Student Guide Corner

Last night, I spoke to a group of parents and educators at a local Special Education Parent Advisory Council PAC) meeting. In Massachusetts, the existence of local PACs are mandated by state law where responsibilities include parent education and informing school committees about special education issues within the community. One of the questions related to a resource for a basic understanding of assistive technology. Typically, when one person asks a question, the reality is that many are wondering the same thing. Here a few resources that provide an introduction to assistive technology. They are carefully selected so as not to be overwhelming: Federal Laws that pertain to Assistive Technology in Education . What does Assistive Technology consideration look like ? Assistive Technology basics, decision making and tutorials for elementary age students. AT Cycle Toolkit -includes forms for IEP teams to guide consideration, decision-making, implementation and monitoring progress Gene...

Do you work with students with moderate to severe special needs? Do you follow these bloggers? If not, you will definitely want to add them to your subscriptions: AllTogether, Sam Sennott's Blog - Sam's passion is for promoting literacy and the low incidence population. He describes a number of projects that he is involved with for students with significant special needs. AT for Mac Users - "Covers news, views, and reviews for all OS X users with an interest in disability, adaptive/assistive technology, and making accessible programs and content." No Limits to Learning - "Celebrating human potential through assistive technology." BoardMaker 6 Activities - Yuichi's Games - Take the latest version of BoardMaker to infinity and beyond while taking advantage of the advanced capabilities of version 6. Still not sure how to subscribe using RSS ? It's easier than you think and saves tons of time, a very precious commodity. Click on the links at the b...

Time for a refresher. I realize that many people who read my blog may not have a great deal of experience with students who are on the autism spectrum. It is my passion to reach all learners, no matter what their strengths or areas to strengthen and I know that technology works effectively for many students. So, today let's spend a few minutes on low-tech strategies - the use of visual supports for students with communication and/or intellectual disabilities and especially for students on the autism spectrum. Susan Stokes and Linda Hodgdon have dedicated their professional practices to educating others about the importance of visual supports and cues for these students. Both Linda and Susan have repeatedly cautioned against the (over)use of language. And yet, in schools everywhere, what do we turn to (too often) when dealing with behavioral or emotional issues with students on the spectrum? Our words. Susan articulates the fact that visual processing is a strength for kids ...

After I collaborated with Brian Friedlander on a proposal to present at NECC 09 , I thought how essential were the tools we used in the process. Brian is in New Jersey; I'm in Massachusetts. In the past, we might have called each other on the phone to make arrangements and then emailed a Word document back and forth until we were both satisfied with the end result. How many extra hours would this process have taken? Or, conversely, we might never have thought of the idea to collaborate because it was impossible. Instead, we used Skype and CrossLoop . Brian shared his desktop with me, we simultaneously edited the online proposal form on the NECC website and we were done in an hour. We both remarked how well the process worked for us. We successfully and quickly created a joint three hour, hands-on BYOL proposal in one hour. So what's the point? Are we telling our students about these collaborative tools or are we keeping them to ourselves? They facilitate our productivity, t...

It's a great afternoon to watch a few videos to inspire you for the new week: First, watch a five minute quickie, "School 2.0: Creating the Schools we Need." by one of the most innovative education administrators of our time, Chris Lehmann, principal of the Science Leadership Academy , a public high school in Philly. He doesn't just talk the talk: If you are curious to know what sign should NOT be in our schools, you can see the slide deck here at practialtheory.org. Next, if you haven't already seen Sir Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity," this too is a must view. And, finally, in anticipation of the third annual free K-12 Online Conference , watch these two teasers that connect to working with struggling learners. The first one is a VoiceThread entitled, "Changing Disabilities into Possibilities. " The second one is a TeacherTube Video called, " Free Tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy." All you need ...