Distance Learning Tools

One of the favored topics of this blog is the technology that enhances and facilitates learning. This is especially true for distance learning technologies, the method of learning that presents greater opportunity for a greater number of students. Excellent communication is imperative to successful distance learning from the perspective of both the educator and the distance learner.

Recent relationships between the Silicon Valley of California and New Zealand (of all places) have developed some amazing leaps and bound in tools for distance learning. Voice-to-text that can handle large volumes of data, returning accurate transcription, has recently been featured globally as one such partnership. Now the circle is complete with another company called Slide Speech coming into the market.

Slide Speech is an open source, interactive, slideshow player that uses text-to-speech for voiceovers. What this means for distance learning educators is that lectures can be sent to students in audio format from written notes. Not only that, and herein lies the magic, but that audio is easily manipulated so the content of that lecture is altered, modified and improved as necessary without having to go back over large volumes of work. Different people can collaborate to develop an audio file. The software behind the app is interactive as well. That means tutors are able to preload series of questions and answers for students to use as required.

The advantages of these features for distance learning students are no less significant. Students can listen to lectures anywhere, in the supermarket or on the bus. Where there is uncertainty in the speech he or she can ask questions and receive instant answers. The best thing though, about using this app is the advantages it offers for creation of presentation. For example, a student will make a slideshow presentation using PowerPoint. He or she will write speaker notes below the slide as is common but instead of the student reading those notes in presentation (hard to do from a distance) the notes are converted to voice and the slideshow is presented as if the student was talking the viewer through the slideshow.

Another popular topic of this blog in the past has been how different students learn. Distance learners have always maintained an advantage because they are able to view their course instruction on screen and can follow up with audio, tactile or whatever best suits, to enhance their learning. They do this in their own time and at their own pace. That advantage is greatly enhanced with Slide Speech software and apps that enable students to listen to lectures even without attending classes in person. In addition, where students have specific questions, the app can be used to ask the question, then receive an audio answer from the courses pre-loaded question, and answer script.

Distance learning enables students to learn and teachers to teach in greater numbers and at lower cost than ever before. Technology coming onto the market today and in the near future enhances that ability again a hundred times by providing resources that ensure all students regardless of location or handicap are able to participate in education. Today’s technology facilitates ease of use and presentation to the extent that distance learning students and others, are afforded more time to undertake research and follow up on areas that need more work. The day cannot be far away that these technologies extend learning into homes even regardless of income or disadvantage. These are exciting times ahead for education.