Portable Touch Typing Tutor

Tipp 10 has been around for five years, and had over 1.4m downloads, in German. This month they launched the English version, which is Portable. That is, you can put it on a USB memory stick. looks good but I ahve not tried it yet. Also, it is available for Window, Mac and Linux!

Tipp 10 Typing Tutor

Free ebooks for kids

I was asked by a friend for ideas for free reading books for children. Here is a great website which lists many.

Free e-books

Grammar and spelling

Today somebody asked me for a recommendation of something free to use instead of Ginger Software, to help with their grammar and spelling. So I made a quick check on the internet, and I found Paper Rater. And while I am generally enthusiastic about most things, this was wonderful! It works differently, but I am sure it will do the job.

PaperRater

Balabolka

I was recently asked for a "Manual" for Balabolka. I could not find a really comprehensive one. But I did find these:

http://rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/MyStudyBar/balabolka_p1/balabolka_p1.html

http://rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/MyStudyBar/balabolka_p2/balabolka_p2.html

http://rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/MyStudyBar/balabolka_p3/balabolka_p3.html

http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/msb_word_tutorials/Balabolka.docx

List of Dyslexia Resources

That is it - No more, no less. Just a (good) long list.

70 Excellent links for dyslexia support

Webinar

Even thought I tend to use the newsletter now, I will keep you informed of other things that are going on here. So here is one. It is a webinar (a across between the web and a seminar) that I am doing on 24 Feb 2011, at 7pm UK time.

Assistive Technology – Why pay?
In a social model of dyslexia support, appropriate assistive technology would be supplied free to everybody, irrespective of the extend of their disabilities and the paperwork to support it. However, current policies provide money to the lucky few with little analysis of impact, productivity and value for money. Professor Ian Smythe shows that there is plenty of free software available, and often it is as good as the commercial versions. A dedicated web page with resources will be available after the talk.

http://training.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/events/351

Newsletter update

I will continue to feed information into this blog. But I am also starting a regular newsletter for all those interested in what is happening in the world of dyslexia. It is most about free resources that are available online, and mostly free. Please send me an email at ianssmythe@googlemail.com if you would like to be added to the mailing list.