Just Read The Words...Or Listen Too

In the last post I tried a new application that gives you the option to hear the text. Some of us may not have needed it, some may have found it helpful while some may have found it essential.

We have students who cannot access text for a variety of reasons. Low vision and reading challenges are two common ones. But what about the student with attention difficulties? What about the student with sensory processing issues who does not register sensory input unless it is enhanced? Hearing and seeing allows for a multisensory approach that improves attention and helps some students to "notice" salient information. Perhaps you have students who are auditory learners. Hearing is the best channel to receive and retain information.

We can provide adult support to read the material for these students. This fosters dependence. As occupational therapists, we are always aiming for independence, however.

We can let our students struggle. Just read the words some may say. Easier said than done for certain students. They may eventually do it, but what have they missed in the process?

Now, thanks to the web 2.0 world we live in, there is an easy solution...and it's free. ReadTheWords is a web based service that assists people with written material. They do this by using TTS Technology, or Text To Speech Technology. It was created to assist students with learning disabilities with their studies, by means of auditory learning and auditory processing. The developers quickly learned that it was being used by many others for a variety of purposes. It has proved to be a great example of universal design because it accommodates a wide spectrum of users in their daily lives.

There is nothing to download and you can access this service online from any computer, anywhere. Once the text is converted, it does not have to sit on your computer. Students can take their reading on the go by adding it to their ipod or mp3 player. This keeps the information at the student's fingertips, at their desk in school or available at home for studying and review. ReadTheWords provides 15 voices to choose from and you can control the pitch and speed of the voices according to your preference. They read English, Spanish and French.

We want to make the information easily available to our students. We don't want them to run a marathon each time they need information. How exhausting and tiring would that be? The Boston Marathon is coming up, by the way. It is a commendable accomplishment, but not something you do on a daily basis!

photo citation: Benimoto

Reflections on Educon2.0

Things I am reflecting on after attending the Educon2.0 conference in Philly several weeks ago:

1. putting kids at the center of their learning
2. kids creating, not just interacting
3. opening the door to student creation
4. wondering...is there joy in your classroom?
5. creating "third places" in school
6. rethinking space - what do we want to happen here?
7. getting away from instructional "stencils" to discovery and exploration
8. kids bringing both heart and brain to school
   
9. schools needing to be more childlike - open, curious, playful
10. technology allowing you to go further than you can on your own
    
11. hearing, "Most of what kids are doing on computers in school is just dopey" (Gary Stager)
12. the teacher being the expert learner in the classroom
13. knowing what's in the box before you leap out

Why change if everything is going well? Our role is to prepare students to be successful in life. Life is not static, it always involves change.

Why change? Because it's part of life!

Are you interested in hearing and seeing more about this Educon2.0 experience? By the power of Ustream, you can watch the sessions yourself. Go to the Educon20 wiki and scroll down until you see the individual sessions. Next, choose a session and click on "click here for session notes and UStream Session Recording." These are not the 2-4 minute youtube videos that you can fit in easily, so grab a cup of tea first and enjoy.

Do Good While Learning

FreeRice is a site that lets you do good while getting smarter! How cool is that? For every vocabulary word you get correct, it donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Here's how it works:

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.

There are 50 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 48.

In addition to boosting vocabulary skills in students with language delays, this site can be a nice break for some of our students with advanced verbal skills. Kids with aspergers and NLD need opportunities to build their strengths, something we forget to add to their day. This would be a great built in break for them!

The website cautions potential players - WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance...

After playing it, everyone in my family found it addictive...what a healthy addiction for students and families! I can't imagine hearing, "Stop learning new vocabulary and clean your room!"

occupational therapy connection - learn through play

Qipit - Camera Click and Share

Take a digital image (from your cellphone camera or digital camera) and turn it into a sharable document.

- Scribbled ideas on napkins
- White board teacher notes
- Handwritten notes from a meeting




Check out qipit...it's free. Their blog provides all sorts of tips and suggestions.

VoiceThread - Create, Comment and Connect!

My New Favorite Tool! Why?
It's Simple (the less clicks it requires, the more we are apt to use it)
It's adaptable (can be used in may different ways)
It's free for everyone (and the Pro version is free for K-12 educators)
It's just plain cool!

VoiceThread is a program to upload images (photos, documents, powerpoints, videos, etc.). But it's better than that. You can add your voice to comment about what is on the screen. Others can add their voices to keep the conversation going. To see a fun example, watch this voice thread of an old family photo.



Browse the examples under presentations, travel, family and classroom. We can use voice threads for social stories, how-to demos, digital story telling, skill practice, monitoring students' reading progress...I could go on and on. Families can document events in their lives and share with relatives and friends.

After showing this to a group of special educators here at Hosmer, I instantly got examples emailed back to me. The creativity is contagious. Go try it!

Close Your Dictionary

Tagging - the act of labeling your luggage for quick identification at the airport carousel
Wiki - short for wiki sticks, those waxed pieces of string that allow you to create shapes, letters or just about anything
RSS - IM speak for something (I'll have to ask my daughter); much like POS, standing for "parent over shoulder"
Blog - an extreme of "bog", as in "I got really blogged down by this project"
Podcast - a fly fishing technique
Social networking - what goes on in the teachers' room around the copy machine
YouTube - "No, I'm not jumping in this cold river with my inner tube...it was your idea so you tube!"

Welcome to Web 2.0. Go directly to Atomic Learning to update your definitions. This tutorial by Vickie Davis from CoolCatTeacher is free for the month of November. Hurry on over!

Image citation: jrtcollector

Wiki Wondering and Collaboration

Blogs,Wikis, RSS, Message Boards...is your head spinning yet? There are so many new technology tools we could use if we just knew what they were! Karen Janowski from Teaching Every Student shared this video on her blog recently. It is called Wiki's in Plain English produced by The Common Craft Show, sense-making for the masses.

We have been doing more and more collaboration in the schools: writing progress notes together, teaming up to develop student goals and joining forces during evaluations. If you asked anyone, they would say email has been a good way to share and plan. That may be true in some cases, but watching this will make you rethink that notion. The video is under four minutes long, which is not even close to the time you will save when you start to use this technology tool with your colleagues.

Creating Comics as Story Writing

Do you want to get you students excited about writing? Here is a great free resource mentioned by the tech chicks in their recent podcast. It is an online educational comic generator called makebeliefscomix.com.

First, you can choose the # of panels in your comic strip. The two panel option can represent a First-Then structure for younger students.




The three panel option can represent a beginning-middle-end structure. Older students can add more detail with the four panel option.





Next you choose the characters and their mood.








Finally, you write their words and thoughts. Each panel gives you a dialog prompt.

This is very easy to use. Click here, click there to drop characters into frames. Now you are ready to tell your story. There is even a list of story ideas to get started.

I love this because it is so flexible. It can be used to create a simple cause-effect story. At the same time, it can call on higher order thinking skills. The tech chicks suggested making a current event into a comic. This involves summarization, reframing, evaluation and making judgements.

Start now to tap into your students' creativity. To see a sample, check out the Hosmer student blog post, How to Appreciate Teachers.

Listen While You Walk

While walking the Walk for Hunger this past weekend, I had a chance to listen to some podcasts on my ipod. Have you ever heard the Tech Chicks, two educators from Texas who broadcast episodes about using technology in the schools? You can subscribe to it free at the iTunes store and listen from your computer or upload to your mp3 player. Check out their website at techchicktips. They list some great resources, tips and tricks (and are especially fond of "free").

(photo by Wallula Junction)

Making a Mouse Manageable

No, I am not talking about the ones eating my son's computer cable at his house in Philly, shared with other City Year volunteers. I'm sure he would appreciate any rodent advice, but I am talking about the mice we use to navigate our computers.

Some of our younger students cannot control the mouse to move around the computer screen. Programs that require a simple click are appropriate to use with these youngsters. This usually requires an adult to physically hold the standard mouse in one spot so the child can respond. Why not encourage independence and adapt the tool instead? Introducing the "Mouse House." A regular mouse is placed inside a small notebook. Pressing on the surface of the notebook activates the mouse button. It works well with cause and effect software or to advance slides in a PowerPoint. This makes the child an active participant rather than a passive observer. How simple can this be to create your own? Check out the directions found on the Simplified Technology website by Linda Burkhart.

Thanks to Linda Einis at the Adaptive Activites Library for passing on this site.

Creating and Sharing

Never before has it been so easy to produce and share content, whether it is music, video or writing. You can even publish and sell your own book online. The new web opens the door for creating and sharing. Why not step in!

Micheal Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology from Kansas State University, created this video called “Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us”. It's worth watching and pondering.

Laptop or Photocopier?

Students do a variety of writing in school, by hand and on the computer. Providing experiences with both is beneficial, but don't use a powerful laptop as a photo copier.

Why is it that students are writing with pencil and paper, rewriting multiple drafts, editing and then copying it by typing on the laptop? Is this final step really necessary? If we are putting laptops in their hands, let's allow them to use all the features to compose, revise, edit and publish.

Word processing gives students automated tools to help them spell, check grammar, and choose the right words. It allows them to electronically cut and paste written material and freely sequence ideas in ways to that make sense. Inserting information is done with a click of the mouse. Word processing is a functional skill that students will be using extensively in college and at the workplace. Joining what’s going on in the outside world with what’s going on in the classroom is key to preparing our students to work in the 21st century using 21st century tools.

See Education Week for a recent article on using computers for writing assessments.

Eighth graders using computers scored higher on writing tests than their peers who wrote with pencil and paper in a study out of New England.

SOURCE: "Examining the Effect of Text Editor and Robust Word Processor on Student Writing Test Performance," Boston College, 2004

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Create and share your projects online and access them from anywhere.

Have you looked beyond the basic search feature of Google? One useful item is Google Docs and Spreadsheets. It is a way to collaborate online. You decide who you want to invite to work on a document with you. You can create a team assessment, record group consultation notes and more. If you start a project at work, it is to online for you to continue it at home.

Think of all the student applications. If two students read the same book and are writing a book review together, they can be writing at the same time. How many times do we see one student sitting by and watching the other type? Let's make them both active participants!

When students work on group projects, it is not always possible to get together outside of school time. By creating a Google document and inviting peer collaborators, each person can add their section to the project. You got to love Web 2.0!

For more Google tools, go to Google for Educators.

Dive Into Del.icio.us!

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso

It is so easy to be a life long learner this day and age. Not only do we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, but we have many opportunities to share, produce, create and collaborate.

Why not start with del.icio.us, an online bookmarking site. Have you found yourself sitting at one of the library computers saving an interesting site, then later wondering where it was (computer # 8 or was it #9) ? And what about that site you saved at your home computer that you were hoping to use with a youngster at school? Worry no more. Your sites are saved online and you can access them from any computer anywhere.

It doesn't stop there, however. Since these sites are online, they can be shared with everyone. The Hosmer special education staff has a del.icio.us account. Go to http://del.icio.us/hosmersped. Take a look to see what they have considered worth saving!

If you are ready to create a delicious account for yourself, please see Karen Janowski's site, Ed Technology Solutions - Teaching Every Student: Online Bookmarking Resource for Educators. She wrote a recent post on the process.

Digital Natives

Fifteen years ago, the web went world wide. That means the students we work with at Hosmer School are all born AWWW (after world wide web). The internet and other digital tools have been part of their lives since they were born. Their generation is often referred to as "digital natives". Marc Prensky used the term in his 2001 article titled, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - A New Way Of Looking At Ourselves and Our Kids.

If our students are digital natives, we are digital immigrants. Some of us struggle to learn the new language. Those of us who have attempted to educate ourselves still retain our old accents. There is no getting around it. As adults, we bring with us a certain trepidation when approaching new technology.

Now we have begun vacation week, take a minute to watch this entertaining video called "Introducing the book". It is guaranteed to bring you some laughs.

Do you recognize yourself? I do! Each day, I try to be more "kid like" in my approach, however. Kids tackle a new digital task without the fear of making a mistake. They are not afraid to push a button, click on an object or explore a program. They try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try and then succeed. We can learn from this process. Don't hold back...begin your discovery! Become a life long learner.

This video was posted on Karen Janowski's blog, Teaching Every Student. Visit her site for a wealth of tips, information and ideas as you continue your journey as a digital immigrant.

Hear your writing!

Microsoft Word enables you to have text in Word documents read aloud. When using the computers in the library and computer room, simply make sure the Speech toolbar is displayed.

1. On the View menu, click on Toolbars and then click Speech.
2. Select (highlight) the text that you want Word to speak.
3. On the Speech toolbar, click Speak Selection.
4. To stop Word from speaking the text, click Stop Speaking.
(under system preferences, you can change rate of speech and choose different voices)

Why use this? There are a variety of educational applications:

- Students can listen to their writing as part of the editing process. It is common to misread what we have recently wrote, filling in what we intended to say rather than reading what is actually on the computer screen. Having the computer read it allows us to hear the text exactly as it was written and make corrections.
- Students can practice spelling words through another sensory channel. They type their spelling word then type the word a second time with a space between each letter. The computer will read the word first, then read it letter by letter. You may want to slow down the rate of speech for this task.
- Struggling readers can access information on the internet, even if the text is above their reading level. Copy and paste articles of interest into a Word document. Now they can listen to the information. Buy the way, TIME FOR KIDS is online in digital format..allow kids to "listen" if they are not on reading level.