Guest guest Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Apple's MP3 player (ipod, I think) has text to speech function. so you can download any text document into your MP3 player and then listen to the words instead of read them. I prefer to read, myself. But I know many students are auditory learners. One of the reasons many students benefit from standard lectures is is because they like the audio reinforcement of the text materials. However parroting text is still not the most efficient way to use classroom time, IMO. But we have always had to balance the needs of audio learners and those who read on their own. This may be a way around the problem. Any document that can be scanned and OCRed can be downloaded on the ipod and translated into audio form. Some things are already available on CD, so scanning would not be necessary. Examples include Giovanni's practice of med (I know, but its a board exam text) and the Journal of CM back issues. Not to mention anything on the web, such as the entire merck manual. You could cut and paste entire chapters on diseases into the ipod and get an audio lecture about the material as you drive. It would be great if we had some ipods available for use in the library, even for borrowing. I think this may be one of the most exciting developments in a long time. Of course, one can also download work related materials. This is great for auto commuters. But my mind immediately jumped to the educational applications. BTW, your apple computer already has text to speech capability. It will read any text you paste into your textedit program. You can easily listen to emails and webpage articles this way. Chinese Herbs FAX: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Hi Good use of the technology. Cutting and pasting text is certainly more efficient than what I have done in the past. I remember reading somewhere that we learn best from our own voice (after we get over the fact it doesn't sound anything like us!!). Personally I find a real human voice easier to listen too than the old Apple voices, which, not before time, I have heard whispers are in for a large upgrade shortly. I often made audio tapes of myself reading class notes, summaries, herb details etc. and played them on a walkman or car stereo as a study aid. Today we can do the same thing and convert it to mp3 on our macs and use on the iPod or burn a CD to play almost anywhere. Best Wishes, Steve On 22 Apr 2004, at 3:54 AM, wrote: > Apple's MP3 player (ipod, I think) has text to speech function. so you > can download any text document into your MP3 player and then listen to > the words instead of read them. I prefer to read, myself. But I know > many students are auditory learners. One of the reasons many students > benefit from standard lectures is is because they like the audio > reinforcement of the text materials. However parroting text is still > not the most efficient way to use classroom time, IMO. But we have > always had to balance the needs of audio learners and those who read on > their own. This may be a way around the problem. Any document that > can be scanned and OCRed can be downloaded on the ipod and translated > into audio form. Some things are already available on CD, so scanning > would not be necessary. Examples include Giovanni's practice of med (I > know, but its a board exam text) and the Journal of CM back issues. > Not to mention anything on the web, such as the entire merck manual. > You could cut and paste entire chapters on diseases into the ipod and > get an audio lecture about the material as you drive. It would be > great if we had some ipods available for use in the library, even for > borrowing. I think this may be one of the most exciting developments > in a long time. Of course, one can also download work related > materials. This is great for auto commuters. But my mind immediately > jumped to the educational applications. BTW, your apple computer > already has text to speech capability. It will read any text you paste > into your textedit program. You can easily listen to emails and > webpage articles this way. > > > Chinese Herbs > > > FAX: > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2004 Report Share Posted April 21, 2004 Hi all --- wrote: > Apple's MP3 player (ipod, I think) has text to speech function. so > you can download any text document into your MP3 player and then > listen to the words instead of read them. Acrobat Reader version 6.x has also got a " Read Out Loud " -function which reads out loud the PDF-document page-by-page or at full length. So you could do it behind a PC as well Alwin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2004 Report Share Posted April 22, 2004 , @v... wrote: > Acrobat Reader version 6.x has also got a " Read Out Loud " -function > which reads out loud the PDF-document page-by-page or at full length. > > So you could do it behind a PC as well > > Alwin very cool. how is the speech synthesis. Mac still has a way to go on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 23, 2004 Report Share Posted April 23, 2004 Hi Todd The voice is mail, a bit monotonous but speaks clearly. Punctuation of the text is very important though. It reads very nice with pauses at semicolons and colons. Alwin --- " " wrote: > , @v... wrote: > > > Acrobat Reader version 6.x has also got a " Read Out Loud " - function > > which reads out loud the PDF-document page-by-page or at full length. > > > > So you could do it behind a PC as well > > > > Alwin > > very cool. how is the speech synthesis. Mac still has a way to go on this. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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