day 12 Inspirational video/ AT for Gloucoma

Today we saw an inspirational video on people with disabilities and how they still live with no limits. that was the feeling I had when i watched it. With team support, appropriate AT anything is possible. Climbing walls with cerebral palsy, quadriplegics surfing, people doing flips and jumps in a wheelchair....amazing...anything is possible! now I am going to take a look at
Glaucoma to see if i can find an inspirational video on how people are dealing with it. It seems to me that izoom might be an Assistive Technology to use with this disease. It is designed to help with viewing a computer screen. The video of Ben is about a boy who used\s echolocation to navigate around his environment. This is a great example of how adaptable human beings can be.

This course has given me a great introduction to the seemingly infinite ways that people can overcome any kind of obstacle. Whether its high or low tech. the common denominators seem to be ingenuity, support, and willingness to try new things.

day 11 July 19, 2010 Low-tech. inventions

Today the class presented their low-tech. inventions. there were many great ideas. What a pool of useful items for a resource teacher to take away from the course. Aside from that, it was also entertaining and fun to watch. For the remainder of this post I am sharing some of the results of our dollar store inventor power shopping sessions. this includes today's floral block inventions.

Halloween Grabber:

This is a Halloween prop with a dinosaur trigger operated pincher head. this off the shelf item would be useful for a person with limited mobility and some fine motor limitations. It would extend their reach and provide pincher control with a simpler squeezing action.

Bingo blotters can be used to select for a student with fine motor issues.

The drawing board can be used by a person with dysgraphia and with fine motor issues.

The beads can be used as staggered hanging bookmarks and for visual sensory input.

the mirror ball can be used for sensory input. It is reflective and shiny. Reflected light creates interesting designs.

Bath scrubbies can be used for sensory input. They can be used to paint by people with fine motor issues. They also create neat designs.

These hair accessories can be fasteners, book marks, and page turners.

Measuring tape can be used as number lines and measuring in Math class.

Emery boards can be used for art and woodworking projects which require finer detail.

The clipboards can be used to hold a variety of items such as books, loose papers, and art projects.

Table cloth weights can be used as bookmarks

Assignment # 3

AT Seekers and Inventors – Carl Paddock & Margaret Buffett

Education 5173 Z4

Background:

Karen is a 13 year old girl who has been diagnosed as moderate to severe cognitively delayed and is on the autism spectrum. Karen has fairly good receptive language; however, she has limited expressive language.

In the school environment she requires a great deal of assistance with organization. In particular, she requires assistance with keeping her school supplies (i.e., pencils, erasers, ruler, paint brushes etc.) organized and accessible. When she uses a standard pencil case or a cup style pencil holder, she finds it difficult to find the particular item that she needs and will usually take everything out of the case or holder. Karen experiences difficulty with keeping her books organized, as well. She has her own collection of High School Musical books, craft and art books, as well as subject related books which she usually has misplaced. She also requires assistance with keeping personal items organized and accessible in her locker. Since she likes to hang out by the locker with her peers, she likes to have personal items such as brushes and combs in her locker; however, she has difficulty finding these items and often loses them. Her difficulty with organizing and keeping track of her materials often causes Karen to be late for class and activities. It also causes her to be stressed and she often gets upset over this.

Karen is a very sociable girl who enjoys being with her peers in the grade 7 classroom. She also likes to hang out with her peers in other school environments such as the cafeteria and by the lockers in the hallway. Karen displays similar interests as her age peers such as watching movies, videos, listening to music, and is particularly interested in High School Musical, Hannah Montanna, and Justin Bieber.

The low-tech assistance technology is designed to give customizable organizational tools that fit directly to the student’s needs. The low tech material used is floral foam blocks which can be shaped to fit the student’s organizational needs. For example, school supply block, book shelf organization, Art supply block, sequencing block, and the locker block. The school supply block would hold items such as pencils, erasers, ruler, sticky notes, and pens. The book shelf organization block is a personalized book shelf to hold various books such as subject related and leisure reading. The art block would hold art supplies such as paint brushes, glue, and scissors. The sequencing block would be used to teach story sequencing or to sequence tasks. The locker block would be used to hold Karen’s hair accessories such as brush, comb, and headbands. These blocks would be attached to her desk, books shelves, and the locker using either magnets or Velcro to keep them stable and accessible.

Making this low-tech assistive technology available to Karen, will enable her to have more time on task as she won’t have to spend time looking for items. It will also enable her to have the correct items needed for specific tasks such as her school supply block.

Karen’s use of these low tech assistive technologies will be monitored closely to see how effective and efficient they are with enhancing her organizational skills. Karen’s progress will be monitored daily by her classroom teachers to see if these devices are minimizing her stress that she has experienced as a result of losing items and not being able to find them when she needed to.

Considerations:

· Many of these items could be made in art class, by all students. This way they could be personalized and used for a wide variety of purposes. This would also help Karen’s differences to blend more easily into the class. In any case, Karen would have the opportunity to customize her own items.

· Karen enjoys a variety of tactile, sensory input. For example, she is often seen playing with soft, fuzzy items such as cotton balls, tennis balls, and textured stickers. This made the selection of floral foam blocks a good choice for Karen.

· In each of the blocks, items can be inserted at an angle which would provide easier access for Karen.

· Each of the blocks can be painted with paint or glue to seal the blocks and make them more durable. This would also take care of any dust issues.

IPP

The following goal is taken from the outcomes in Karen’s Functional curriculum.

Goal: Karen will organize and keep track of her school supplies and personal materials 90% of the time.

Objective: Karen will organize her school supplies in the school supplies block.

Objective: Karen will organize her Art supplies in the Art block.

Objective: Karen will sequence a story with four elements using the sequencing block.

Objective: Karen will sequence a task using the sequencing block.

Objective: Karen will organize her books in the book block.

Objective: Karen will organize her personal items in the locker block.

Strategies: Direct teaching, provide a model to follow, have Karen help design and decorate the blocks, verbal reminders.

Evaluation: Daily checklist, observation, report from subject area teachers, self evaluation.

Materials: Floral foam blocks, glue, Karen’s school supplies and personal items, checklists.

This fish display is an example of how this floral foam block can be easily cut and shaped to any imaginable creative use. It is a segmented fish which holds various characteristics of a fish. This is a possible Science activity.

These are bases created with two slots for the positioning of cards and accompanying numbers. They can be used for sequencing, social stories, video story boarding, and organizing elements of any type of writing. Because they are very movable and easily modified, they offer maximum flexibility.

This is an example of an art supply organizer with items positioned on an angle for easy access.

This is a combination school supply organizer and book holder. They can be made separately but we combined them for illustration purposes. They can be coated with glue, painted, and customized in any way that the teacher or student sees fit.

Summary:

The above pictures illustrate how flexible floral foam blocks can be as a low-tech. assistive material. It can be crafted into a variety of 3-dimensional graphic organizers that would be customizable to any subject area and a wide variety of purposes. We do suggest that the final product be coated with ordinary glue, paint, or polyurthane if the intended use is meant to be long term. It is very cheap so they don't all need to be protected with expensive coatings. Have fun trying new things with them and please send us pictures of your creative ideas.

day 10 Board Maker pro

On day 10 the class was introduced to Boardmaker Pro. This software can be used to create communication boards and books. These can be manipulated using a variety of switches to help a student communicate and accomplish a variety of tasks. We were given the profile of a grade seven girl that we have to consider in designing a communication board. I am very pleased with the board that Margaret and I have designed. It took many hours, but I guess part of that was due to the fact that it was our first time using the software. It seems simple but considering the student, reconsidering the student, considering the links, and reconsidering the links takes time. At times we would leave the student stuck on the Language Arts board or the "My Classes" page with no way back. To say that it was a learning experience is a bit of an understatement. We did encounter one technical problem which we were unable to solve. The sound in our book will not play when we try it using Ctrl u. It will play when we review it in the design mode using the play button but not in real use. If anyone has any ideas, please post them in mine or Margaret's comments. To my classmates...sorry that I have not commented on your blogs yet. It is next on my agenda. I am interested in seeing your reflections. My key for today is that learning takes time. Sometimes we want it to happen yesterday. Patience can't be left behind as another key in another blog post.

day 9 movie morning and switches

On day nine the class shared their movie stories. It was amazing to see how much was done in such a short time. I can imagine what could be done for one student if such a concerted effort was applied to their needs. I don't see that often. It isn't that most teachers are not dedicated. It's that human and material resources are spread very thin sometimes. I think that students in rural areas miss out because access to specialists and specialized services are limited. I feel that the information and skills that I have been able to obtain over the last two weeks will help me contribute more to the context that I work in. I know that it's the tip of the iceberg but I feel that it is a good beginning. The process of choosing switches and the various types was very interesting. The application of switches to various student tasks interests me because it requires creative problem solving and inventing sometimes. The process of applying AT to student tasks reminds me of the Inuit ingenuity I observed while I was working in the north. Some of the people I met could solve the most amazing problems with items that they found lying around. One person I met solved a problem of a blown out piston in his snowmobile using a round file and a screw. Of course he had to build an igloo around the snowmobile, take it completely apart, fix the piston and reasssemble it, and drive 200km back home. Sometimes we underestimate human ingenuity. When we are properly motivated and think outside the box or inside the igloo, interesting things can happen. The following are some things that we reviewed in class to consider when choosing switches for given tasks. With the MPTTT framework in mind the team considers:
-The specific task to be accomplished.
-which switch would be best? Simple/special purpose.
-It must fit seamlessly with the students position, movement pattern, and control site so as not to cause undue fatigue and decrease the likelihood of practise.
-A certified specialist must be involved in ironing out the specifics of the switch application.
-To further fine tune the process the switch must be evaluated in terms of the force needed to activate it, the feedback it gives, the direction of movement needed to activate it, and the the type of feedback it gives the user.
-These considerations and many more all need to be filtered through a good understanding of the student's environment, the student's skill sets, and the technology to be manipulated.
-The student will only be motivated if meaningful opportunities are given to practice. When the student is properly included in the activities of his or her peers, they will be more likely to do the tiring work required to manipulate the switch and accomplish their tasks.

I think that what I have written in this entry comes down to two keys. Educators must use their creativity to find and use the best tools to insure that every student is really included in meaningful activities and feels a strong sense of belonging.

Day 8 Making our video preparation story

This was a great activity. Capturing our clips went very well. the team planning paid off and the process was smooth. After that we had a series of technical difficulties (mostly with windows Movie Maker) which tripled the time it took to do the project. The reality of technology is that sometimes it works like a dream and other times it doesn't. With a Mac it's mostly the former but I won't go there. The key is Patience and perseverance. Our group demonstrated that last night. Today I thought about some of the people who use assistive technology. The problems that we had seem very small compared to what some people have to overcome every day. My keys from this experience were patience and perseverance. Take a look at the result of our labour. It was a video to assist a student in learning how to refuel his family vehicle.

Day 7 creating videos using ipod nano

Today was a blast! We got to play with video on the ipod nano and create a short video story sequence designed to help a student with Autism. It was practise for tomorrow's assignment in which the various groups will design video stories that will be more indepth with the goal to help a student with a disability complet a task. My group got the rough draft of tomorrow's project done today. More discussin later in the day led us to the conclusion that it needed to be pared down from 30 clips. It is now 13 so i think we are in great shape for tomorrow morning technology willing. It is normal to experience some technical glitches but when you have a cooperative learning community it really helps. Thanks to all of the people in the class who are willing to give short tutorials and quick tips when needed. When learning new skills it is imperative that cooperation be part of the equation. Cooperation is my Key for today.

Day 6 ipod Touch Apps Assignment

In class 6 I attempted to connect to the app store for the purpose of evaluating the usability or usefulness of my chosen apps to the student I am considering. The Internet connection was not good so I could not evaluate the apps. Later I will share what I was able to find from other online sources. First I want to talk a little about our dollar Store shopping. It was a blast! We met several groups there scanning the shelves for treasures. We found a few of our own which you can take a look at on my blog.

The student that I had in mind when I was looking for apps is a sixteen year old boy with autism. He has worked on an alternate educational program for all of his school career and will be going into grade twelve next year. The student is very cooperative with no behaviour concerns. Oral and written communication is very limited. When asked a question, the student takes a great deal of time to answer and may need several leading prompts to uncover the answer. He needs lots of structure and routine to feel comfortable and finds interaction in social settings difficult. The student needs to be prepared with clear expectations and a limited number of sequential steps to follow. The student has worked on alternate courses in the areas of communication, social and life skills. His courses have been designed to assist in the transition to work and with a view to independent living when the time comes. The student is a hard worker and has held a job as a stock boy at one of the local grocery stores for the past two summers. He comes from a very supportive family who have advocated for him all of his school life. The planning of the student's program for next year is geared toward transitioning him to home and work. The applications that I chose were chosen because the name and description suggested that they would be useful for that purpose.

The first app that I chose was Model Me Going Places. This program is described on the app store as "A Visual technology tool for helping children learn to navigate challenging locations in the community. Each location contains a photo slide show of children modeling appropriate behaviour. Places such as the mall, grocery store,playground and others. Reviews indicate that it is a good simple app. especially for the price. (free) The next app I downloaded is titled Social Skills sampler, made by the Conover Company. It is designed to teach and reinforce basic skills and words critical for independent living. It contains information on warning signs, work skills, and shopping trips. The app. contains 80 videos, is password protected, and makes assignments based on individual needs. It has human quality audio and can be locked to the individual user. The third app. that I chose is by the same company and is titled life skills sampler. This application is described in the same way as the previous which makes me think that both may be accessing some of the same videos etc. Whatever the case they seem to me to be a great deal.

I chose these applications because the student is in the process of transitioning from school to work. I would like for him to have as many tools in the area of social and life skills as possible. The student and I have worked on modeling behaviours and videotaping scenarios for him to watch and practise.For that reason, I think This software will fit in with what he has already done and give him much more variety to choose from when he is at home or at work. I think that his parents may be interested in him purchasing an ipod touch out of the money he makes in his summer job. I think the student might be very interested in that. I have seen many apps that I feel would be useful to him. I am looking forward to exploring more. Again, I can't believe that I am just becoming aware of how this tool can be used with the students I work with. These and other apps will be Keys that I will take home with me to use next year and beyond.