Presentations about Apps for Students with Disabilities—Class 4

LD by Donalda and Keisha

This presentation reviewed iBooks, Paperport notes, and Book Creator.  Several screen shots were added, which were helpful for my understanding because I don’t have an iPad.  I appreciated the Book Creator section most because the presenters gave the example of creating digital portfolios…this made me realize that I could use this app in a high school science lesson for students to explain and/or show processes in a journaling activity.  On reflection, Paperport notes might also be quite useful for a mathematics lesson.  Now the trick is getting iPads in my classroom! 

 

 

An interesting comment was made at the end of the presentation encouraging BYOD (bring your own device).  While I like the idea in theory and this might be the way of the future, I question its practicality in schools right now.  Costs and accessibility for all students would be issues at my school.

Special Education by Mary, Courtney, and Amy

This group shared data gathered from a fluid survey and gave a great graphic to summarize the information.  I was surprised that 82% of teachers had experience with iPads—higher than I thought but this is good news!  Four free apps were reviewed, including Science 360, TikiNotes, Pocket Pond, and Dragon Dictation.  What I found most interesting is that Pocket Pond is used as a calming tool… I never thought of apps in terms of behavioural control, but I have noticed that particular students are calmer and more focused when they use technology.  I do question if using this app will teach self-regulation skills or whether it will simply make the student dependent on an iPad when he/she becomes agitated.

 

Autism by Evan, Maralyn, Kevin, and Nicole

This presentation was based on the book Self-Help Skills for People with Autism—I really like the “self” part of self-help.  It goes back to the idea of technology building independent learners.  This group reviewed many apps focused on developing behavioural regulation, attention to task, communication, imitation, and modelling skills. 

The presentation challenged my notions of behavioural regulation.  I never imagined using mobile devices for such a task, but breaking the discussion into apps used for proactive and reactive regulation helped me to understand how technology could help.  I like the proactive idea of giving a timed transition between activities, but feel concerned about an over-reliance on technology.  However, given the number of hours that students pass in front of a screen each day, perhaps this is simply the new reality.  I would like to see these behaviour apps in action in the classroom, as well as know how frequently teachers use tech in this way.  I appreciated the video modelling discussion, especially because it is more socially engaging than the behavioural apps and if another person isn’t available in the classroom setting, students can still be learning. 

The other big idea that resonated with me is from the survey: teachers don’t think they know enough about apps and think the devices aren’t being used to their potential.  I would totally agree.  More professional development time is crucial if teachers are to effectively use mobile devices to support UDL principles.

 

LD by Jeremy, Clarissa, Joseph, and Michelle

“For people without disabilities, technology makes things easier.  For people with disabilities, technology makes things possible.”  Great quotation!

This group reviewed apps as well, but the most interesting part of the presentation for me was the survey results about how technology is used in schools.  The discussion of a rural New Brunswick school lacking mobile devices and an assistive technology consultant was lamentable.  Another group member has plenty of technology available and even a tech PLC so it is nearly the opposite situation.  At other times this evening, people have discussed the BYOD or one-to-one iPad scenarios in their schools.  It is interesting that there are such great differences among boards and provinces in their respective stages of technology integration.  Of course, we must remember that obtaining the devices is only a small part of the cost.  Tech staff must be hired and teachers must receive professional development if mobile devices are to be effectively used because, as Barb says, “It won’t happen without the training.”

Executive function by Victor, Janice, and Sheri

The presentation began with a great explanation of what executive function is, and strategies that are commonly used in the classroom to help students with executive function issues.  Apps were divided by skill/ability: thinking, doing, emotional control, etc.  I especially like timers, calendars, and reminders for organizational purposes, enhanced books for reading support, and the paper shredder and sock puppets for emotional practice.  The great thing about the iPads is that all these features are found on a single mobile device, eliminating the need for a stopwatch, calendar, agenda, textbook, video, etc.—it’s the convergence of technologies we discussed in the first class!

 

 

   

LOL!!! Great video!

 

 

 

LD by Dawn

 

 

 

Dawn showed a great video for anyone who questions the need for AT in the classroom.  Listen as Piper Otterbein discusses overcoming dyslexia.  This serves as a great reminder that we need to carefully consider both the technology and the learner to make sure there’s an appropriate match.

 

Several apps were overviewed in the presentation, Dawn’s school situation was discussed, and at the end she questioned equity issues, which I really appreciated because this is one of my burning issues when it comes to technology use in schools, at home, and for BYOD.  Let us not forget social justice as we educate!

 

 



 

AT for LD—Class 3

During class 3 we had the opportunity to watch a webinar and work on a group presentation.  My group chose AT for LD.  This was very useful for me because I teach LD students in Science 9 and adapting for their reading and writing challenges can be tricky when trying to adhere to the “only as different as is necessary” philosophy.  I find that I am often placing these students with an EA for reading or scribing support or leaving them at a desktop computer at the back of the classroom to have a document read to them, both practices that make them feel excluded.  I create lower level readings, graphic organizers, and vocabulary lists for these students, but it takes a great deal of time, which can sometimes be draining.  What I realized this class is that iPads have apps for all these dilemmas.  Yippee!  I will overview three of my favourite apps in this blog.

 

Enhanced textbooks from iBooks are of interest to me as a science teacher.  Mostly published by McGraw-Hill and inexpensive, these allow UDL principles to be easily incorporated into textbook reading in the classroom.  All students can access up-to-date scientific information by highlighting and reading or using the speak selection feature, finding definitions or pictures from the internet to clarify text, or watching embedded videos to support concepts.  Notes can be added, even via dictation with Siri, note cards can be created for study, and sections of text can be copied and pasted for emails or into another app.  Even the font size can be changed.  It’s everything you could do with a textbook without paper, quickly, and in one place!

 

 

Book creator is almost the opposite of enhanced textbooks…all the features are available to use while making your own book from scratch.  Again, student work is supported by speak selection and Siri, and books can contain audio, video, text, and pictures.  I think this is a great tool for summative assignments for all students, but the LD students would especially benefit from having the additional reading and writing supports.

 

 

 

 

Finally, because I am qualified to teach math and may do so in the future, I would choose Panther math paper as the third most valuable app presented in the webinar.  It is good for typing out formulas, numbers, equations, etc. so that LD students are not overwhelmed by the writing task or the amount of writing that might be on a single page.  Very cool!

 

 

 

I also found an interesting literature review about use of AT for writing support with LD students (if you have a St. F. X. account, click on the citation to read the article):

Batorowicz, B., Missiuna, C. A.,& Pollock, N. A. (2012). Technology supporting written productivity in childrenwith disabilities: A critical review. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy,79(4), 211–224. doi:10.2182/cjot.2012.79.4.3

 

Useful iPad features—Class 2

I have to admit that I’ve never used an iPad.  Last year our school had one class set and they weren’t properly set up, and to my knowledge, my board has not yet offered iPad professional development.  (I’m not teaching this year, so perhaps these things are happening now.)

 

I appreciated the review of the accessibility options that was presented in class, though it was blurry and the quick tapping and switching among menus and screens was a bit overwhelming for me to follow.  It is great that iPads are portable, especially for science where students might be taking pictures or videos of laboratory investigations.  I also think that Siri and the speaks selection feature would be really helpful for my grade 9 students, especially those with learning disabilities—I like that you don’t need to “train” Siri to recognize your voice as was necessary with some software from the past, and I like that you can change the speed and sound of the voice reading to you.  iPads would definitely make these students more independent because they wouldn’t need an EA or scribe or additional meeting time with the teacher or peer support, all of which I have employed to help students succeed with reading and writing challenges.  These accessibility options would also mean the LD students wouldn’t need to move from the instructional setting to complete their work, so the general rule for adaptations, “only as different as is necessary”, would be much easier to apply.  I appreciated the colour inversion feature as well.  I have heard that printing handouts onto coloured paper is helpful for some students, so I think this must be the more technological version of that.

 

 

 

 

 

Presumed Competency—Class 2

The video “In My Language” is about the way Amanda Baggs, a nonverbal autistic person, sees the world and communicates with her surroundings.  She notes that she is more involved with her environment than “we” are via touch, sound, etc., but is viewed as less intelligent and incapable of regular communication. While she doesn’t speak, she proves these assumptions wrong by typing a description of her feelings regarding the way she is perceived into a computer and allowing technology to read the words for her.

 

This video proves that Amanda is very capable of both higher order thinking and clear communication, both in her own way and “our” standard way, but she just needs some assistive technology so that the majority can see all these abilities.  This serves as a reminder for teachers to never dismiss a student as incapable…always assume and expect that they can learn and do rather than can’t.  It simply might be necessary to find a different route for them to show their competency, as was done with Amanda Baggs.

Critical, Guarded, and Cautiously Optimistic—Class 1

 

Context is always relevant, so I begin with a confession: I do not like technology.  Clicking and tapping, pop-ups and apps, lights and sounds and advertisements, and dozens of usernames and passwords leave me feeling overwhelmed.  The sensory overload makes it challenging for me to stay focused on any single task.  Publishing personal perspectives for the entire world to see leaves me feeling very uneasy.  I think that valuable time can be frittered away on details like font colour, which may not be significant in terms of the user’s purpose.  This is the final course of my second MEd degree, and as I delve into the work for “Assistive Technology”, I feel nervous with a touch of dread.

So why am I here?  I could have chosen a different course.  Complaining aside, I am a realist.  I know that technology is interwoven with students’ daily lives.  Using pencil and paper is more foreign than clicking and tapping for most.  (Sidebar: I do try.  I’ve worked as lead teacher on a variety of laptop initiatives and used software such as ComicLife, Inspiration, and GarageBand with students in both junior and senior high—the students loved it, and while I thought it was an accomplishment, I didn’t enjoy the process.)  I suppose my AT wordle sums up my goal…to build on student strengths competencies and increase independence.  If I want a student-centred UDL classroom, technology has to be a part of that—proven by the boy in the video who used his tongue to access his iPad.

 

 

Honestly, the most useful part of Class 1 was group discussion about wordles.  I quickly made this wordle by writing a list of words and clicking “create”, without even realizing that the size of words could be changed.  With that knowledge, I think there is great potential to use wordles to support determining importance and learning key vocabulary in content classes like science.  Wordles might also be the basis for discussions about relationships amongst the terms contained within.  While I can see the use of wordles for all students, I would like to discuss with a learning centre teacher to identify particular students for whom this technology might be most “assistive”…perhaps LD or highly visual learners?  I can also understand why teachers might not use this technology unless they have access to classroom iPads—taking a group to a computer lab solely to create a wordle, which can be done very quickly, might be deemed a waste of time.  No wonder the iPad is the way of the future: so transportable! 

If I can learn about one or two programs that are as accessible and easy to use as wordles each class, perhaps my distaste for technology will dissipate.  As an additional item for thought, check out the TEDx talk “Blending technology and classroom learning” by Jessie Woolley-Wilson, which discusses intelligent adaptive technologies.  A bit creepy for me to think of AI this way, but potentially of great use in schools!