The End

Well here it is the end of our course. I learned so much from Barb as well as from the rest of you. I was truly enjoyable. I only wish I could take the second course but with the weather the way it is and getting up at 5:30... well I guess it won't be happening right now.
I enjoyed everyone's case study and will certainly be looking into APSEA for "Daniel".
I also wanted to include these 3 videos that Pam had in her case study - truly inspirational!!!



Happy Holidays everyone!!
Cathy

Cartoon

Here is the cartoon that Rachel presented in her case study. I think that it captures everything that this course represents. I definitely plan to share it with my staff.

Clicker 5

Clicker 5 is AT that can be used for students with cognitive delays, significant reading and writing issues and visual impairments. In class, we were asked to use Clicker 5 to make an E-book and a writing grid.
This program allows you to add pictures and text and you can also voice record. It has so many possiblities. I am sorry that I missed out on this class as this program has so much potential. I certainly learned a lot about it in the short time that I got to play with it while completing our activity for Mary.

Kurzweil 3000 Video

I saw this video on YouTube - a good overview of Kurzweil in case you forget.

Inspiration 8

Today I got to play with Inspiration 8! It certainly was not the same instruction as I would have received in class but it was interesting. I can definitely appreciate how students become frustrated in class. Many a time I had use the undo button : ) Regardless, here is my creation about the writing process.



Thanks to everyone who had already posted their creations as it helped me to see all of the steps/requirements! After creating this I then discovered there is a tutorial!!! I think that I will definitely be using it before I try this again : )

DID YOU KNOW???

I am so happy to be taking this course and learning about all of the great assistive technology that is out there. BUT... there is a down side to this. While those of you in Nova Scotia are extremely lucky to have talented personnel like Barb working in your school boards, there is no assistive technology consultant in my district. We did have someone working with as an information technology facilitator at the department level although she left at the end of October. There have been major changes in the IT sector in the PEI government and hopefully things will be remedied soon.

In top of that, I just learned from a co-worker that we have the older edition of Kurzweil (not the 3000) in our school. After telling her about all of the neat gadgets this program has to offer, I think that I convinced her that we are in need of the new program!! Also, we don't have Start-to-Finish books in our school although we can get access to them if needed.

Now you know!

New Website sites and tutorials

The following are the websites for tutorials of varoius programs that we are learning about in class:

Write Out Loud video tutorials
http://ssrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/jrenouf/WriteOutloud.htm


Cloze Pro video tutorials
http://ssrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/jrenouf/clozepro.htm


Clicker 5 video tutorials
http://assist-tech.ednet.ns.ca/download.htm

DID YOU KNOW??
A free 30 day demo of Inspiration 8 can be downloaded from their website!!