Reading is a
task students are expected to learn in their early elementary years and develop
throughout their lifetime. Speed-reading is a skill one needs to develop that
can prove to be very useful in life. “However, speed reading should never come
at the expense of your comprehension and although it might sound hard at the
start but it does get better and better with practice.”
In this day and
age where books are becoming more and more uncommon in classrooms, embracing
technology and its resourceful tools is the best way to prepare students for
what is to come. With these following apps, students will be able to work on
their speed-reading skills through “spritzing” (reading text one word at a time
in Sprtiz Inc. “redicle,” a special visual frame designed for reading) while
familiarizing themselves with today’s technology. Here are a few of the apps
listed on the site:
Rapid Reader ($2.99) is an app that will flash one
word at a time before your eyes at 40 different speeds. “Spritz provides a
reticle at the ideal position in a word to allow your mind to comprehend each
word despite seeing it for only a fraction of a second.” It will improve your speed-reading
up to 1000 words per minute while maintaining or improving your current
comprehension
Acceleread Speed Reading Trainer is a free app that is personalized to
your current reading level and how you can improve your reading effectiveness.
It is customizable to needs and goals to help you stay on target. Includes quizzes
to track the improvement. Such results have been seen as little as in ten days.
QuickReader (a free version as well as one for
$4.99) uses the same proven speed-reading technique taught to millions of
people all around the world. And learning it is easy. You simply read along as
QuickReader guides you through the text, automatically training you to read
faster. Want to go quicker? With a couple of taps the guide speeds up… and soon
you’re reading twice as fast as before.”
I downloaded the
free apps for myself to try. Even as an adult, there is no harm in improving
the speed of your reading as well as how to best comprehend what you have read.
With all the articles and books we are assigned, these are apps we all should
try. There were a couple more apps listed, but I do not see why anyone would
need to purchase such apps when the free ones work so well and have such high
ratings. Save yourself (and your school) money and download the free tools.
Ed Tech Team. "The Best Teacher
Apps for Learning Speed Reading ~ Educational Technology and Mobile
Learning." The Best Teacher Apps for Learning Speed Reading ~
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. N.p., 19 June 2015. Web. 19
June 2015.
<http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/06/the-best-teacher-apps-for-learning.html>.
Becca, I partially chose to read and comment on this post because, for a long time, I’ve been interested in exploring some speed-reading programs/techniques, but I’ve never pursued it. It’s all about practice, as you say: “However, speed reading should never come at the expense of your comprehension and although it might sound hard at the start but it does get better and better with practice.” In the last sentence, if you substitute “fast execution” for “speed reading,” and substitute “musicianship” for “comprehension,” every professional musician will nod in agreement with this prescribed formula. Personally, I do believe that nearly everyone can read faster if they practice.
ReplyDeleteYour article brought to mind an interesting thought: it seems that speed-reading transcends the medium itself. I believe that processing and interpreting words/text is greatly affected by the medium itself. If I read from a book and take notes in the margin; this is a totally different experience from reading from a website. Books are easier to me in many respects – I can flip back and forth between ideas more easily just by leaving my finger wedged into a certain space/place. On a computer, reading something can be easier just due to the control-f feature. You can find individual words lighy-years faster on a webpage than you can with you eyes scanning paper. But, when it comes to just reading through text in an old-fashioned, linear fashion, the speed at which one reads is not affected by medium. Actually, maybe I am wrong – when I read political articles online, often there are distractions: gimcrack graphics, and/or titles, and pictures off to the side that try desperately to lure me into clicking on: “17 Celebrities That You Didn’t Know Who Use Their Toothbrush Backwards Right Before The Oscar Awards.” This stuff definitely slows me down! But this is not the aspect I’m focusing on. It seems like, whether reading from a book/paper or reading via a computer screen, reading faster will (with comprehension) always help, no matter what. You can cover more ground in the same amount of time – this seems like a benefit, always, independent of whichever medium one reads from.
Thanks for sharing. This year I read quite a few books, articles, etc. Many times I thought to myself, “I wish I could read faster than this!” I’ll make a note of these programs, and will definitely be checking them out after our summer course is finished.
Becca, This article sounds very interesting. I am always amazed at how quickly some people can read and comprehend what the are reading. My wife for example seems to read so fast sometimes! I can never keep up it seems, when we are reading an article at the same time. I have always just thought this was just more of a natural skill so it is very fascinating that they are creating apps and programs to help develop peoples' speed reading skills. This is definitely something I will have to look into. Especially with the amount of reading I will doing in my future! It hasbeen a pleasure working with you this session and best of look in your future!
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