We learned about these literacy support applications on October 22. Any or all of them would be motivating for all of my students, helpful for most of them, and revolutionary for some of them.
The application that my group presented was Read&Write Gold. When I was spending so much time learning its features, I wondered if I was wasting my time--what if I never had a chance to actually use this software? When I saw the other presentations, I realized that I was wrong. There are many similarities between the application, and learning one gets you in the right frame of mind. Even when there are differences, becoming familiar with one product can help you deal with the next, as in, "Oh, these is just like x except for y and z."
Although there are a range of features, I consider the heart of these applications to be the ability to provide access to text, receptively and expressively. That is, can they help you read and write. The text-to-voice and word predict features rule. They would be the most helpful features for my students. Being low readers in Grade 5 they need access to text in order to read to learn; they're too young for some of the more advanced organizing and studying features.
The key distinguishing factor between the products is, I think, the quality of the voices. The voices are necessarily computer-generated, but the less they sound like that, the better they communicate the text. But human-like voice quality is hard to emulate, and sets the breaking point on cost and disk space.
The price is right when the software is free. But like they say, "You get what you pay for." I also like to think about those software companies (someone has to). Development costs are huge; a great product requires investment in time and money. Those folks deserve some payoff. So it's nice to have access to a free product, but keep in mind that it's probably based on a product that wasn't free. Software companies operate on scary margins, and come and go like rain in Nova Scotia. When companies go under, fabulous programs and support go with them. (RIP Stanza)
Kurzweil
The gold standard. Need gold to buy it.
WYNN
Well-reviewed. The choice of Acadia U. Must be good.
MyStudyBar
Free!
Read&Write Gold
My trial period has expired. See Assistive Tech Groupies. I have nothing further to say.
Natural Voices
Does one thing, but does it for free.
