Live Captioning on Google Slides as an Assistive Tool in the School Library

When I was considering assistive tools that would be useful for students in the school library, I tried to begin by first thinking about the learning activities I would lead with students, and then considering what types of tools would bring those activities more in line with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The readings and videos this week emphasized the advantages of inclusion and assistive technology and tools for all students, not just disabled students, and I wanted to use that framework as a way to evaluate potential options.

The activity I ultimately decided to examine was read-alouds. What kinds of tools could help students, both with and without disabilities, engage more actively with the librarian during a read-aloud? At my children's school, read-alouds in the classroom are often done by the teacher without any visual aids. In the library, the librarian often uses a projector so the students can also see the images and text, but the text isn't always easy to read due to glare, the contour of the pages, and other factors. 

To make this activity, which is one of my all-time favorites to do with students, more in line with UDL principles, I chose Google Slides Live Captions. A video giving an easy walk-through of how to use this is below: 



To use this tool, educators would need a laptop or other device connected to a projector. They would then open Google Slides, and select a slideshow—this could be either a prepared slideshow that goes along with the book (perhaps one that includes illustrations from the book), or a simple title slide only. Select Slideshow mode, and then navigate to the bottom lefthand side of the screen, where you'll see three dots. Click the three dots, choose your position (top or bottom of the screen) and size (small to extra large) and then click Toggle Captions. This will turn on the Live Captioning feature and turn your spoken words into text on the screen. 

As long as you have Google Slides running on your device, the captioning will continue working—this is a really helpful aspect of this tool, as teachers or librarians can bring up other tabs, windows, or screens as needed during their read-aloud or other lesson. 

As many teachers, researchers, and others in the education field have noted, including Mx. Dreeszen Bowman in our introductory video to this module, captions aren't only for those who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Being able to read spoken words on a screen can help English language learners, students with auditory processing issues, and students who learn better visually. Live captioning can be used to support the learning of new vocabulary across the content areas, from social studies and science to reading, writing and ELA. It can be used to support text analysis skill building, as well. 

While I can definitely see situations in which overuse of live captioning could become distracting, if used selectively in accordance with the needs of each particular group of students, it can be an extremely helpful tool. 

References

SETC Special Education Technology Center. (2023, Sept. 5). Live captioning with Google Slides (turn on closed captioning!) [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eYczehSsMA

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