Using TTS programs Beyond English Classes

Transcription

1 Using TTS programs Beyond English Classes

2 TTS Beyond English Classes My philosophy behind introducing TTS to LD students: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for the rest of his life.

3 Beyond English Classes Ways to help LDs in life, after they finish the p tor b anglit: 1. Learn to convert hard-copy text (nondigital) to TTS compatible. 2. Use a short-cut dictionary. 3. Listen to your homework at the gym.

4 Convert hardcopy text (nondigital) to TTS compatible

5 The problems Students frustrated at not being able to use TTS outside English class Course bibliographies don t consider the needs of LD students Textbooks Photocopies of articles PDF articles sometimes cannot be read by a screen reader.

6 Possible solutions Ask course teachers to provide the digital version of the reading material. Speak with the library about acquiring digital copies of textbooks. Scan PDF and learn how to convert picture PDF files to readable (or tagged ) PDF Any other ideas?

7 Scan OCR Solution Background: PDF files have 3 layers Content view: used by Adobe programmers Physical view: allows a file to be displayed and printed by the public When only this view is available in a file, the output is like a picture and cannot be accessed by a screen reader. Tags view: allows a file to be searched and read by the public When this view is available, the output can be read by a screen reader.

8 Scan OCR Solution How does it work (1)? Scan multiple pages The company that operates the photocopiers can provide a heavy duty scanner, operated with a student s credit card Save the file as PDF On student s disk-on-key Use Word to convert PDF file to.doc On student s own computer Can be read by TTS

9 Use Word to convert a PDF file to.doc How does it work (2)? Use Word s document image writer Document imaging converts the file to.mdi Use Word s built-in OCR OCR translates the.mdi file into actual text characters (.doc)

10 Hitches Need to use a clear original source Poor/unclear photocopies produce Word documents with many mistakes. Output will not be perfect The output may have some gibberish. However, you can still understand a text even if some words are unclear. M/S document imaging (.mdi) available only from Office 2003

11 How to The conversion process: Convert.pdf file to.mdi Run OCR Save as.doc Optional: Run a spell-check Demonstration: a PDF file that cannot be read by TTS

12 Use a shortcut dictionary

13 Dictionary Shortcut Open Word s built-in dictionary on the desktop together with TTS program and copy/paste unknown words.

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15 The hitch It s quick but dirty : It does not include all the possible translations of a word. But, it saves time. (Emphasize the need to have a back-up dictionary.)

16 Listen to your homework at the gym

17 Listen to homework at the gym Create an audio file format with a TTS program. MP3 or.wav What can students do with an audio file? Save it on a disk on key Send it to your home by Upload it to your MP3 Listen to your homework at the gym, on the bus, in bed

18 Any more ideas on how to use TTS beyond the English classroom?