Kindle for Students: Using Kindle Text-to-speech For Academic Success

Do you want to be an A+ Student?  Let Kindle do the work for you.  Gone are the days of staying up late to read my textbooks and then struggle to finish my schoolwork on time.  My Kindle has changed all of that.  Now all I do is purchase Kindle version textbooks online, put my headphones on, and turn on text-to-speech and my Kindle reads my books for me.  Since I started listening instead of reading, I no longer struggle to find time for schoolwork.

In fact, while I soak in the knowledge I need for my classes, I do a variety of chores and activities. While I listen, I’m doing housework, walking the dog, cooking dinner, and sometimes I’m playing video games or tending my farm on Facebook.  As long as the additional activity does not require much thought, you can easily keep listening and learning.  After I’m done with all my chores and housework, my evenings are free to complete assignments or to just relax.  Ever since I got my Kindle, I finish my required readings early, so I’m free to use my Kindle for supplementary readings or to do extensive research and wow my instructors.
           
The Kindle is not the first device with text-to-speech, but it is the first device that is highly portable.  Plus, you will find that most of your textbooks are available in the Kindle store and costs less than the paper version.  In addition to reading textbooks, you can easily convert a variety of files to text files and add them to your Kindle.  This is a feature, which is not available on the Barnes & Noble e-reader, Nook.  So if your professor or teacher assigns additional reading, which is available in electronic form, just add it to your Kindle and turn on text-to-speech.  Another reason Kindle’s text to speech is so great is because audio books cost a fortune and not every book is available in audio book form.  However, almost every Kindle book has the text-to-speech function enabled.

Kindle Text-to-speech Tips:

1. Go to the Homepage on your Kindle.  Click Menu, and then click Experimental.  This pathway may be different for different versions of Kindle.  Under Experimental, Kindle provides a description of the text-to-speech function and how to turn it on.  For my Kindle, I push the up arrow and the Symbol “sym” button at the same time.
2. Adding reading materials from your computer to your Kindle.  If you wish to add articles from your computer or from the internet, follow these steps: Copy written material from html or from a pdf file and paste it into a Word document.  Go to “file,” “save as,” and save the document as a text file.  The file should now have .txt at the end of it.  Plug your Kindle into your computer and drag the text file to the documents folder on your Kindle.  Turn on text-to-speech and start listening.
3. The voice.  Word of caution, some people don’t like hearing electronic speech, but I find it is well worth listening to.  I only advise that you stick to informational books and materials.  Having your Kindle read you a novel may ruin the book for you.  Also, if your Kindle slaughters a proper name, just look at the screen and you will see what it was trying to read.
4. Text-to-speech availability. If you wish to have your Kindle do all the work for you, be sure to check the book before you buy it to assure that the-text-speech function is enabled.  If you do not see mention of text-to-speech in the book description, have amazon.com send you a free sample of the book.  When you receive the sample, try to turn on text-to-speech.  Then you will know whether or not it is safe to buy that text. Though I prefer to listen, I will usually get the textbook in Kindle version anyway even if it does have text to speech.  The other functions such as text search, bookmarking, highlighting and notes make the Kindle version convenient for students even without text-to-speech.  

Kindle text-to-speech has been a fantastic discovery for me and I hope that you will love learning while you work as much as I do.