A List of Free Apps for Students with Hearing and Visual Impairment

People with disabilities have just the same right to enjoy life the same way normal people do. It really rips the heart to see someone with a certain impairment trying hard to do the simplest things in life with such a hardship. These people struggle with the day to day situations that we might simply take for granted or do not really have an entire appreciation of .

Imagine having to teach visually impaired students or those with hearing problems.Do you think they are having an easy school life like the other mates ? The answer is definitely no. They are in fact doubling the efforts to catch up with the rest of the class. Thankfully with the integration of technology into education we can help these students and give them a leg up.

Reach out for mobile technology apps and you will find a plethora of educational apps designed just to help students with different impairments. I know not everybody can have access to them because mobile technology gadgets to run them on such as iDevices are still scant in schools but this is not an excuse not to introduce some to your students. They might get their parents to buy them these devices. Additionally, there is an ongoing revolution in the world of education due to mobile technology boom and schools are now planning to get iPads and use digital textbooks. Some in the United States have already started experimenting the use of digital Chrome Books. That is really very promising and we are very sure that this is just the beginning and there is more to come.

In this regard, The Best of Mobile Technology has gathered and reviewed some of the apps that you can use with your students. These apps are for students with hearing and visual impairement. I have included these apps into different presentations to make it easy for you to share and access them anytime you want.

Here is the presentation in Google Docs






Here is the same presentation using Issuu

Open publication - Free publishing - More free apps

Free URL Shortening Tools for Teachers

Using the shortened form of URL is a great way for you to advertise and share web contents. Sometimes long URLs get broken causing people who click on them to cut and psate them back. This is not practical at all given that we are living  in an age that is ripe with awesome web 2.0 tools that can help you perform almost anything you want.

Being educators and teachers you might also be in need of URL shortening services that will enable you to securely shorten your URL and share it with your colleagues or students. Below are Some of the most popular URL Shorteners.

I have included these tools in a presentation that you will find below. You can download, save and share it with your colleagues.

Fur.ly
This web tool lets you place up to 50 URLs . It also allows its users to link multiple web sites to a single URL.

Google URL Shortener
 This is one of my favourite shortening tools and probably the best online. It not only shortens  your URLs but also keeps track of the history of your shrotened links and provides you with analytics on how many people clicked on them and so forth.

TinyURL

This is also another great free  tool that makes posting long URL easier. You can drag and drop its bookmarklet to your toolbar. It works on all major web browsers as long as your bokmarks and favourites allows javascript.


Bit.ly

This service allows its users to shorten as many URLs as they want. It also lets them share and track analytics of their links.


Cli.gs

This is a short URL service that shortens long links for easier sharing with friends on Twitter and Facebook, over email or IM.


Snip URL

this tool allows users to shorten many URLs at once.You can also drag its bookmarklet to your browser for easy use. It does require a sing up.


Is.gd

This is another great short URL service. It does not require a sing up


V.gd

This one here is like Is.gd for they have the same features and almost the same platform.


Tweetburner

This tool lets you shorten URLs and track what happens with links you share on Twitter.

Here is the presentation in Google Docs







Here is the same presentation in Issuu

Open publication - Free publishing - More url shorteners

Week in Review The Most Popular posts in Educational Technology and Mlearning

Hello everyone. This is Med sending you his best wishes from Halifax. I hope you are enjoying your weekend and I hope you are not away from your computers or iDevices so that you can read at least this post.
As is the habit every weekend I compile here the most popular and viewed articles on Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. If you haven't had the chance to read them then you can bookmark and access them as you wish.

• The Flipped Classroom A New Learning Revolution
•  A List of Free Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students
• A List of Free Audio Tools for Kids
• 9 Articles about the 21st Century Education
• Free Audio Tools for Teachers
• Free Math Resources , Lesson Plans and Games
• A List of Great Educational Infographics
• The Best Ten Tablest for Educators
• Five Free Tools to Organize and Schedule Meetings
• Three Free Tools to Create Study Groups Online
• A List of Free Audio Books for Kids
• Free Tools and Resources about Internet Safety

Have you already subscribed to Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ? If not this is how to do it :

  1-   Subscribe via RSS
  2-   Like Educational Technology and Mobile Learning on Facebook
  3-   Find Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Google Plus
  4-   Follow Educational Technology and Mobile Learning on Twitter

My other blog The Best of Mobile Technology is gaining subscribers everyweek. If you want to learn more about how to use mobile technology such as smart phones, tablets, and apps in education , please check out The Best of Mobile Technology and let me know what you think.

Thank you very much for your support and enjoy your weekend.

Add Voice Narration to Presentations Using HelloSlide

HelloSlide is a cool web tool that allows its users to create awesome slides together with voice narration. Yes now your slides will look like a lecture.There are some other tools  online that enable users to embed audio clips into their presentations but HelloSlide is different in that it has an automatic translator that converts your text into speech. You just type in your narration and HelloSlide will transform it into audio captions that will accompany each slide you choose.

Do not expect to hear a pure human sound for this is not even available in the most sophisticated speech to text  tools such as SIRI but rather a robitic translation which is still very good and better than many other translations elsewhere.

Some features of HelloSide

Here is a list of the main features that HelloSlide offers to its users:

• It is has a free version with certain limitations ( just 50 presentation )
• It generates audio for your slides
• It makes your presentations searchable, editable and available in more than 20 languages
• It is very easy to use, just upload a PDF of your presentation , use the ditor to type in the speech for each slide, and press play to hear your your presentation

Head over to HelloSlide and give it a try

Qwips Create and Share Free Voice Messages

Qwips is a new web tool that allows users to create short audio messages. This is like Audioboo but way simpler and easier to use.Teachers can use Qwips to record quick reminders for their students and post them on the class blog. This is also a good way to keep your students updated on assignments and homework.

Qwips is very easy to use. Just head over to its main page and sing in using your Facebook or Twitter account. Once logged in you can then click on record and start talking . You have up to 30 seconds of recording length so you better know how to effectiely use it. When your audio message is ready Qwips generates a URL for you so that you can use to share your messages. You can embed it on your blog or share it with others via email. You can also use your audio message as an image caption a feature that is not found in Audioboo.

Some features of Qwips

Here is a list of the main features that Qwips offers to its users:

• It is free
• It lets users record audio messages
• It offers up to 30 seconds of recording length
• It allows users to take a photo with a voice caption
• It lets you tag a video with a voice intro or  narration
• It lets you enliven your emails by including voice messages as signatures
• You can add voice emoticons to SMS, comments and reviews.

Head over to Qwips and give it a try.

Libreoffice A Free Great Alternative to Microsoft Office Suite

Libreoffice is a free open source office suit software that you can download and install for free. This is my favourite office suite and  I even prefer it over the Open Office. Libreoffice has a set of writing and editing tools that resemble  Microsoft Office.So if you already know how to open an office and write a document or spreedsheet then you will find Libreoffice way easier.

Libreoffice is free and there is no fear of copyright infringements. It works on almost all the major operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux ( Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse,...)

Some features of Libreoffice

Here is a set of the main features that Libreoffice offers to its users :
It is free
It requires a download
It is available in several languages
It has LGPL public license
It is user friendly
It has an intuitive interface that you can easily customize
It is compatible with all major competitor file formats
It lets you import files from Microsot  Word, Excel and PowerPoint and many other formats, and can easily save to Microsoft Office and other formats when needed.


Head over to Libreoffice and give it a try

Vidcaster Easily Create your Free Video Website

Vidcaster is a great web tool for educators. It is basically a platform where users can store and organize their videos. It is your first step to create a video website where you can showcase your video library. This service has both a free and pro version but the free one is already generous enough for us in education.

Vidcaste is easy to use and does require a quick registration after which you will be prompted to connect your Vidcaster account with your YouTube one.Once connected you can then start fetching videos from your YouTube and get them organized in your Vidcaster page. There is a nice collection of display templates to choose from if you want to customize the look of your page.

Some features of Vidcaster

Here is a list of the main features that Vidcaster provides to its users:

• It is easy and simple to use
• It allows users to create video websites from their YouTube uploads
• It offers a library of professionally customized themes
• Automatic syncing with your YouTube channel

Head over to Vidcaster and give it a try