Saturday, December 4, 2010

Mike Cohen with Google

Dear Mike:
I have the gift of dyslexia and I am and have been using text to speech for 9 years now. Check out my Youtube videos at my blog mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com we as a nation are on the edge a good educational system (?) to a great one with efforts like yours to incorporate text to speech and other technology in to the mainstream. Think of Google coming out with an "iPad" technology for textbooks. Where a student receives their books from 9th thru college in a digital format with data mining capability. (Dyslexia and technology, Youtube). The text books would be uploaded and updated 1/4 or every semester. Bookshare.org has done some amazing things and is offering these tools to the LD population already.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Richard Branson launches Magizine for iPad only

Virgin Digital Publishing launched Project, a new digital lifestyle magazine optimized exclusively for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad platform.

My question to him on his "Ask Richard" blog is:

With your new magazine for iPad, why not incorporate the text to speech technology and unlimited data mining like Bookshare.ord does with "Read:OutLoud” . Google Youtube video “Manatee Read:Outloud youtube “.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Tools of the 21st Century, post to http://lincs.ed.gov

Dear Advocates:

Our report card in Schools could be graded by the size of the juvenile detention population.

Take the software programs which were mentioned in the discussion string titled "tools in the 21st Century" which states:

We live today with text to speech software most of which is free, note taking tools like mind spring and Xmind, and then there are great programs such as Bookshare.org which is one gateway to learning.

Complex thinking is my gift, I think in pictures, we are all built differently, we all can learn differently, although our educational system does not teach efficiency.

Today, text to speech is best to be in all schools and libraries. Note taking tools available and accepted in all class rooms, virtual textbooks which Bookshare.org creates with Read:OutLoud would make deeper learning thru data mining an ease. (At Youtube, type "2010 Manatee County School Board demo" and view "Bradenton.com and Readplease)

We live in a world which is accelerating technologically but tools are not being share or utilized to advance education as quickly as it should.

At my bio ( www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx ) you can hear what it is like to struggle, yet succeed and at my blog ( www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com ) which I contribute to there are a few of the many tools which are available to enable those who struggle to find their feet with the "Gift of Dyslexia".

Sincerely,
Davis W. Graham

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Roberts Academy opens in Lakeland, Florida (see link)

Dear Cary:

Thank you for your article on Dyslexia and the Roberts Academy. Great story. Dyslexia today with Technology the hurdle of reading does not have to exist.

View "My travels with the Gift of Dyslexia" : www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx

Have any of us ever thought of bringing the technologies which we use on a day to day basis and bringing it to the class room.

Three programs which have enabled me and are available to help others are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org and www.bookshare.org . Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities.

Student memberships are currently funded by an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book. Bookshare therefore is excellent for the student and adult population. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:OutLoud.

In today's iPad world Read:OutLoud is volumes ahead as a tool for the student. The next step in education is for all textbooks to be on an iPad foundation with the ability to update the textbooks or access references or contributing resources to the textbook.

Check out how the software works, by visiting Youtube videos and typing in the search window at the Youtube site: "Dyslexia and technology" and "Dyslexia and text to speech" , "2010 Manatee County School Board demo" or visit www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com

Green education, what a new idea, except it isn’t, it has been brought to the system by the Learning Disabled, through BookShare.org.

Sincerely,

Thursday, April 15, 2010

U.S. News and World Report, comment

Dear U.S. Todyay and World Report readers:

Great success story. Dyslexia today, does not have to be "too much of a handicap". With Technology the hurdle of reading does not have to exist.

Three programs which have enabled me and are available to help others are www.readplease.com, www.rfbd.org and www.bookshare.org . Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities.

Student memberships are currently funded by an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Read:OutLoud and Bookshare.org turn any book or text book into a virtual book. Bookshare therefore is excellent for the student and adult population. Newspapers from all over the country are available and Bookshare provide two text to speech software programs, Victor Soft reader and a Beta for Bookshare made by Read:OutLoud.

In today's iPad world Read:OutLoud is volumes ahead as a tool for the student. The next step in education is for all textbooks be on an iPad foundation with the ability to update the textbooks or access references or contributing resources to the textbook.

Check out how the software works, by visiting Youtube videos and typing in the search window at the Youtube site: “Dyslexia and technology” and “Dyslexia and text to speech” , “2010 Manatee County School Board demo” or visit www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Concocting a Cure for Kids With Issues, New York Times. A reponse.

Dear Judith Warner and Editor:

It may be a diagnosis to our Education system. We are archaic and using somewhat close to snake oils to diagnose and explain a "Gift."

Dyslexia when I was growing up was a disability because there was a lack of tools. Although today it is a "Gift" to me and all who I come in contact with at work, home, church and life.

What if tools (Readplease.com, Read:OutLoud and Victor Reader Soft) which enable me to read 300 to 480 words per minute with 90%+ comprehension where available to all? What if when a student comes to a person, place, word or thing which they do not know; are now only one click away from a picture of the person or one click away from the definition or description? This technology is available and would boost the phrase "no child left behind" by at least 10 to 20% completion rate.

Confidence can change a life and a nation. At my Blog (www.mygiftofdyslexia.Blogspot.com) I have placed 4 Youtube videos which I have made to show this technology at work. The Youtube video titled “Dyslexia and Technology" demonstrates how I read most of my books. This digital textbook technology should be in all schools, by doing so it would put students who are willing to learn on the edge of their reading chair. For those who have no motivation then they would fail because of the lack of effort.

“I can’t”, “I don't know how”, “they won’t teach me” would be turned off as excuse for most but not all. My life has been changed and my reading has put me at the edge of my reading chair for the first time in my life.

New York Times best sellers are a download away; recently I finished "The Middle Place" and “Lift”. When I introduced myself to Kelly Corrigan at a recent Library Association luncheon I could proudly say to her "I read your book".


Sincerely,
Davis

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Dyslexic Students in Kansas Start to Get More Help

Dear Ms. Phillips:

Today I read your article and viewed the video which was done on your mission work for those with the Gift of Dyslexia.
Link:
http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=12121041

Bookshare.org and ReadPlease have changed my life, with each of the programs I excel in enriching my life, family, marriage and my place of work. There is nothing in the written word which stands in the way except for my own effort to read something which is placed in my hands.

Recently, the Bradenton Herald at Bradenton.com has provided a link to download ReadPlease (Free software) as a way to read their articles. Bookshare.org has already done so much to make textbooks available to those with qualifying disabilities, it has put me a non-student member, for the first time on the edge of my reading chair. It is my goal as it is yours to not stop telling the world what a great learning environment teaching dyslexics creates for all who want to learn.

An example is the text-to-speech software Read:OutLoud provides to read their digitized books, if I come to a person place or thing which I don't know, all I have to do is highlight it with the cursor and click the dictionary icon and discover who, where or what the once unknown word was.. Imagine this in the hands of a student today whether they are Gifted with Dyslexia or not. What a powerful tool, it is when it is in the hands or mind of an excited student.

Keep up the great mission, and check out my blog with Youtube demos of the above mentioned, on the World wide web at mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com

Sincerely,
Davis W. Graham