D is for Done...

Well, our final day has arrived.  This is the most useful and applicable course I have ever taken.  I now have tons of new ideas and technology knowledge to engage and instruct my students, having worked with Low Tech and High Tech options, which apply to a variety of learners.  I have learned techniques to inform my practice and have met and worked with wonderful colleagues.  Since I have access to 6 iPads, Book Creator activities and many of the apps we have learned about the easily accessible and applicable.  I appreciate the hands on approach to the course and am reminded again how much I actually learn by DOING, not just seeing or hearing.

 Before I took the course, I asked another resource teacher from AVRSB who had taken it in the spring if she had enjoyed the course.  She said yes she had, but much of the course was based on iPad use and she didn't have one at school or home and really felt that she wasn't able to apply her knowledge well.  With 2/3 assignments done on the iPad, I can see her point, but HOW SAD.  Our school used to have a class set of iPads through the Discovering Opportunities program, but has went heavily in the direction of Chromebooks.  I was never aware of how limited they are until taking this course.  

Through the course, I have blogged for the first time.  In talking about this blog in general over social media, the grandmother of two of my Learning Centre students said she wished she could blog.  I'm heading over to her house on Thursday morning to teach her a bit of what I've learned.  I know this will help me in the fall as I plan to start my Career Access students blogging.   We have used iMovie  and viewed inspiring videos.  Thank you, Barb and my fellow classmates for all you have demonstrated and shared over the past 10 classes.  I hope to learn more in the future at Barb Welsford's other technology class and maybe reconnect with some of you there.  All the best to each of you as you move into, hopefully, summer holidays and then the fall with new ideas and skills.

PS:  iMovie was a lot of fun and will be great in many ways in the classroom.  Here is a link to show some of them :     http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/6-way-to-enhance-students-learning.html

AT Final Class: The Grand Finale (and Nike's bday)

 The dbGlove is a wearable, powerful portable device that interfaces with a tablet to let deaf blind people communicate as they live within their communities.  I chose this video because it demonstrated a technology that I was not aware in a brief, viewable time span.  Helen Keller would have loved it!

C is for Collaborate

Well, what a full day of seeing different collaborative Book Creator works from our class!  I was super impressed with the variety of ideas and creativity!  I jotted down a few notes of what I thought was particularly memorable from each pair, although I could have said A LOT more.  How enlightening and varied were our assignments!

Joy and Nike:  I enjoyed their game show link.  I think my students would have a lot of fun with this format... cool idea.  I also like the burgundy icons to show instructions.  Their whole "welcome book" idea was awesome too.  I can see my students doing something like this for our school.

Laurianne and John:  65 pages!!! I felt a little scared when I saw that, but really liked their use of space and how they used multiple pages to show their content.  It was almost like a Book Creator template.  Smart.

Alecia and Holly:  I liked the "tec buddies" concept for doing book creator together.  This could be great for my career access students next year.  Perhaps we can pair with a grade 6 class to do some collaborative work with Book Creator.

Rachel and Terry:  I wasn't familiar with the term "Elevator Pitch", but am now.  This again is something that would apply directly to a high school population.  I liked the 2 minute rant ideas as well as linking a rubric right onto the assignment page.  So versatile!

Susanne and Dave:  Social Stories on Book Creator were awesome!  What a great platform for students of any age.  I also liked the show and talk about math ideas.

Chelsea and Christine:  APP Smashing... who knew there were so many things that would work inside Book Creator.  Now I have to put all of them on my iPads.  Nike said maybe the way to go in our board is to get a grant.

Shari and Michelle:  The math journal idea was a great one.  I wouldn't have considered using Book Creator for math, but it totally works. 

Nick and Sue:  I like how they used drawing in their book and had the class year book idea.  Another thing I could apply directly to my teaching.   I liked their link to Khan Academy too.  Brilliant way to use the hyperlink feature.

Chris and Jill:  I was really impressed with how they linked so many different activities to outcomes at various grades.  I will apply the provinces and sentence starter books to my programming.  

Tracy and I:  We learned a lot and have produced something really useable, while having a good time doing so.... 

..... and we get copies of everyone's Books....   HOW AWESOME IS THAT!

B is for Blog

Remove the Stumbling Block:  Fair Isn't Always Equal

Over the weekend I viewed some informative videos  showing the accessibility options in various technology platforms... well, I never even knew before last week that accessibility options even existed, I'm embarrassed to say.  I have iPads, PCs, classroom Chromebooks, and an Apple/Mac Air computer, although I don't own an Android tablet.  I teach kids with special needs and those with specific learning disabilities and didn't even know that accessibility options existed, even though I own and have access to 4/5 of the style of devices... geesh!  I sure am glad I took this course! 

Each platform has some similar features, but there are also vast differences.  The most striking thing to me was how many options the iPad has included at no additional cost.  They are easy to access and apply with a few taps of easy to follow buttons.   Android seems to be making an effort to have similar options to the iPad, including such things as the Talkback feature for those with vision challenges and switch access links, which is great to know, although Android's supports are less plentiful.   Apple computers also have loads of easy to use and apply options. There are so many to list for a variety of user needs, but all attempt to level the playing field for access for a variety of users.   PCs and Chromebooks, which is the direction our board has went, are quite limited in options and confusing to navigate or cost additional fees to download, but one can hope that over time the availability of options will increase.  I appreciated Barb Welsford saying that apps are constantly expanding and that something like eye gaze may even become available.   Amazing!  I have learned how to web search accessibility apps over each platform and also have videos to refer back to in my resource practice to aid individual students, which is awesome.  Students with vision, hearing, physical and learning challenges can have their needs more widely met with accessibility options.  

Today in class Tracy and I finished our Book Creator assignment.  We have also just made an awesome resource for my career access program and her BIRT program.  How cool is that!  My top take away was how applicable the app was for a huge variety of ages.  While we were using Book Creator for MS and HS, Holly and Aleicia were able to design activities for primary students!  I also learned how to interface the app through Showbie with my computer to upload graphics... and it was easy peasy... or as they say "Down Under" "easy peasy lemon squeezy".  We also learned Book Creator is really forgiving and easy to go back and edit... we added our title and author names after we had published it the first time and it still was ok letting us go back and add changes.  A winner for sure!  No wonder it won an App of the Year award for 2015!  

A is for Assignment

Yesterday in class we were introduced to the Book Creator app.  What a lot of useage it has!  My students next year are going to love it.  It's sure great we have 6 iPads... but to get the app put on means I have to go through my IT guy and that's not going to be fun at all because last time he had my iPads he wiped them back to factory settings....

SO, my first take away from today is HOW can be get the services like the SSRSB has?  Or the discount codes?  Or something so I don't have to pay from my pocket 6 times to get the class iPads set up?  This is a serious conundrum.  I will certainly put Book Creator on my own personal iPad and then I'm stuck.  Grrrr....
All school boards are not created equally....

My second take away had to do with partners.  Barb asked us at the beginning of the class to work with someone he hadn't worked with already in the course.  I felt a little bad being resistant to doing this, but Tracy and I had already brainstormed on topics that suited out caseloads and wanted to do something quite usable.  So we stuck together... but before this course we had never worked together on anything and I had done ONE  of the other projects with Holly who I just met in the course.  From the partner activity, I could put myself in the place of a student.  If they have warning that they are going to be doing a partner activity they may find it harder to switch partners than if they are assigned before they have a chance to wrap their heads around who they want to be paired with.

My third take away had to do with Book Creator itself.  What a wonderful app!  We are having a lot of fun doing our assignment with the variety of choices the app allows.  BUT the assignment itself, which appeared so straightforward to the teacher was not so straightforward to my group or to some of the nearby groups.  This reminds me that, like our professor is doing, I may need to explain something that to me seemed straightforward.  Patience and understanding work well in keeping students, even M. Ed. ones, motivated and moving.

BONUS BLOG

This has nothing to do with class, per say, but was taken from a friend and I liked it so much I wanted to share it.  My friend wrote:

"There's a boy on pit crew (at camp) this week. I think he has cerebral palsy. He was here a few summers ago and my thought then was that it was nice that the camp had made space for him on staff because they invest in people no matter the ability. He was a worker, though, no doubt about it. I watched him as he struggled to get out of the lake after a swim back those few years ago. It was hard for him to get back to his feet. I offered help; he, respectfully, declined. It took a bit but he made it up. This year, you'd be hard pressed to keep up to him with his work ethic and ability, no matter your ability. I also watched him get out of the lake this year... like a boss. In him, I see courage, perseverance, strength,"


 I thought what my friend shared was beautiful.  Tracy and I had a conversation in class today that we both dislike the term "disability".  She prefers exceptionalities, which applies to everyone.  I like the terms "strength" and  "challenge".  Kudos to this young man who my friend wrote about, who reminds us that there is learning and growth in the struggle.  Kudos to my friend who used the term "ability" rather than highlighting the DIS.

FUNdamentals

YEAH!  Today we got some more experience with hands on Assistive Tech... and lots of it.  We started our day viewing a video that was probably from the 80's, showing 3 students. Todd, Justin and Joy were able to use switches at home and school to enhance their independence and communication in high interest engaging activities.  I loved the shot of Joy laying out on her kitchen counter participating in cooking and how much OT support was available for the individuals.  BUT NOW, we have even more choices in what is available for both FUN and FUNction and at affordable costs for families and schools.  MANY of the items we explored today are readily available, from apps, to multiple switches, on iPads, computers, tablets and chromebooks.  

Powerlink

The first station we looked at was using a variety of switches with a powerlink.  A powerlink could be used to power a bunch of things, such as a blender, mixer, lights, cd player, buzzer, TV, video games, amp, microphone, computer monitor, microscope or anything else that is able to be plugged in.  I had used a powerlink before, but had not used the tiniest switch (jellybean), the antenna style or the squeezable switch.  It seems these switches would be used for students with low mobility/fine motor challenges that wouldn't turn things on or off easily in a traditional method or would have a difficult time controlling the item the switch is powering due to less physical strength.  The switch allows participation without teaching directly how to operate multiple types of systems.  Hand over hand support can also be used for success for a greater variety of users.  In the learning centre where I had worked, switches were used for nonverbal and physically challenged students in a variety of ways, primarily in the kitchen, which was built into the IPP.  Devices were also used for a "morning meeting" to communicate a message for greeting and socializing with peers, also in the IPP.  A student with minimal vision or cognition learned that a switch made something happen.  This student LOVED the produced result.  Switches were FUN, but also made him more a part of the social, academic and active life of the classroom. Students used switches to operate music in plays, cuing repeated sounds.  BIG part of the room!

Bluetooth Switch

        What a fun way to engage a student in a task!  I had never used a bluetooth switch before, but loved all the choices available to use with it... Wow what a lot of apps there are; I made a word cloud above noting a few of them.  The technology could be used for people who want to engage in social interactions in a fun way, especially those who are used to switches.  For students with gross motor skills, but limited fine motor skills, those who like to throw things or are spastic, or those who can't isolate their fingers well can use this tool so they can participate productively.  

Alternate Keyboard

My goodness my dear what  BIG KEYS you have... The alternate keyboard would have uses for students who were visually challenged or needed a really high contrast keyboard.  The letters are easily visible and in the traditional locations, although there are no home key "bumps" so those who are used to "feeling" the key's "home" may find a little challenge.   It's pretty portable and easily attaches to a chrome book.  A  student could have straps on the outside of a chrome book case or just a bigger case to transport them both.   It would have been nice if there was some sort of track pad/mouse with the keyboard, but we are assuming that could have been attached as well.   

Eye Gaze

What a fun thing to try!  The eye gaze attachment was easy to calibrate with minimal eye movement and almost no head movement.  It would probably be best done in collaboration with OT, PT, classroom and resource teachers and AT consultant (if available).  The team would be able to work together to train those involved and help identify uses for the technology.  It seemed to only require the use of the eyes and the ability to follow some very basic movements of things on the screen, quite natural since the objects were eye "catching".  The technology would be very useful for anyone with minimal physical movement abilities, such as people with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, ALS, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, locked in syndrome, or MS.  Eye-gaze could be used for such things as typing on an onscreen keyboard for those who knew letters/words, selecting YES/NO, text to speech, games to enhance quality of life, scrolling, selecting or communicating using the computer or social engagement with the class. It could be used to operate a morning message or a buzzer in the gym or just about anything that could be a sound or signal in the classroom or with peers.  I kept thinking of Stephen Hawking and all the intellect he has which now relies on AT to be used in production of his writing, which includes books.  We did feel that after a while, this task would become tiring on the eyes.  Also, it worked well for those with and without glasses.

 Accessibility Options:  WOW.... FUNctional

Our group was shocked at the amount of accessibility options on both chrome book, iPad and tablets that we looked at.  Font size, magnification, dark/reverse screen, text to speech, accessibility short cuts, rapid key input, voice assist, spoken passwords and color inversion were only a few of them... WOW! I was quite familiar with the Read Write Toolbar as I've been using it with LD students in my resource program.  The process of creating a vocabulary list with definitions and pictures is awesome.  It is especially helpful in areas like cell organelles notetaking in science class.  The ability to highlight any text and have it read to you is also extremely easy to use.  My students enjoy how well the word prediction tool works.  It is also available in a free version for teachers and there are several YouTube videos to demonstrate its usage.  Many accessibility apps helped those with vision, hearing or motor challenges, as well as learning disabilities or reduced reading/spelling abilities.   

Keyboard Scanning with Trackball

I realized after the fact that I did not have a picture of the actual trackball, but it was quite lovely, as was the scanning feature.  The trackball allowed a large motor actively to replace what would typically be a fine motor activity.  It would work well for people with limited movement ability.  It could be used for people with CP, stroke, or any other challenge in controlling a traditional mouse.  Visual acuity would need to be quite good though as the keys on the screen were small.  Patience and spelling ability would be required in using this method for typing.  I have an LD student who I think would find the hovering piece "cool" since the letters appear almost like magic.  The word prediction feature was useful too.  This device eliminated the need for a two step mouse operation, allowing a shortened task.  The scanning feature would seem really useful for someone like Stephen Hawking who may have a lot to say, but limited physical skills.  

Finally, our group found many videos with people using switches.... I chose three that showed a progression from intro to switch use, right through to fully independent use in completing a course of study.... LOTS here.... FUNdamentals that are FUNctional and FUN.

This is Alice learning to use a switch for intentional communication... the Youtube link is available by clicking on the video.  

Maddy's video is moving and informative.  She used a knee switch since her eyes and hands can not operate AT.  She is able to clearly and independently communicate with this technology.  

BUT if you haven't heard or seen Christopher Hills video, you better grab a tissue. Technology is extremely important to him.   So moving... but I feel that if our professor Barb Welsford met with him and his family she may have suggestions to add so that his dad wasn't doing so much of the typing... or maybe over time there will be more available for Christopher, as there has been since the first video that started our class....