Final Reflections

This class has been my favorite so far since on this journey to getting my Masters. It was my 6th course. (Four more to go!). The reason it is my favorite is dependent on many reasons. These are it was very hands on. We got to "play" with different software and devices as we learned about them. There was not any papers we had to write about we got to experience what we were learning about. As well the information we were learning about was very current. I was not learning about information or technology that happened 10 years ago.  Much of what I learned could be used in my classroom. There are so many ideas that I will use in my classroom now and years to come. For example I already have two students on Co - Writer and this is already changing how they are in the classroom. This class had opened my eyes up to how technology can play a role in my classroom and assist those students can benefit from it.

Case Study Day!

Today was our last day of class and we all presented our case studies. These are my reflections on the day.

•  Co-writer was a very popular assisitve technology used today and in all the case studies it was a very successful tool.  I  found it to be the same experience in my class. I used  Co-writer for a student who has difficulties writing but is able to read well and can spell. The short version is the blossomed on co-writer after the first try! I went around showing everyone what he had done. 

• Most of the case studies were often about writing. This year I have the advantage of teaching many of the same students I taught in grade primary and one.  I can see how their writing has changed over the two years. In most cases the students who had difficulty with writing in grade primary are  one the same students who are having  difficult y in grade three. I am just wondering how we could get to those students earlier instead of having them struggle throughout the grades.

• Teachers are very passionate about their students! It was so obvious today how much every cares about their studetns. It was very interesting to get a peek inside other teacer's classrooms and students.

• The difference that technology can make in the students life. It not only improves their writing or their academics it improves their confidence.  It is a shame to think about how many students are struggling within our school system that would not need to with the integration of technology.

• French for Caleb: Many of the case studies had students in  french immersion. My son began learning English at age two as we adopted him from China . As well he was born with a cleft palate so speech is delayed. I am just wondering if putting him in french immersion would hinder his learning instead of helping. Something for us to think about.

• Things to remind myself  to check out!
• Solo
• Ginger
• Story line
• Litteractive
• Word bingo
• Story wheel
• Monkey pre-school lunch box
• Grover
• ABC Tracing
• Charlie Brown Christmas
• Lightening Was Here

Writing programs

These programs are recommended for students who have some basic spelling skills. They would be a great benefit for students who have it all going on but are having difficulty putting it on paper. Is this considered cheating? No we are only provided them with a means to output their thoughts. They are gaining skills that they will have forever. A great discussion today about how we report on students using word prediction software.

Co- Writer- great word prediction.
Write Q
Typ-O App
TikiNotes App
Write out Loud

For students who don't have the ideas going on before writing. Can also be used for students who have too many ideas going on and need to sort out their thoughts.

Inspiration 8
Draft Builder

For students with cognitive delays.

Writing with symbols
Classroon Suite or Clicker 5

Test drive of WordQ. This word prediction software was a little tricky to get used. But I am sure with some time it would become useful. One of the benefits is the floating tool bar and I liked how small the box was that showed the words. It also has a speech application and will read what you wrote back to you. As I already have co- writer on my computer in the classroom I will be using that one first.

Great videos from class today!

Misunderstood Minds

Fantastic Videos that follows students who are having difficulties in school.

Sharpening Pencil

This a series of videos that look at how to make adaptions for students with motor difficulties.

My GroupsTop 15 Great Apps for Literacy!

Kari's Top 5

StoryBuilder for iPad  5.99

Story Builder is designed to help children improve paragraph formation and to integration of ideas. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders. It provides a fun way for students to create a writing narrative. It also allows students to record their own voice reading the narrative. There are 50 story lines to choose from and once complete stories can be saved and emailed. I would use this for reluctant writers and readers in the elementary or junior high level. This app would work for those writers who are hesitant to get started or unable to decide on a topic. In terms of reading students could listen to thier own stories or read each others stories.

Social Skills   $3.99

Social Skills offers parents and educators the ability to interact with six social narratives (broken into 2 levels which give a total possible of 12 social narratives) designed to help individuals improve their social ability. The stories contain targeted instruction in the following core areas: Joint Attention; Non-Verbal Communication; Greetings; Structured game play; Turn Taking; Classroom rules; and Imitation.The other great part is users can create their own stories by adding different photos, text, as well as audio. The end results allows for the individual to look at a social photo, touch the picture for audio, and continue onto the next page!

Sight Words List - Learn to Read Flash Cards & Games -  Free!

Sight Words, also known as the Dolch List are an integral part in learning how to read. The Dolch Word list contains 315 words that are broken down into appropriate age groups. It is important for young readers to be able to instantly recognize these high frequency words in order to be proficient and fluent readers.  As a bonus you can also create your own personalized word list. I would use this for any age student who is having trouble with reading or writing especially have difficulty remembering their high frequency words.

Storycubes- $1.99

For this app they give your around 6 cubes that are like dice and you give them a shake. On the cubes are pictures such as a sunshine or and animal. You have to take the cubes and be able to tell a story using all of the cubes. This would be reat for story starters, reluctant writers, speaking and listening, creative writing. Love them

Tumblebooks: $5.99

Those of you that have used Tumblebooks online will already be familiar with it. Now they are available as an app and include animations. You can purchase many of your favorite children's author books in packs of six. Great for reluctant readers and young grades for read alouds and reading responses.

5 Apps recommended by Adele

Flat Stanley: FreeThis app was designed to encourage kids to think about geography, travel and culture.
They create a "Flat Stanley" character that they can paste into photographs. Through
Flatter World, kids can connect with each other by sharing their individualized Flat
Stanleys. In the course of writing captions for their characters and/or corresponding
with children around the world, they practise writing through authentic literacy
activities. I chose this app because Flat Stanley is ridiculously funky. I would use this
app with a student who is a reluctant writer--one who is challenged by text, but inspired
by visuals. Flat Stanley would be helpful moving a student along the continuum from
writing words to phrases to sentences. The networking aspect would focus them on
developing a sense of audience.

Spelling Magic: FreeThis app by Preschool University teaches beginning readers to assemble 3-letter CVC words
by selecting the correct phonemes. The app associates letters with phonemes; students
touch a letter and hear the corresponding phoneme. They can learn each short vowel
separately, and then shuffle them together. There is also a section on 3-phoneme words
with terminal double consonants, for example, "kiss." I chose this app because I'm using
it as part of my case study. It would develop phonemic awareness in the beginning reader
and encourage decoding.

Sentence Magic: Free (Notice a pattern here?)Another app by Preschool University, a magic place indeed. This app is a logical
follow-up to Spelling Magic. Beginning readers can build and read 2- and 3-word phrases
and sentences consisting of CVC words. I chose it because I like the concept of a
"Preschool University." Also, the graphics are clear and NON-FLASHY, my particular
preference. This app gives readers an opportunity to apply decoding skills. Since they
must order the words correctly, it prepares them for beginning writing by modelling
conventional syntax.

ScramblePCS: Free, with opportunity for in-app purchases to expand available vocabularyThis app is similar to Spelling Magic, but identifies letters by name rather than by
phoneme. It includes longer words, and long and silent vowels in addition to short ones.
This app would be useful further along in the beginning reading process, after phonemic
awareness is solidified and students are willing to tackle multisyllabic words. I chose
this app because Michelle and Kari were faster out of the blocks than I was, and I had
little choice left.

ReelDirector: $1.99
An all-in-one video-maker. Shoot the video clips and photos right on your iDevice, and
then edit them right on the same device. Sort, crop, caption or add music. I chose this
app because I had so much fun using it with my group last class. I would assign this app
to a group of students with varying literacy skills. They would have to work together to
plan, problem-solving, monitor, adjust and synthesize. They would also practise literacy
skills of writing and speaking. A ReelDirector assignment would be valuable as a
culminating activity for a unit of studying. This would provide students with multiple
ways of showing their learning.

Michelle's 5 apps:

ABC Tracing: Free app

This app is for students who are learning to write and recognize the alphabet. They are able to trace upper and lower case letters with their finger. To erase, you touch the eraser and shake the device. There is an audio component for each letter and object. It’s very simple and goes directly to the app with no distracting homepage. Graphics are clear and not busy or confusing. I would choose this app for one of my students who has difficulty with fine motor skills. He doesn’t know all his letters and often reverses letters (such as b and d).

Colourful Aquarium: Free app

This is an app of a realistic aquarium with beautiful fish. They can feed the fish with food. Students can clean the moss that grows over time. Students can also scare away the fish. The app is meant to make the viewer relax. When I first saw this app I instantly thought of one my students who carries a lot of anger. He will often become very upset, cry and hit himself. He will also use a lot of negative talk. Perhaps this app would lessen or even alleviate the escalation. I think this app would be a gentle distraction for him. It might help calm him down.

ABC Pocket Phonics: Cost $2.99

This app focuses on emergent readers and how they acquire phonics skills. As students learn the letter sounds; the app guides them on how to write each letter. It also teaches letter sounds that come from combining letters together (like ‘ch’ and ‘sh’). The app reinforces letter/sound association. This app would work well with students who are struggling in both reading and writing. Students experiencing auditory processing difficulties would also benefit from this app.

Sentence Builder: $3.99

This app is designed to help students learn how to build grammatically correct sentences. It’s simple to use and has three levels to play. It has encouragement animations and audio clips. The Sentence Builder lets students build sentences by selecting from a group of words. It has images where students must choose the words that match with what they see in the picture. This app would be great for ESL students. It would assist in familiarizing ESL students with the structure of a sentence along with general vocabulary.

Pictello: $14.99

This app enables students to make their own storybooks with pictures imported in or taken with the built in camera. This is a powerful tool in creating meaningful stories. Students can write their personal stories and hear their stories read by a narrator or they can record themselves. It’s easy to use and is designed for all ages and all skill levels. Students who are non-verbal would have a wonderful opportunity to share their stories to the world through their choice of pictures and text. ESL students would also be able to create stories where they could experiment with the English language. If they feel confident enough they can record their own voices, if not the narrator can do it for them. Pictello is not a free app and the price does seem a bit steep. But, I think it’s really worth the price.

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Reflection

Today in class we ran into a few problems getting on to the internet, which is very ironic as this is an assistive technology course! The lack of internet however did not stop us from learning lots! Today was a short class as we were making our time up watching our course on elluminate. This was amazing but I will save it for another reflection.

We spent our time this morning making a commercial to promote the Reel Director App.  This app is a video editing app.  It was so much fun to use! 2 hours. Can't imagine the work that would go into making a three hour movie! To make a 60 second video it took us about We decided to make our commercial about pictello (just to confuse evervone this is also a video making app).  When all was said and done we realized how many skills would go into planning,creating and editing a video or in our case a commercial.

Here is a list of skills that students would use when using the Reel Directior App.

Communication Skills

Planning

Collaboration

Writing

Sequencing

Problem soliving

Writing a script

Research

Note taking

Hands on activities

Technology skills- video making, about your app, consider needs of audience

Media skills

Group work

Student and self-evaluation

Great Website!

I stumbled across a fantastic website called Snapps for Kids. It has an amazing list of apps that are great for school or children at home. I will be sure to use this website!

Pictello

What is pictello?

Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using natural sounding voices. Stories can be shared using iTunes File Sharing or via WiFi with other Pictello users through a free account on the Pictello Sharing Server.

from      http://www.assistiveware.com/pictello.

Five Great uses for Pictello in your Classroom!

1. Developing Social Stories: You can make any number of social stories such as how to get on a bus or how to brush their teeth in minutes. The great thing about it is that it is portable so the sudent can take it with them and you can have actual video of the story.

2.  Writing Stories: How exciting it would be for students to write their own mini-play and then produce it on Pictello! Great for reluctant writers.

3. Create schedules for students who have difficulties not remebering what class comes next or where to find it. There could be a video for each day of the week to remind them of what comes next.


4. ESL Sudents: Students who are just learning english would find this useful you could have videos of  words or activites they are learning about

5. Show and Share: Pictello would put a new twist on show and tell or student of the week. The student star could make a video at home or of thier favorite place to share with the class. Would definitly spice up show and tell day!

5 of the Best Apps for Reading and Writing

Five Fantastic Apps

1. Duck duck moose Wheels on the Bus- Ok this may not be used in the classroom all the time. But it would be good for students with fine motor difficulties.  My three year old loved it!!! It kept him entertained through an entire meal at a restaurant. 

2. Storycubes- For this app they give your around 6 cubes that are like dice and you give them a shake. On the cubes are pictures such as a sunshine or and animal. You have to take the cubes and be able to tell a story using all of the cubes.  This would be reat for story starters, reluctant writers, speaking and listening, creative writing.  Love them

3. How would you Feel :   Each student looks at an illustration, and either reads the prompt or touches the screen to listen to the prompt. The student then gives a verbal response. After each answer, tap the green (correct) or red (incorrect) button to score the student’s verbal response. 
Great for social skills, writing prompts and speaking and listening.

4. ABC Play: This app allows children to explore the alphabet in combination with different sports and activities. Great pictures too.

5. Tumblebooks: Those of you that have used Tumblebooks online will already be familiar with it. Now they are available as an app and include animations. You can purchase many of your favorite children's author books in packs of six. Great for reluctant readers and young grades for read alouds and reading responses. 



Assistive Technology Software

Today in class groups presesnted software that is available pertaining to reading and writing. I will mention a few of the main points from some of the software.

Kurzwell:  Has an excellent program tool bar .  The tool bar is color coded for ease of use. You can scan books, textbooks, tests with approval. Dual highlighting system. Picture dictionary as well as word dictionary. Voice notes good for kids who have difficulty writing. In any article scanned you can insert bubble notes. These can be multiple choice questions that the student can answer when reading.  An excellent program but is pricey. We will be given time to explore Kurzwell next class so look for more info here.


My Study Bar   Hotnotes- post it notes on your computer.  Sunbird portable calendar will give alarms to remind students about tasks. Thunder reader- will tell you what you are doing as you go along, will not read what is on the internet.   I like the small tool bar doesn’t take up a lot of screen space. Tiny Spell will ding when you have made a spelling mistake and give you the proper spelling good for students who have fine motor difficulties. Magnifier ,Rapid typing- typing tutor

 Read and Write Gold: The was the software we presented to the class.  It has many great features including text to speech, pronouncialtion tutor, PDF reader. I thought the reasearch tools were great. They were Cact Mapper, Fact Finder and Fact Folder. For a ton of more information here is our blog address.    http://assistivetechgroupies.blogspot.com/

 Natural Reader: One important feature it is FREE!! It will read any text aloud.

Interactive Games!

Here are some very interactive games for students who need reading remediation. Enjoy!
 ,
GameGoo- http://earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html


helps develop early reading skills starting at the beginning stage with letter identification to the intermediate stageThis website goes from beginner to intermediate. with vowels and antonyms. The graphics will grab students attention.

Smories  http://www.smories.com/


These are original stories for kids read by kids. The stories are broken down by age level and includes the words as well as being able to listed to the story.

Natural Reader  http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm

NaturalReader is a Text to Speech software with natural sounding voices. It can convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpage, PDF files, and Emails into spoken words.

Into The Book  http://reading.ecb.org/index.html

This website is filled with tools to help elementary students use reading strategies such as making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring etc. This website is amazing the students learn about what the stratedgy is, how to do it using an audio book and than allows them to try it on there own. TIt also includes videos of a teacher teaching students. The best thing it is completly FREE!

Reading Task Analysis

Here is my and my partner Joanne's view of reading as broken down into tasks. I think that it is amazing that five year olds can learn to read at all!

Welcome

Welcome to my assistive technology blog.While you are here I hope you are able to learn a bit about what assitive technology is and why it is such a great benefit to those who need it. I will be learning along with you as I take a masters couse in assistive technology as it pertains to literacy in the classroom. Thanks for visiting.

Here is a video that will explain what assistive tehnology is in a very simple words.