

Teachers who cannot attend the full conference can register for the Parent Day and attend any sessions.

This information was made available through SAGE.

Kathy Gavin

Tags: NAGC Conference
Posted in Gifted Support | Leave a Comment »

My Child Won’t Do Homework! What Can I Do?

August 17, 2009

Dear Friends

The next Twice Exceptional Support Group Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 2.

Please note that the meeting topic has changed from the original schedule. We will let you know when we can fit in the assistive technology topic!

This topic for this meeting is in response to a special request during the August meeting. As they contemplate the upcoming school year, parents are asking how mental health issues can affect their gifted/twice-exceptional child’s homework performance, and what strategies can help families to respond to these issues? Dr. Agnes Meyo will speak on this topic and will respond to your concerns. Feel free to send specific questions to us in advance! Specific issues we hope to discuss: