Written by the Kurzweil Blog Team

Individualized Learning with Tech Customization

Different learners need different tools, not to mention learners can become different types of learners over time. With this diverse reality, you need an offering that can be shaped and tailored to work for a specific type of user as well as an evolving user.

That’s why kurzweil 3000 (k3000) is easily customizable, delivering the ability to best address the style that is preferred by the user. Whether you are teaching a class for postsecondary struggling learners with learning differences like ADHD, or you have a young K-12 ELL class your toolbar can be easily customized to create an interface that best matches your learner’s needs.

Instead of buying one literacy product for ELL, a separate solution for ADHD, a different solution for older struggling students and one for younger ones – all different literacy styles can be addressed by customizing the interface toolbars and icons for your learners liking. It’s very easy to do with the new interface and toolbar options are prepopulated with popular options – making the process a breeze.

There are over 14 toolbar shortcuts in Kurzweil 3000
There are already quite a few toolbars ready to support a specific need in k3000, some of which are listed below. These are not only great shortcuts but are good starting points to make additional tweaks for learners.

• Content Reading
• Document Preparation
• Fluency Training
• Language Learning
• Research
• Study Skills Training
• Test Preparation AND Test Taking
• Vocabulary Building

Adapt the Technology to Grow with Learners

Modifying the tools that can be applied to a specific type of learner is just the start. For growing learners who may use different tools now than when they began the program months ago, is also important. When a student starts off using our solution in the most basic of ways, just as a reader, one would think it would be hard to measure progress and success. Customization allows the user to grow as a learner and grow their usage of the solution—allowing them to do more things. This is evident when learners increase their reading speed. They may start off with the reading speed at a slow pace, needing words to be read very slowly. But as they gain more proficiency in following the dual highlighters, they may speed things up to read at a faster pace. This is just a most basic example of how the customizability of the tools in Kurzweil 3000 can evolve around know-how. While not directly literacy software, we found a study that looked at customization in word processors—a surprising 92% of the participants in this study did some form of customization of the software. The maximum number of changes made by a participant was 54. The mean was 9.1. This reinforces the importance of being able to customize literacy software to your liking.

Here’s a Step-by-step Guide on Customizing Kurzweil 3000

Schools interested in optimizing curriculum access for students who require reading intervention and writing aids or for those who struggle with conventional print-based curriculum can also benefit from the customization.
Students will also appreciate how the Kurzweil 3000 tabs and icons can be tailored to their personal reading and writing needs. With features such as highlighters in personalized colors working with an Extract Notes feature, user customization is very robust.

Are you ready to take it for a spin?

Sign-up for a 30-day free trial or contact us for a guided tour.