Student Guide Corner

One of my dreams is to work myself out of a job as an assistive technology consultant. Today, I came one step closer to realizing that dream. Allow me to explain. Last week, I offered a two hour workshop to a team of special educators. We talked about assistive technology consideration, guiding principles for technology integration, universal design for learning and free technology resources to support struggling learners. They had a chance to explore the Free Technology Toolkit Wiki . At the conclusion of the workshop, they were given an assignment to identify at least one resource to support their students, use it and then report back when we met again. We reconvened today and our follow-up workshop started with small group discussions. Educators shared what worked and what didn't (because we know there are always obstacles). They heard each others ideas and got excited hearing how some of the tools effectively reached learners in new ways. A student who hated to write and typi...

Jennifer Dorman (@cliotech) twittered about a resource she discovered today, which sounded intriguing. After spending a few minutes exploring it, I realized I had to share this cool, free online, interactive tool with my readers. Word Magnets is simple to use and perfect for Touch Monitors or Interactive WhiteBoards. How does it work and what does it do? Word Magnets will take a piece of text and break it into individual magnets which can be moved around the screen, resized, removed, colour coded, grouped, sorted and so on. New magnets can also be added at any point. You've probably used the low tech version - magnetic letters or words on your refrigerator. Try the new tech version with your students. There's an auditory cue every time you move, add or change the color of a word. Some students will benefit from the multisensory cues Word Magnet provides. Here are some ideas to get you started in your inclusive elementary classroom. 1. Let your students take daily attend...