[IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[James Simmons]

Marilyn,

I wrote an Activity called Read Etexts that might be of some use to
you.  It can take one of the "plain text" files put out by Project
Gutenberg and read it aloud, like a Kindle.  As it reads the words it
highlights the word spoken.  The highlighting needs a faster computer
than an XO to keep up with the word being spoken, but it doesn't need
to be much faster.

http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4035

James Simmons

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 12:04 PM,  <marilyn at ourdyslexicchildren.org> wrote:
> Hi there!
>
> I am a lurker on this list - read posts once in a while.  Last semester I
> was teaching at an elementary school and used Sugar on a live CD with the
> kids.  It was a big hit and I passed out at least a hundred Sugar CDs to
> students.  They squealed with delight and begged to use it in class.
>
> A very important piece of dyslexia legislation passed the house and senate
> unanimously in Texas over the weekend.  The three most important features in
> my mind are:
>
> All school personnel must be trained in the recent scientific studies about
> dyslexia ( Reference:
> http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexiastraighttalk.html )
> Teachers must use multi-sensory methods (audio, video, etc.) to teach
> dyslexic students
> Schools must incorporate assistive technologies that are helpful to dyslexic
> students
>
> I am currently working on writing a high school class that accommodates
> dyslexia (http://marilyn.hagle.com).  It is a music technology type class
> and I am using Musix, a Linux OS that focuses on music compostion and
> audio/video production, for my software base.  Downloads are already
> available of course, but I will make sure students can inexpensively
> purchase live DVDs or USBs that are software ready.
>
> I am writing to the folks on this list, hoping that one of you will take on
> a similar project for dyslexic elementary students using Sugar.  Make a
> Moodle site and post video & audio with lessons using Sugar.
>
> If one or more of you wish to do this, make sure you write to Virginia
> Gonzalez (virginia.gonzalez at region10.org), the state dyslexia consultant and
> tell her about it so she can get the word out.
>
> You know that commercial interests will see dollar signs and try to make a
> buck off of this.  I would do it myself, but this class I am working on will
> at least take months to finish.
>
> Thanks!  And thanks for creating Sugar!
>
> Marilyn Hagle
>
>
>
>
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