A single portable and light weight device, Connect & Learn is the newest way for low vision learners to access the curriculum. Unlike many specialist VI devices, Connect & Learn centres around a popular mainstream Windows 10 tablet – Microsoft’s Surface Pro. SuperNova Magnifier comes included as standard, along with a large print wireless keyboard, a folding stand and a backpack.
Place the tablet on the stand and Connect & Learn acts as a digital magnifier. Place a document under the built in camera and students can: magnify the document, zoom in using their fingers on the touchscreen, add a colour scheme, rotate or lock the image. They can even save the image to add to their work or to explore again at home.
Choose the Connect & Learn package with SuperNova’s speech included and your student can tap the screen and hear the words on the document read aloud. And the scan and read feature is impressively accurate. Send the text to a Word document, move fingers to the keyboard and Connect & Learn becomes a Windows 10 laptop complete with SuperNova’s full set of magnification and colour enhancing tools.
Connect wirelessly to the interactive whiteboard and low vision learners, can ‘see’ and magnify the whiteboard. Again adjust colours, zoom in, take photos – Connect & Learn doesn’t need an extra & expensive camera that points at the board so your partially sighted student isn’t forced to sit at the front of the class. [We also know IT skills aren’t always readily available in school, so we’ve recently released a free whiteboard wizard download to help you connect to the whiteboard.]
As with all of Dolphin’s products, Connect & Learn gives direct access to browse and download from the RNIB Bookshare Education collection of more than 320,000 textbooks. [Contact the RNIB to get your school’s free login.]
There are also a couple of other Connect & Learn features that teachers tell us are worthy of note. The Surface Pro charger connects magnetically, so it’s super easy for partially sighted students to plug in the power. And the tablet weighs less than 2kg – so much lighter to move between classes than your typical VI solution. It’s also worth saying that because Connect & Learn is built on Windows 10 and uses MS Office products, students are developing their essential IT skills for life outside of school.
Connect & Learn is best summarised by a young VI gentleman I recently met in year 8 at secondary school in the Midlands. “With Connect & Learn I don’t feel different!”
Visit the Dolphin website to find our more or ask for more information about Connect & Learn or call on 01905 754577.
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- Featured in the Karten Winter 2019 Newsletter
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