Leveraging Assistive Technology In The Classroom

If you have seen a presentation on assistive technologies and how those technologies change the lives of those that they are meant to enable, then I am sure you will undertand just how emotionally moving the examples that are presented can be. 

 

Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams

 

This blog has been prompted by the video Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams produced by edutopia and available for viewing at their website or on YouTube. (edutopia, 2010)



I can think of no better example, of just how important an assistive technology can be, than that of Stephen Hawking.  Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and Director of Research at the Center for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He suffers from a rare form of ALS, a motor neuron disease that has gradually paralyzed him over decades. Now, he communicates using only one cheek muscle to activate a speech-generating device; his assistive technology. (Wikipedia, 2015) (Hawking, 2015) 

 

Stephen Hawking

 

At this point you may be asking yourself, what do these extreme examples of assistive technology have to do with the everyday classroom?  The answer is that in our technologically enabled world, we are surrounded by assistive technologies.  I will provide some examples and how they might be used as leverage in the classroom.

I am and have been a terrible speller for all of my life.  When I was young, my mother gave me a spelling dictionary; no meanings, just words.  I guarded that small book as a prized possession.  It was with me whenever I wrote.  That spelling dictionary, a standard dictionary, and a thesaurus were my spelling crutches.

 

Embedded Spell Checking

Times have changed with the advent of electronic dictionaries, embedded spelling checkers, active word completion, and speech to text.  How much do we rely on the embedded spelling checker that exists in nearly all word processing applications today?  When we text on our phones, the embedded word completions algorithms accelerate the text entry process, and sometime drive us crazy by trying to force us to use words that we would have never dreamt of using.

Word pronunciation: Electronic Dictionaries

How about those electronic dictionaries?  Many electronic dictionaries available on smart phones, tablets, or embedded in websites included audible content that provides an example pronunciation of the word. 

 

 Dictionary.com

 

 

Negotiating meaning: Electronic Language Translation

Access to an electronic translator can be a lifeline for an ESL student.  When negotiation for meaning has utterly failed, frustration can be avoided when a translator is added to the negotiation process.  There are electronic translators that not only translate the text, but also provide audible output with text to speech.  And example that I have blogged about before is:

zeta imTranslator

 

 

zeta imTranslator

 



 

Vocabulary building:  In Text Dictionaries

For years whenever I read I had a dictionary with me to lookup words that I didn’t know the meaning of or words that I didn’t know how to pronounce.  Today we have e-readers that have embedded dictionaries.  I have a Kindle and the feature that I appreciate the most is the embedded dictionary.  It is so very convenient that I find that I look up words more often on the Kindle than I did with a conventional paper dictionary.



 

Read to me: Text-To-Speech

I am a firm believer that children learn to read more quickly and are likely to attain a higher level of reading competency when they have the experience of being read to on a regular basis.  The engagement of both the visual and aural senses promotes the reading acquisition process.  While I would never argue that text-to-speech could ever equal or substitute for one person reading to another, I will suggest that text-to-speech can help a child or an adult for that matter enjoy written text and improve reading skills.

Read while listening: Closed-Caption

Like text-to-speech, Closed-Caption provides a simultaneous link between the aural and visual senses.  It can improve reading ability, concentration skills, listening skills, and pronunciation.  L1 learners as well as L2 learners can benefit from having the closed caption turned on while viewing video media. 

 

 

Let’s chat: Video Chat / Video Conference

Traditionally learning occurred face-to face, the advent of video teleconferencing and video chat has changed that means of delivery.  With video chat we can project a virtual classroom to nearly anywhere in the world.  People in the most remote places can now gain access to academic resources.

The spoken word:  PodCasts

Podcasts allow us to share the spoken word with the world.  You can listen to a podcast in almost any environment; while running, while driving, while swimming.   In, How technology allowed me to read, Ron McCallum, an Australian legal academic, Dean of Law at the University of Sydney describes how he has met the challenge of being blind since birth and yet acquiring the knowledge that he has from written text.  In his TED Talk, Ron McCallum guides us through a history of enabling assistive technologies for the blind that have evolved to text-to-speech devices today.  Among the technologies that he describes is; transcribed audio tapes (reel-to-reel), audio books on tape, audio books on CD, and Podcasts. (McCallum, 2013)

 

TED: Ron McCallum: How technology allowed me to read

Chris Bugaj and his wife Melissa co-author the blog www.nightlightstories.net; on the site they post podcast of children’s stories that they have written and then read aloud.

 

 Night Light Stories

Chris also authors the website Assistive Technology: Tools In Public Schools Cast http://attipscast.com/

 

Assistive Technology: Tools In Public Schools

 

 

 

TED: Ideas worth spreading

I am addicted to TED.  I am including below links to TED Talks that I have found that address assistive technology. 

TED: Stella Young: I'm not your inspiration thank you very much

TED: Rupal Patel: Synthetic voices as unique as fingerprints 

TED: Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity 

Enabling technology | Jordan Nguyen | TEDxTheRocks 

Engineering for social impact: Randy Marsden at TEDxEdmonton 

Disability-led innovations for the masses: Chris Bugaj at TEDxAshburn  

 

 

 

Bibliography

Bugaj, C. (2014, 03 02). TEDxAshburn: Chris Bugaj: Disability-led innovations for the masses. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-hPct3oIow

edutopia. (2010, July 28). Assistive Technology: Enabling Dreams. Retrieved from edutopia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxdxck8Gic

Evans, H., & Jenkins, C. (2013, 11 20). TED: Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity . Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCIukWXmlV4

Hawking, S. (2015, 02 15). Stephen Hawking. Retrieved from Stephen Hawking: http://www.hawking.org.uk/

Marsden, R. (2012, 07 31). TEDxEdmonton: Randy Marsden: Engineering for social impact. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCDwNWSXFHk

McCallum, R. (2013, 09 11). YouTube: Ron McCallum: How technology allowed me to read. Retrieved from YouTube: TED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoTSdOkjEVs

Nguyen, J. (2014, 11 05). TEDx The Rocks: Jordan Nguyen: Enabling technology. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7jn9y9gDsk

Patel, R. (2014, 02 13). TED: Rupal Patel: Synthetic voices, as unique as fingerprints. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d38LKbYfWrs

Wikipedia. (2015, 02 12). Wikipedia: Stephen Hawking. Retrieved from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking

Young, S. (2014, 06 09). TED: Stella Young: I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K9Gg164Bsw

 



Save Form - A YouTube downloader

SaveForm

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wanted to share a YouTube video and the network stream dropped out?  At that point did you wish that you had a cached download of the video to work with?  If so, saveform.net is the site for you.  By using the saveform.net site or the available browser plug-in you can download any YouTube video and save it to your own computer.

Method 1

Replace the YouTube URL with the saveform.net URL; for example for the YouTube URL  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrutzRWXkKs you would use https://ssyoutube.com/watch?v=RrutzRWXkKs.  That is replace www.youtube.com with ssyoutube.com.

Method 2

Install the saveform.net download plug-in for your internet browser; available at: http://en.savefrom.net/user.php

LiveBinders

LiveBinders

 

Organization is the key word that you should associate with the LiveBinders website. LiveBinders is all about the organization of resources, easy access to that material, and the convenient presentation of that material.

A LiveBinder can be thought of as the online information technology age's answer to the oldschool three ring binder. A binder allows you to collect, organize, and present a variety of electronically stored information such as; websites, documents, e-publications, pictures, videos, and any other form of electronic media that could be embedded in a website.

Binders that you create at the LiveBinder website reside in the cloud and can therefore be accessed from any computer that has access to the internet and that has a web browser.

Binders can be organized into libraries and into shelves within that library. The binders can be private or they can be shared publicly. They can be individually authored or can be cooperatively authored.

The first 100MB of storage is free, with a 5MB per file limit. You can increase your personal storage limit to 50MB, with 25MB per file limit for under $30 for a year. For half that an educator will receive a 500MB storage limit.

Below the LiveBinder image I have included an example of a LiveBinder used for our daily review of regional weather information that is available from numerous sources.

 

 

Weather LiveBinder

Study Guides and Strategies

 

www.studygs.net

Have you ever found yourself in need of direction in your studies?  Well, I was there today and turned to Google for help.  What I found during my search was the Study Guides and Strategies website. 

The site, which was first authored by Joe Landsberger in 1996,  is an international, learner-centric, educational public service.  It boasts 255 topics presented in 39 languages.  The site is intended to be used by  middle school students through returning adults, as well as by parents, teachers and support professionals.  "Its resources are intended to empower all learners without regard to institutional and national boundaries; cultural mores and religious beliefs; race, gender and sexual rientation."  (studygs.net)

The website's copyright disclaimer is very liberal; "Permission is granted to freely copy, adapt, and distribute individual Study Guides in print format in non-commercial educational settings that benefit learners." (studygs.net)

Apache Open Office

 

Are you in need of office automation software that will allow you to do word processing, create spreadsheets, develop presentations, manipulate graphics, and manage databases?
 

So, what do you get when you ask Google to find you "office software"?
 

Well it should not be a surprise that at the top of the list is the link to office.microsoft.com. In addition to that listing I found myself assailed by advertisements for the sale of the Microsoft product.
 

What may just be a surprise is that the second listing is to openoffice.org. So, what is Open Office?
 

"Apache Open Office is an open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works in all common computer operating systems (MS Windows and Apple Mac OS). It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages."
 

Most significantly - "it can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose."
 

Before I continue I feel that I must disclose to you that I am and have been a user of Microsoft Office user since version 1.0 in 1990. I remember my first PC build in 1985 and the first time I installed Windows version 1.0 on the MS-DOS operating system. What a novelty that was, finally there was an interface that was more than just text lines. I can’t say that I was ever a Microsoft zealot, but until recently I simply felt that there was really no other choice other than the Microsoft line of products.
 

The naïve view of mine has been dramatically in the past eight months.  I went back to school where I was forced into a computer lab filled with Mac desktop computers.  It was an opportunity, or should I say an excuse to jump ship and leave the MS PC world.  The truth be told, I was ready to desert and had been for years.  I won’t go into the reasons why, if you are a MS products user you already know why I was ready to find another way.

 

 

Out I went and immediately bought myself a Mac Book.  What I did with it was simply horrible.  While purchasing the Mac Book I decided that I had to have what I knew MS Office.  So I purchased MS Office 365 when I bought the Mac Book.
 

That decision was so clearly flawed that when I look back on it I just can’t understand what possessed me to make that purchase.  Perhaps my excuse should be that I did not know that I had an alternative.
 

Well I did have an alternative and so do you!  That alternative is Apache Open Office.  I found it to be uber easy to find, download, and install.  I have also found that it is more than adequate in its default installation.  It is also intuitive to use with a very gentle learning curve.

www.openoffice.org 

 

Open Source

 

"In production and development, open source as a development model promotes a) universal access via free license to a product's design or blueprint, and b) universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone." (Wiki)

 

 

Alternative Office Suites

 

 www.libreoffice.org

 

 www.neooffice.org

docs.google.com

www.kde.org

KHANAcademy + CollegeBoard

The College Board recently announced, "When students open their SAT test books in spring 2016, they’ll encounter an SAT that is more focused and useful than ever before. The full specifications of the exam along with extensive sample items for each section will be available on April 16, 2014. Major changes are described below."

College Board SAT Redesigned 

 Not only are they redesigning the SAT, but they have also teamed with KHANAcademy to provide free SAT preparation material.  Last September I blogged links to KHANAcademy and their library of subjects.  I realize now that I was being lazy and should have put more effort into promoting what is likely one of the best educational resources available on the internet.  

KHAN Academy SAT

KHANAcademy provides a structured approach to each subject.  Subjects are broken down into discreet skills that are "mind mapped."  For each skill there is a tutorial that presents the material; for mathematics the tutorials present the method used to solve that particular type of problem. For each skill there are drills that are used to reenforce the material and to test the student's proficiency.  The drills are progressive; wrong answers result in an increase in the number of questions needed to demonstrate mastery.

The KHANAcademy website includes a Learning Management System that can be used by either teachers or parents to coach their students.  When using the LMS, a teacher or parent can assign skill goals and track each student's effort and progress.

Through their partnership with College Board, KHANAcademy has really stepped up its game.  The College Board will initially be providing KHANAcademy with training material for the current version of the SAT.  Once this has been fully implemented, they will begin to provide material to be used to prepare for the redesigned 2016 SAT.

This is an initiative that should be praised, it will provide opportunity for students that previously only existed at a considerable cost and was therefore not within the means of the majority.  College Board standardized entrance examinations were originally developed to to recognize proficiency rather than privilege.  This initiative is in keeping with that truly altruistic cause.

KHANAcademy on Youtube