Isn't it wonderful that our computers, tablets and phones can read text aloud? It is especially useful for students who have thousands of words to read every week and they have a disability which affects reading ability.
However, unless it's a story, it can be incredibly hard to remember much of what is read. According to Justin Sung, an expert in learning, we forget around 90% of the content. If you use bimodal reading - listening at the same time as following the text, you will remember a bit more, but most content will go in one ear and out the other. That's why ReadSpeaker includes two tools in TextAid to help students to actively read.
Rather than click play and listen, the annotations button offers post-it style notes, free text, shapes, emojis and lines to add so that users are thinking about what they are listening to. If annotating while listening is too cognitively challenging, the highlighter tool is simple to use. Important parts of the text can be highlighted and then extracted to make a summary. This not only keeps the user engaged with the text but also provides a summary to read, saving time and reinforcing learning.
