Reading+Meets+Web+2.0+Phonemic+Awareness

**Phonemic Awareness 2.0**  Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the sounds in words work. Children need to understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes.

Phonemes are the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in the word's meaning. For example, changing the first phoneme in the word hat from /h/ to /m/ changes the word from hop to mop, and so changes the meaning. Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell than children who have few or none of these skills.  // Source: Technology Tools for Teaching Reading and What Happens When Web 2.0 Meets Reading 2.0? by Elizabeth Sessions Technology in Motion State of Alabama Department of Education //

Educators can use Web 2.0 tools to link oral language with emerging reading and writing skills.

Web 2.0 has made teaching phonemic awareness easy, interesting and fun. You'll notice in the list below that old standby applications such as PowerPoint and Word are mentioned and work in tandem with Web 2.0 tools. Technology has improved so much over the last 5 years that computers almost sound like humans. Quickly vanishing are the days of warped computer speech. **You don't believe me?** Take a look at the list free and simple tools below and try it out for yourself. 
 * Did you know you could make Word and PowerPoint talk?**

__Suggestion:__ Divide and conquer. Jigsaw, anyone? In your teams, have a team member or two check out and learn how to use one of tools then teach the tools to the rest of the gang! ** Kim's Tech Tips can use your help. Let me know which sites still work and which ones have expired. As you know, change is fast and furious on the I'net. **

Here's the list. Click on the underlined text to access the associated site  1. Record phonemic awareness activities and post to your website, blog or wiki with Vocaroo (It helps to create an account.) Vocaroo

2. Children can discover that words have sounds at vozMe they type words and then turn them into speech. Users can select a male voice, a female voice, and voices in different languages. Copy and paste text from Word and other applications and have VozMe read to your students. VozMe

3. Create a phonemic awareness Podcast with Audacity (perhaps Garage Band, which is already installed on our laptops will do the same)

4. Download PowerTalk and have PowerPoints read to students. (!!!!!) PowerTalk

5. Are you a podcaster worried about getting nabbed by the powers-that-be for using more than 10 seconds of royalty-dependent music? Access royalty-free music to add to your Podcast from FreePlay Music. What's more, there are heaps of different styles of music--acoustic guitar, rock, jazz, classical, Latin--and heaps of different feels--tension, heroic, mysterious, sad, uplifting--you name it. FreePlay Music

Incompetech (a curious name) offers a similar service Incompetech

6. Create your own music at JamStudio (Garage Band, which is already on our MacBooks works in a similar fashion) JamStudio

7. Use a traveling mp3 recorder and record your grandma (or grandpa, mothers, uncles, aunts etc) reading and create a podcast for the listening center.