Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Toolbelt Theory for Everyone
After participating in the #ECG2016, Karen Janowski shared an article on the Toolbelt Theory written by Ira Socol. This article really resonated with me and I wanted to share it. I hope you find it as enlightening and insightful as I did.
Toolbelt Theory for Everyone
How will they make phone calls? Leave messages? Read
books? Do research? Tell their boss they are stuck in traffic coming
back from that meeting? How will they get their news? Check their bank
records? Pay their mortgage? Arrange their vacation? Sell their
services? Sell possessions they no longer want? How will they learn the
things they need to learn? How will they tell the stories that they need
- or want - to tell?Schools - in the old days - were interested in these kinds of skills. Schools taught things like how to read books, how to read newspapers, how to read stock tables. They taught how to find books in the library and how to write business letters. Even (sometimes) how to write cheques, read classified advertisements, compare prices in display ads, address envelopes, read maps, type, write legibly. Yes, maybe some of this training came to me because I wasn't always in those "top" classes, but I think most students received significant trainings in the communications technology of the age. At least the "apparent" technologies of the age.
But in the time when most of our teachers, school administrators, government officials, and legislators went to school, little changed on the "apparent" side of ICT. Newspapers and phone calls may have been produced in radically different ways in 1990 as opposed to 1960, but the end-user did not see much difference. So these people have been trained in complacence. They grew up in a world of little technological change (as it touched them) and they now resent change. They're often still angry that we want them to be able to program their VCRs, and VCRs are almost history.
So they don't want to teach about tools. The tools they know are gone, chucked to the curb with the card catalogues and 8-track players. The tools which are essential now - the tools which are essential everywhere outside of a school building - are outside of their realm of knowledge. This is why school today is so divorced from any reality.
Tools matter though. They are the most basic thing about being human.
We are many things - human beings - but above all we are tool users. Unlike most
other species, and far more than any other species, we have defined
ourselves by crafting tools which allow us to control our environment
and overcome our limitations. Can't run as fast as a horse? Climb on the
horse. Can't fight one-on-one with a Mammoth? Invent the spear. Can't
remember everything you need? Create writing.So tools matter. They matter most for those who lack the highest capabilities - a very old person and a very young person needs a car more often than a 20-year-old might - a short person needs a ladder more often than a tall person - a weak swimmer needs a boat when a great swimmer might not - but still, tools matter for everyone.
And everyone needs a properly equipped Toolbelt to get through life.
Toolbelt Theory
The thing about toolbelts though, is that no two people ever really need the same one. When I worked at one university and part of my job was being a cable stringing "tech monkey," three of us all began with the same toolbelt. Scissors, wire strippers, pliers, wire cutters, punch-down tool, screwdrivers. Within a week all three toolbelts were different. Within a month, very different. Screwdriver choices varied. Pliers were added and subtracted. I added a fish tool for dragging cables through walls, another added a device from Fluke that read network connections, and then I grabbed a quick-check tool that confirmed my wiring order because, you know, I'm not great with order. The belts changed as well. One was worn as a belt, mine was almost always slung across my shoulder. When I was a police officer, I watched a similar process operate on the gunbelts of cops coming out of the academy. They began all the same, and ended up as radically different collections of tools. Of course those tools changed as the world and technology changed. Drop pouches for revolver ammunition vanished and clip holders for automatics appeared, as one example. Then we needed to carry latex gloves. Flashlights changed. Radios changed. Mace came and went. Etc.
So the trick to tool use is to learn to evaluate tasks and environments and your skills and the tools themselves as they change and determine what works best for you. I call this the "TEST" - Task - Environment - Skills - Tools, a specifically ordered reframing of Joy Zabala's "SETT" protocol. A specifically ordered reframing designed for self-determination.
"Disability" has little or nothing to do with this. Everybody needs this skill set. Imagine your eyes getting weaker as you are faced with graduate school reading or long-distance truck driving - and you've never heard of eyeglasses and have no idea where to go for help. Imagine needing to rip up an old driveway and having never heard of a jackhammer, nor had any idea of how to get one. Imagine needing to get to your home's roof with nothing but a step ladder. Imagine needing a book but being unable to use a map in order to find the library.
In every case you need the TEST idea. Whether you are choosing the right saw to cut that piece of wood in that location or whether you are trying to find the map that will get you to the hospital you need in Paris or whether you are trying to find the academic article you need.
You need to know what you need to do (the specific task: cut 20 sheets of plywood or cut down
a Christmas tree, find a book to buy or find a book to borrow). You need to know where you will be doing this (the specific environment:
in a forest, in a workshop, in a town with a university library and
four bookstores, in a place with neither). You need to know your own
capabilities (your skill set: I
am strong enough to cut down a tree with a hand saw, I am experienced
enough that I can cut a straight line with a hand-held circular saw, I
can walk to the bookstore, I know the Dewey Decimal System). And you
need to know what is available to you to help you, and how to use those
devices (your toolbelt: My
neighbor has a chain saw, I can rent a table saw, a bus will get me to
the bookstore, if I go online and reserve that library book it will be
waiting for me at the counter).This all sounds logical, but it is hardly automatic.
Choosing the right tool takes knowledge of yourself and the tools which are available. It takes practice in assessing the task and the environment. And in school we don't help students toward any of that. In school we prescribe methods and we require specific tools (the dreaded middle school planner, just as one particularly stupid example - the teacher-determined notebook style as another). In school we tell students what they can and can't do and we get very nervous when they really try to analyse their environment.
And on top of this, the tools most schools are devoted to are antiques which serve few functions anywhere outside of school. It is as if you were learning to build homes but were allowed to use only tools invented before 1940. You'd be close to unemployable when you finished that training.
Letting the world in
The only way to allow students to assemble this essential toolbelt for information and communication is to to throw open your classroom and let the world in. How will your students know which calendar works for them - the one on their phone, Google Calendar with SMS appointment texting, Microsoft Outlook, or any of a dozen paper systems unless you allow them to try them out? How will your students know whether they 'get' a novel better by listening to an audiobook, or reading it on paper, or using text-to-speech, if you don't let them experience all repeatedly and help them decide? Will their choice be the same when they are reading history texts? Math texts? Again, how will they know? How will they know which is the best way for them to write, by hand (either on paper or on a tablet system), by keyboard (and which keyboard), or by voice, if they do not get to try out all the kinds of writing they need to do with all these tools?
They won't know. And you - the school, the teacher, the education system - will have deprived them of these essential skills.
It matters for all students, of course, but- as always - if you are "rich, white, and normal" it matters a bit less. You will have fewer needs, your parents will buy you more supports, you will be surrounded in your daily life by sophisticated tool users. So not bringing Toolbelt Theory into your classroom just exacerbates inequity - yes, of course - as school does in most things.
Real differences in survival
This is not a matter of success in school. This is a matter of human survival. A couple of years ago I sat in a resource room in a suburban American high school and watched an 18-year-old high school senior try to fill out a job application. His writing was "not good." You might be able to make out most of the capital letters, but the small letters were just meaningless squiggles. I asked him, "Why don't you just print that all-caps?" But before he could answer the teacher interrupted. "We've been working on his small letters for four years now," she said, "we want him to keep trying."
Four years my friends. Well, surely longer. I bet they've been torturing this child since he was five-years-old.
I started to ask whether the teacher thought he'd get a job with an application that looked this way, but there was no real point. School is about school. It is hardly ever about anything else. So instead I grabbed a blank copy of the same application, I pulled my laptop and my Canon LiDE scanner out of my backpack. I scanned the application in, converted it to a "form fillable" Adobe Acrobat document, and told him to type his information in.
He was a slow typist. A painfully slow typist. And yet, his typing was about three times as fast as his handwriting, and, in the end there was a perfectly completed job application.
Might speech recognition help? Or typing on a smartphone keyboard with iTap word prediction? That would have been too much to suggest. The school district had just built a massive brand new high school. All the bells and whistles, yet, number of accessible computers in the district? Zero. Zero, despite three meeting I'd had with the school superintendent, two days spent with district's large tech staff, and meetings with special education teachers and school psychologists and social workers. Zero. They simply do not care.
So their students graduate not knowing how to fill out a job application. They graduate not knowing how to access library resources online. They graduate not knowing how to stay on schedule, or how to listen to their own writing if no one is around to help them edit, or how to send an appropriate text from their phone to an employer or professor if they are running late, or how to collaborate with other writers on a Google Document, or how to most effectively use spellcheck and auto-correct in Microsoft Word, or even - and I see this every day - how to search online for a job or a university course.
They simply do not know how to function in the 21st Century. They will not understand the tools that they need to function. And unless they are lucky, they will be doomed to a life on the margins.
When I wrote "Not Getting to Universal Design" a number of people objected to my thought that encouraging students to fail was a deliberate thing. I don't think that I really suggested that individual teachers deliberately sought student failure. It happens - I can think of a number of university faculty I have known - but that is rare. It is the system - the system which includes the training of teachers and the design of schools - which has, in my opinion, made the decision to encourage the failure of the majority of students. If they have not done that consciously, my only other thought is that they are unbelievably stupid, because they do the "wrong" things continuously. But, I don't think they are stupid because, well, somehow, their kids seem to do OK. Of course their kids have their laptops and iPhones and Blackberries and Wii. Their parents listen to audiobooks and dictate messages for others to type, and get emails on their phones all day long. They see Google Maps and GPS in use every day. Hell, daddy can even talk to their new Lincoln and tell it what to do.
Now all those education leaders can probably quote that old saying, "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for the rest of his life." So I wonder, why won't we teach our students how to fish? And why won't we help them to learn the best way for each of them to fish?
- Ira Socol
This article, A Toolbelt for a Lifetime: Learning how to Learn Assistive Technology, is an excellent follow-up to the one shared above. You can follow Ira on Twitter at @irasocol.
**Click here for the link to the original article**
Monday, August 8, 2016
Motivational Monday....with a twist!
I normally post inspirational quotes, but for this week I am posting a video created by Emirates NBD. The beautiful, inspirational message sent in this video is a simple reminder that "By changing our perspectives, we will change their lives". Enjoy watching!
Friday, August 5, 2016
5 Low-Tech AT Options
Article and infographic created by Brookes Publishing Company
Today’s infographic gives you five examples of low-cost, low-tech options—from activity boards to laminated icon cards—for students who need help with their communication skills. These ideas were adapted from the book Assistive Technology for Young Children: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments, by Kathleen Curry Sadao & Nancy B. Robinson.
Do you use any of these in your classroom? Have you created any other low-tech supports for your students? Share your favorite communication supports in the comments below!
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| Click the infographic to view it full-size |
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
ATIA 2017 Pre-Conference Seminars
Pre-Conference Seminars
The pre-conference seminars take place January 17-18, 2017. Attendees can register for either one-day ($300) or two-days ($540). Below you will find the descriptions for the pre-conference seminars being offered for those attending the two days and also for those only attending the one day.
Registration is open for the pre-conference and conference schedules. "Early Bird" pricing is available until the end of September!
Two-Day Pre-Conference Seminars
Tuesday, January 17 - Wednesday, January 18, 2017,
8 AM – 4 PM
Assistive Technology for Improved Function
AT Bootcamp
This pre-conference seminar is designed
for people new to the field of Assistive Technology or first time
conference attendees. This two-day session will provide a fundamental
overview of assistive technology (AT) that includes AT consideration,
implementation, application and a structure to further your personal
learning experience. Through an array of topics, the participants will
obtain a snapshot of AT supports for people of all disabilities, ages
and environments. Various topics to be covered include: Augmentative
Communication, Literacy, Access, Leadership, Policy, Assessment, Mobile
Learning Devices, Accessible Instructional Materials, Intellectual,
Sensory and Physical impairments will be highlighted through real-world
examples. Participants will develop strategies regarding how to leverage
access to both common and specialized technologies to realize a world
where barriers are minimized and access/engagement is emphasized for all
individuals. Participants are highly encouraged to bring their own
personal mobile learning devices to aid in their learning experience.
Presenters will use a web-based content delivery system to facilitate
learning during the two-day workshop and beyond.
Speakers:
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| Kelly Fonner Education/Assistive Technology Consultant Kelly Fonner Consulting |
Mike Cole Owner Use Your Words, PC |
Mike Marotta AT Specialist Inclusive Technology Solutions LLC |
Brian Wojcik Assistant Professor University of Nebraska at Kearney |
iPAD Boot Camp – Awesome New Apps, Adaptations and Accessories
Join this two-day intensive hands-on
exploration of iPAD apps, adaptation and accessories to support
individuals who experience vision, hearing, communication, intellectual,
behavioral, and physical disabilities. Learn how to use built in
features of the iPAD such as switch access recipes; 101 uses for the
camera; text expander; text to speech verse speech to text; app
smashing, smacking; app feature mapping and more. Hands-exploration of
new accessories and adaptations and make and take four iPAD adaptations
and discover and explore over 100 new and amazing apps.
Speaker:
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Therese Willkomm Director of ATinNH University of New Hampshire |
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
More Than Core: AAC Implementation for Early Childhood and Beyond
Examine practices for coaching
educational professionals and families in the set-up and use of robust
communication systems for early language learners. Explore proven
strategies for teaching even the youngest students how to become
effective, functional communicators by teaching them language and by
engineering environments to provide opportunities for rich, meaningful
practice in the context of everyday routines. After reviewing current
research, we will examine the creation of a systematic plan for
introducing language in the context of augmentative communication
systems, and how to plan for their use in the context of everyday
routines and tasks, across settings, including the home, the classroom,
and the community. We will take an in-depth look how assistive
technology professionals can use coaching practices to empower parents
and educators to take ownership of promoting the consistent use of AAC
systems. Explore the importance of core vocabulary for all early
language learners, as well as how to integrate fringe vocabulary
necessary for successful communication. The importance of aided language
stimulation, motor planning, and engineering the environment for
communication will be highlighted. The session will emphasize fun yet
practical ideas for working with parents, educators and students to
ensure that all students are provided early access to language systems
that promote communication success all day long in all settings and
situations.
Speakers:
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| Chris Bugaj Assistive Technology Trainer Loudoun County Public Schools |
Beth Poss Montgomery County Public Schools |
Multi-Modal Communication and Learning Strategies for Children with Significant Challenges
Children who face significant physical
and multiple challenges as well as those children on the more severe end
of the autism spectrum, often struggle to access communication,
interaction and learning. Some of these children may have very little
control of moving their bodies. Others have difficulty taking in and
processing sensory information from their environment. Many find
communication and interaction skills challenging.
This two day presentation will address
questions such as: What are we learning from brain research that can
help us understand how children learn? How do we motivate children and
provide opportunities for active learning? What strategies help give
these children a sense of control and facilitate interaction and
communication? How does the child on the severe end of the autism
spectrum perceive the world and how does this impact learning and
communication? How does Cortical Visual Impairment impact learning?
This workshop will introduce the concept
of providing a receptive aided language learning environment, and
demonstrate how learning alternative and augmentative forms of
communication can and should parallel the developmental process that
typical children go through in learning speech. We will also take a
brief look at Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display (PODD)
Communication books developed by Gayle Porter, in Melbourne, Australia.
(Please note: This is not an official Introductory PODD course, which
would require two full days training on just that topic.)
This workshop is for anyone working with
young children or children functioning at young levels, who have
difficulty communicating and interacting with others. This includes
children with significant physical and multiple challenges and/or young
children on the more severe end of the autism spectrum. Information
shared will be useful to parents, teachers, speech therapists,
occupational therapists, physical therapists and other supportive
personnel.
Speaker:
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Linda Burkhart Independent Consultant at Linda J. Burkhart |
Leadership
Much has changed in school-based
assistive technology during the past two decades. While technology for
the user has changed, so have the tools AT service providers can use to
communicate, to collect data, to track changes and to provide support.
Additionally, there are new options for providing professional learning
that are increasingly job-embedded and tailored to the individual needs
of educators. How recently have you analyzed the degree to which your
AT services are employing 21st century tools?
During this two-day workshop, we will
challenge you to envision AT services in the context of Universal Design
for Learning for professionals and to move forward to develop your
vision of ways to meet the changing role of AT teams. Interactive
activities will offer an opportunity for you to analyze your current
service model, focus on improving service delivery, use more online
tools to increase efficiency and data collection, build agency-wide
capacity, and plan effective outreach. You will identify areas of need,
rethink the vision for your AT services, and create a multi-faceted
3-year plan. AT specialists are encouraged to attend in teams, develop
team objectives, and discover practical ways to ensure the viability of
your team. On day two of the academy, participants will be joined by
others who participated in this workshop in previous years for
networking and sharing of information and resources. Team members will
have time to hone their AT service delivery redesign and have
opportunities to work with alumni AT service providers for input on your
3-year plan objectives.
Speakers:
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| Gayl Bowser, M.S.Ed. Independent Consultant Assistive Technology Collaborations |
Denise DeCoste, Ed.D. Assistive Technology Specialist/Consultant Accessible Technology Consulting |
Sensory Impairment
This is a two-day hands-on training for
educators of adults or youths who are blind or have low vision. The
training is designed for experienced computer users who have little or
limited knowledge of alternative access software. The session will cover
the basics of the NVDA screen reader, the basics of the Window Eyes
screen reader, the basics of the MagWin screen magnifier, and the basics
of the iOS screen reader and magnifier for iDevices. Day-1 will be
devoted to learning the accessibility features of iOS including the
screen reader, VoiceOver, and the screen magnifiers, Zoom. Participants
will practice the gestures for adjusting settings, navigating on
iDevices and basic operation of apps. Additional information about the
use of refreshable braille displays will also be covered. The
instructor, Larry Lewis, a daily user of iOS devices will provide
additional tips and tricks to improve and enhance the user’s efficiency
with iOS devices.
On day two, participants will learn how
to use keyboard commands to adjust settings in the latest versions of
NVDA, WindowEyes, and MagWin. Participants will receive instruction and
practice using the keyboard commands required to navigate and edit
simple MS Word documents along with additional practice in navigating
accessible websites using the Firefox browser. These software packages
have been chosen to acquaint service providers with low-cost
alternatives for screen magnification and screen reading. Participants
will be required to bring a Windows laptop computer (a Mac running a
Windows emulator will not work), an iPad 2 or higher tablet, and an
external keyboard for the Windows laptop computer. The laptops will need
to have their security features set to allow the installation of demo
versions of NVDA, WindowEyes, and MagWin. The computers will also need
to have Microsoft Word and Firefox installed. Participants will be
required to make laptops available to instructors at the beginning of
Day-1 for installation of demo versions of NVDA, WindowEyes, and MagWin
if they have not already been installed.
Demo download links will be provided via
email to registered attendees prior to the conference. Participants may
download the demo versions prior to the session, but extreme care must
be taken because some of the demos only work for 30 days. Therefore the
programs should not be downloaded until after December 20, 2016. If the
demo version is downloaded before 12/20/2016, the program may time-out
and will not be usable during the hands-on training.
*This session is a Bring Your Own
Technology (BYOT). Bring an iPAD 2 or higher with an AC adapter or a
Windows based laptop computer with an AC adapter, and headphones.
Speakers:
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| Ike Presley National Project Manager American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) |
Larry Lewis President and Founder Flying-Blind LLC |
Alyson Gullette Adjunct Professor Salus University |
One-Day Pre-Conference Seminars
Wednesday, January 18, 2017, 8 AM – 4 PM
Accessibility
As the variety of educational materials
traditionally used in education continues to shift to digital content
that is teacher created, web-based, multi-media, and in multiple
platforms, teachers are continually challenged in order to provide equal
access to education curriculum and effective interaction for all
students. This session explores ways to re-think access to educational
content, methods to consider comprehensive access, and tools to assist
in “accessible content management” (ACM) for students who use
alternative approaches for learning.
Speaker:
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Donna McNear COS McNear Consulting |
Assistive Technology for Improved Function
This an AOTA Sponsored Pre-Conference. AOTA members receive 10% discount on registration fees.
Are you a member of an educational team
who has been asked to provide assistive technology support to students
in your school district? Do you feel as if you need to know more to
answer that call? In today’s complex and dynamic classroom environment,
educators and service providers are challenged to include learners with
diverse needs. Come to this make-and-take it workshop, led by
experienced OTs in schools, to learn not just how to create learning
environments and materials for students with disabilities but also the
pedagogy behind them so you understand how, when and why to use them
with your students. There are challenges and opportunities for
educational teams to assist in the development of academic, physical and
social environments, and determine the strategies, supports, and tools
that to facilitate meaningful engagement for all learners “whether
acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized”.
Using UDL as a foundation, looking at
SETTing classrooms and individual students up for success using a
continuum of tools can provide options and opportunities for all
learners to meaningfully participATe, communicATe, and learn. Do you
want to be able to create materials designed to assist students to be
able to fully participate in learning? Designed for OTs, educators,
SLPs, VI specialists and paraprofessional working in K-12 environment
with students with a variety of disabilities and learning support needs.
Whether new to the job, or an experienced
practitioner, this institute will provide opportunities to share
information, collaborate, and build upon existing knowledge.
Participants will walk away self-created tangible materials along with a
digital toolkit of resources to allow for immediate implementATion to
facilitATe participATion and promote independence.
*Participants are encouraged to BYOD. No device? No problem! Come as you are.
**Additional materials fee
**Additional materials fee
Speakers:
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| Matthew Press, OT, MHS Assistive Technology Coordinator Peoria Unified School District |
Judith Schoonover, OT, MEd Occupational Therapist/Assistive Technology Trainer Loudoun County Public Schools |
Core Standards: K-12
Breaking Out the AT Toolkit: A Hands-on Experience
Do you work with a diverse population and
need help connecting the dots? New York City serves 1.1 million
students and 1,800 schools. The NYC Department of Education Center for
Assistive Technology (CAT) has streamlined a toolkit that works with all
of the various platforms in our schools. This seminar will help you
draw an AT picture for your school district, show you how one of the
most diverse districts in the country enables students in special
education to access their curriculum and explore several case studies in
form of videos, samples of curriculum tasks and actual work with
students utilizing their AT.
Attendees will learn implementation
strategies to be used in the classroom. Presenters will discuss case
studies of students evaluated by the NYCDOE CAT. Based on collaborative
efforts between CAT and the IEP team, these students acquired the
ability to access their curriculum alongside their peers and became
active participants in their classrooms. The students used various AT
devices across platforms, such as computer operating system (OS/Win),
mobile operating system (iOS), and web browser (Chrome). Attendees will
be given an opportunity to explore how to use AT with these platforms
to help struggling students participate in a specific academic area
(e.g., reading, writing, math, and communication). This will be a
hands-on session with technology made available to the participants.
This is a BYOT session and attendees
should bring the following: iPad, laptop computer or Chromebook. The
speakers will bring several devices preloaded with the toolkit that will
be discussed from each platform which may include: Google Apps, Read
and Write, WordQ Co:writer universal for Chrome; Capti narrator, WordQ,
Clicker 7 for Computers; ModMath, Prizmo, ClaroPDF, Proloquo2go,
Touchchat, GoTalk NOW PLUS for iPads. There will also be an eyegaze
device: Tobii-Dynavox i12 with Compass software.
Speakers:
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| Loreto Dumitrescu AT Evaluator NYC Department of Education Center for Assistive Technology |
Maricris Formoso-Santos AT Supervisor NYC Department of Education Center for Assistive Technology |
Lindsey Huntley Speech Supervisor Center for Assistive Technology NYC Department of Education Center for Assistive Technology |
Mylene Matro AT Evaluator NYC Department of Education Center for Assistive Technology |
Education/Learning
This collaborative, highly interactive,
and fast-paced pre-conference will focus on a population frequently
overlooked when considering assistive technologies: students with
high-incidence learning differences. Instead, educators often rely on
traditional instructional methods when working with this group of
students. Students become passive and disengaged; teaching is often
uninspired. To counteract this reality, our workshop will investigate
pedagogy across curricular areas while modeling and providing hands-on
opportunities to consider a variety of engaging tools for remediation
and accommodation. In addition, a brief exploration of the neuroscience
of learning, based upon the work of Judy Willis, MD, neurologist and
middle school teacher, will be presented using short, “Ignite” sessions,
to engage and inspire participants. An understanding of the
neuroscience of learning is believed essential to promote the paradigm
shift necessary to consider and implement new, innovative methods to
support learners with reading and other learning differences.
This workshop will equip and empower
educators with the essential tools to meet the needs of the struggling
learner. We will focus on technologies for reading, writing, math, and
executive functions. In the area of reading, participants will interact
with tools for decoding and comprehension including Bookshare and
Learning Ally, as well as, full-featured text to speech programs, such
as VoiceDream Reader, Snap & Read, and Read and Write for Google.
Additional reading comprehension tools, including Reading Comprehension
Booster, Liquid Text and Actively Learn will be explored. Broader
educational options that allow for differentiation include Front Row,
Newsela, Tween Tribune and Rewordify.
Speakers:
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| Karen Janowski Assistive Technology Consultant EdTech Solutions |
Sharon Plante Eagle Hill Southport |
Communication is at the centre of
learning and life. It has long been the accepted view that those
learners with autistic spectrum disorders have impaired communication
that we as educators have to make a priority focus but what if we
explore the notion that it is our job as educators to learn to read and
engage with their chosen communication routes? Are we ‘tuned in’ to
sensory communication? How do visual supports from body language to
symbol use add to our communication repertoire? Has technology offered
our students a greater power to communicate and to share their view of
the world? Student voice, in the widest sense, will be a thread running
through the whole day. This lively session will consider a range of
communication methodologies and, in particular, how and when technology
can add value.
Speaker:
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Carol Allen City Learning Centre |
Whether the learning materials are in
print or electronic format, large numbers of students are struggling
with access due to reading and/or print disabilities, language barriers,
physical or visual access issues, and more. Students experiencing
issues with trying to comprehend content may also experience issues with
trying to communicate knowledge gained and demonstrate an understanding
through traditional means of pencil, paper and printed tests.
This session will cover a wide variety of
solutions promoting student independence providing access to print or
electronic content including on the fly text to speech with scan and
read apps, language translation, reducing text complexity or
summarization, using iPads, Androids, cell phones, computers or
Chromebooks, as well as for educators needing to provide in the moment
solutions. Focus will be on portable solutions utilizing apps for
tablets, extensions in the Chrome browser that can follow a student from
computer to Chromebook and inexpensive peripherals such as easy to use,
portable document cameras. Supports for writing that will be explored
include visual supports, tools for video expression allowing students to
easily create and demonstrate understanding of concepts, connections in
learning or express their ideas in a multisensory approach utilizing
green screen technology, apps and programs for recording, editing and
presenting, integrating video into eBooks, adding captioning and visual
supports within video. Learn how to provide switch access for students
with physical access issues to the recording features on iPads and
Android tablets including the Camera app, recording features within apps
such as Touchcast, as well as to tools providing writing supports as
well as scan and read apps, promoting independence and inclusion.
*This session is a Bring Your Own
Technology (BYOT). Covering all platforms, BYOT (and switches as well!)
for hands on. Participants will be provided with information and
directions on pre-installing apps, programs and extensions on your
devices before the session.
Speaker:
 |
Dan Herlihy Assistive Technology Resource Specialist Connective Technology Solutions, Inc. |
Everyday Technology
Scaffolds for Successful AT Implementation: Coaching, Gaming, Digitial Badging, Microcredentialing and More!
Ever see AT implementation gone awry?
Ever want to empower professionals and students to have greater success
with AT implementation? Gamification, coaching, digital badging and
microcredentialling provide frameworks and scaffolds for developing both
professionals’ and students’ knowledge, skills, and practices for
effective AT implementation. In this preconference session,
participants will engage in understanding the foundations of these
techniques to build effective learning experiences that motivate and
drive the successful use and implementation of AT. Participants will
dive deep into strategies for developing meaningful digital badges and
microcredentials Then, participants will learn how to incorporate
game-based design and effective coaching strategies to provide a
stimulating context for digital badges and microcredentials to come to
life for a path for success. Finally, participants will apply their
knowledge to creating learning experiences that can be immediately used
in their own schools by both students and educators.
Speaker:
|
Brian Wojcik Assistant Professor University of Nebraska at Kearney |
The latest trend in Assistive Technology
is Google Chrome and Chromebooks in Education. In fact, according to
International Data Corporation (IDC), Chromebooks surpassed iPads in
education sales for the first time in the quarter ending in October
2014. More and more schools are moving to the Google cloud based
learning experience. With this paradigm shift, more classroom activities
are being completed using technology. What does this shift mean for
struggling students and Assistive Technology? How do educators ensure
they are maximizing the use of this technology to support the
instruction, not drive the instruction. This day long hands on learning
experience will explore the Chrome Operating System and the Chromebook
platform. Participants will dive deep into the Google Apps for Education
suite of tools as well as the built in accessibility features of
Chromebooks. Participants will experience an array of Google Chrome apps
and extensions that could be used as Assistive Technology supports to
benefit ALL learners. By leveraging the power of this common browser, we
can make significant customization to meet the needs of struggling
students. Areas covered will include: reading, writing, brainstorming,
and organization. Through hands on learning experiences, participants
will develop strategies to integrate these powerful tools into the
curriculum to promote a Universal Design for Learning classroom by
engaging various learning styles. In order to maximize learning,
participants are strongly encouraged to bring a Chrome equipped computer
to the training, however, any operating system will work. The items and
activities will be accessible whether on a Chromebook, Windows or Mac
computer. Participants should also have a Google Account, in order to
access Google Drive and the apps / extensions we will utilize throughout
the day.
*This session is a Bring Your Own
Technology (BYOT). Bring a Chrome enabled device (Chromebook, PC or
Mac) to experience the power of these tools.
**Additional materials fee
**Additional materials fee
Speaker:
|
Mike Marotta AT Specialist Inclusive Technology Solutions, LLC |
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Monday, August 1, 2016
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