OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology is always great to have in one’s back pocket, because it allows you to easily scan and digitize documents with just your smart phone. In past articles we have looked at both PrizmoGo and Microsoft Lens, and we consider them to be among the best OCR apps available right now.

However, there is another well-established OCR app that we haven’t talked about before, and that’s going to be the subject of today’s e-bulletin.

ABBYY Fine Reader is an AI-powered scanner designed to scan and capture paper documents, books, agreements, receipts, magazine articles, notes, recipes, charts, tables, slides, whiteboards, and even billboards on the street.

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Notetaking apps are helpful for a wide variety of individuals. Whether you are a student or a professional, there’s a good chance that at some point in your life you will need to take notes. And while I still prefer OneNote because of its Microsoft 365 integration, there are plenty of other notetaking apps worth considering.

Joplin is an open source note-taking app that can support a wide variety of multimedia types including images, videos, audio files, and more. Users can also create math expressions and diagrams directly in the app.

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Today we are joined by Steven Vine, host of The Disabilities Diaries Podcast.

Nine years ago Steven had an aneurysm that completely changed the trajectory of his life. He has had an incredible health journey so far, and his story is absolutely inspiring. It was such a pleasure to talk with him and learn more about the strategies he uses to stay mentally healthy and connected to the world around him.

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Today we are going to look at an early learning math app intended for students from ages three to six. Magrid is a language-free math app designed to be used by students from a variety of linguistic and academic backgrounds. It’s also designed to be approachable for students with diverse learning styles.

The app features a variety of visual spatial activities including mental rotation, mental folding, working memory, eye-hand coordination, geometry and pattern, and visual perception. There are also a variety of numerical exercises available including extended learning, number comparison, ordinality, quantity recognition, number mapping, and number recognition.

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We recently created a video comparing some of our favorite AI research tools. Soon after releasing the video, one of my colleagues mentioned a new AI research tool that had recently been released, and I have to say, I am thoroughly impressed by this app! So, without further ado, let’s explore another incredible AI research tool!

Google Notebook LM is a brand-new AI research tool based off Google’s Gemini 2.0 chatbot. As of right now, only the browser-based version of the app is available to try, but the mobile version of the app is coming soon. In fact, users can currently pre-register for the mobile version of the app through the Google Play store.

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While there are lots of ePub (electronic publication) and other digital book sharing apps out there already, sometimes you or your student might want to create your own digital book. Or perhaps your favorite book isn’t available in a digital or accessible format.

Book Creator is an ePub creator app that allows you to create and publish your own accessible content with ease!

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Today we are doing things a bit differently!

In our first-ever video episode we test the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of AI chatbots and research tools including ChatPDF, ChatGPT, AI Scholar, Google Scholar, and Claude. If you are looking for tips on how to research with AI more efficiently, then this episode is for you!

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Studying with flashcards has always been an effective way of preparing for tests. And now that this approach to learning has been “virtualized,” students with different learning styles can be more easily accommodated. Not only that, but many of these apps offer extensive libraries of user-created quizzes that can be accessed for free.

Quizizz is a free flashcard app for browsers and iPad that has a lot of great learning content to offer within one program. In fact, the app offers so much that I would consider it to be more of a “virtual learning platform” than a simple flashcard app. Of course, the app does offer flashcards, but it also offers full lessons, assessments, passages, and interactive videos. And within each learning category there are thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of activities to choose from.

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For students with dyslexia or other print disabilities, reading books and textbooks in the classroom can present a big barrier to their progress. However, audiobooks and other audio-based tools are a good way to mitigate these issues. Enter Learning Ally. This app/service was designed to offset print-based barriers by providing struggling readers with an alternative way to access curriculum content as well as a wide range of literature.

Learning Ally is an audiobook app that provides a large library of human-read textbooks, bestsellers, and classic literature. It provides built-in features such as highlighted text alongside audio narration, note-taking, bookmarking, speed control, and the ability to highlight any word or passage you want.

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As mind-mapping software is becoming more widely used, we have been seeing lots of new apps and features being added and integrated. Recently, we were made aware of a mind-map app that takes the model into an entirely new and very interesting direction.

ivvi Notes is an incredible combination of mind-mapping and note-taking. The app uses speech-to-map technology to transcribe live lectures and recorded audio or video directly into a mind-map format. If you’re like me and you’ve never heard of “speech-to-map” technology, that’s because the developers of ivvi trademarked this concept specifically for the app.

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