Ginger Assistive Technology (Blog Post 5)
Ginger is a tool to help students with dyslexia as well as helping students who struggle with reading. I felt that this was a particularly important resource because educators may immediately think of adaptive technologies to help with hearing or sight, but may not consider that technological advancements have allowed for the creation of digital tools to help students with dyslexia or less common struggles with reading. Ginger is also a wonderful tool because it can communicate in 50 languages – and the basic version is a free addition to Windows and Mac desktop browers and iOS and Android mobile devices. Ginger provides a grammar checker that can pick up on mistaken word and grammar usage – its versus it’s, where versus wear, etc. It offers a rephrasing tool which can help students who are learning to read and write or struggling with those skills, a text reader to read back what has been typed, and a personal training tool that provides practice sessions based on a student’s past errors.
I was also impressed with Ghotit as a tool for students (and adults) with dyslexia and dysgraphia - however, there is a cost associated with the tool so it may not be realistic for all schools. This website lists several other adaptive technologies that are helpful for a range of skill sets and needs.
To use Ginger, simply go to the Ginger website (link here and above). There is a free download for the basic version, or you can purchase the premium version. This is also particularly helpful because it can be used on the Google Chrome platform – which means it can be used with Google Chromebooks (widely used in classrooms). After adding the extension to Chrome, simply continuing to use the device as you normally would. When typing in Chrome, Ginger will alert you to grammatical errors and spelling errors – for instance, say I (purposefully) typed the phrase ‘gizmos are walkin through they’re classroom’ in my Facebook status update bar. ‘gizmos’, ‘walkin’ and ‘they’re’ are all highlighted in red. When I hold my mouse over one of the highlights, a suggestion is offered ‘Gizmos are walking through their classroom’. You can also add the app to Windows and Office, Safari and to your keyboard itself. There is also a team offering and an option for creating a personal dictionary with words that will automatically be replaced (there is an option to do something similar in Word itself if anyone is familiar with this tool).
This great video shows exactly how Ginger works for those who have not used it and explains some ways that it can be helpful to students. Educators who are familiar with students with dyslexia can see how this would be a helpful tool for students who need assistance with reading language skills – options provided by Ginger when a sentence is not worded correctly allow students to view options for phrasing and spelling, reinforcing the correct language. The text to speech option helps students to hear what they have typed and reinforces their language skills as they are writing. Highlighting the questionable areas helps students to visually focus on what may need to be worked on. The personal training tool is designed to help a particular student based on past errors.
Resources for Teachers:
As a former dyslexia teacher and Reading Interventionist, I can see the benefits that Ginger would provide students who struggle with Reading, Writing, Speaking and/or Spelling. The only issue I might have with my current school utilizing Ginger, is that Google has been blocked from the students. I have used the Multisensory Reading, Spelling & Penmanship created by The Rogers Center for Learning, which I really liked. It's available as an app for $1.99. The CD-ROM is now $14.99. Thank goodness I received a grant when I purchased the CD-ROM for $200!
ReplyDeleteHey Kennita! Can you clarify what you mean that 'Google has been blocked from the students'? I don't work in the school system and my daughter hasn't reached the Chromebook stage yet - do they block Google so that students don't have access to the cloud? Thank you for the comment!
DeleteHi Libby,
ReplyDeleteGinger sounds like a wonderful tool to implement both within the regular classroom or resource classroom to assist students who struggle with reading. I like the fact Ginger offers a rephrasing tool as many students who struggle with reading have difficulty writing down their thoughts in a coherent manner and often do not catch errors when reading and writing. Since most students who struggle with reading have trouble fluently reading what they have written, the text to speech tool sounds like a great way for students to hear their own text and begin to recognize mistakes, as well.
Best,
Shanon Ashley
Shanon, I also felt that the rephrasing tool was a great idea - even for an adult without any struggles with reading sometimes having something rephrased can make you think about it in a different way or express yourself more clearly.
DeleteHi Libby,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing about Ginger! What a great tool and also wonderful that there is a free version to try before purchase. I thought it was interesting that students are able to practice common mistakes specific to them. As a classroom teacher my school district is constantly pushing individualized teaching in order to encourage the most growth out of students. Ginger would be a great tool for that purpose alongside the helpfulness of grammatical and spelling errors. Thank you for sharing!
Sincerely,
Rachelle Swearingen
Rachelle, I also loved the free version! I feel like all apps and programs (especially ones that could be used in schools or with kids...) should have an option to test it for free. If we can try out Hulu and Netflix for a month for free, surely we should be able to test out something that could actually help children with learning struggles before purchasing it.
DeleteLibby,
ReplyDeleteThis was a wonderful read! I had never heard of Ginger. As a former ELA teacher and a current literary specialist, I can see the value in this technology. Also, as someone who has taken OG courses to help with my struggling readers, I can see this adding an additional layer of support. I am sharing your blog with our curriculum coordinator/technology coach. I think this tech would be very helpful in our school, specifically in our three self-contained communication delayed classes, where many of them have an additional diagnosis of dyslexic tendencies. Thank-you for sharing this resource with us.
Sincerely,
Ashley Dawkins
Ashley, thanks so much for your comment! Hopefully this tool can hep some of your students!
DeleteGreat blog this week! As a former PBL teacher in a 1:1 environment, I can say I would have loved to have had Ginger in the classroom. I found your review of the app, as well as the information on other apps informative and useful. I am planning on installing Ginger on my school laptop to try it out. I hope to add it to my library's desktops!
ReplyDelete