After reading chapter 2 (Communicators) in the Sail the & C’s textbook, I was introduced to a platform that I had no idea existed. This platform is called “Microsoft Translator” for Education.
But what exactly is translator for education?
According to Microsoft, the site provides free resources, tools, and how to guides for live captioning and translation in the classroom.
“Teachers manage many types of learners, including students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) who require assistive technology, and language learners (and their parents) who may not speak or understand the language of the classroom well. Microsoft Translator helps bridge these communication gaps, supporting accessible classroom learning with live captioning, cross-language understanding, and even multilingual casual conversations to help with student integration” (Microsoft)
Teachers can use this platform to translate their presentations, lectures. They can translate real time when having a parent-teacher conference. As well as study groups and a one-to-one conversation with students. This essentially breaks the language barrier that as teacher we may face.
Watch this video to understand the platform
I plan on taking the time to educate myself on using Microsoft Translator because I know that in the future I will be using this site and will encourage my students’ parents to use it , so we can better and further our communication to discuss their child’s needs.
Watch this video on parent-teacher conferences using Microsoft Translator:
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Smirna,
I am also very fond of Microsoft Translator! I will definitely want to use it in my future classroom, especially if I have students that speak a different language. I think this tool will help improve communication gaps between teachers and their students as well as the parents. Do you think that there would be any good alternative tools if a student did not have internet at home?
The library is always a good option.