Favorite UDL resource

One of my favorite Universal Design for Learning (UDL) resources is called the "UDL Tech Tool Kit." This Wiki is broken down by categories, such as: graphic organizers, literacy, story telling, math, writing, etc. and lists numerous resources, including lots of FREE tools! This is one of my "go to" tools, and should be yours too! You can find the link here.

Resources for Apps!

Besides scrolling through the iTunes store, googling, and Pinterest, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite resources to help you find apps!

Here is a link that gives you alerts when there are apps that are temporarily FREE for kids!  It is also a great reference page: http://www.smartappsforkids.com/

Here are some other great references when you are trying to find apps:

Apps in Education

Appy Mall

Best Austism Apps

Apps for Children with Special Needs

Geek SLP

Jane Farrall - AAC and switch accessible apps

Positively Autism

Speech Techie


Some Favorite Scheduling Apps

Two of my favorite scheduling apps that I often recommend are: Choiceworks and First Then Visual Schdule (FTVS). Both do similar things, but they also have some different features that are important.  I really like that both apps include a library of pictures, and ways to import pictures through your built-in camera or pictures saved on your camera roll. In addition, both apps allow you to create quick and easy schedules with the ability to record voices and incorporate text-to-speech for non readers or students that require multimodal support. Choiceworks and FTVS also have a nice visual to show the individual the completion of each task.

Differences:

Choiceworks

•  Three boards: Schedule, Waiting, and Feelings
•  3 social story (Companion) books for each board

FTVS

• variety of layouts to present visuals
• can incorporate videos
• can incorporate choice boards

Choiceworks - $6.99

For more information, click here 

For a video tutorial, click here

FTVS HD - $14.99

For manuals and a video tutorial, please visit this website and scroll down to the bottom

Curation Tools

What is a curation tool? In "Plain English", it is social bookmarking! "Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection, and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use." 

What are some uses for curation tools?

• Organize and disseminate new content
• Collect and share professional materials
• Foster discussion and current events
• Connect with others
• Critique information found on the web
• Create reading lists

• "collective intelligence"

Some examples of curation tools used in education are: Live Binders, Pinterest, Pearltrees, Symbaloo, Twitter, Diingo, and Scoop.it! My favorite curation tool is Pinterest.  I started using it for personal use, but thought it would be a great idea to create a professional Pinterest page. This past January, I had the opportunity to go to ATiA in Orlando Florida.  One of the sessions I went to was called "Leveraging Social Media for Career Development, Networking, and Lifelong Learning" by Lauren Enders.  Lauren is an SLP that specializes in assistive technology and is well known for her amazing Pinterest page. After attending her session, I was inspired to create my own.  I wasn't able to see the true benefit of using Pinterest as a curation tool (besides a way for me to organize some of my resources for myself) until last week.  I met with our OTs because we are doing a presentation on using the iPad to support writing.  The OTs claimed that they hardly used their iPads, and the only "good apps" cost money.  I made it my mission that day to find apps that were free AND beneficial.  I created a folder on my Pinterest board entitled "OT apps" and sent the link to the therapists.  After I did this, their entire attitude changed! I was completely amazed and grateful that they changed their minds.  It was almost as though I needed to start their research of apps, and why not do that through Pinterest?!! I'm thrilled that they looked at my board, and they are excited and researching their own apps.

Take a look at the upper right hand side of my blog to get a link to my Pinterest page!


Resources: 
Google slides, presentations, and assignments by Brenda Doucette

Importance of Projectors in Special Education

I feel that it is very important to have projectors in every classroom. Research in the neuroscience of learning proves that engagement is a huge piece to a successful and necessary learning environment; Click here to find out more on the "Neuroscience of Learning". We have 21^st century learners, and we need to incorporate technology into teaching methods.  It is essential that students in special education use/have access to visuals for learning; specifically students with hearing impairments, low cognitive abilities, ADHD, auditory processing difficulties, and autism. Here is a list of other reasons for having projectors in every classroom:

• ·      Helps benefit visual/auditory learners
• ·      Attracts and holds students attention
• ·      Offers a necessary multisensory approach for students in special education
• ·      Makes abstract concepts more concrete for students (via visuals, videos, examples, etc.)
• ·      Allows teachers to modify complicated information in a more engaging/easier way
• ·      Allow students to attach meaning to concepts/lessons
• ·      Allow students to respond more quickly and comprehend material better.
• ·      Allows teachers to display lessons (such as reading A-Z)

Voice Dream Reader App

As an assistive technology specialist, I assess and consult on a lot of students that have print disabilities.  One of my favorite apps is called the Voice Dream Reader.  This is a way to access reading material such as Bookshare books, PDFs, Google Docs, Gutenberg books, etc. with a user friendly text to speech platform.  It allows you to adjust the text size, font, background color (for contrast to help students that have vision impairments), choice of high quality voices, and adjust the rate of speech.

One of the best features is the ability to have the text highlighted as it is being read aloud.  This can be an important support for some students that struggle with tracking text.  It also allows an individual with reading difficulties to have multiple supports: text being read out loud and words being highlighted to help the reader to follow along.  

I absolutely love this app, and recommend it all the time! You can find the app HERE. In order to help new users to navigate through all the tools and features, I've created this "cheat sheet" to help:

Welcome!

Welcome to my page!! This is my first blog and my first post! I'm an assistive technology specialist, and I wanted to create this blog to share some of my ideas and resources. I have a background as a speech language pathology assistant and completed my undergraduate work at UNH in Communication Disorders. I am currently working on my graduate degree at Simmons College in Assistive Technology. This is my 8th year working in special education, and my third year working as an AT Specialist. In the past, I’ve had experience working at a Collaborative, a private school for students with learning disabilities, a pediatrics clinic, and a public school. I hope this blog will allow me to capture some of my knowledge, thoughts and ideas as I continue my journey in the field of assistive technology.