Yesterday I taught a workshop on Writing With Symbols 2000. Participation was up, yet I would love to see more of our FLLAC staff members and more teachers from our districts come to trainings. WWS2000 is a talking word/symbol processor. As you type each word into a document and hit the space key, the symbol for that word pops up. It can be used to create schedules, social stories, cooking directions, etc.
It is very motivating for students learning to spell, but it can also be used to create writing grids for students who are not able to read or spell. Check out this online tutorial for creating a linked writing environment. It is relatively quick and easy to create writing grids, but there is less flexibility in WWS2000 than in Clicker 5 or Intellitools Classroom Suite. Many classrooms have this software, but don't know of this capability. I think it is important to make every tool that we have work to our and our students' best advantage.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
More on Closing The Gap
Mayer-Johnson is releasing version 6 of BoardMaker. Some of the new features are the ability to drag & drop pictures from the web or other applications, the ability to align and center button content, resize multiple buttons along with their content simultaneously, and dashed borders. You will be able to export your files to version 5.3 format. Sounds goood!
Attainment has Calculator Tutor CD for $39. I was desperately looking for something like this last year. They also have a great pictorial Shopping List Generator and a great variety of inexpensive single-message devices.
Zygo has a communication device with a built-in cell phone called the TalkingAid Wireless! I didn't find it on their web site yet, so no link except to Zygo.
Nasco Special Education catalog now has Money Calc, a money calculator with a more mature look and the ability to enter coins and bills AND numbers, a great tool for older students an d adults to make sure they get the correct change when shopping.
Attainment has Calculator Tutor CD for $39. I was desperately looking for something like this last year. They also have a great pictorial Shopping List Generator and a great variety of inexpensive single-message devices.
Zygo has a communication device with a built-in cell phone called the TalkingAid Wireless! I didn't find it on their web site yet, so no link except to Zygo.
Nasco Special Education catalog now has Money Calc, a money calculator with a more mature look and the ability to enter coins and bills AND numbers, a great tool for older students an d adults to make sure they get the correct change when shopping.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Internet Explorer 7 - A Short Break from Closing The Gap
I just installed Internet Explorer 7 and am realizing that once again the world of digital information has changed. New security (well that is always relative!), anti-phishing tools, the ability to set how text appears to best suit your own vision, tabbed browsing, a nice clean look with or without standard menus are some of the new features. It also has button that lights up orange when a web page allows RSS feeds. Bloglines lets you install a Bloglines Browser Plug-In to use the button to subscribe through its service.
Nov. 2 I am teaching a workshop on Internet Tools. I am going to have to update even more of this workshop to accomodate these great changes and show my teachers how much more power there is in the web -- and it increases every day!
Nov. 2 I am teaching a workshop on Internet Tools. I am going to have to update even more of this workshop to accomodate these great changes and show my teachers how much more power there is in the web -- and it increases every day!
Closing The Gap II
Bridgette Nicholson (OTR/L) of Custom Solutions gave a wonderful presentation on The Power of Voice for Writing! Her talk went beyond the use of voice recognition software as she discussed voice play, recording answers or written work into Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, use of digital voice recorders, quick creation of talking books in PowerPoint with Record Narration..., and so much more.
When students record directly into Word, they are independently expressing their own thoughts. There is no influence of an overly helpful or a discouraging scribe. If the teacher is not willing to or doesn't have time to listen to the recorded work, an Aide can transcribe the work directly in the Word document in brackets for the teacher to correct. This is a wonderful way to increase the student's independence.
As part of her online typing tuotrial program, you can test a student's writing speed and accuracy by alternative methods so that you can truly judge which writing accomodations work best for the individual. You can sign up for a free trial.
Bridgette is one of the many practitioners of Assistive Technology who are expanding our concepts of Assitive Technology in the ever-growing digital world. At this web site she has video clips of students using her techniques and a wealth of other information about the use of voice. It is definitely worth checking this out.
If this is not enough, Bridgette has also designed
AdaptaTRAY which is a wheelchair tray with holes, blocks, brackets & straps for optimizing positioning of arms, hands, switches, augmentative communication devices, and anything else you might need to position on a tray.
When students record directly into Word, they are independently expressing their own thoughts. There is no influence of an overly helpful or a discouraging scribe. If the teacher is not willing to or doesn't have time to listen to the recorded work, an Aide can transcribe the work directly in the Word document in brackets for the teacher to correct. This is a wonderful way to increase the student's independence.
As part of her online typing tuotrial program, you can test a student's writing speed and accuracy by alternative methods so that you can truly judge which writing accomodations work best for the individual. You can sign up for a free trial.
Bridgette is one of the many practitioners of Assistive Technology who are expanding our concepts of Assitive Technology in the ever-growing digital world. At this web site she has video clips of students using her techniques and a wealth of other information about the use of voice. It is definitely worth checking this out.
If this is not enough, Bridgette has also designed
AdaptaTRAY which is a wheelchair tray with holes, blocks, brackets & straps for optimizing positioning of arms, hands, switches, augmentative communication devices, and anything else you might need to position on a tray.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Closing The Gap - Top Highlight for Me
This year's Closing The Gap has got to be the best one that I have ever attended. Maybe it is because I have more experience and know more people, but there was wonderful networking, sharing, and many discussions about how to make Assistive Technology more effective in our respective states. I will make more comments on this in later posts.
My highlight was presenting on "Creating Early Literacy and Readiness Activities with Clicker 5." The room was packed, and there was a great deal of enthusiasm about using Clicker 5. In fact, people were talking about it everywhere!
John Crick designed a brilliant promotion for the introduction of Clicker Paint, due to be released in January 2007. It is a switch-accessible paint program with a simple interface and is also quite powerful. On Wednesday night bright red lanyards were handed out to attendees entering the hall. Each one had a sticker with 4 bright paint splashes. Each person who found his or her exactly matching set of colors received a $100 gift certificate for Crick software. It was lots of fun, encouraged conversations between participants, and definitely kept everyone's attention on Clicker!
There is so much more to talk about in posts over the next few days.
My highlight was presenting on "Creating Early Literacy and Readiness Activities with Clicker 5." The room was packed, and there was a great deal of enthusiasm about using Clicker 5. In fact, people were talking about it everywhere!
John Crick designed a brilliant promotion for the introduction of Clicker Paint, due to be released in January 2007. It is a switch-accessible paint program with a simple interface and is also quite powerful. On Wednesday night bright red lanyards were handed out to attendees entering the hall. Each one had a sticker with 4 bright paint splashes. Each person who found his or her exactly matching set of colors received a $100 gift certificate for Crick software. It was lots of fun, encouraged conversations between participants, and definitely kept everyone's attention on Clicker!
There is so much more to talk about in posts over the next few days.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
scanR - Another Web 2.0 Application
Brian Benzinger has published Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 2 at Solution Watch. It is full of great online Office types of applications. I was looking for something that might be extremely useful to my teachers who have to submit Alternative MCAS Assessment Portfolios in Massachusetts. I have been sending emails to these teachers about trainings for submitting electronic versions of the portfolios and about a grant that they can use to purchase items like digital cameras or scanners. One of the applications mentioned can increase the mileage they would get out of a digital camera.
It is called scanR and "turns paper into useful digital information." You can take pictures of whiteboards, documents, business cards. Email the pictures to scanR, use a camera phone to take pictures and phone them in, or use a widget on your Google homepage. They will email a clean PDF file to you. Here's an example of a converted image.
This one is definitely worth playing with and it has that special 4-letter word associated with it - FREE!
It is called scanR and "turns paper into useful digital information." You can take pictures of whiteboards, documents, business cards. Email the pictures to scanR, use a camera phone to take pictures and phone them in, or use a widget on your Google homepage. They will email a clean PDF file to you. Here's an example of a converted image.
This one is definitely worth playing with and it has that special 4-letter word associated with it - FREE!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
del.icio.us.com Use My Links for AT Needs
I want to make sure that all of my teachers have access to information about Assisitve Technology, regular technology (and lines lines continue to blur,)and other tools that might be extremely helpful to teachers and students. I have been upating my tags and links at Jane's del.icio.us list .
Please check it out. There are lots of freebies, great free clip art, free programs, links to manufacturers and Assistive Technology products, and lots more.
Please check it out. There are lots of freebies, great free clip art, free programs, links to manufacturers and Assistive Technology products, and lots more.
Friday, September 29, 2006
More on Web 2.0 tools
I am just getting my feet wet in this new world (for me) of Web 2.0 tools. I checked my blogs and look what I found: This fantastic article on Solution Watch titled Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 1 . It contains a list of tools that I can't wait to explore. What a great resource! It is written by Brian Benzinger who is 19 years old and is a web designer/programmer.
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