Assistive tech shopping spree!

So as I was doing some Christmas shopping on Friday, I thought I'd combine that with Barb's second assignment of finding low tech for use in the classroom. I'm not going to lie and say I thought all this up as I was going through the dollar store. I asked the students I work with and other teachers and here is what we came up with. Please forgive the google images, my camera was left at school and the camera on my phone is awful.

Darcie's Top 10 Low Tech ideas:

1. Abacus!
My nephew has one of these and it really helped him with the number concepts he was just not getting at school.

2. Graph paper
To help line up Math problems or write in English class, you can even use a permanent marker to make the lines darker and easier to see.

3. Earplugs
This can really help to provide a low sensory environment for some students.

4.  Wrist Weight
Helps lessen the involuntary movements

5. Post It Notes
I use these all the time for my more visual kids and those with ADHD as the colours help them to focus somehow.

6. Stencils for tracing letters
I think this one is self explanatory...

7. Masking Tape
This has so many uses! As a number line at the top of the desk, sentence starters during English...and did you know that it now comes in different colours?

8. Book Holders
I use mine when I am baking, but for kids who have gross and fine motor control issues, this is a great help.

9. Foam shapes, paper clips and magnets
Glue these to the corner of the pages of books to help the students turn the pages!

10. Small soft toy or stress ball
This was a suggestion from one of my students who has a lot of anxiety. She said that when she feels herself getting a little stressed, she can pet this or squeeze the ball and it calms her down.

Obviously, there are lots more! I can't wait to read the other blogs to see what everyone else came up with!

Snow day and assistive tech!

Snow day, snow day, snow day! Barb tried t be nice and help those of us who have long way to drive seeing as how their was an impending snow-pocalypse on the way...which was non existent but the thought was a nice one!

In my search of the web, here are the models that I found that seem to be these ones:

1. SETT (student, environment, task, tools)

The student (learner)

• What is the functional area(s) of concern? What does the student need to be able to do that is difficult or impossible to do independently at this time?
• Special needs (related to area of concern)
• Current abilities (related to area of concern)

The environment

• Arrangement (instructional, physical)
• Support (available to both the student and the staff)
• Materials and equipment (commonly used by others in the environments)
• Access issues (technological, physical, instructional)
• Attitudes and expectations (staff, family, employees, others)

The tasks

• What specific tasks occur in learners' natural environments that enable progress toward mastery of their goals and objectives?
• What specific tasks are required for active involvement in identified environments (related to communication, instruction, participation, productivity, environmental control)?

The tools

In the SETT Framework, tools include devices, services and strategies; everything needed to help learners succeed. Analyze the information gathered to address the following questions and activities.

• Is it expected that the learner will not be able to make reasonable progress towards his/her goals without assistive technology devices and services?
• If yes, describe what a useful system of assistive technology devices and services for the learner would be like.
• Brainstorm tools that could be included in a system that addresses learner needs.
• Select the most promising tools for trials in the natural environments.
• Plan the specifics of the trial (expected changes, when/how tools will be used, cues, etc.)
• Collect data on effectiveness.

2. HATT
Human
- the do-er, the operator - underlying abilities (sensory input, central processing and motor output) - need to take into consideration the person’s skills and abilities ability – basic training of a person, what he brings to a new task
skill – a level of proficiency
Activity
- 3 basic performance areas: self-care, work/school, play/leisure - the activities an individual performs are determined by that person’s life role(s) - activities can be broken down into smaller tasks ... need to know what these are ... helps determine points at which an individual may need assistance to accomplish activity
Context
where the activity is being performed - setting (environment) - social context (e.g. with peers, strangers, family) - cultural context (influences social s context) ... will talk about the influence of culture on AT later - physical context (e.g. light, temperature, sound)
The AT
provide basis that allows human performance to improve

3. MTP (matching person and tech)

The Matching Person & Technology Model organizes influences on the successful use of a variety of technologies: assistive technology, educational technology, and those used in the workplace, school, home; for healthcare, for mobility and performing daily activities. Specialized devices for hearing loss, speech, eyesight and cognition as well as general or everyday technologies are also included.Research shows that although a technology may appear perfect for a given need, it may be used inappropriately or even go unused when critical personality preferences, psychosocial characteristics or needed environmental support are not considered.

 The Matching Person and Technology Model is operationalized by a series of reliable and valid measures that provide a person-centered and individualized approach to matching individuals with the most appropriate technologies for their use. The Matching Person & Technology Model and measures were developed by Marcia J. Scherer, Ph.D. beginning in 1986.

MPT process with accompanying assessment measures

• Initial Worksheet for the Matching Person and Technology (MPT) Model -- to determine initial goals, potential interventions, and technologies needed to support attainment of the goals.
• History of Support Use -- identifies supports used in the past and satisfaction with those supports.
• Specific technology matching:
  • General -- survey of technology use
  • Assistive -- assistive technology device predisposition assessment, cognitive support technology predisposition assessment and hearing technology predisposition assessment
  • Educational -- educational technology device predisposition assessment
  • Workplace -- workplace technology device predisposition assessment
  • Healthcare -- healthcare technology device predisposition assessment
• Follow-up versions of the measures to determine degree of use, comparison of expected benefit and realization of benefit and change in functioning and subjective well-being.

And finally,

4. LAP 
Primarily for those with more severe disabilities, it is more of a team based approach based on a collection of observations on the following categories:

• Physical Resources
• Cognitive Resources
• Emotional Resources
• Support Resources
• Environmental Analysis

There sure is a lot more to this whole process than you would think. I find that a lot of teachers assume that the assessment is something that isn't that strenuous and then the kid gets an IPad...

They all need to read this blog.

This is the link to the really great power point that set me off on my quest for knowledge  this week.
http://www.slideshare.net/mjmax/assessment-models-assistive-technology

There's an App for that!

This was the best class so far! And that includes the night with the IBooks and the IMovie. This was such an eye opener and so helpful with all the apps that everyone used in their projects. I wasn't sure how I would be able to use them in my own school setting which is a couple of more grades above what most of my colleagues are teaching but I could see how I could use them in my own role as far as passing them onto the teachers in the school who may not be aware of them. I especially liked the HT recorder for IPad app that could be used for book reports and journals and all kinds of things for all kinds of classes as well as comic life. I think I might be adding those to some of the devices at school.

One thing is for sure: what I said last week is ringing even more true for me this week. We need teachers to be more open to this type of teaching! I spent most of the day today helping a student who had a list of IA's as long as your arm with an assignment that was the same for everyone. It was a very word heavy document (4 pages double sided!) and there were rivers of text everywhere. Needless to say, I managed to pare it down and reorganize it into 1 and the student is working away at it, but now I want to go back and re do it using these apps!

Oh well. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll get my chance in the near future...

Even Sesame Street knows this is the way of the future...

Lesson Planning in the Age of UDL

Tonight Trisha and I completed our programing for our fictional class of students in Human Biology 11. And all I can say is Holy Cow. My eyes are exhausted and my brain is fuzzy. I totally understand why some teachers are so resistant to UDL. It was so much work doing one tiny worksheet on the bones of the human skeleton that I can't imagine doing it every day...and yet, I would if I was in a classroom every day because that is where we are going to!

Barb was talking tonight about presenting to the BEd students at MSVU the other day and how surprised they were about the ways that Apple Tech can be used in the classroom. I wish I could say I was surprised but the entire program needs to be overhauled. When I took it a looooooong time ago, I can honestly say that there were very few courses that I have used in my own practice and those ones were all taught by teachers who were still in the classroom.

But back to tonight. It was a heck of a lot of work but once something like that is done, it's done forever so nothing says I can't use it again!

Anyone who is thinking of being a teacher in the 21st century, watch this

The Wonderful World of Webinars!

After a few glitches with the java script, I was ready to roll! As a PST, it's my job to be a bridge between the teachers and students who need support in the class and that includes everyone. I've had a couple of students in my classroom who were Autistic and some of these apps would have made life so much easier for those students, especially the sensory regulation ones. I think that a lot of teachers have no idea about what students on the spectrum are dealing with or even those kids wit anxiety about school. I have one student currently who is so anxious that it takes her about an hour to calm down in my office. Yesterday, I gave her my IPod to play with pocket pond and she left smiling and happy. I let her keep it for the rest of the day and rather than have to leave the class every 15 minutes to come see me, she just brought up the pond and she stayed in class for the whole day. It really made a difference to her and she told me today that her Mother might buy her an IPod for Christmas.

Sometimes, tech can be a real blessing. Today was one of those days.

It's all there: Ruby with Proloquo2go

Whenever I see this app being used by a student who is non verbal or has communication issues, it just reinforces the fact of how important this kind of program is. There are more and more students in our school system who are going to need this to be successful. As Ruby's mother said, "this gives her a voice". Her PSA noted how her behavior had improved by 95% and how the program has allowed her to "unlock her communication".

Ruby is the kind of student that if we meant her before we saw her using Prolo, the majority of us would probably have assumed that she was not mentally handicapped in some way. As we talked about in our presuming competence discussions, we always go to the negative when presuming instead of the other way around. It's a good thing that this app is there to prove us wrong.

Watch how this app has helped Ruby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBIcGXCEaTw

Wednesday's child is full of woe...and ProLoQuo2go!

Tonight, I met Sam, Julie, Christian, Joe and Katie. These students are all non verbal and need to use the ProLoQuo2Go app in order to communicate at home, school and in the community. They were all fairly similar and yet had different interests and ideas. The thing about these students is that they were all made up. They don't exist. We got their info and then last week we programmed for them. It was so great to see how everyone did it and what they thought was best for the students. Some really cool ideas came out of this and it was very instructional.

We also had a chance to use another book creator app whihc was great fun. I can see it being used in all kinds of ways for all kinds of abilities and classes. For revisoin it would be really cool or for junior high social studies. Even language classes could us this as way of helping students into the task of using the correct tense when they are learning how to speak or to make up stories for others and share them. It's all really cool.

I just wish that the technology was being taught to BEd students in their degree. It would make the transition that much easier to usng it as a teaching tool but the majority of professors just don't get the use of tech in their own lives that they are just teaching the same old same old. It's incredibly frustrating to see all these incredible young, energetic educators who understand the power and use of technology but not being able to use it in the classroom. We really need a shake up of the education system! To the barricades!!!