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

Text to Speech – Example

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