The Spectronics Blog » ipads

Assistive Technology for Students with Moderate to High Support Needs

Amanda Hartmann — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 04:57:29 +0000

Assistive Technology provides amazing opportunities for students with moderate to high support needs to participate meaningfully in classrooms!

This blog post contains support materials and resource links for participants attending the SPED Pre-conference workshop in Singapore in November 2014.

Presentation

This workshop contains both practical and hand-on learning for participants as we step through a wide range of technologies to support:

Access

Switch Interfaces

Switch Accessible Software

Keyboard/Mouse Alternatives

Eye gaze/Head pointing

Early Learning

Cause and Effect apps

Technologies

Music apps

Technologies

Early Learning apps

Software

HelpKidzLearn

Communication

Resources, Software and Technologies

AAC apps

Social Communication apps

Resources and Technologies

Visual Scene Display apps

Resources and Technologies

Literacy

Tools and Resources

Tar Heel Reader

Guided Reading apps

Resources and Technologies

Writing apps

PC-based Technologies

Early Literacy apps

Behaviour and Social Skills

Apps to create Social Stories

PC-based Technologies

Apps for Video Modelling

Apps for Schedules

Resources and Technologies

Apps for Behaviour Support

I encourage you to look for ways to use technology to TRANSFORM your classroom!

Amanda

Getting ready for iOS8

Charlene Cullen — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:04:34 +0000

I recently reset my phone to factory settings, but before I went ahead, I thought carefully about the apps I had on my phone and the settings I was using. With the release of iOS8 in the next few days it’s important to take stock as a school, as a classroom, as a student, family or individual user. What features do I currently use? What apps am I using? Will my device be compatible with the new update? Visit the AbleNet site to see some great suggestions for things to think about before you go ahead and do the upgrade.

A quick summary of the article:

1) Verify that your device is compatible with iOS 8. The compatible devices are listed in the AbleNet article.

2) List the various iOS features (eg. Switch control), apps, and hardware (eg. Bluetooth switch interfaces) that the user requires in order to use their device successfully and make sure they are compatible with iOS 8.

3) Back up your device (apps, music etc) by connecting to iTunes on your computer, BEFORE you do the upgrade. And also think about individual apps that you use and whether you should be backing up pages or vocabulary or settings of those also. For example, you should be saving a back up of your vocabulary or stored library in Proloquo2Go or Proloquo4Text.

4) When you decide that you are ready to upgrade, go into your Settings app and look in the General section. There you will find Software Update iOS and you can see if the update is available. If it shows, you can go ahead and download and install.

And what new features will be included in the new iOS8 update that will provide support to people with disabilities?

For a comprehensive look at new accessibility features you can read the following Assistive Technology Blog article.

Two of my favourite new accessibility features are keyboards and voice access! There will be a new keyboard called QuickType which will have word prediction (Woohoo!) and iOS8 will allow third-party developers to develop keyboards for system wide use. I know that Assistiveware have created 2 educational keyboards for use across apps that will be available soon with the iOS8 update.

And with iOS8 we will be able to activate the device by voice, using Siri, which means people with quadriplegia or other motor disabilities will have greater independence in accessing their devices (no physical access to home button required!).

Get excited! Get ready! Get the update!

We’ll be back soon with a new video for iOS8 tips and tricks.

Three cool things – blog post #1 2014

Amanda Hartmann — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 10:22:46 +0000

Hi everyone,

Three Cool Things: blog post #1

Welcome to this first blog post about 3 cool things I did this week. In an effort to share my “secret genius” (stealing these now famous words from Kevin Honeycutt), I decided that regular blog posts dedicated to share the big, the little, the random, and the totally cool stuff I get to do. Luckily, that is easy, because I get to do COOL things in my work all the time! CAUTION: It’s not totally GENIUS stuff, but it will be fun and practical and I can see all educators using this stuff in their classrooms, or therapists in their clinics, or parents in their homes. Anyone can do this stuff! So do it! Share it!

1. Text innovation (one of my favourite things for language and literacy building).

This week I used this book: “The cat, the rat and the baseball bat” by Andy Griffiths: Which is fun and fab and engaging.

Its at an early reading level for those kids with literacy difficulties, but cool enough to still be age appropriate.

After shared reading of the book, we brainstormed some new vocab words to re-write the story. My student came up with “The dog, the chicken and the cricket bat”. Then the writing began! We used Clicker Docs to support his writing, with the text-to-speech, word banks and word prediction, this is just what he needs to gain confidence in writing! The writing was fun and fast and the student loved the WHOLE process!

And here’s what he wrote: (so cool)

The dog, the chicken and the cricket bat.

The dog was sitting on a tractor.

The dog saw a chicken.

The dog jumped down and chased the chicken.

The dog chased the chicken around and around and around the tractor.

The chicken said stop, I do not like it.

The chicken got a cricket bat.

Now, the chicken chased the dog.

The chicken chased the dog with the cricket bat, around and around and around the tractor.

And then, whack.

The chicken squashed the dog with the cricket bat.

The dog never chased the chicken again.

The end.

by Christopher.

2. Sound manipulation

Here’s one of the things I do all the time, with students with literacy delays. Think of those P-3 students that need extra work on phonics and sounding out and playing with sounds in words. These things will help the development of efficient reading and spelling skills. The task: Basically – its word chaining – change one sound in the word to make new words, eg. I might say “If that says ‘clap’, show me ‘flap'”, :”Out with the ‘c’ and in the ‘f'”; “Touch and say the sounds”…etc. You can do this two ways easily…

Low-tech: I print out Phonic flashcards (from my Reading Doctor software)

High tech: Use the Word Builder app by Reading Doctor.

3. Roll the dice

Easy language building activity this week. I have one of those cool velcro fabric dices, and this week, I had body part symbols stuck on each side (but, who knows what it will be next time!). So, we roll the dice to get a body part, which we then draw to create a person. I supported choices of colours for drawing with Proloquo2Go core word vocab and also modelled core word language building for sentences such as “Draw legs on the boy”. For some students I also used Key word sign – signing key words as we did the activity.

My 3 cool things this week: 1. Text innovation; 2. Sound manipulation; and 3. Roll the dice! Hope you try one of these out! Would love for you to leave me a comment if you do! And follow me on twitter to keep up to date with all my blog postings! @AmandaHartmann8 Thanks for your support. Amanda