Free Tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literac

While listening to the K12 on line conference this week, I decided to watch the pod-cast by Jennifer Kraft. Her power-point presentation provided great insights for using other tools to help struggling students who may have differences in reading, taking notes, organizing ideas, and following written instructions. Ms. Kraft spent time talking about the use of e-books or allowing struggling readers to listen to books on CD. Not only will this help students build his/her comprehension, it also allows students to listen/follow a recorded reading to enhance decoding and fluency skills. I can see potential of using these simple tools for both elementary and secondary students. All it takes is a little bit time and some planning for class room teachers. However, these resources would help our students who are not strong visual learners. Ms. Kraft also explored the use of MP3 players in classrooms, and how this allows students to go back and listen to lectures as well as lessons. Finally she brought up two different ways to support learning, text-to-speech and speech-to-text. Her presentation included web-sites to visit. After her presentation, I searched for e-books on line. I found an interesting site for elementary students called raz-kids.com, included were free demos. I have not had success at finding e-books for secondary students.