16 Feb 2021
Kick-off the new year with some great tools to enhance literacy for teachers and students alike. Explore how Microsoft’s Learning Tools, Editor, Dictation and Transcription features can improve comprehension, literacy and overall communication skills.
Boost student literacy and writing
Have you tried the Immersive Reader, Editor, Dictate and Translate features in Word? These free features could boost your students’ reading, writing and their ability to engage with multimodal documents.
- Improve reading outcomes with Immersive Reader - enable learners regardless of age or ability with easy-to-use features that reduce visual crowding, highlight text, break words into syllables, read text aloud, and provide visual references
Strengthen writing with features like Dictation and Read Aloud, students can hear their writing read aloud providing them essential feedback to edit their work and clearly communicate their ideas to others
Optimise your classroom time - could these features help personalise your teaching?
Visit the Learning Tools support website.
Immersive Reader
Immersive Reader can help reading, writing and comprehension as well as build better accessibility in your classroom. Did you know that you can
Add space to reduce visual crowding
Change the colour of the background to make it easier to see the letters
Break down words into syllables
Highlight parts of speech
Use the narration feature to hear the text aloud and see highlighted words to follow along?
To view your content in Immersive reader, simply open your document the web version of Microsoft Word from Office.com, click the view tab and then Immersive Reader.
Editor
The Editor feature is powered by AI and gives you real-time feedback on your clarity, spelling and grammar. It supports formal, professional, or casual writing styles and is a fantastic tool to support assessments and staff documents.
NSW DoE teacher can access the essential Editor capabilities, such as spelling and basic grammar within Microsoft Word’s web application.
To view your content in Immersive reader. Open your document the web version of Microsoft Word from Office.com, open your document and click the editor tab on the right-hand side.
Dictate
This easy tool will change the way students (or teachers!) input and access information. Dictation lets you use speech-to-text to author content in Microsoft word using a microphone and reliable internet connection. It is a quick and easy way to get your thoughts out, create drafts or outlines, and capture notes and works for Word on the web, desktop and mobile versions! There are even verbal commands that can aid you when dictating, allowing you to control the document with your voice. You can find them here.
To start your dictation, open your document the web version of Microsoft Word from Office.com, open your document and click the ‘Dictate’ button on the right-hand side of the screen. The microphone will turn red to indicate you are dictating.
When you want additional assistance, simply open the Editor pane by clicking on the pen icon in the ribbon. Editor can analyse your writing and give you statistics on readability, distinct words, how long to speak and time needed to read the document.
Translate
Dictation supports several languages which can be found here.
The Transcribe feature converts speech to a text transcript, with each speaker individually separated. After your conversation, interview, or meeting, you can revisit parts of the recording by playing back the timestamped audio and edit the transcription to make corrections. You can save the full transcript as a Word document or insert snippets of it into existing documents.
Using the web version of Word will also allow you to transcribe up to 300 minutes of audio per month via a sound file, recorded voice file or even an MP4 video. This tool allows both teachers and students to create transcripts, scripts, and closed captions to support their work. To transcribe a document, use the drop-down menu under Dictate.
Find out more!
Visit the Microsoft Learning Tools support website
Go to the Immersive Reader support site
Visit the Microsoft Editor website
Don’t forget the Microsoft Support Site