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Students 2.0Apps to Enable Students Maximise their Academic Performance
Pauric Holleran, Assistive Technology Officer
UCD Access Centre
• Supporting students with difficulties in specific areas
• Helping students achieve academic excellence
Learning Tools - A Broadening Scope
A Changing LandscapeThe Rise of Apps
How Much Does Accessibility Cost?
• Texthelp Read and Write– approx €400
• Claroread– approx €250
• Free alternatives are now available
Ambient Connectedness
• More distractions
•Greater difficulty in sustained work
• Use of social media for peer-learning
Purpose of the Study Smarter Student Group
• Glean information on the needs of students on technology tools for learning
• Richer feedback on tools• Create student technology leaders and
ambassadors
Benefits of Facebook Group
• Complemented offline focus group• Sustained students’ engagement• ‘Likes’: immediate feedback
•Much richer feedback than:– online surveys– individual feedback
Overview of Tools
• Reading Tools
• Writing Tools
• Notetaking Tools
• Organisation / Task Management Tools
READING TOOLS
Enables students to choose how they interact with content
Text to Speech
• Reading text out loud makes it easier to engage with written content.
• You can use it to read websites, documents or lecture notes.
• Convert text from books and handouts to digital documents to be read out loud.
Text to Speech – Things to Consider
• Voice Quality
• Highlighting Feature
• Cost
• Ease of Use
Reading with your Phone
• iPhone – built in text to speech• Android: VoiceAloud
• Reading printed documents
–iPhone: ClaroSpeak- £5–Android: Google Drive
Visual Tools
• Optimize the learning environment
• Benefits accrue over time
• Features– Text size– Background color– Line spacing– Distractions Removed
Reading Environment – Use Readability to Remove Distractions
Reading Environment – Use Readability to Remove Distractions
Cultivating a Sound Environment
• Online Noise Generator–Simply Noise
• Online Rain Generator–Simply Rain
• CoffeeShop Noise Generator–Coffitivity
WRITING TOOLS
• Advantages– Intuitive way to organize ideas– Generating ideas quickly– Simplifies complicated information
–Emphasizes associations
Mindmapping
Voice Recognition Software
Word Prediction
• Can customize dictionaries
• Adapts to user style and word-use
• Becomes more accurate with use
• Cloud-learning capable
Google Contexual Spellchecker
Using Text to Speech to Proofread your work • Read your text back to yourself
• Provides a fresh perspective
• Can assess for clarity and flow
• Can identify awkward phrasing
Using Text to Speech
• Recommended questions– Are my main points clear?– Are there keywords from class I can use?– Have I provided supporting evidence?– Should I give an example?
NOTETAKING TOOLS
Personalized Audio Bookmarking - Livescribe
• Quickly find and replay the most important parts of your lectures with ease
• Upload your notes and recordings to your computer, where you can store and organize them
AudioNoteTablet €4.50
Voice Recording App - Cogi
ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS
Evernote – Your “External Brain”
• Collect and organize information easily– Capture webpages– Tag information - assigning tags to individual notes
means you can sort your data in meaningful ways
Evernote – Your “External Brain”
• Good for “brain dumps”
• Evernote saves the entire article or webpage, so you never have to worry about something (even the included images) disappearing ever again.
• Useful as ‘idea buckets’.
Project Management Tool - Trello
Project Management Tool - Trello
Project Management Tool - Trello
• Makes it easy to collaborate
• Can easily assign team members to tasks
• Add and modify cards easily
• Augments your collaboration without overwhelming you
Elements of Flow
• Clarity of goals and immediate feedback
• A high level of concentration on a limited field
• Balance between skills and challenge
Pomodoro Technique
Pomodoro Technique
• Reduces the impact of internal and external
interruptions on focus and ”flow”.
• Forces the pursuit of a singular task.
• Regular review encourages self-evaluation.
Pomodoro Technique
• As pomodori are completed, they are recorded, adding to a sense of accomplishment
• After practice, students develop the skill to anticipate the amount of time a task requires.
Pomodoro Technique
• Starting Out– Start small – shrink the length of time until you no
longer feel resistance to it.– Write distractions on a separate piece of paper.– Neurological benefits of ticking sound.– After practice brain will switch to ‘work mode’.
Next Steps
• Student Created Videos
• Encourage students to curate content
• Technology Facebook Group for all students
• Continue offline workshops
• Support Academics
