While many of the tools on the other sections can be used to assist learners with specific needs, the collection of tools on this page are those that I believe may be particularly useful for those with learning dificulties

1. Wordahead - This tool gives a short animated film to explain each word. The dictionary they have created is excellent if a little limited (apprx 600 words so far). I did find the words to be quite difficult although you can upload your own videos and this in itself may make an interesting lesson. There is also a flashcard revision tool. The widget below gives you an idea of what the site can do.



2. Writing Fix - The website decribes itself as, "interactive prompts, lessons, and resources designed for teachers, students, and--most importantly--lifelong writers." The site does include some interactive tools although I think the real strenght of the site is the information it provides and the sample lessons.

3. Weboword - Similar idea to Wordahead except the words are represented by drawing rather than animations. You can post your own drawings to the site to extend the dictionary. Alternatively you could use a drawing tool such as sumopaint,imagination cubed or one of the cartoon creators to make pictures for uploading.

4. Vozme - This simple tool allows you to paste in a passage of text and have it converted into a speech file. This could be used to read information from a website or perhaps to work out how a word should be pronounced. It supports a number of languages and can be added to a website or inserted into your toolbar. There are a number of such tools available and they have certain limitations. However, the tools hold out great promise for the future.

5. Visual Dictionary - This is a more professsional approach to word learning and is part dictionary/part encyclopedia. There is also a game on the site to learn the meaings of words and the site currently claims to have some 20,000 words.

6. Ghotit - This is a Dyslexia Literacy assistant which is part spell check/part thesaraus. In essence it highlights words that appear to be wrong and by clicking on them it suggests correct spellings. Simple and works well. There is a downloadable or free online version. It also includes a text to speech function so you can check the sentence says exactly what you think it should.

7. Grammar Ninja - Do your students find it difficult to tell their nouns from their verbs? Then this tool is for you. It takes the form of a game so makes the process a bit more fun, it can be played online or downloaded. In addition, there are different levels of play to suit the beginner or expert.


8. One More Story - This is basically an on-line book store stocked with children's books (seems to be targeted towards younger children). I have included it here because a number of the extra features may be of interest to Learning Support teachers. Students can have the books read to them or alternatively switch the audio off to read themselves. They can then click on a word to hear its pronounication if they are struggling. There is also a listening comprehension test with the results available to teachers. It is a subscription service and costs $1 per student per year with a minimum of $110 per year.

9. Lingro - Excellent idea for students who find surfing difficult because they don't understand the words on a page. Simply type in the address of the website you wish to view and Lingro makes every word clickable. If a student clicks on the word a definition comes up. There are other feautures within the site so certainly worth a look!

10. Mingoville - There are a large number of language learning sites on-line. This site, however, focuses on learning English. It combines a virtual world with social networking and interactive games and there is a paid version which has additional functions. It may be of interest to those teachers looking to improve their students English language skills.

11. Scribblenauts - This is a game for the Nintendo DS rather than an online tool but I thought it would be worth bringing it to your attention. In essence you are set a series of puzzle and control the character on screen by typing instructions. So for example if an object is in a tree and you type ladder, a ladder will appear to enable you to climb up to the object. I am sure it would encourage even the most reluctant of writers to have a go.



12. Babblewithme - This is a difficult tool to categorise but I will put it here for the meantime. In essence it is an automatic language translation tool which allows people who speak different languages to communicate. You type in using your own language and it should be automatically translated into one of 45 different langauages. No doubt it won't work perfectly but the idea is very appealing to those of us who struggle with foreign languages.