Tag Archives: Early Childhood Education
Play School Art Maker FREE
Posted in Apps and Mobile Learning
Ian Bean December 21, 2011
Ian Bean December 21, 2011
If you’re working with younger children you won’t want to miss this great free app. Create animated scenes with your favourite toys from Play School. Choose a background, add the toys and move them around to create your ‘story’. The app records the movements and sounds automatically then plays them back for all to enjoy. For more information about this app please visit their …
Weally Wonderful Apps V2.0
Posted in Apps and Mobile Learning, Sources for Quality App Reviews, Web links
Gerry Kennedy December 5, 2011
Gerry Kennedy December 5, 2011
Weally Wonderful Apps V2.0 is an update of the Version 1.0 document. I have added categories that are more descriptive and so the resource should be more user-friendly. Quite a few new apps have been added as well as some new resources and links to articles. I hope that this 13 page document will be useful for educators, therapists and parents in locating suitable …
LCD Touchscreens: Beginning of the end for Interactive Whiteboards?
Posted in New Technologies
Barbara Landsberg November 28, 2011
Barbara Landsberg November 28, 2011
Just add a laptop or an iPad 2! No data projector needed. No shadows. Fully height-adjustable. Even project wirelessly from your iPad 2 (using an Apple TV unit and a WiFi connection)! We have been looking for an attractive alternative to interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the classroom for many years. We think we have found it now! The 65″ and 55″ EDUSS Multi-touch Interactive …
Weally Wonderful Apps V1.0
Posted in Apps and Mobile Learning, Sources for Quality App Reviews, Web links
Gerry Kennedy November 10, 2011
Gerry Kennedy November 10, 2011
I have created a new resource in MS Word that just applies to Apps – thus ‘Weally Wonderful Apps’. It is Version 1.0 and has an introductory page and then is followed by six pages of links to resources, articles, reviews. Best-Of sites and teaching and learning supports for people working within education and therapy. It will definitely expand over time and will save …
Incredibox Human Beatbox Choir – Fun for Touchscreen or IWB
Posted in Tools & Resources
Barbara Landsberg September 14, 2011
Barbara Landsberg September 14, 2011
Looking for a fun activity for use on touchscreen monitors or Interactive Whiteboards? The Incredibox online activity is totally addictive! Simply drag sound icons onto each of the human beatboxers (pictured above). Click or touch the screen to add or remove characters as you build your choir. Or just run in shuffle mode and watch it all happening automatically. Lots of fun!
Symbols 101 Part Two
Posted in Techniques & Tips
Ian Bean August 30, 2011
Ian Bean August 30, 2011
In the previous part we discussed the importance of ensuring the symbols we choose actually communicate the information that we hope to impart. Is it obvious what the symbol means? If not can it be decoded by the child considering their level of understanding or do we need to teach the meaning of the symbol? In this section I want to explore this further. …
Symbols 101 Part One
Posted in Techniques & Tips
Ian Bean August 19, 2011
Ian Bean August 19, 2011
Symbols have been around for many years and it’s very rare for me to visit a school where they are not using one symbol set or another to support their students. From the earliest days when colleagues used to physically draw pictures over words with pencils, the use of symbols has provided support for early literacy, communication and served as a very useful tool …
Onset Rime: Developing early literacy with Boardmaker and Clicker 5
Posted in Tools & Resources
Barbara Landsberg December 20, 2010
Barbara Landsberg December 20, 2010
After Spectronics’ recent series of workshops in New Zealand, many participants enthusiastically requested more information about onset rime activities and their importance in literacy development. So we thought it would also be good to share them with you here in our blog. Onset rime has been shown to be one of the most effective ways of improving phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is an important …
30,000 new images for Clicker 5!
Posted in Tools & Resources
Barbara Landsberg October 12, 2010
Barbara Landsberg October 12, 2010
We are often asked about how to add MORE pictures and symbols into Clicker 5 and for some time, we have not been able to offer you any solutions which automatically appear within the program. Last year we built an instruction sheet about how to set up an image library to import the Widgit Literacy Symbols and told you that the PCS symbols for …
FREE Online Training – new sessions for you!
Posted in Events, Permanent Resources, Techniques & Tips, Web links, Workshops
Katie Lyon June 25, 2010
Katie Lyon June 25, 2010
You may be aware of our FREE Online Training Sessions that are available for a number of different software programs including Boardmaker, Communicate: Symwriter, Clicker 5 and Texthelp Read and Write Gold. The sessions go for about an hour and are delivered by either one of our teachers or speech pathologists who have had experience using the software. You can attend as many as …
