Need recommendations for SEN Software and Online Resources (primary)

[Duranis]

Two areas I'm looking at right now and was wondering what other people are using/would recommend. Thought I would ask about both in one post to save clutter

 

Sen software:

We are looking for software to help with children that may have difficulty with reading and writing. One big requirement is speech to text. Things like mind mapping, etc are also needed. We were apparently using Dragon for the speech recognition but I don't have the install media or license information for it so would need to repurchase.

 

Online resources:

Currently we have Skooville for year 3-6, Education city and Espresso for everyone. However SLT are looking if these are really being used enough to justify the cost and if there was any better options out there. We like Skooville for the heavily moderated/safe social aspect of it.

 

Any feedback on what other primary's are using in these areas would be great. I have found a ton of options but the majority seem to be overpriced junk to be honest. The biggest problem is that only some of the teachers are really pushing the online resources so I would love to find something I could get the teachers excited about using as well.

Edited December 1, 2016 by Duranis

[theeggmaster]

I've just purchased a couple of Chromebooks to do speech to text using the built-in tools in Google Docs. They were originally going to buy iPads and Dragon, but I convinced them to try a cheaper option first and the students loved it. The fact that they can do typing on the Chromebooks too really helps.

[Ertech]

I would suggest looking at purple mash..

[mikkydoos]

We used EMAS for a bit for EAL/SEN students. Does text to speech as well as translating.

 

EmasUK | Resources and Tools for EAL Teachers

 

 

Widgit is also popular for SEN (ours use it but I honestly don't know much about it).

 

Welcome to Widgit

 

 

Online products like Education City have SEN modules within them but are pricey.

[TomHD]

We just bought Clicker 7 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[mikkydoos]

We just bought Clicker 7 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Oh. Our lot use Clicker too.

[bossman]

Wordshark here for students with reading and writing difficulties

 

Windows text to speech on standalone laptops just for the SEN department seems to fulfil the requirements.

 

Renaissance reader online Renaissance Learning - Accelerating learning for all

 

Seems to work for everyone here,

 

I did look into text to document handheld Dictaphones but they were too expensive for the departments budget.