Portal Tutoring

Winter 2010, Newsletter

Portal Tutoring

Welcome to Portal Tutoring's Winter newsletter. As usual, we have a great deal to tell you, and we have some new offerings. You will read about the training we offer in digital Book Players and in downloading and transferring those books to your favorite book players. In addition, you will hear about Ms. Parsons adventures in the Continuing Education arena. Portal Tutoring has cemented our relationship with the Adaptive Technology Center at ABVI-Goodwill by accepting a subcontracting position with them. We hope that you all have a happy holiday season and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Books and Book Readers

Since the advent of digital books, and especially the DAISY (Digital Access Information System) books, a group of digital book readers has come onto the market for those who are blind or visually impaired. These products include:

Victor Reader Stream by Humanware
BookPort and Braille Plus by American Printing House for the Blind,
the new NLS DTBM Digital Talking Book Machine. Contact your regional library for the blind for details.

One can obtain books to be played by these machines in two ways: one, by receiving the digital cartriges from your regional library for the blind, or two, by downloading them from The Internet. Naturally, this means that people need to learn how to download books and how to transfer them to their book players. PortalTutoring is happy to announce that it has added training in the use of digital players to its list of curricula. For specific information about this, contact us.

br> h2 align="center">Portal Tutoring and ABVI-Goodwill Collaborate br>

For the past year and a half, Portal Tutoring has been networking with ABVI-Goodwill's Adaptive Training Center. We have met on a monthly basis to share information and to discuss matters of mutual interest. As a direct outgrowth of this networking effort, Portal Tutoring is currently working as a subcontractor for ABVI-Goodwill, offering computer training to its consumers. We are most delighted to be able to work collaboratively with The Adaptive Technology Center and its personnel.

Group Training

During the past several months, Portal Tutoring has conducted group training for teachers and students in schools in New York State. These trainings were given in order to acquaint both teachers and students with the new Apex BrailleNote from Humanware. The training sessions were successful, and Portal Tutoring looks forward to similar opportunities in the future. For information and fees, see our curricula and fees pages, below.

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Continuing Education

Ms. Parsons, Portal Tutoring's sole tutor and CEO, participated in several webinars this year. We attended several webinars given by EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) including two on how to use Microsoft Word to create DAISY content. We have also been monitoring some excellent podcasts by various organizations about developments in technology. Portal Tutoring intends to continue to take advantage of all possible avenues for continuing education so that when you employ Portal Tutoring or purchase our training materials, you can have the most up-to-date information possible.

Speaking Of DAISY

p align="left">Portal Tutoring is happy to be able to offer you, our customers our two books in DAISY format. This means that you will be able to navigate the text by chapter and by section at the touch of a button. You can play these books on your Victor Reader Stream or by using any other device or software that plays DAISY content.

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Reminder

p align="left">We would like to remind you that when you purchase materials from Portal Tutoring, you can use your credit card. Just follow the links to Paypal and they will take your card information. You do not have to be a member of Paypal at all.

br> h2 align="center">Announcements

Thank YouWe would like to take this opportunity to thank all our patrons, both past and present. We continue to serve you, our students to the best of our ability.

Unsubscribing If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact us at the above email address or by calling us. We will immediately remove your name from either the email list or the hard copy list, depending on how you receive this newsletter.

h3 align="center">Ann K. Parsons, tutor, CEO