Hi again, Richard! This is a continuation of my previous message to you:

[...] when using qedit I want my synthesizer to give
me punctuation spoken aloud because it may be crucial
to proper syntax for program code.

Uh-huh. Some folks say guys aren't detail oriented, but the guys I hang out with regard the punctuation of batch files as a serious matter. :-))

IF I'm using it to just read a textfile though I'll
shut it off.

Too bad you can't use Victor Borge's Phonetic Punctuation... [BEG].

still speech doesn't have that immediate connection
to the brain braille has.

Although I don't read Braille, I can relate as a clarinet player to the concept. Where speech does have an immediate connection to the brain it's probably not the literal meaning of the words which engages the audience. :-)

I can speed read and still comprehend using Braille,
synthesized speech, I'm limited to the rate at which
I can understand spoken words, if not a bit slower.

IOW, you find reading more efficient... just as I do. You can skim or scan the information in the owner's manual which you already know. You can slow down and/or re-read as necessary when you get to the more difficult bits. You can take a moment to stop & enjoy a particularly good turn of phrase or an amusing example of Chinglish. If you're reading for pleasure you can also use your imagination to understand how I'd read "Double, double, toil and trouble" to a group of fifteen-year-olds who considered me to be an old hag even when I wasn't much older than they were. Maybe it's type casting, but it works. ;-)

Other disadvantage: WHen doing something such as sitting
in a waiting room I don't want to be closed off from the
rest of the world as I would be with audio reading and
headphones, even one earbud is more cut off from the world
than I like to be.

Yes. When I'm sitting in a waiting room I play solitaire on one of Dallas's castoff pieces of hand-held electronic wizardry which is still usable as long as you don't mind too much if it reboots without warning & forgets all about what you've been doing for the last ten minutes. These games don't take up so much bandwidth that I'm not paying attention to my surroundings.... :-)

As a teacher I generally found a multi-sensory approach
most effective... i.e. the more connections one can
establish the better.

Always. IN fact, some of my arguments in other activities
is that we're too busy teaching to standardized multiple
guess tests than we are putting folks' hands on what is to
be learned. I get a bit frustrated with that <g>.

As do I. Some folks like standardized tests because they think the numbers are all that matters. Okay, so here is a question from a standardized oral test... "What are the colors of our country's flag?" The standardization was done in the US. Is it fair to expect elementary school students living in another country to figure out what was going on in the mind of the author(s) & respond accordingly?? I often felt similarly betrayed when I was a kid. Tell me what you see... I'll take the flak if it messes up the standardization! As I'm sure you realize, I'm not singling out Americans. What bothers me is that kids are rewarded for memorizing textbook answers & punished for noticing when the textbook disagrees with their own observations. I feel for the latter. I found myself under a lot of pressure as a teacher, however, to fill up my mark books with numbers. It didn't seem to matter to the folks who were evaluating me what the numbers really meant. Encouraging kids to think for themselves is much more challenging & the assignments take longer to mark. If others prefer the easy way out sometimes I can well understand the temptation... [wry grin].




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)