Case Study Presentations

The last two weeks of class were very informative and engaging. I enjoyed all of the presentations. It was great to see so many wonderful success stories involving our students and their use of assistive technology. All of the presentations were well done, and I enjoyed watching the video clips. Seeing the students in different schools and settings, all with various needs, allowed me to make many connections to my own experiences working with students with learning challenges.

A couple of presentations stood out to me. The first was the presentation about Comic Life. I felt encouraged and inspired to try this with my Language Arts class. My class is made up primarily of very energetic boys. A few of my girls are interested in Anime, and many students enjoy reading graphic novels and comic series. I think this would be a great way to engage all of my students in a wonderful learning opportunity.

I was also very intrigued by the presentation regarding the 40 year old male who has created a successful life for himself, despite all of his learning obstacles. It is unfortunate that it took so long to discover the cause of his learning challenges. Hopefully he will be able to reach his full learning potential. The most powerful tool for him will be assistive technology such as kurzweil, an IPod and many useful apps.

I am truly amazed at all of apps and technological tools available to support our students. Assistive technology has truly changed the educational opportunities for all students.

Virtual Treasure Hunt

Virtual Treasure Hunt

Here are a few websites that focus on learning, access to information and remediation.

1. www.starfall.com
   
   This website allows access to interactive songs, rhymes, games, calendar work and theme work. This was one of my favourite sites when I taught early elementary.
   
   
2. www.ixl.com
   
   This website provides access to curriculum outcomes for specific grades and subjects, including math, science and language arts. Each outcome has online activities for practice and reinforcement of previously learned concepts.
   
   
3. www.earobics.com
   
   Provides games and activities to help children improve their phonological awareness and skills.
   
   
4. www.tumblereadables.com
   
   The website tumble readables provides interactive storybooks for children. The only negative to this site is that there is a high subscription fee. However, it would be worth considering buying a school subscription to share with teachers.
   
   
5. http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/
   
   This website has a wealth of information and resources available. This website can seem over whelming because there are so many links to chose from, however it is worth taking the time to explore this website and its many features.
   
   

http://reading.ecb.org/

This website is designed for teachers of grades primary to four, however I think the activities could transcend into upper elementary as well. This website is a reading comprehension resource that focuses on eight research based strategies for improving student comprehension.

Pictello

Pictello is a very fun and engaging way to create audio storybooks. Our group thought of 10 ways Pictello would be beneficial in the classroom.

1.     Model and act out social stories

2.     visual schedules

3.     mini – lessons for math operations – step by step instructions- interactive cognitive cards

4.     record students reading a story

5.     students could create their own digital copy of a book – use in the Language Arts Center

6.     Storyboarding

7.     Science – model step by step science labs and instructions

8.     Assessment tool (ie. Math) – find objects with right angles

9.     visual prompt and memory aid

10.  portable Writer’s Notebook ( my favorite idea )

Fidgets R Us - our group using Reel Director

 

This was one of my favorite classes. Our group had a lot of fun creating our instructional video. This app would be so beneficial in the classroom and in the learning center. I can definitely see the potential for students with a clear vision and idea as well.

IPOD apps

Prizmo – I predict this app will become one of the most popular and most utilized app out there for many people. Prizmo combines OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scanner, text to speech and translator all in one app. Prizmo is able to translate in 10 different languages. Many students who struggle with reading will be able to use this app. This app will allow struggling and non-literate students, who will become adults,  to become more independent in society.

 

Flashcard Champion™ Basic Math – is a math flashcard game that allows students in grades P-6 to practice their basic math facts. This supports the development of their recall, strengthens their confidence and allows students to feel successful. This allows drill, reinforcement and practice of new and previously taught math operations and skills. 

Math Bingo ($0.99) is a fun education app that allows elementary and middle school students to practice and reinforce math concepts. This app allows for fun character selection, rewards for high scores, and increases student interest and engagement of math operations and concepts. 

Speech Journal Education ($5.99) is a customizable voice recorder that pairs recorded messages with imported images and image sequences. This could be used for school aged children and provide them with their own personal journal, multi-step directions and pictures schedules, as well as individualized social stories and sample conversations. This app would also be great for students with verbal delays and difficulties. 

Proloquo2go ($189.99) is a phenomenal communication tool. SLPs, teachers and parents recommend it for children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, apraxia, ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury. Proloquo2go provides natural text to speech features.

Scene Speak ($9.99) is a wonderful communication tool for students with developmental disabilities, autism, aphasia, apraxia or anyone needing to enhance their receptive language and visual memory skills. Scene Speak allows children/students to create visual scene displays. There is also a text to speech feature; “sound areas” can be created to match a scene. You may also upload personal images from your own computer.

Once a visual scene is created with active sound areas, scenes can be added into “Books”. Books can be created and images grouped into the book by a specific theme or area of interest. Multiple books can be created within the book library and as many visual scenes as needed added into the “book”. For example: you may want to create a “Book” titled “My Home”. Within that book may want to include images of different rooms in the home. Within those images you can add “sound areas” to label different objects or people that are represented in those images. (This description was cited from iTunes preview for Good Karma Productions)

 MathBoard is a learning app that is appropriate for all ages from kindergarten (with simple addition and subtraction problems) to elementary school where learning multiplication and division can be a challenge. You can control the range of numbers you want to work with, the number of questions you want to answer and even assign a time limit per quiz. 

VBookz is an impressive document voice reader app. The app reads documents aloud for students and children. The text is highlighted as the story is being read. Vbookz also has the option for books to be translated into different languages. Students have the ability to choose from thousands of books. 

Aloe ABC ($1.99) is a great interactive learning app that helps to teach children how to trace letters and numbers. This app would be fun and engaging for young children. This app could help them to recognize, memorize, and draw their letters and numbers.

This is a great app for students with autism. This app provides videos and slideshows of social stories on how to act and what to expect when going out in the community.