Listen to Course Readings Later with Pocket Text To Speech

by Ted Curran

If you’re a student or an academic, you probably have a large volume of reading you need to do every week, and there’s only so many hours that you can be hunched over your desk reading. Why not clip your next few readings to Pocket, the read-it-later app for iOS and Android that now features text-to-speech. That way, you can go for a walk or a bike ride while the app reads the text to you in a mildly-robotic-yet-surprisingly-clear voice.

Pocket is great for queueing up those articles that you want to read when you get a spare minute, but don’t have time for right now. This is especially great for auditory learners like me who can process and retain information more effectively after hearing it than after reading it. It’s also a great way to balance your mental life with your physical health, not to mention caring for children and elders while you learn. It also means that you can keep learning even in situations where it would be awkward to have your face buried in a book.

I used to do something similar to this when I was an English teacher, offering the required readings with an accompanying audiobook so students could listen and/or read, but this Pocket solution makes it possible for anyone to get “the audio version” of any text they need to read, whether there’s an audiobook available or not. Struggling readers can use this solution to work on their pronunciation, fluency, and to consume content via multiple senses.

You can clip websites, PDFs, and even videos to Pocket, making it an easy way to make sure things don’t slip through the cracks. Of course, going back and actually reading it is a whole different challenge, but one that this new text-to-speech feature makes a little easier.