It has many benefits. Some students are auditory learners and learn better by listening to the material read aloud. Some students do not have the reading stamina to read lengthy text. By having all students use it, students with special needs that require read-to accommodations are not singled out. If a student comes to a word that they do not know, they can have it read aloud.

My 4th grader's class is using something called "Snap and Read." From what I can tell, all it does is let you highlight text on websites, and then the program reads that selected text out loud. Can someone explain the point of this? Instead of letting the student read for themselves and focus on what they're reading, the student is supposed to diddle around with the cursor, highlight text, and then sit back while the program reads it? What am I missing here? For young kids who aren't strong readers, maybe this would be helpful, but it seems to me you'd have to know what the text says in order to know whether you want to bother to have it read out loud to you.