- From: Chuck Hitchcock <chitchcock@cast.org>
- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 10:43:34 -0400
- To: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Al wrote: Also, as a note, I suspect that from the standpoint of the learning objectives of the students, it may make more sense to introduce speech-to-text into their experience before text-to-speech. As I recall, the classic way to teach writing was to get the student to draw a picture and tell the story of what is in the picture. Then the teacher writes down the story and mounts it with the picture. If the leap to the idea that these squiggles on the page could be related to human utterance is a high hurdle, best to attack it first with an utterance the student really relates to -- like what they said. This is just a wild guess. The team at CAST would have much more and better clues than this. Chuck responds: Of course this is no right or wrong way unless one considers the purpose of the activity. If the purpose is the generate a report, text-to-speech along with synchronized highlighting in an environment that allows supported searching (spell checking, key word support, etc.), organizing of found treasures (such as iHarvest support), then easy copy and past with attribution to a writing or presentation environment. Having speech-to-text support to enrich the finding with headings and personalized comments is important too. If, on the other hand, the purpose is to expose learners to content which is of high personal interest so that they are willing to struggle with the text and images to get meaning that is important to them while engaged in improving reading abilities, then you want supports that are just-in-time and a way to save words that were difficult into a database for analysis by computer or teacher a bit later. Fortunately, in digital environments, students can draw pictures and develop concept maps (even better) on the road to improved written communication. Purpose is significant and so are the concepts of Vigotsky with regard to providing a proper balance of support and challenge within the learning environment. Chuck __________________________________ Chuck Hitchcock Chief Education Technology Officer, and Director, National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, CAST, Inc., 39 Cross Street, Peabody, MA 01960 Email chitchcock@cast.org Voice +1 978-531-8555 x233 TTY +1 978-531-3110 Fax +1 978-531-0192 <http://cast.org/> <http://cast.org/bobby/>
Received on Monday, 10 April 2000 10:44:16 UTC