Use your Kindle's Text to Audio Feature to Listen to Documents on the Road

One of the greatest, and seldom used, features of the Kindle is its ability to convert text to audio using the Text-to-Speech feature. This feature allows you to listen to the text of supported file formats (this feature can be toggled on and off by pressing the shift + sym keys). This only works on certain books published in the Kindle store, but it can also be used on files that you send to your Kindle email account.

This is how it works. When you setup a Kindle account, you get a special Kindle email account (usually something like username@kindle.com). Any documents that you send to this email account with the subject "Convert" will be converted to the native Kindle format. As long as it is a file that Kindle can recognize, you will then be able to listen to the text using a Kindle device.

It's great to use this feature if you want to multitask. On your next commute, you can take advantage of this feature by listening to any documents that you may need to catch up on.

Is the iPad 2 the Answer to an Academic Worthy Tablet?

The new iPad definitely has some nifty new features that fit well into a classroom environment, but will it chance education and the way that teachers deliver content as a whole? That still remains to be seen. Without a doubt, Apple is doing an excellent job of marketing the tool to educators. They apparently have also been listening to some of the comments made by those some educators by resolving some of their initial concerns about the product.

In the initial release of the iPad, there was a pretty large missing feature that they’ve now addressed with the latest release due out at the end of the week. The feature that was originally left out from the original iPad was the ability to present an app on anything besides the iPad screen itself. Previously, there were only a small handful of apps that could be used to do such a thing, but now an adapter will be available for purchase that will allow an individual to present whatever is being shown on the iPad screen to a projector or a large LCD screen. This is a huge plus for educators interested in using the iPad to present to their students.

Apple has also taken the effort to make sure that there is an educational presence on their website for the iPad. These are all big positives for educators interested in using a tablet device for their classroom, but there are also some pitfalls to look out for before jumping into purchasing the devices for usage in a classroom.

Simply purchasing an iPad will not automatically change your classroom environment. There are some things to consider before making the investment. The first thing to look out for before purchasing iPads for usage in a specific course is to make sure that they can be utilized for the course. There are a large variety of apps available for educational usage, but it is important to check to see if there is one available for the discipline that you would need it for. Let’s face it. Some disciplines have more available apps simply because they naturally fit better into that type of device or that type of presentation format.

Blackboard has also made a serious investment in developing apps to address mobile learning. They have apps that institutions can use to leverage their campus’s learning management system to mobile devices. These apps can be custom tailored to provide additional added benefits like institutional news or campus map information.

Does this effectively change and transform a classroom? It will provide a new and interesting way for students to interact with some of the course components. The one thing it will not do is change the way in which an educator teaches. They will still need to be a talented and gifted teacher. The iPad will not “magically” turn them into an amazing teacher.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for these devices.