Learners can listen to learn by using turning text into an audio file. The Audio Maker tool in Read&Write for Google Chrome creates a speech to text MP3 file using text in a Google Doc or on a website. That file can then be played just like music or an audiobook. Click and drag to highlight the text to be turned into the MP3 file. Click the Audio Maker icon to create the file. A box will appear with a progress bar to show when the file is finished. To access the file, select the recent downloads button in the upper right hand corner of the browser window. The MP3 file can then be shared via Google Drive and listened to on any device where Google Drive is available. At the time of this blog post’s publication, Read&Write for Google Chrome is available to every student and teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools.
The Audio Maker tool of Read&Write for Google Chrome Creating Audio
I wonder if this might be a way to offer support to those students who need read-aloud but their teachers use lockdown browser, which blocks R&W. I think if we meld this with the Tools option in SGY assessments we could have a workaround! In a question, we could highlight the text, use R&W to make an audio file of it, then import the audio file in tools to put the audio version in. I just checked, and you can add audio files to questions and answer options in Assessments. That way a student who needs read-aloud could just click the premade audio file for each question & the options, instead of someone next to them reading.
NOTE: It does not seem to capture image alt text, unfortunately