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MacSpeech Dictate: Pogue's Take

MacSpeech Dictate: Pogue’s Take

by Samuel Sennott
With MacSpeech Dictate set to come out next month, there is quite the excitement. New York Times Technology columnist David Pogue has a simple review that may be helpful for sending to that special educator or Apple enthusiast that could benefit from learning about the upcoming software release. Also, it could [...]

Widgets:  Alltogether Widgets

Widgets: Alltogether Widgets

by Samuel Sennott
Widgets are small applications that are helpful. In this series of posts, we will describe how they are helpful in three categories of ways. We will look at: widgets for personal productivity, widgets for many different student applications from book readers to digital turntables, and we will also look at how [...]

Get in Touch with Your Wild Self and Write!

Get in Touch with Your Wild Self and Write!

by Samuel Sennott
So its Friday afternoon and your students are getting a little wild. Go with it! In fact, go right to www.buildyourwildself.com and have them create their wild selves. Here is my wildself that I made.

What a terrific fuel for creating a story. With countless options for a character and [...]

Stixx Bowls

Stixx Bowls

By Jessie Pahl

Stixx by Design for Living: BabyWare Bowl Set with Suction Base
This amazing gadget is called “Stixx SuctionWare.” When working with children in the past, I have used other types of suction bowls, but they have never been able to stick to the table through the whole snack/meal. This bowl is [...]

Listening to Research as MP3 Files on Your iWhatever

by Samuel Sennott
I have been listening to PDF research articles converted to MP3 files on my iPhone on my early morning walk, in the car, and in the evening working out. As teachers of many kinds, we work hard serving our students. We work tirelessly preparing, teaching, caring, and assessing. Many [...]

Dragon Naturally Speaking for Mac

Dragon Naturally Speaking for Mac

by Samuel Sennott
What terrific news!  The best voice recognition software comes to OS X.

ITWire reports that Dragon Naturally Speaking will be released for OS X by Macspeech, replacing iListen.  Significant discounts will be given to licensed iListen users.  So start digging into those AT Team boxes and scour the attic, basement, or wherever your old [...]

Reporting on the Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote

by Samuel Sennott
You can use your Wii remote, a projector, freely shared software, and some led light pens to create a multi-touch interactive whiteboard. I read about Johnny Chung Lee’s project on terrific Weblogg-ed and echo Will Richardson’s sentiment about how terrific it is to see the free and open source sharing involved [...]

Color Talking Word Wall Template with Apple OS X

Color Talking Word Wall Template with Apple OS X

by Samuel Sennott
Good news! TextEdit does allow you to color the cells in a Table.

I provided directions in a section of the updated guide to using the Talking Word Walls. Here is the text from the mixed(visual and text) directions:
Part Two: Working with the Colored Template
1. The colored TextEdit template is [...]

Apple Computers Allow Talking Word Wall

Apple Computers Allow Talking Word Wall

by Samuel Sennott
You can utilize the OSX Voice over feature to create a personalized word wall system that has simple text to speech by clicking or arrowing into the letters or words on the word wall.

Doing a daily word wall practice as part of a systematic phonics instructional program is a terrific way to provide [...]

Motivation to Write

Motivation to Write

By Sam Sennott
We can share many things when we write. We can share our selves, joy, pain, insights, laughter, encouragement, discouragement, a kind word, information, or curiosity. For many people, being highly motivated to write is an assistance to the writing process. What do you think motivates you most to write? [...]