ICT+and+the+Read-Write+Learner

toc =The read/write learner= The Read/Write learners prefers to read the instructions or book rather than watching it or listening to it. These learners like:
 * Lists
 * Headings (structure)
 * Notes
 * Essays
 * Definitions, Dictionaries and glossaries
 * Textbooks, manuals, handouts and readings
 * Articulate teachers

Writing tools
Word processors are great tools for creating list, writing notes etc. It is also worth looking at the templates with in the products for brochures, certificates etc
 * Microsoft Word - this is the industry standard for word processing
 * StarOffice writer - this is a very good word processor and is free to teachers and students http://www.sun.com
 * OpenOffice.org
 * AbiWord
 * Pdfcreator
 * Primo-pdf
 * Adobe Acrobat
 * Inspiration and smartIdeas - while these are primarily brain storming, mind mapping tools they both have a outline view where the user can enter their key points and notes as a structured indented/tabbed list. This can be swapped back and forth between map and outline view

Glossary

 * Moodle - moodle has a very cool glossary module. I use this with course definitions. It took a little bit of work exporting a sample as XML and then mail merging the glossary into an XML format but much less than typing each in or cutting and pasting

Desktop Publishing
These tools make so many things that the read/write learner can use. Posters, brochures, newsletters, cards, booklets
 * Publisher - this is a good well used standard, lots of templates and easy to use
 * Serif pageplus SE - the SE version is free and if you can find it its worth having. It comes with downloadable packs of templates and is a serious and worthwhile DTP tool. http://www.serif.com
 * Quark express
 * Adobe Pagemaker

Planning

 * Task Coach - this is a project from Source forge. Worth a look http://taskcoach.sourceforge.net/
 * MS Journal
 * Outlook Calendar
 * First Class tasks and Calendar

Textbooks

 * Project Gutenberg - this is an incredible site. The Gutenberg project is digitising public domain works and making these available to everyone for free. Well worth a browse and your support.

RSS Feeds, Blogs and emails
Really Simple Syndication or RSS is now a basic feature of most browsers, but you will get better results by using either a feed aggregrater or an aggregator extension.
 * internet explorer 7.0
 * Firefox 2.0
 * Wizz RSS - news reader in Firefox
 * google mail - g-mail, hotmail....

Discussion boards, threaded discussions and forums
These products have threaded discussions.
 * Moodle
 * First class
 * LAMS
 * webCT
 * Blackboard
 * Wiki's and blogs with threaded discussions

Web Publishing.
This is another medium for the read/write learner to publish material
 * MS Frontpage
 * Adobe Dreamweaver
 * NVU - free and a good alternative to Frontpage.
 * Adsoft foxeditor - this is a free product
 * Moodle, First class, WebCT & LAMS - these tools (and of course many other LMS products) have a web publishing aspect to them that is woprth considering as a medium for the read/write learner
 * Blogs - so many different online blog sites, plus personal spaces like myspace

RSVP - Rapid Sequential Visual Presentation
This is a technique for increasing speed of reading. The technique is this:instead of having a page of text to read through, the RSVP tool shows you one word at a time in one spot - you focus on the one spot and can control the speed of sequence. Because of the single focus the rate at which you read increases. This tool set has its own page - RSVP

=Web 2.0 Tools=

So lets have a look at which web 2.0 tools lend themselves to this learning style. The mass of online productivity suites make the web a rich learning space for the read write learner.

Online productivity suites include
AjaxWriter is one of a growing array of online productivity tools Zoho has an extensive range of tools, many of which are free. Zoho Notebook (see below) is their online notetaking offering.
 * Google documents** – word processor and presentation tool – [|http://doc.google.com]
 * Zoho** - word processor, notebook and presentation tool – [|http://www.zoho.com]
 * thinkfree** word processor and presentation tool – [|http://www.thinkfree.com]
 * ajaxwrite** word processor and presentation tool – http://us.ajax13.com/en/ajaxwrite/



Dictionaries, glossaries etc
The visual dictionary – [|http://www.visuwords.com] is an excellent tool for the read write learner. Other online dictionaries include:
 * http://www.yourdictionary.com/
 * http://www.alphadictionary.com/index.shtml
 * http://www.m-w.com/
 * http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
 * http://dictionary.reference.com/

Wikimedia products
Wikimedia also has an extensive range of online resources for more information on the wiki foundation siies visit - wikimania on edorigami
 * **wikipedia** - [|http://www.wikipedia.com]
 * **wikiquote** - http://www.wikiquote.org/
 * **wikionary** -[| http://wiktionary.org/]
 * **wikibooks** - http://wikibooks.org/
 * **wikisource** - http://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Gutenberg Project
There are many many many subject and curriculum websites, but leading the pack for online books would be the gutenberg project, with over 20,000 public domain titles [|http://www.gutenberg.org]