As teachers, we know that it often seems almost impossible to get our students to read; and it is that no matter how hard we try, there is content that we must teach, that even for us can be boring, let’s be honest. Therefore, we are always looking for ways to make the class material as bearable as possible. Videos certainly help, but reading material is also necessary, so on this occasion, I bring you an alternative for those History Teachers who want to facilitate their students’ reading work: Woord‘s Text-To-Speech.
Technologies advance and many times it is difficult for us to adapt to them; whether due to lack of practice or prejudice, the truth is that many of us feel reluctant to incorporate audiobooks into the classroom space. However, investigating we find that listening to a book is also a form of reading. In fact, studies suggest that the parts of the brain that are stimulated by traditional and listening reading are almost identical. Of course, we should not think of replacing one with the other, but it is an interesting idea to familiarize ourselves with these new possibilities to use them in a complementary way.
What are Text-To-Speech Converters?
Text-to-Speech or TTS, are software that allow human speech to be produced artificially. This technology is capable of receiving a text in a variety of formats and reproducing it with a synthesized artificial voice. Depending on the Saas, a robotic metallic voice or a very natural one may be perceived. This is due to converting each text into phonemes being complex because many rules are involved, the combination of vowels and consonants, durations and intonations of the words, etcetera, so even though there are lots of TTS software out there, not all of them are equally developed.
However, there are high-quality Text-To-Speech programs that allow extremely natural and pleasing results to the ear, even for free. In fact, the problem is not the lack of offer of TTS applications with high sound quality, but how to search efficiently. For this reason, here we will mention one of the most complete and free access options that have worked wonders for us: Woord.
Woord: A Great Text-To-Speech Option For History Teachers
Woord is a free Saas that works with TTS natural voices. It is available in more than 20 languages and has different dialects and accents for them. In addition, it allows you to choose if you want the AI voice to be male, female, or gender-neutral. Of course, the uses of Woord are not limited to this, but it is a great strategy for education and E-learning. You can also use this tool for study, business use, or audio editing. Its SSML editor allows you to generate more realistic audio and is available in both the free version and the paid subscription version.
Between its simple and intuitive interface and the quality of the audio it produces, this tool can facilitate both your work as an educator and the study task of the students.
How To Use Woord
Woord‘s interface is designed in a simple way to be intuitive for the user. Regardless of whether or not you have experience creating voiceover with this kind of software, with these simple steps you will be able to generate quality audio for your tutorials:
- Before anything else, go to https://www.getwoord.com/guest/upload
- Once you are on Woord, choose the format of the file of the text. Woord supports pdf, txt, doc(x), pages, odt, ppt(x), ods, non-DRM epub, jpeg, png.
- Then, select or drag your files.
- Next, press the “Import Scan or Photo” button.
- Below the file, the transcription will appear in an editor that you can modify to your liking.
- Almost to finish, select the gender of the voice and the device on which the audio will be played.
- Finally, it only remains to hit the “Speak it!” button and download the MP3 file.
If you found this interesting, check out these articles…
How Text-To-Speech Aids Visually Impaired Students
Teachers: Take Care Of Your Voice With Text-To-Speech
Also published on Medium.