Have you ever felt “frozen” or stuck when needing to write a paper? Not knowing where to start? What ideas go together? What order to put your ideas in? Should you figure out what ideas go together first, or what order to put those ideas in? Do all your ideas need to be included? How long does your paper need to be? Do you have enough ideas? …………… Cue the frustration, and ultimately, procrastination. 🙁

Graphic organizers… Flow charts… Mind maps… Infographics… Idea maps… These are visuals that help organize your thoughts, and organize all of the information that might be stuck in your brain. And guess what?! Kurzweil 3000, that text-to-speech program available to students for free, that program we like to rave about on the blog? Yeah, Kurzweil 3000 has Graphic Organizers built-in just waiting to help you out!

Graphic organizers can help you to organize your thoughts, group ideas together, develop a flow to your paper, or even be repurposed to help you develop a timeline or a plan to help keep you on track. Kurzweil has different templates available for you to use – simply open up a template and plunk in your ideas. Better yet, you can edit the template to add (or remove) blank sections, or even create your own graphic organizer from scratch!

But, rather than just read our blog post about how amazing and helpful Graphic Organizers in Kurzweil are, why not watch a demo video?

Video: Kurzweil Education, Graphic Organizers

Note: Graphic Organizers are available in both Windows and Mac desktop versions of Kurzweil (not the ReadTheWeb extension), they just may look slightly different than in this video.

…and if you don’t know what Kurzweil 3000 is (we promise to not take offense), but would encourage you to check out these resources on this amazing (and totally free) toolbox of supports.

Webpage: RRC Polytech, Kurzweil 3000

Webpage: Tech Tips Blog Post, Kurzweil 3000

Are you a OneNote user and want to learn how to quickly take text and convert it into a bullet or numbered list? How to quickly create a table? How to quickly move rows of information up or down in a table? How to link information from one page to another to quickly navigate through your notebook? Or how to organize your notebook with quick shortcuts?

Hopefully you noticed the quick/ly trend as this week’s Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog post is… well it’s not our blog post, it’s a post to encourage you to check out “Top Eight Tips for OneNote” from the “Nano Tips for Using Microsoft Office with Mike Tholfsen” LinkedIn Learning Course. In this video you’ll (quickly) learn how to (quickly):

1. Add bullets / create a bullet list
2. Add numbers to create a numbered list
3. Create a table
4. Move rows of information up or down in a table
5. Create a link to a page in your (One)Notebook
6. Create subpages
7. Bulk create pages
8. Record audio (though remember, audio recording of lectures may not be used without instructor permission or an approved accommodation through Accessibility Services)

BONUS! Here’s a ninth tip on how to “Copy Text From Picture in OneNote” (also from “Nano Tips for Using Microsoft Office with Mike Tholfsen”).

Not a LinkedIn user? No problem! As a student at the College you have access to courses through LinkedIn Learning (like the one linked above). All you need to do is sign in from the LinkedIn Learning icon in your HUB account.

Not (currently) a OneNote user, but interested in learning more? Check out our previous Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog post on OneNote!

As we are just about to head into Reading Week for some of our programs, we thought we’d do a special post highlighting some common reading difficulties, and the features that Kurzweil 3000 and Immersive Reader have to support these experiences. …and remember, both Kurzweil 3000 and Immersive Reader are freeeeeee!

Experience: do you find that when reading, you sometimes read words from multiple lines, reading from one line, then jumping up or down lines, and continuing reading? Then at the end having read a sentence that doesn’t quite make sense?

Kurzweil Support: when choosing audio options try the reading unit of line. With this setting, Kurzweil will highlight the line of text it is reading aloud, giving you a visual cue of what is being read.
Video: Text-To-Speech Audio Options (Desktop)
Note: the line reading unit is not available in ReadTheWeb

Immersive Reader Support: try out the line focus setting in Immersive Reader (which is available in almost all applications with Immersive Reader). This setting will focus on either 1, 3, or 5 lines of text at a line, and darken the other lines of text above or below, making it more difficult for you to read from other lines.
Webpage: Use Line Focus in Immersive Reader

Experience: do you find that when reading you skip words, or guess/makeup words you don’t know? If this is you, take a moment to access the built-in dictionaries of Kurzweil and Immersive Reader!

Kurzweil Support:
Video: Dictionaries in Kurzweil 3000 (Desktop)
Video: Picture and Talking Dictionaries in Kurzweil 3000 (Desktop)
Note: only the desktop and online versions of Kurzweil have the picture dictionary (all versions have a regular and talking dictionary).

Immersive Reader Support:
Webpage: Immersive Reader Picture Dictionary

Immersive Reader also has built-in grammar tools to either split words into syllables, or highlight nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs!
Webpage: Text Preferences in Immersive Reader (Edge) (scroll halfway down the page)

Experience: do you find that when reading you can’t always tell where one word begins and ends, or which letters are a part of which words? Sometimes combining two separate words and reading it as one?

Immersive Reader Support: turn on the text spacing option under text preferences (this feature is available in virtually all Microsoft products with Immersive Reader), to increase the amount of spacing between words, potentially making it easier to read.
Webpage: Text Preferences in Immersive Reader (Edge) (scroll to just about halfway down the page)

Kurzweil Support: Kurzweil does allow for users to increase or decrease page zoom, but doesn’t have a specific setting to adjust spacing in-between words.

Experience: is reading in English difficult because you’re translating in your head from another language you are more comfortable with?

Kurzweil Support: Kurzweil has both translation and reading language features, available in all versions on Kurzweil.
Video: Language Options in Kurzweil (Desktop)
Video: Language Options in Kurzweil (Online)

Immersive Reader Support: translation is available in all online platforms of Microsoft products with Immersive Reader.
Webpage: Translation in Immersive Reader (Edge) (scroll to the bottom of the page)

Experience: do you find that reading black text on white paper (or screens) is difficult, or gives you headaches? Or are certain fonts, or font sizes easier to read for you?

Kurzweil Support: in the desktop version of Kurzweil, adjust the background color, or written text color to ones that are easier for you to read. Generally speaking, softer shades of green, blue or purple can be easier on the eyes.
Video: Change Background and Written Text Color in Kurzweil (Desktop)

In the desktop or online versions of Kurzweil, you increase the page zoom to increase font size.
Video: Zoom Settings in Kurzweil (Desktop)
Video: Zoom Settings in Kurzweil (Online)

Immersive Reader Support: in the text preferences of Immersive Reader, you can adjust font size, text spacing, text column size, and page themes (background colors).
Webpage: Text Preferences in Immersive Reader (Edge) (scroll to just about halfway down the page)

Keep in mind that Immersive Reader, and the features outlined in this blog, are available in various MS Office applications such as Word, Outlook, OneNote, Edge and Teams (just to name a few). To find out which applications have Immersive Reader, or where you can access certain features, please visit the below link.
Webpage: Immersive Reader Product & Features Guide

…And if you want to learn more about these amazingly free resources, check out our past blog posts highlighting each of them:

• Blog Post: Kurzweil 3000 – FREE Software
• Blog Post: Immersive Reader

Ever finish writing an essay or research paper and dread the thought of having to complete the bibliography? Or find that you lose your train of thought when you build your reference list as you work on your paper? …or just want to use technology to make your (school) life easier? Tech Tips understands and we’ve got you covered!

RefWorks is an application available to students through the Library and Academic Services department. This application simplifies the process of research, collaboration, data organization, and writing by providing an easy-to-use-tool for citation, bibliography, and reference management. Better yet, it’s already incorporated into Office!

To get started, the Library and Academic Services department has tons of information available on their website to help you become familiar and comfortable using RefWorks:

• Getting started with RefWorks, including reference, instruction and success guides
  Webpage: RRC Polytech, Getting Started with RefWorks
• Step-by-step instructions on how to create an account
  Webpage: RRC Polytech, Create an Account
• How to add references from OneSearch, PDFs, webpages, and other citation applications
  Webpage: RRC Polytech, Add References
• How to use RefWorks in your papers, including tools like the RefWorks Citation Manager, which is the version of RefWorks incorporated into Office that allows you to create your in-text citations and a reference list while working on your paper
  Webpage: RRC Polytech, Using RefWorks
• How to keep yourself, and your references, organized with RefWorks
  Webpage: RRC Polytech, Get Organized with RefWorks

Clicking on links and reading pages of information not working for you? Again, we understand, and the Library and Academic Services Team has already put together an online recording and slide presentation that are available for you to view at your own pace.

• Video: RefWorks Presentation
• Google Slides: RefWorks Presentation Slides

Want to connect with someone directly for RefWorks support? No problem! You can visit in-person at the Notre Dame Campus, room CM43, email rwoodby@rrc.ca, or call 204.631.3424.

Thanks to the Library and Academic Services department for taking the time to share this amazing (and FREE) resource!

P.S. They have so many other resources available and listed on their website!

Immersive Reader is a free set of tools developed by Microsoft built into the latest versions of Word, OneNote, Outlook, Teams, and Edge (among other applications). If you are one of the many, who finds reading or retaining information when reading difficult, Immersive Reader may be for you!

Let’s unpack each of the tools that are a part of Immersive Reader…

Read Aloud

Is a tool that audibly reads text on a page (it reads it aloud 😊). In the Read Aloud tool you can navigate through the text, skipping to only the most important information, or re-reading (re-playing) key pieces of information, and you can also adjust the voice options, changing the readers’ voice or slowing down/speeding up the reading pace.

Text Preferences

Text preferences allows you to adjust the text, including text size, text spacing, column size and page themes.

• Adjusting text size to either increase small and difficult to see fonts, or decrease large fonts to better fit on your screen
• Adjusting text spacing increases the white space between words, which can improve reading comprehension and speed
• Page themes allows you to choose from a variety of page and text colors, which can reduce the experience or severity of eye strain from computer use

Grammar Tools

Is designed to support reading comprehension by allowing you to split words into syl·la·bles, as well as highlighting parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Reading Preferences

Features settings designed to support visual tracking, comprehension and memorization.

• Line focus allows you to highlight a set number of lines at a time, this can be useful if you experience difficulties with visual tracking, or find that you often lose your place while reading
• Picture dictionary brings up a basic image of many of the words in your text, which may help with word comprehension, and may also support memorization in more visual learners
• Translate changes all of the text on the page into another language, supporting individuals to read and understand text not in their main language

Why should I use Immersive Reader?

Immersive Reader allows each individual to customize their reading experience to better match their learning styles, preferences and needs.

…but wait… Immersive Reader, Kurzweil 3000… which is better?

Neither! They’re both awesome! …so why highlight two resources that are the same? While Immersive Reader and Kurzweil 3000 are similar, they are not exactly the same as each resource has features that the other does not. For example, Kurzweil 3000 allows you to highlight and extract important pieces of information, while Immersive Reader has additional reading preferences and grammar tools that Kurzweil 3000 does not. Kurzweil 3000 also goes beyond reading supports with writing and study supports built-in as well. Keep in mind, both are FREE resources, and there is nothing wrong with using both!

• Webpage: RRC Polytech, Kurzweil 3000
• Webpage: Tech Tips Blog Post, Kurzweil 3000

Resources:

• Webpage: Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge
• Webpage: Immersive Reader in Word
• Webpage: Immersive Reader for OneNote
• Webpage: Immersive Reader in Microsoft Teams
• Webpage: Immersive Reader in Outlook
• Webpage: Languages Supported by Immersive Reader

Did you know that Red River College Polytechnic offers the latest version of Office 365 applications such as Word, PowerPoint and OneNote, free of charge to students? True story!
Webpage: RRC Polytech, Microsoft Office 365

Now with that being said, Tech Tips wants to highlight a powerful tool within Office 365 – OneNote. For those unfamiliar with OneNote, think of it as a digital 3-ring binder. Take notes, edit your notes, use Immersive Reader to listen to your notes, add in images and visual content, and more, across all of your courses, throughout your program. No more carrying around multiple paper notebooks and heavy binders or forgetting your notebook at home.

OneNote has so many great features built into it that we cannot possibly cover it all in one blog post. So, to start, we are going to look at the basics of OneNote: what is OneNote, creating notebooks, and taking notes.

Step #1 – What is OneNote?
Webpage: What is OneNote (video and text descriptions)

Step #2 – How do you take notes in OneNote?
Webpage: Taking Notes with OneNote (video and text descriptions)

Step #3 – Formatting your notes
Webpage: Format Notes in OneNote (video and text descriptions)

Think of this as a start to exploring all that OneNote has to offer. We’ll be back in the coming weeks to look into more of the amazing features that OneNote, and other Office 365 applications have.

(One)Note: while OneNote does allow for audio recording, this feature may not be used without instructor permission or an approved accommodation through Accessibility Services.

Welcome 2023! We hope you all had a restful, relaxing, and enjoyable holiday season. To returning students, welcome back! To new students, we are happy to have you join

For those of you who are new to the Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog post, our goal here is to show you different technologies, or different ways of using technology, to make your academic life easer.

To start off the new year and the new term, we’d like to take a look back at our posts from 2022 (that’s what are the cool blog posts are doing these days, right?!):

• Kurzweil 3000 – is FREE software primarily designed as Text-To-Speech (read-aloud technology), but also many other features built-in to support writing, comprehension and studying
• Brightspace Pulse – is a FREE app developed by the same company that developed the LEARN platform. This app communicates with LEARN and helps you organize and remember important dates across all your classes
• Accessibility Features of WebEx – this blog post focuses on user-enabled accessibility features built-into WebEx, a web conferencing platform used by many programs within the college
• The Academic Success Centre did a take-over of the Tech Tips blog and highlighted two very important technology resources they have available to students:
  • Technology Literacy Module
  • Tech Peer Tutors
• Pomodoro & Forest – this blog post offers a suggestion to support students with the ever-increasingly difficult task of time management. But, with a fun spin that can lead to trees being planted in the real world!

As for this year, who knows what the tech tips blog will explore! Voice dictation? Immersive reading? Bionic reading? Fonts designed for specific disabilities? Apps for mental health? Citation technology? Website blockers? The possibilities are (quite literally) endless!

Have an idea for a tech tips blog post? We’d love to hear from you! Please email your ideas to eament@rrc.ca.

What is Read&Write?

Read&Write (also known as R&W), is an application available (for free) to all staff and students at Red River College Polytechnic. Features in the application support learners with reading, writing, studying, and more!

Main Features

This page will be expanded as we introduce all of the features of R&W and develop resources for them. For now, here are the main features being introduced: 

Reading

One of the main features of R&W is its ability to read digital text, both off of a file on your computer, or off of the internet, aloud. Simply click on the text you want read and hit play! You can even adjust how content is read to best suit your needs. R&W supports comprehension of the content you are reading in quite a few different ways:

Highlighters

While R&W is reading, use the built-in highlighters to emphasize important information, information that you want to review, or definitions of important terminology (just to name a few examples). Once you are done highlighting, you can export those highlights into a separate document, creating yourself a study guide personalized for you!

Dictionary

R&W has both a dictionary and a picture dictionary built right in, allowing you to generate both a text and image-based definition of a word you may not know (and you can even have R&W read that definition aloud to you!). 

Translate

The translation feature allows you to take text and translate it into another available language, and most translated text may also be read aloud in the new language!

Accessing R&W

We’d suggest that you self-enroll in the Read&Write Introduction Course in LEARN. This course will walk you through installing R&W and familiarize you with how to use it to support your studies.

No time to take the LEARN Course?

You can go through the R&W Deployment Guide which will ask you to confirm how you are setting up and accessing R&W:

• On the first page, select “I don’t have a product code”
• On the second page (Products), select Read&Write” and then select all the platforms you want to use R&W on
• On the third page (Licenses), select “Unlimited”
• On the fourth page (Authentication), select “Microsoft 365”
• On the last page, download the products listed in the “Download Products” section (do not download anything from the other sections!)

The Tech Tips Team is back, and before we dive into our next blog post, we wanted to extend a warm welcome to the Academic Success Centre for sharing some of the tech resources available for students!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming! This week we’d like to talk about something we all struggle with at some level – do you need help with staying on task?  Do you get anxiety thinking about deadlines or due dates? Wonder if you are working on the right task at the right time? Or need a little extra motivation when it comes to completing your schoolwork?

You are not the only one! Students these days have more demands and obligations on their shoulders than ever before, and sometimes even deciding what to do can be the biggest hurdle.

So what’s the solution? Well, do you like video games? Or trees? (Yes, we’re still in the same blog post…)

Forest is a fun app built off of the Pomodoro Technique. The Pom-oh-door-oh-what?… The Paa-muh-daw-row Technique. This technique structures your time into smaller chunks of work and break periods, with the thought that it is easier to focus for a short period of time, rather than a longer period of time. Knowing at the end of that work cycle you get a break, also helps motivate you to stay on task during the work cycle. It can be less overwhelming to break your day into short work cycles and stack them on top of one another, than to think about working all day long. The goal is for solid focused work, even in short periods – it’s the quality of your work that matters, not necessarily the quantity (amount of time).

…and if that didn’t sound good enough on its own, let’s throw Forest into this mixture for success.

Forest is an app available for both android and iOS, as well as a web extension, that takes the Pomodoro Technique, and gamifies it! When you start a work cycle, you plant a seed. As your work cycle progresses, your seed grows. If you successfully complete your work cycle, your tree is planted into your (wait for it) Forest! The more successful work cycles you complete, the more trees you plant, the more trees you plant, the more coins you get, which can be used to buy different tree seeds to plant.

Not into growing a digital forest, but like the idea behind the app? What if we told you that instead of using your coins to buy different tree seeds, that you could spend those coins to plant real trees?!?! Now not only are you using the Pomodoro Technique to help motivate you and keep you on track, but you’re having fun while doing it, and making a positive impact in the real world!

Forest has both freemium and premium platforms available, meaning you can give it a try before you spend any of your hard-earned (real-world) coins on it!
Webpage: Forest, Chrome Web Extension
Webpage: Forest, App Store Download
Webpage: Forest, PlayStore Download

Note: this will be our last Tech Tips blog post for the 2022 year. Thank you to all who have read and supported the blog!

ASC here again! We haven’t given up our takeover of the Tech Tips blog just yet!

Last post we talked about the Technology Literacy Module. Maybe you enrolled and worked through the course, but are finding you are still in need of some tech supports? Never fear, the ASC is here!

Did you know you can book an appointment with a Tech Peer Tutor for individualized help with navigating your online courses? (Hint, the answer is yes!)

Tech Peer Tutors can help you familiarize yourself with a specific College application and help you gain the basic-foundational tech literacy skills you need to be successful online.

To book an appointment with a Tech Peer Tutor, please visit Webpage: ASC, Supports for Students – Tech Peer Tutors