There are apps for touch screen technology they can be used to easily create visual supports such as picture schedules, activity schedules and social stories.
iPrompts runs on Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices, gives picture based prompts that are configured by teachers and parents to help the student stay on task and transition between activities. There are hundreds of stock photos available or you can ass your own from the built-in camera in the device.
iCommunicate adds a voice to the picture schedules. You can record the messege attach it to the picture.
Picture Planner allows the student to construct a personalized picture schedule on a computer and then use the schedules either in a printed version or on mobile devices. The program also provides line drawing symbols and text-to-speech feedback. You can also make activity sequences from video clips on the iPod Touch.
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
Assistive technology can serve as a reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities in college. With more than 9.3% of students in college with some sort of disability, assistive technology is needed in the classroom during classes and testing situations.
The assistive technology must be easy to use and easy to customize
The tool must be age appropriate
The assistive technology selected must be the student's own choice.
The technology tool must carefully match the specific task that needs to be accomplished and the environment in which it will take place.
The assistive technology tool must be installed in a place that the student can access easily.
Training and ongoing technical support must be provided to students and staff.
Enabling college with these several accommodations will make a world of difference to them. They should be able to receive the same education like everyone else.
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
I was not very impressed with this website in general. They only really offered options for people in Oregon. There were a few documents available through the site to help with assistive technology.
If you are in Oregon, this website provides you with loaner programs, training with the devices, conferences, grants and program activities.
Section Five: Develop Assistive Technology Implementation Plan
Section Six: Adapt Lessons for Technology Integration
Section Seven: Follow Up and Plan Transition
The PDF files above are each very lenthy but gives you plenty of valuable information. They also provide sample graphs to document information and sample lesson plans.
Students should not stop using their augmentative communication devices after they are finished with the school day. They need to practice while at home and in the community. This reinforces skills learned in school and helps generalize them to other settings. Requires expanded consideration of
family involvement
issues related to culture
identification of places or activities in which the student is active.
Teachers must make sure that the transition between school and home with the device is appropriate. All of the family should be included in the evaluation and implementation processes. Schools must provide direct instruction on how to operate the device.
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
There are more and more students using augmentative communication each day. Here is how this device is integrated into the IEP.
The students use of the system must be integrated within and across the school day, including both instructional and non instructional periods.
The IEP team must collaborate to ensure that the plan is aligned to all of the student's instructional program components and expected outcomes
The IEP must include clear statements stating the student's communication needs across the environments and an explanation how the features will be sued by the student
Goal Development
The augmentative device is a means to accomplishing a goal. It is not a goal in itself.
Consider these three goal areas:
communication
instruction/academic
social interaction
Additional Components to be Added
a list of the augmentative communication services to be provided by related service personnel
identification of the party responsible for device maintenance and operations
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
We will now take a break before we go over augmentative communication systems in the classroom, to talk about something that is very important to teach the students in your classes. I have personally seen this in classrooms but never knew the name for it. Let's talk about "Learned Helplessness," (a condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed.) Some students have developed a pattern of "learned helplessness" through years of disempowerment. As a teacher, you have to provide the students with a voice. Below are some helpful tips to teach the student to overcome learned helplessness.
Build a daily expectation through specific activities by having the student
choose the activity during recess
pick a book to read
identify where to eat lunch
Construct a brief daily report to parents that is communicated by the student
Allow natural consequences to occur and provide avenues for repair
includes setups that alter the environment to provide less support or sabotage
Provide for choice making whenever possible that requires the student to use his or her augmentative communication system
Provide powerful phrases on the devise for the student to reject or protest something
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
This course was tough, given that I have never written a blog before. After completing this course, I feel that I am more prepared to teach students with special needs. This website has grown on me. I am excited that I got to go to the conference for Assistive Technology. It put together all of the things that I learned about in class with the physical technology tools to help my students learn. Seeing everything first hand was amazing. I had never worked with the items before the conference. During this class, I gained a better knowledge of UDL, communication devices, adaptations, PAL and great resources for the iPAD (since this is a growing device). I am hoping that this blog and other classmates blogs will help me in my future with teaching students with special needs. Thanks for viewing my blog and feel free to give some feedback! See ya! -Bridgette
Today I visited the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives again to explore. I chose a manipulative that appeared in more than one grade range and will explain some details about it. After looking through some of the manipulatives on this website, I noticed that there were little to no kid friendly directions for the students. I had to guess how to use some of the manipulatives. There is a directions area under the parents/teachers area. Each manipulative also has the common core standards linked to it at the top.
The specific game I reviewed is called Number Line Arithmatic. This manipulative is found under Pre-K-2 and 3-5 Number & Operations. It is great if you only want to show how the number line works when solving an addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. The student is given a computer generated problem and hits solve. The work is done for the student. I do not like that it does not let you choose the numbers for the problem. It also does not allow the student to draw the number line or choose where it should be. I also do not like that they only have one level of problems for a wide variety of grades levels. I liked this site when I first visited it. Now that I have had an indepth look at it...I would carefully choose what I provide to my students.
References
Nlvm.usu.edu (2013). National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. [online] Retrieved from: http://nlvm.usu.edu/ [Accessed: 19 Nov 2013].
Listed below are some Apps that I came across that would be great for students to play to sharpen their skills. I tried to find some good Free apps for you.
Math Ninja HD Free would appeal greatly to boys. They are given some problems to finish and they get to play a game in between.
Math Soccer- Two penguins are on either side of a soccer field with a goalie on the bottom of the screen. Students control the goalie by hitting hit the numeric ball into the right goal with the matching equation. Mathmateer- https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathmateer-free/id408770902?mt=8 Below is a customer review of this app from the Apple Store- This person gave this app 4 stars.
Worth It-Try the $0.99 Version by AstinM-Augie
This app can help students with numerous topics all in this one app. It attends to even numbers, counting money, telling time on an analog clock, 3-D shapes, and single digit by two digit multiplication. It effectively helps the students know the information because they have to pick the correct answers to move on in the game by gaining points/money.The paid version of this app though has more options for each category. An example of this is that for the number category, there is only one option which is to select even numbers where maybe the paid version has another selection that says select the odd numbers.
(App Store, 2013)
References
App Store (2013). Mathmateer™ Free. [online] Retrieved from: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathmateer-free/id408770902?mt=8 [Accessed: 17 Nov 2013].
There are many different manipulatives for math used in the classroom. Here are some low tech and mid-tech options. Onion Mountain Technology http://www.onionmountaintech.com/
Number line manipulatives
laminated addition and multiplication tables
special ruler that has multiple transparent overlays
large calculators with over sized buttons- to help students with motor control
National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a great tool that breaks down the manipulatives into grade level and subject. Go to the site and take a look! Any math teacher could use this with any type of student. This is a great way to switch things up in the classroom.
This is a great link that provides free high-quality resources to use in the classroom or at home. This site basically finds many resources all over the internet and includes links to them through this site. I clicked one link and it brought me to a PBS site. This website also includes free printables that are organized by the common core standards, SAT/ACT prep and tutorials to help with other applications used in the classroom. I will definitely revisit this site many times throughout my teaching career.
Math Playground includes FREE games to help students with math concepts, skills and problem solving. Students are able to check their work and receive feedback.
MathPad enables students to use a computer like it is a pencil and paper. Students with fine motor difficulties could now do their math work with a click of a mouse or tap of a keyboard. They could also use a scanning device with this program.
Virtual Pencil (Henter Math) assists students who can not use a pencil, students who have vision problems, students with motor impairments or learning disabilities that interfere with writing. There is speech feedback in this program to help the students to better understand the problems.
Number Navigator (Oats Project) does not offer speech feedback like the previous program. This program is a simple alternative that you enter and solve basic math problems on the computer. This program is FREE.
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
To start off our math assistive technology journey, I am going to provide you with some games that students with disabilities can benefit from. There are educational applications that
can be used to address automaticity /math fluency. Low-mid tech and high tech
devices are available. Some low-mid tech include: addition and multiplication
charts and calculators. Some high tech devices are listed below. All of these games require only a few keys to be pressed so they are easily accessible to students who are unable to use the standard keyboard or mouse.
FASTT Math
(Fluency and Automaticity through
Systematic Teaching with Technology): is a math intervention program that helps
students acquire math fact fluency. This program helps with the memorization of
facts and helps students eliminate the use of counting strategies to solve
problems.
Timez Attack
This
adventure game focuses only on multiplication facts. It teaches 2-12 times
tables. There is a basic download to try out. http://www.bigbrainz.com/Downloads.html
The ArithmAttack
ArithmAttack is a simple program that allows the student to see how many computer-generated arithmetic problems they can answer in two minutes. You type in what type of problems you want to be given and then choose what the highest number will be. The game can be played online or you can download it to play it offline. http://www.saab.org/mathdrills/attack
Arcademic Skill Builder has many simple games that are split up by grade level and subject. You can play the games for free or pay for a Plus membership. The plus membership allows you to create custom games and keeps data reports on the students. There is also an app for iPad and Android that is available. http://www.arcademics.com/
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
Computer use in the classroom can provide students with external motivation and keep them engaged in their school work. Teachers should select the computers software based on the students' needs. The learning activities should naturally fit instructional goals or objectives and they should meet the needs of the students.(Dell and Newton et al., 2012) There are some key questions that should be considered when selecting educational applications to meet students' goals and objectives.
What is the intended outcome of the use of the educational application?
Example: Is it meant to strengthen math skills in problem solving or is it meant to build speed and accuracy with basic math facts?
Is the educational applications likely to fulfill its stated purpose?
Example: If the stated purpose of the activity is to build problem-solving skills, does it provide the explanatory feedback needed to do so or simply assess whether or not problems are solved correctly?
Can the educational applications be used as an alternative to traditional classroom activities to enhance students' participation?
Example: Will students learn as effectively using online math manipulatives as they would using traditional manipilatives?
(Dell and Newton et al., 2012)
References
Dell, A., Newton, D. and Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. Boston: Pearson.
Math is a dreaded subject for many students. There are tools to help students and over the next week I will talk about ways that you can incorporate math with assistive technology. Here we go!
