Reflections

Course Reflections

This course has taught me so much, not only in the use of assistive technology in my classroom, but it has deepened my understanding of those students who are in need of using such devices.  During our class meetings - as we looked at different case studies of students and learned new AT tools - I couldn’t help but reflect back on some of the students that I have taught over the years who would have greatly benefited from AT tools – the iPad and its multitude of wonderful Apps in particular.

With my new knowledge, however, I am more aware  (and frustrated) with our current educational system.  We need to spend more time, effort, and money on assistive technology and training of our teachers so that we actually do meet the needs of all learners!!!! 

For our last class, we presented case studies on students at our school or in our community who we thought would benefit from having assistive technology in their lives.  We have begun making small steps in the lives of more students...

 

Teacher	Student	Goal	Apps	Results
Nikki	Gr 6 Autistic ADHD	To develop a visual schedule to increase independence.	Binder with visual schedule without pictures. Checklists for keeping student on track.	Student developed some independence but an iPad would be more useful.
Shauna	10 yr old boy Autistic Doesn’t like pencil & paper activities	To increase reading comprehension and enhance communication skills.	Classroom Suite My Talk            ToolsLite Checkers Social Stories Visual schedules	Student only wants to use technology for writing.  Now to convince the school board community to purchase an iPad.
Eleanor	Age 18 Grade 12 ADHD  Poor working memory Easily distracted & low motivation Difficulty with predictions and cause and effect	Make connections to his learning and articulating thoughts.	Poplett – a graphic organizer Dragon Dictation- CoWriter	Poplett – App is user friendly Dragon Dictation- He didn’t like it b/c challenging due to noise in class and his work would get lost. After making a story web in Poplett.  He typed it in CoWriter.  This made him feel more successful because he knew his spelling was correct.
Chris	Age 9 ADHD Frequent D’s in school Taken off of meds	To help child become and stay organized at home.	iReward Chart App Stress Ball	Child was able to organize room but perhaps try Epic Win App to motivate the child further.
Whitney	Age 16 BIRT Class Dependent on EPA for doing his work	Improve student’s ability work independently.	Claro Speak  Dragon Dictation	Improved pace and focus Could better access what he knew.
Donna	High School PEERS Class of 7 students.	To help students develop social communication skills.	Tellagami EverNote CloudArt VisionSim	Students developed more motivation and confidence.
Theresa	Grade 3 girl Down Syndrome Speech concerns – difficult to understand.  Low vision. Likes to have her own way.	Student engagement and motivation for learning. Teaching EPA to use AT.	Slant board  & stylus for iPad IPad for Learning Tool instead of games Visual Timer Emotion Flashcards	Used technology for social books Needs to see a visual timer (to help her end a task) Liked iPad Learned to have shared control with the use of the choice boar
Susan	Self CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome)  2% range of motion in fingers after a car accident	To find appropriate AT to assist in personal Hygiene and Meal Preparation	AT One handed cutting board video Hair Dryer Stand	Got some independence back.
Reagan	To Get AT in school and people on board -4 teachers and 5 students	No Training No Accounts No budgets No apps Blocked usage	ReadIris Clario Kursweil Firefly (App)	Teachers and EPA’s seeing benefits of using iPads. Teachers NEED to be TRAINED and Pad accounts set up and money for purchases.
McKenzie	4 students with various Learning Difficulties Grade 8		CoWriter	Successful and wrote more risk taking and bigger words. More confidence and more engaged.

Autism: A Letter and a Video

So, I am in the middle of making a mock catalogue as part of an assignment for this course and am currently researching assistive technology items for people with autism.  I don't know much about autism and have never taught a child with this disorder, however I find it both fascinating (in a scientific way) that people with autism have such gifted talents and skills in certain areas and such great challenges in others.  I have learned more about the autism spectrum disorder from doing my catalogue research and wanted to share a heartwarming letter I just read on the Internet.  It is called;
An Open Letter From a Child With Autism to a Teacher and it has made me think of ways that I would approach a child with autism in my classroom.  

Here is also a YouTube video that one of my classmates showed me.  It is pretty powerful!   Thanks Theresa.

Carly's Café - Experience Autism Through Carly's Eyes 

 

AT During Writing Time

Due to this course, I finally feel like I am able to met the needs of all of my students during writing class.  I have nine students in my elementary classroom that have adaptations for writing.  Their adaptations state that they use various software apps to assist them with the writing process.   Unfortunately I have been unable to accommodate some of these adaptations mainly because I have never used an iPad or have been trained in some of the software before taking this course.  In the last few weeks, I have to say that I feel very comfortable with using iPads and have downloaded and successfully used several writing apps. 

Now, during each writing class these are the tools that my students are using:

Cowriter

Dragon Dictation

Paper

Voice Recorder

Story Jumper

It's hectic for the first 10 minutes until I get everyone set up on their devices and software and then my students are totally engaged and don't want to stop writing!

Writing time is so much fun now!!!!! 

Here's a great site I found that has tonnes of apps to use in the classroom:

Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools

SOCIAL STORIES

Social Stories 

I have never had to use social stories in my class before but have heard other teachers mention them.  In class today, we discussed the type of learner that would benefit from using Social Stories and some situations where they would be needed.

What is a Social Story?

Social Stories are used to teach social skills to individuals on the autism spectrum.  They can be used to help the individual prepare the individual for upcoming events; taking another’s point of view; understanding rules, routines, situations; and understanding expectations.

In pairs, we thought of a situation in which a social story would be needed and quickly designed a story using whatever App we wanted.

Here is the Social Story that Theresa and I designed using Symbol Support

I feel beeter prepared to support my upcoming learners!

iMovie

iMOVIE

This is such a fun App that allows the user to make their own movie trailers.  It is available for free on iPods and MacBook Pro’s.  This App would be great to use in a classroom for any learner.

10 Ways to use iMovie in the Classroom

Book Trailers

Roll Playing

Science Experiments

Book reports

Story Telling

Field Trips

Self Reflections

Photo Essays

Peer Feedback

Instructional Videos

Using iMovie in the Classroom

 iMovie Demo

My First iMovie 

Oops!  Under Construction

Proloquo2Go and Other AAC Apps

Proloquo2Go

This is an amazing Augmentative and Alternate Communication App for that uses symbols and gives a voice to those who cannot speak.

We looked at case studies in class today and, in pairs, and created a vocabulary design based on several criteria for the user in the case study.  It is necessary to make sure the design fits the user to make it meaningful to him or her.  Some of the criteria we used to fit the user were as follows:

  Description of User:

•  Literacy levels
•  Visual access
•  Auditory feedback
•  Cognitive abilities
•  Prior experience with AAC
•  Physical abilities to utilize device
• Cognitive abilities of user

Visual Access:

•  Size of cell matches user
•  Colour of Cells appropriate
•  Background colour appropriate
•  Number of cells appropriate

Physical Access:

•  Size of cells
•  Number of cells
•  Spacing
•  Size of Toolbars
•  Size of Sentence Window
•  Touch response

Cognitive load:

•  Number of cells
•  Depth of messages (layers match abilities)
•  Literacy levels appropriate for user

AAC Grid Design:

• Messages need to be well thought out
• Varied for different environments
• Appropriate for cognitive level of user
• Fosters reciprocal communication
• Initiates conversations
• Concludes a conversation
• Covers most critical messages (wants and needs etc.)

An Inspirational Video for Proloquo2Go

Some other free Apps available that are similar to Proloqu2Go (but no where near as comparable in my mind) include:

Pogo Boards

Some Features:

-       Comes with a downloaded board

-        Free Trial for 14 days

-       Dynamic

-       Some different and fun communication boards i.e. a hippo singing and dancing.

-       Has routines on it e.g. Morning Routines

UR Voice

Some Features:

-       For older students Jr. High +

-       Text to speech

-        Can save and bank phrases

-       Can change voice, speed and pitch

GoTalk

MyTalkTools Lights

-       Free one allows 20 rows and columns

-       Access to images to several images

-       Can add text and add own voice

SMART AAC

Some Features:

-  Trial only

                 - Predicts were you want to go

Sounding Board

Some Features:

-       Fairly user friendly

-       Simple to edit