Thank you to everyone who read The New Assistive Tech. In that book, I shared how embracing learner-centered approaches like project-based learning and growth mindset works to support students with disabilities. I provided guidance on how to plan and execute educational experiences using technology centered around the needs of students with disabilities. And I shared strategies for how to select technological supports based on the specific needs of an individual student with a disability, and how these strategies can then be used to create a roadmap for inclusive practices.
Building on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition explores ways to support students, especially learners with disabilities, through distance learning, and how adopting personalized learning principles can help facilitate a smooth transition regardless of where the learning takes place.
Designed to be read one day – and page – at a time, this book offers 365 strategies for implementing technology to design inclusive experiences.
Educators across the world are working to design individualized instruction that empowers every student to become experts at learning. Technology and instructional interventions designed to support students with disabilities often eventually become mainstream and used by the masses. These practices provide a pathway for designing inclusive, equitable and accessible educational experiences that meet the needs of every individual learner.
This engaging book includes daily strategies accompanied by examples of tools that can be implemented immediately to design meaningful instruction. Topics covered include role-playing games for social-emotional learning, building literacy through captioned video, coding to teach early literacy, text-to-speech for math and reading, and much more!
Each daily strategy includes:
• Explanation of how to use the strategy to design inclusive educational experiences.
• Examples of tools that can be used to implement the strategy.
• Alternative ways to use the strategy to extend student learning.
• Images illustrating the strategy or tool.
• Identification of relevant ISTE Standards for Educators and ISTE Standards for Students.
• Related resources.
The heart of the book is the shift in mindset that occurs by exploring a different practical, inclusive strategy each day and infusing these strategies into everyday practice.
School districts often struggle to develop consistent practices for meeting the assistive needs of students receiving special education services. This fun yet professional book will help PK-12 educators learn a process to improve how they consider, select, and implement technology to help all students!
This book:
Provides a methodology for transforming educators into experience designers by adopting a mindset of inclusive practices.
Details how an educational team can effectively request assistance to determine technology needs.
Explains how to provide assistance by coaching an educational team through a process to make informed decisions about technology needs.
Describes a proactive approach to professional development for individuals and for those who train others on the use of technology.
Assists individuals or teams in creating an action plan for developing a culture of inclusion.
Interweaves stories, songs, games, activities and other exciting features to make the experience of reading the book fun!
The New Assistive Tech is a catalyst for breaking down walls between special education and general education, and will help all educators realize they have tech knowledge (and can build upon that knowledge) that can be used to support all students, including those with disabilities.
Where the heck have you been? There hasn’t been any new updates to the A.T.TIPScast in awhile. What’s the deal? While you’re busy explaining things, here’s another question for you. The Practical and Fun Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools turns 7 years old in April. Are there any plans for another book? Do you have any plans to do anything else? Whatchya working on? What’s keeping you busy these days?
Thanks for keeping us in the loop,
Everyone
Dear Everyone,
Thank you for the questions. Believe me, no one is itching to get back to producing new podcast episodes more than me! I miss it! As for now though, the A.T.TIPScast is on vacation as number of different projects have taken precedence. Recently, I participated in an interview with Mai Ling Chan who recently launched YappGuruU, a new online learning platform specializing in courses for professionals working with people with disabilities. In the interview, we discuss some past events like the TEDxAshburn presentation but then dive into what’s been going on currently. Here’s a link to watch the video over on Facebook Live.
But, for those of you like me, List Lovers, here’s the breakdown of what’s up…with bullets!
Episode YouTube Conversion Project – Every episode of the A.T.TIPScast is being converted and archived in YouTube. Check out the progress over at the A.T.TIPScast YouTube page.
Presentations & Coaching – Whether in person, via video conference, or through a webinar, I’ve been busy presenting. I’ve also been coaching teams working to bring about change in their educational institutions with regard to technology implementation for people with disabilities. You can see an entire list of presentation here.
YappGuru University Course – Once the A.T.TIPScast episodes are loaded in YouTube, I’ll be working to put them together in a way where people can get professional development credit for listening to them through YappGuru University.
NEW BOOK! – I’m busy writing a new book to be published by the International Society for Technology in Education. The book is an entirely new work focusing on creating practices and programs built upon educational experiences designed for every learner using contemporary technology considerations.
So, that’s what’s going on with me! If you’re reading this, then it’s because of you I have all these opportunities to make a change in the world.
This episode of the A.T.TIPSCAST is sponsored by Texthelp, provider of the award-winning Read&Write software solutions. Click on the banner below to learn about the amazing Read&Write products.
Episode Overview-
Episode #125 features a recording of the first draft of the “Classroom-based Technology Tools” chapter for the book Technology Tools for Students with Autism published by Brooke’s publishing. The chapter was authored by Christopher Bugaj, Melissa Hartman, and Mark Nichols. When the chapter was first drafted, it was written as a story following a fictional student with Autism named Mike through his day describing the tools he and his classmates used to accomplish different tasks. Unfortunately, when the chapter was pieced together with the other chapters in the book it just didn’t seem to flow properly. The chapter was re-written to follow a more traditional, essay-like approach. This episode features a reading of the original chapter, which the authors believe still has its merits as a useful way to help people learn about different ways to implement technology in the contemporary classroom for students with Autism. In this episode we hear about Mike starting his day on the bus to school, completing his morning work, participating at the writing station, going to art, and then transitioning to lunch.
This episode is hosted by two of the co-authors of the chapter, Melissa Hartman and Mark Nichols.
A.T.TIPS in this Episode –
A.T.TIP #390 – Social situation stories
A.T.TIP #391 – Calming music for self regulation
A.T.TIP #392 – Mini-offices
A.T.TIP #393 – Thicker pencils
A.T.TIP #394 – Graph paper for lining up math columns
A.T.TIP #395 – Visual timer on Interactive White Board
This episode features a brief crisis of conscience moment which leads the host to question the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as an educational practice. Chris postulates on what the future of the American workplace would look like if every student learned according to the principles of UDL.
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
This episode of the A.T.TIPSCAST is sponsored by the book “The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools”. Learn more at http://iste.org/chewat.
This episode features a description of a scenario where a student with mulitple articulation difficulties is communicating effectively 90% of the time but needs help when telling about novel situations. A strategy was put in place that is effectively helping that student communicate with others during these times. This episode is one of my contributions to Better Hearing and Speech Month by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
A.T.TIPS –
#199: Providing Contextual Communication with a Camera Phone
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
This episode of the A.T.TIPSCAST is sponsored by The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools. Learn more at http://iste.org/chewat.
The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools
Episode #71 features a clip from a live presentation at Temple University where Beth Poss and I describe www.wallwisher.com.
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
This episode of the A.T.TIPSCAST is sponsored by Texthelp Systems, provider of award-winning literacy solutions including Read&Write GOLD and Fluency Tutor. For more information, go to www.texthelp.com.
Episode #57 features a description of two resources to help students with spelling. The first tool helps students while studying spelling words and the second tool helps students fix misspellings.
A.T.TIPS In This Episode-
A.T.TIP #98: Spell with Flickr (http://metaatem.net/words/) – The image spelling “ATTIPSCAST” above was created using this website.
A.T.TIP #99: Correct a Sentence Window on http://gingersoftware.com. Try copying and pasting the following sentence into the window on the Ginger Software site:
“Mi smrt phrend iz reedng a booc wth an oarng cvr.”
Presentation Information –
Miss the presentation in Second Life of “Fun and Practical Strategies using (Assistive) Technology with Students”? No sweat! Here’s a link to the Google Doc with all the resources shared! Feel free to add more while you’re there!
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
This episode of the A.T.TIPSCAST is sponsored by Texthelp Systems, provider of award-winning literacy solutions including Read&Write GOLD and Fluency Tutor. For more information, go to www.texthelp.com.
Episode #52 features a discussion about the use of puzzles and a classic set of toys from the 80s as educational tools to practice fine motor skills, enhance visual-spatial abilities, utilize logical reasoning skills, build vocabulary, and more!
Download the complete set of bookmarks: Complete Set
There is no new podcast episode with this post. This is a complete set of all the bookmarks in one PDF document. Each bookmark features a character from a cartoon strip within the book created using Bitstrips.com. Feel free to download this PDF of all the bookmarks and do any or all of the following:
1. Post to your blog.
2. Print out to use while you read the book!
3. Print out to give to other educators.
4. Share via your favorite social networking site (like Twitter or Facebook).
5. Post to an online discussion forum.
6. Post to an educational listserv.
and anything else you can think of!
Complete Set of Bookmarks
Here’s a link to the complete set of all the bookmarks: Complete Set
There is no new podcast episode with this post. This is the fourth bookmark to be released. You’ll be able to find these files here or over at the Facebook Fan Page for the book. Each bookmark features a character from a cartoon strip within the book created using Bitstrips.com. Feel free to download these bookmarks and do any or all of the following:
1. Post to your blog.
2. Print out to use while you read the book!
3. Print out to give to other educators.
4. Share via your favorite social networking site (like Twitter or Facebook).
5. Post to an online discussion forum.
6. Post to an educational listserv.
and anything else you can think of!
Here’s a link to the fourth bookmark called “AT Hero”
This special episode features an interview Sally Norton-Darr and I did for the ISTE Author Podcast Series. In the interview we talk about what is assistive technology, why we wrote the book, why it is both practical and fun, and provide some tips for new and veteran assistive technology teams. We also have some fun telling about some team pranks! Enjoy!
There is no new podcast episode with this post, but the next one is almost ready! This is the third bookmark to be released. You’ll be able to find these files here or over at the Facebook Fan Page for the book. Each bookmark features a character from a cartoon strip within the book created using Bitstrips.com. Feel free to download these bookmarks and do any or all of the following:
1. Post to your blog.
2. Print out to use while you read the book!
3. Print out to give to other educators.
4. Share via your favorite social networking site (like Twitter or Facebook).
There is no new podcast episode with this post. As a way to help get the word out about the book, we thought it might be fun to pass around some bookmarks featuring some of the content. This is the second bookmark to be released. You’ll be able to find these files here or over at the Facebook Fan Page for the book. Each bookmark features a character from a cartoon strip within the book created using Bitstrips.com. Feel free to download these bookmarks and do any or all of the following:
1. Post to your blog.
2. Print out to use while you read the book!
3. Print out to give to other educators.
4. Share via your favorite social networking site (like Twitter or Facebook).
This special episode features an excerpt from “The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools” as read by the authors! In chapter 6, “Choosing Assistive Technology Teammates,” the authors make recommendations on assembling an AT team—who should be on the team, what qualities are best in a team member and team leader, and what to avoid. This chapter provides an example of the practical advice found throughout the book while getting a taste of the authors’ unique way of driving home a point—with humor!
There is no new podcast episode with this post. As a way to help get the word out about the book, we thought it might be fun to pass around some bookmarks featuring some of the content. These bookmarks will be released as .PDF files at the rate of one per week for the next five weeks. You’ll be able to find these files here or over at the Facebook Fan Page for the book. Each bookmark features a character from a cartoon strip within the book created using Bitstrips.com. Feel free to download these bookmarks and do any or all of the following:
1. Post to your blog.
2. Print out to use while you read the book!
3. Print out to give to other educators.
4. Share via your favorite social networking site (like Twitter or Facebook).
No new podcast episode with this post but I do have some book related news. The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools comes out in April 2010. You can pre-order your copy now from www.iste.org/chewat. Over the next few weeks there will be much more information coming out about the book, the content within, and ways you can help spread the word to other educators about the book. Here is just a taste of what is coming down the pike, not necessarily in this order:
In order to get the word out about the book, it is our hope that you will spread these files around, sharing them with other educators who might be interested in the content. Feel free to send them out via e-mail, post to your favorite social networking site (like Facebook or Twitter), tell people about them on listservs, have discussions on forums, and print out paper versions to give other educators!
Thanks in advance and I hope you enjoy the experience of reading the book as well as helping it become a success!
Episode #50 features a discussion about the educational uses of video conferencing.
The episode features a special segment from Claire, the daughter of one of my colleagues, and her friends who delivered the audio on a CD within a bowl full of Jell-O.
Episode #49 features a description of how to use the Autocorrect function of Microsoft Word as a way to practice errorless learning.
The episode features a bumper from Jeannette Van Houten, an assistive technology curriculum strategist from New Jersey. I was fortunate enough to meet Jeannette at ATIA 2010 in Orlando.
A.T.TIPS In This Episode-
A.T.TIP #75: Autocorrect in Microsoft Word
Step 1. Click on the Office Button
Step 2. Choose “Word Options”
Step 3. Select “Proofing” and then “AutoCorrect Options”
Step 4. Put the text you want to have replaced in the “Replace” box and the text you want to appear instead in the “With” box.
AutoCorrect in Word 2007
Or just watch this cool www.woopid.com tutorial I found on YouTube.com:
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
Episode #48 features an interview with the free to use website Vozme.com. To my knowledge, this is the first time in history when a person actually got a sit-down interview with an actual website. Vozme.com and I discuss strategies for using the website to create .mp3 files from text.
The episode features a bumper from Christine Southard and Lisa Parisi who are two fifth grade inclusion teachers in Long Island, New York. I was fortunate enough to meet Christine and Lisa at NECC 09 and attend their presentation about the tools they use to differentiate instruction for the students in their classroom. It was at their presentation where I learned about Vozme.com.
Episode #47 features an interview with Proby Patel, a fourth year medical student at Ross University. Proby and I discuss strategies for managing the massive amounts of content students experience. Specifically, we discuss the uses of speed controls of digital media players to help students experience content faster.
Proby Patel
The episode features a bumper from Brian Wojcik who is the special education/assistive technology center coordinator at Illinois State University. For some reason the embed code isn’t working for the video of Brian’s bumper but you can watch it directly from here: Brian Wojcik Bumper.
A.T.TIPS In This Episode-
A.T.TIP #73: Variable Playback Speeds for Digital Media Players
In Windows Media Player, version 11, open the file you want to watch. Click on the Now Playing tab, then Enhancements, and then Play Speed Settings to control the playback speed.
Additional Resources Mentioned-
1. http://iste.org/setsig – The Special Education Technology Special Interest Group from the International Society for Technology in Education (also known as ISTE). The SETSIG’s website has a wiki with links to ongoing discussions about using technology for students in special education as well as a handy assistive technology primer.
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
Episode #46 features another excerpt from the presentation for the Individual Differences in Learning Association in Howard County, Maryland. This excerpt describes WordTalk; a free text-to-speech plug-in for Microsoft Word.
The episode features a bumper from Karen Janowski who is an assistive technology consultant, an assistive technology specialist for a school district in Massachusetts, adjunct faculty member at Simmons College, and school board member in her town. She is also one of the innovators behind the UDLTechToolKit wiki, which contains a plethora of resources useful for differentiating instruction.
WordTalk is a free text-to-speech add-in for Microsoft Word. You can find all the details about which versions of Word it works with along with other frequently asked questions, installation instructions and more over at the WordTalk download page.
3. 2009 Edublog Award Winners – Congratulations to all of the winners! Let me recommend you head over there to check out all of the nominations and winners. The A.T.TIPSCAST placed seventh out of 26 in the category of “Best Educational Use of Audio“.
4. CliCk, Speak – A free, open source text-to-speech extension for the Firefox web browser.
5. Text-to-Speech in OpenOffice – Open Office is a free suite of programs including a word processing program. OO Text To Speech is a free download for this program.
6. Word Magnets – Type or paste text (words or letters) into a box that then makes each word (or letter) a separate moveable object. Perfect for word scrambles or sentence generation on an interactive whiteboard.
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
Episode #45 features a brief breakdown of the skill of sequencing followed by a recording of a portion of a presentation I did for the Individual Differences in Learning Association in Howard County, Maryland.
3. Edublog Award Nomination – Vote for the A.T.TIPSCAST! The A.T.TIPSCAST was nominated for a 2009 Edublog Award in the category of “Best Educational Use of Audio“. Voting is open to the public and ends on December 16th, 2009. Even if you don’t vote, let me recommend you head over there to check out all of the nominations. The list of all those nominated in all of the different categories is a tremendous resource in itself, so I hope you check it out (and vote for the A.T.TIPSCAST)
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
Run! Run! Run for your lives! Episode #42 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #42 features a visit to Count Edula’s mansion where he asks about some tools he can use to help organize his “hypothetical” zombie army. Chris’s suggestions just so happen to be useful tools to help students as well.
Google Earth lets you to zoom anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. Google Earth is a free software program you can download and install on your computer. When you launch the program you see a celestial view of the earth. On the left hand side you see a search window. Type in any location, hit the magnifying glass icon, and watch as you zoom to that location. Also on the left side of the screen you’ll find a section called “layers” click on any of the boxes there to add additional features to what you see in your search. So, for instance, if you select the “3D Buildings” layer when a 3 dimensional image of a building is available you will see that building in three dimensions. Try it by searching for any major city, like Chicago, and you’ll see a three-dimensional representation of tons of different buildings or try doing a search for one of the lighthouses along the Outer Banks. In more remote locations like those you can really see the difference between the 2 dimensional representations and the 3 dimensional representations. There is a street view layer that is awesome where you can see, where available, a 360 degree digital image as if you were standing at a given location. Students who have trouble visualizing how tall something is, or what something might look like, or how a structure might appear in real-life, can experience these places in a very tangential way. Using Google Earth before or after a field trip or community-based instructional trip can bring a totally new dimension to the learning experience. What’s nice about Google Earth is that it’s totally free. Students can download it at home to explore on their own. Again, this is just scratching the surface of what it can do as there are all different types of layers, including shipwrecks, weather conditions and forecasts, and global awareness.
Google Earth 5 allows you to create a tour by creating a movie. One of the icons is a little video camera. Just click on that video camera icon and then the little red record button that appears. Teachers can use this with students to give a little video tour of where they are going or where they have been. Students can also use this feature to demonstrate their knowledge. A student records themselves traveling from place to place in Google Earth to demonstrate they know how to get to a location from a location, that they know where on the globe an event occurred or where a place is actually located. You could even use it as an alternative way to tell a story. Instead of writing that essay on what they did over Winter Break, students can virtually take the teacher and other students to that location by showing it on Google Earth.
Mystudiyo.com is a website that allows you to create assessments using all sorts of different media. There are different assessment types to choose from, but the one that I think is easiest and most relevant to students is the multiple choice type of assessment. Once you choose your assessment type the website takes you through a series of questions to set-up your quiz. It’s like a quiz wizard that walks you through creation, step-by-step. You can choose from different looks of your quiz and you can add introductory media using text, an image, or video to give directions which is perfect for students who might have trouble reading instructions. You can also have text, an image or video accompany each question, which means you could read each question aloud and save it as a video to have a much more accessible assessment. At the end of the assessment a student can be presented with a scoreboard to see how well they did. Once you’ve finished creating your quiz the website generates a unique URL for your quiz. Take that URL and distribute it to students for them to take the quiz on your computers or, if possible, on their own home computers. See how well you can do on the quiz created by Count Edula for his zombie horde.
Shorttext.com allows someone to either type or copy/paste text directly into it. Then, once they are ready, they click on the “Create URL” button to make a URL for that text. In the future, they just go back to that unique URL to access that text again. It’s a handy way to save information. For instance, students who tend to lose things, like thumbdrives or assignments, can post it to Shorttext.com. Then, all they need is the URL to go get it. Unlike a thumbdrive, the URLs can be shared with a teacher or in a safe location that doesn’t get transported to and from school. There are some other tools on the net that might be better for organization of assignments and such, but shorttext.com has a very simple interface without lots of buttons or other functions. This makes it less intimidating, which is why I like it and which is why it might be perfect for some students and teachers. Check out a piece of intercepted correspondence from one of Count Edula’s zombie field generals.
Points of Interest:
Mentioned in the podcast is an article by the New York Times about Wikipedia’s new policy about editing entries about living people.
Also, if you haven’t seen this Common Craft How-to video, well, it might be worth your time to help you prepare for the impending apocalypse.
I hope to meet you at any or all of these presentations. But, if you can’t make it to those, and you’re interested in any of this (or other) content for workshops in your district please contact me at attipscast@gmail.com. We can work together to set something up either in person or virtually!
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
Episode #41 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #41 features some feedback from listeners of the show. There was too much feedback to fit into one episode so you can expect to hear more in the future.
The episode also features a bumper from Sally Norton-Darr and Judith Schoonover about the new version of CAST’s BookBuilder. Judith and Sally will be doing workshops on this at the following professional conferences if you’re interested in attending:
If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
Well this was the big secret project I’ve been working on that I had mentioned in previous episodes. I introduce to you now “The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools: Building or Improving Your District’s AT Team” by Christopher Bugaj and Sally Norton-Darr. The book is being published by the International Society for Technology in Education (better known by the acronym ISTE) and will be available for pre-order in February March of 2010.
The Content:
As the title suggests the book provides strategies of building an assistive technology program in public schools. Answers to common questions such as “How do we consider AT for every student?”, “How does assistive technology get documented in an IEP?”, “What are some effective ways of working with Instructional Technology?”, “Who should be on an AT Team?”, “When and how do you write an AT evaluation report?”, “What is the most effect service delivery model?”, “How do you adequately follow-up with teachers and students?”, “How do you collect data and demonstrate progress?”, and “How do you build a comprehensive assistive technology program?” are all found in the book.
The Style:
The book is written in such a way that it is easy to use and fun to read. We wanted to create a book that wouldn’t feel like a chore to read. Therefore, the book is laced with engaging analogies and humorous stories which emphasize and clarify the points being made. In the future we hope to have some excerpts for you to sample, both in text and audio formats. Throughout the book we provide procedures that have not only been relatively easy to implement but also have proven exceptionally effective for us. In fact, that was kind of our mantra for the book, “If it’s working for us, why wouldn’t it work for you?”
More to Come:
I’ll be sharing more information in the coming weeks and month about purchase information, pricing, and how you can help spread the word about the book if you’re interested in helping out.
I hope to meet you at any or all of these presentations. But, if you can’t make it to those, and you’re interested in any of this (or other) content for workshops in your district please contact me at attipscast@gmail.com. We can work together to set something up either in person or virtually!
Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:
The Compendium Blog of The A.T.TIPSCAST 