Transcript Assistive Technology Presentation

Assistive
Technology
in Special
Education
By Kathryn Mercanti, Fran Oliveira and
Megan Valois
Welcome, Introductions and
Ice-Breaker Activity!
“... providing students with assistive technology software
is akin to providing them with a ‘toolkit’ for assistance
specific to their needs.”
- Ministry of Education, Education for All (2006)
What is Assistive Technology?
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Assistive technology (AT) has become a fundamental component
of learning for today’s students, especially for those who have
learning disabilities. Using technology in the classroom enhances
student learning and offers differentiated instruction to help meet
the needs of each individual. Assistive technology helps support
identified students in areas of deficit and targets visual, auditory
and kinesthetic learners. The following workshop will focus on a
variety of assistive technologies available to teachers and students
to support learning.
What kinds of assistive technology
tools are available?
The term "assistive technology" has usually been applied to computer
hardware and software and electronic devices. However, many AT
tools are now available on the Internet.
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Alternative Calculators or Keyboards
Audio Books (ie. Podcasts)
Digital Recorders (i.e. Echo SmartPen)
Electronic Text (i.e. Bookshare)
Electronic Math Worksheets (i.e. MathPad)
Graphic organizers and outlining (i.e. Inspiration)
Optical character recognition (OCR for scanning)
Portable Word Processors (i.e. N eo)
Speech-to-Text Programs (i.e. WordQ)
Spell checkers (portable or built into word processor such as Ginger)
Text-to-Speech (ie; REACH)
Word-prediction programs
What are the benefits?
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Assistive Technology benefits students with exceptionalities
because it acts as a “great equalizer for individuals with disabilities
that might prevent full participation in school, work, and the
community.” Michael Behrmann from Edutopia explains that “this is
most evident in the case of individuals with mobility, hearing, or
vision impairments, but is also true for individuals with limitations in
cognition and perception. With technology, an individual physically
unable to speak can communicate with spoken language. Using a
portable voice synthesizer, a student can ask and respond to
questions in the "regular" classroom, overcoming a physical
obstacle that may have forced placement in a special segregated
classroom or required a full-time instructional aide or interpreter to
provide "a voice."”
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http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-young-childrenspecial-education
‘Instructional’ versus ‘Assistive’
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The difference between assistive technology and instructional
technology is that assistive devices include any device that
students with exceptionalities use to help them learn and function
more effectively. These might include things such as hearing aids
and amplification devices that enable hearing-impaired students to
hear what's going on in the classroom. It can also include devices
such as:
glare-reduction screens, screen magnifiers, and Braille note-taking
devices that enable visually impaired students to participate
voice-recognition software that turns the spoken word into type on
a computer screen so students unable to move their limbs can take
part; and
technologies that enable students to control their computers simply
by following letters and commands on the computer screen with
their eyes.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech086.shtml
Some
thoughts
on
Assistive
Technology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=IXnqToAwqiE
Organizational Tools
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As educators, we have all witnessed the benefits of technology and
how it can enhance learning effectively for our students, especially
those who are exceptional. Students who have learning disabilities
often struggle with organization, specifically organizing thoughts and
ideas when writing. Assistive technology can help students plan,
organize and keep track of information.
WHAT ARE ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS?
• Organizational tools offer a visual representation of ideas and
concepts. These representations are presented in a physical manner
and can be connected with arrows to show the relationship between
ideas. They can be linked, rearranged, color-coded, and matched
with a variety of icons to suit the needs of the user.
How do these help?
HOW DO ORGANIZATIONAL TOOLS SUPPORT STUDENTS WITH
LEARNING DISABILITIES?
• Visual thinking and learning strategies help to increase academic
performance for students of all learning abilities. Computers are
used in the classroom to support students with all aspects of
writing, not just word processing. Organizational tools help make
the writing process easier to develop and record ideas, to edit
ideas, and to share ideas with others. Students with learning
disabilities often find difficulty in brainstorming, listing ideas, and
overall planning when they are writing. Graphic organizers assist
exceptional students with organization by helping to generate
topics and content for writing projects.
Examples of organizational tools
SMART IDEAS SOFTWARE
• Smart Ideas Software uses graphic organizers to aid understanding
and help organize thoughts. It allows students/teachers to write ideas
in small chunks using colourful diagrams. This program enables its
users to create simple concept mapping to show basic connections
between ideas, as well as detailed mapping. Students create work
through the use of graphic organizers and are able to import their
information into a Microsoft Word document.
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Visit this website for a brief tutorial on Smart Ideas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437PmTo-63A
Visit this website for the user guide for Smart Ideas:
http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/sitecore/en/support/product/smartideas/smartide
as4/guides/smartideasusersguide.pdf
Visit this website for a video on the benefits of using Smart Ideas for teachers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dw5Sc3ljjY
More organizational tools
INSPIRATION SOFTWARE:
• Inspiration Software is another computer program that assists
students with visually organizing thoughts and ideas in a chart
which helps students with the writing process (written expression
and communication). Specifically, students brainstorm using
symbols and images to represent and sort their ideas, and create
visual diagrams and graphic organizers to break down work into
manageable sections.
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Visit this website for a tutorial on Inspiration Software:
http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration
Benefits
Benefits of SMART IDEAS and INSPIRATION software:
• Helps students organize thoughts in a logical manner (brainstorm
ideas)
• Provides images to support ideas
• Enables students who find words/writing overwhelming to use
pictures/diagrams to form ideas
• Helps students to compose short or long writing assignments by
gradually building on ideas
• Breaks down larger assignments/tasks into smaller chunks to help
students process information
• Students/teachers have a visual representation of the topic
• Students/teachers can easily add or remove ideas/concepts through
class discussion
• Teachers can have students collaborate ideas/show connections
between ideas
Assistive Technology and
Differentiated Instruction
SMART IDEAS and INSPIRATION software support differentiated
instruction by:
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allowing students to be actively involved in the lesson
providing a visual concept of what is being discussed
allowing tactile learners to create something with the information
they have learned
allowing lessons to be tailored for individual students to learn and
demonstrate their understanding in ways that best suit their
specific learning needs.
Technology to Support Executive
Functioning Skills (Apps):
ICON
NAME
DESCRIPTION
iStudiez Pro
-scheduling appointments and
reminding you of deadlines
Next Thing
-a digital sticky note
iThoughts
-mapping tool to organize thoughts and
ideas
Corkulous
-giant bulletin board to collect and
organize ideas
Flashcards Deluxe
Dropbox
-five-sided flash cards
-organizational tool for keeping files
accessible
Alarm Clock Free
-alarm clock with snooze and local
weather conditions
PDF Expert
-reads/highlights/take notes in PDF
• “We believe that technology is equitably
implemented when it is: available, used
routinely, used in ways that reflect realworld applications of interest, complexity,
and power, used to enhance learning
opportunities for all students, used to
monitor teacher/students progress over
time.”
• “Social Justice: Choice or Necessity” by Colleen
Swain and David Edyburn, page 16.
Assistive Technology for Language
Difficulties
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There are a wide variety of assistive technologies available for
students with exceptionalities in the areas of language (receptive,
expressive, spelling, Dyslexia, etc) or speech (communication
disorders/exceptionalities).
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Assistive technology for language usually encompasses one or
more of the following:
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text to speech, speech to text, word recognition/prediction, audio books
or audio recorders and word processing.
• We will offer one example of each: adapted keyboard, text to
speech, speech to text, word prediction and audio recorders; however,
there are many options available.
Product: REACH by Infogrip.com
Uses: Adapted Keyboard and Text to Speech
Target group: REACH works well for individuals who have Cerebral Palsy,
Muscular Dystrophy or other disorders that make communicating difficult.
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Description: REACH is not only an on-screen keyboard but a tool
chest, loaded with features to help you write, access information,
communicate, access the Internet, learn, and dynamically interact with
others as easy and efficiently as possible. It has “ScanBuddy” a mouse
emulation system that lets you point and click your mouse using only a
switch. Furthermore, REACH speaks as you type or after you're
finished typing. You can highlight text virtually anywhere on the screen
and have it read back to you.
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http://www.infogrip.com
Product: Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Uses: Speech to text
Target group: For students with fine motor skill difficulties,
spelling/grammar issues, processing issues or physical disabilities
preventing typing.
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Description: Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech recognition
software package that talks and types. It turns your voice into text
and therefore, instead of requiring a student to type information, it
can be dictated orally. Dragon has the ability to playback your
speech in documents and has a built in text to speech option also.l
Product: Co-Writer
Uses: Word prediction
Target group: Co-Writer helps students who struggle with illegible
handwriting, poor phonetic or inventive spelling, physical disabilities that
makes typing difficult, students with difficulty translating thoughts into
writing and students with dyslexia.
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Description: Co:Writer interprets spelling and grammar mistakes and
offers word suggestions in real time. Co:Writer's Word Bank
automatically presents a list of topic-specific words whenever a “topic
dictionary” is selected. Other words can also be programmed.
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Co-Writer demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWEKwJBBJ4
Product: Audio Boo (App)
Uses: Audio recording
Target group: Audio Boo helps students who struggle with fine motor skill
difficulties, poor phonetic or inventive spelling, physical disabilities that
makes typing difficult, students with difficulty translating thoughts into
writing and students with dyslexia.
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Description: Audio Boo allows students to record messages,
questions, text, reflections, etc through their mobile device or computer
and post/share them online. The “boos” can be shared on social media
platforms also. Audio Boo allows students to record and share insights
that they might otherwise struggle to output, in a more tradition form
like a journal. Students can share and respond to each other’s “boos”.
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Sample audio-boos from a Grade 5 class:
http://audioboo.fm/channel/michael-faraday-school
Ipads as an Assistive Technology
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Both the iPad and iPod are extremely useful tools in the classroom.
With its multitude of applications (apps), the iPad is not only
beneficial for typically functioning students in the classroom, but it
can be an invaluable learning tool for students with special needs.
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There are many apps to support students with the following
exceptionalities: Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD),
Developmental Delays (DD), Learning Disabilities (LD), Blind/Low
Vision, Hearing Impaired and other physical disabilities.
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For the purposes of this presentation, today the focus will be on
applications that are useful for students with ASD/DD and LD.
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The apps described here are just a small fraction of those that are
available. With the iPad, the possibilities are endless!
Benefits
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Engages students in active learning
Facilitates all types of learners
Allows for individualized and customized learning
Fosters higher-order thinking skills are embedded in 21st century
skills
Provides immediate feedback
Brings the real world to the classroom
Promotes collaboration among students
Makes learning fun and exciting with the “coolness” factor – not
“special technology” for exceptional learners – the same type of
technology that everyone else uses.
Supports equitable access to technology
Source: iTouch, iLearn, iBelieve
How can the iPad assist students
with ASD/DD?
Social/Communication
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Hidden Curriculum on the Go- contains real-life based
conversations about the countless “unwritten social rules” that we
encounter every day and that can cause confusion and anxiety
Proloquo to Go (by AssistiveWare)- this application breaks down
the barriers of communication for special needs individuals who
are unable to communicate verbally. It provides natural sounding
text-to-speech voices. Proloquo to go is most appropriate for
students who are able to use a Picture Exchange System (PECS)
independently and efficiently
Model Me kids- models appropriate social skills
iConverse
How can the iPad assist students
with ASD/DD?
Organization
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iPrompts
All Done
Visual Timer
Life Skills
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Edukitchen- matching, counting, arranging games with a kitchen
theme
Grocery iQ
Language and Math
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See examples on DD slide
How can the iPad assist students
with LD?
Organization
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myHomework
aNote
White board
Wikipanion
Siri
Mathematics
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Math Tutor
Splash Math
Graphing Calculator
Freddy Fraction
How can the iPad assist students
with LD?
Language
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Bluster
Tumblebooks to Go- books that are read to the student
Pocket Phonics- fun phonics for younger students
Kindle for iPhone
Spelling City- teachers are able to enter word lists online
Considerations:
• protective covers to ensure that the iPad is not damaged
• education and knowledge about how to use the iPad- Apple Stores
hold free classes!
• security issues- may need to disable the camera and video
function, unsupervised use of the internet
In summary ….
• As clearly demonstrated in this
presentation, assistive technology helps to
enhance learning in areas where students
with special needs struggle. Furthermore,
it promotes differentiated instruction in an
inclusive classroom and fosters a positive
and effective learning environment for all
students, regardless of their individualized
needs.
“We can no longer teach
today's students with
yesterday's tools and expect
them to succeed.”
- iTouch, iLearn, iBelieve
presentation
References
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http://www.ncld.org/students-disabilities/assistive-technology-education/appsstudents-ld-organization-study
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech086.shtml
http://www.edutopia.org/assistive-technology-young-children-special-education
http://atclassroom.blogspot.ca
Presentation: iTouch, iLearn, iBelieve