Kurzweil 3000 Expands Content Sources, ELL Support -- THE Journal

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Kurzweil 3000 Expands Content Sources, ELL Support

By Evan Tassistro
08/03/10

Kurzweil Educational Systems, a unit of Cambium Learning Group, has released an update to Kurzweil 3000 12 for Windows. The software, designed for grade 3 through 12 student reading and writing improvement, now includes expanded licensing options for both standalone and network usage.

Built around a text reader displaying words and sentences in contrasting colors, Kurzweil 3000 reads text aloud and includes vocabulary development, comprehension, study skills, and writing support tools. The software, aimed in part at helping struggling students and readers with learning disabilities, supports response to intervention (RTI) tiers and is designed around the principles of UDL (Universal Design for Learning), which call for multiple means of instruction in the learning process.

The latest release, which can read Web content from Internet Explorer and translate text via Google Translate, now features enhanced integration with content sources including NIMAS, Daisy 2 and 3, MathML, bookshare.org, IE 7 and 8, and documents in PDF format. English language learner (ELL) support includes a picture dictionary for associating images with words in English and Spanish and bilingual pronunciation of words for read text. In addition to standalone usage on a single computer, the platform can also now be deployed as a cluster of multiple users in a server-client relationship.

Kurzweil 3000 12 runs on Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7, and single-user licenses are priced at $1,495 for the Professional color product, $1,095 for Professional black and white, and $395 for LearnStation. The color version, for which a free 30-day trial is available, allows document scanning in full color. Black and white restricts scanning to grayscale, while LearnStation users may only view previously scanned documents. Pricing for the network version is variable depending on total number of users. A USB option is also planned.

Further details can be found here.

About the Author

Evan Tassistro is a freelance writer based in San Diego, CA.

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