Daily Archives: 15 March 2010

REVIEW COMING SOON!

Posted on 15 March 2010 by Leila

I was in a funk for a couple of months. I had good intentions, but did not follow through on a lot of things. One person, in particular, that I will make amends for and post my promised review for is Mr. Don Johnston via Valerie Chernek. I have an overdue review to post. I [...] Continue reading →

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As Long As You Got a Good Book!

Posted on 15 March 2010 by Leila

As the title states, as long as you got a good book, time passes by faster. I always have a book in my purse. It’s a good thing I carry extra-large purses (A habit left over from carrying diaper bags.). Today, as I was getting new brakes, I simply pulled out my book, the third [...] Continue reading →

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Report: Pittsburgh Schools Identifying Too Many Students as Eligible for Special Education

Posted on 15 March 2010 by Jim Gerl

Image via WikipediaA recent report commissioned by the Pittsburgh Public Schools concludes that it identifies too many students as eligible for special education. The report was conducted by evaluators of the Council of The Great City Schools, an asso… Continue reading →

Posted in Board of education, Council of the Great City schools, education, emotional disturbance, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Special Education, special education law | Comments Off

Great Adaptive Art Using Online Art Pads

Posted on 15 March 2010 by Lon

From Lon over on No Limits to Learning. “Well Done” by Yurdoz (done with Odopod)There are some great online art design sites now that create incredible paintings, sketches, etc. In an age where we are trying to adapt the curriculum … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptive art, Art activities for impaired, art and disabilities, assistive technology, online drawing sites | Comments Off

Interesting Text-To-Speech options

Posted on 15 March 2010 by Patrick Black

I guess this would have been more of a post about 2 weeks ago, when I saw it before a lot of people had written about it, before Oprah talked about, etc… but I still wanted to write about it!

As you know Roger Ebert of Siskel & Ebert, Ebert & Roeper, & the Chicago Suntimes is no longer able to speak. This had to have been an extremely difficult thing for him considering he spoke for a living. Recently a company from Scotland has given him back his voice. Ebert admits that he could have used a device to talk for him, but he always felt strange because it was not his voice. I guess I can understand that, I think I would have a hard time using a device if it didn’t sound like me. So, this company in Scotland, CereProc, took hours of Ebert talking on his show, digitized it, and created a voice for him. many of the words we use over and over each day, about 2000, and the ones it didn’t have recordings of they are abel to piece together from other syllables. It’s really an amazing technology when you think about it! Here’s a link to original aritcle – Text-To-Speech Program to give Roger Ebert his voice back

I realize that this type of program is not practical for students who are recommended for AAC and TTS. Many of them have no voice to start with, and we are trying to give them a voice. I think development has more of a global nature. This type of product development will trickle down and make computerized voices much more understandable and real sounding. It’s going to take some time, but it will happen. For those people who have recorded large amounts of themselves, this has to be a great option for them. For me, I can’t wait to see what else may come of it!

Patrick

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