Category Archives: software

Final Countdown to BETT special needs awards

awards, BETT, New technologies, software, special needs, ,

The shortlists for the BETT awards have been announced and there are seven candidates left in the running for the ICT Special Educational Needs Solutions award:

Soundbeam 5, uses motion sensors to help those with physical, sensory or learning disabilities to create music. http://www.soundbeam.co.uk/
VOICEYE, Forcetenco makes Word documents accessible to those who need learning print or speech support www.forcetenco.co.uk/voiceye

shortlisted- resources for deaf people
Signed Stories

Signed Stories, ITV SignPost. At last, there is a nomination which benefits the deaf community. It has a host of stories with a strong visual appeal in British Sign Language (BSL) and subtitles to be shared with hearing family and friends . http://www.signedstories.com
Something Special – Out and About, BBC. To celebrate the 100th episode of the very popular programme Something Special the BBC has a new website with lots of accessible games and of course Mr Tumble http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/somethingspecial/games/somethingspecial-outandabout
Boardmaker Studio, Mayer-Johnson comes with device overlays and starter templates for hundreds of activities including maths surveys, quizzes and games. Students can record and playback their own audio recordings for speech and language activities. http://www.mayer-johnson.com/boardmaker-studio/
Matrix Maker, Inclusive Technology. This has a mass of templates, symbols, pictures and resources. It will help teachers and therapists make communication overlays as well as worksheets, timetables labels and games. http://www.inclusive.co.uk/matrix-maker
Smooth Talker from Inclusive Technology is a really simple single switch communicator for special schools and early years settings. It will help children to develop basic communication skills http://www.inclusive.co.uk/smooth-talker-p4946

All will be revealed at the awards ceremony on Wednesday 11 January 2012 at the Hilton, Park Lane, London and on this site on 12th January.

Don’t miss this assistive technology training!

disability, software, special needs, training
Switch accessible activities
Training with Ian Bean

Assistive technology expert Ian Bean is running a series of online training events. Ian is famous for his work a Priory Woods School where he created a host of imaginative and fun activities for young people with profound disabilities and learning difficulties. The switch accessible version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight has livened up many a stodgy training session!

The four events run between November and February. Sign up now for the most enjoyable in-service training you have ever experienced.

Course Title: Making Something Happen (5-part series)
Session Two
Topic – Assistive Technology/ Switches
Date/Time: November 30, 2011 11:00am CST
Session Two: Making Something Happen
Description: This session will look at the early stages of using switches as an access method for
communication and learning. We’ll examine experiential learners and how we might facilitate the
transition toward early control with switches and how we might meaningfully embed the use of switches at
a cause and effect level across the school day.
Certification of Attendance provided after attending webinar
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/r2h2higcnvey

Course Title: Extending switch use beyond cause and effect (5-part series)
Session Three
Presenter: Ian Bean
Topic – Assistive Technology/ Switches / Cause and Effect
Date/Time: December 14, 2011 11:00am CST
Session Three: Extending switch use beyond cause and effect
Description: This webinar looks at developing switch use beyond the cause and effect stage toward
making meaningful choices with one or two switches. We’ll examine the different routes we need to
facilitate for one and two switch users and explore meaningful activities to embed switch use at this level
into your school day.
Certification of Attendance provided after attending webinar
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/djp4obodfyvy

Course Title: Getting the most from your switches AWAY from the computer (5-part series)
Session Four
Presenter: Ian Bean
Topic – Assistive Technology/ Teaching of switching skills
Date/Time: January 18, 2012 11:00am CST
Session Four: Getting the most from your switches AWAY from the computer
Description: This webinar looks at the development and generalization of switching skills away from the
computer. We examine the role of switch controlled toys, lighting and other electrical equipment and
single message and step-by-step communication devices in the teaching of switching skills.
Certification of Attendance provided after attending webinar
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/l3iycnibki6x

Course Title: Communication Devices in an Inclusive Classroom (5-part series)
Session Five
Presenter: Ian Bean
Topic – Assistive Technology/ Communication
Date/Time: February 15, 2012 11:00am CST
Session Four: Communication Devices in an Inclusive Classroom
Description: This webinar looks the use of single and multiple message communication devices and how
they can be used as an integral part of the school day. We’ll examine vocabulary, motivation and share
ideas and examples that you can use in your classrooms the very next day.
Certification of Attendance provided after attending webinar
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/h0sos2oupxnl

Simple technology makes maths more fun for bright students

gifted and talented, New technologies, software, , ,

Former investment banker turned teacher Narsh Srikanthapalan has been teaching gifted and talented pupils at Caludon Castle School in Coventry. He still spends a lot of time on spreadsheets but he also exploits all the facilities of interactive whiteboard software too, “We have Promethean interactive whiteboards and I like using the ActivInspire software. I probably use this more than other staff in the school.”

Maths at Caludon Castle School

For a lesson on rotation he took the theme of Caludon Castle and the pupils made a drawbridge over a moat. They played with rotation and came to realise that if you put the centre of rotation in the wrong place, the drawbridge doesn’t just lift up, it twirls like a baton. So it was back to the drawing board and pupils had to find their own solutions.

Similarly he created a cops and robbers game, “I told them that I was PC Srikanthapalan and I was chasing a robber across a field. I had a green rectangle which represented the grass and as I started to ‘follow’ the robber the pupils realised that I could only move horizontally and vertically, not diagonally. The more able students started to ponder issues of programming here.”
He believes that pupils prefer teachers to use interactive whiteboards as it improves the presentation of lessons. Resources can be prepared in advance, are clear and easy to read, can be edited and look professional. He finds that some members of the class will ask to come up to the board to show what th y have done as they find it easier than using words to explain concepts and methods. This means that more able pupils can share their knowledge and ideas with others in the class in a very immediate visual way.

He thinks one of the hooks for teachers is that technology improves classroom management. Interactive whiteboard software has virtual versions of the tools pupils are using, such as compasses and protractors so a teacher can demonstrate how to use these instead of showing each individual pupil. The whiteboard also means a teacher can keep eye contact with the class instead of turning away to write on a board. This year Caludon Castle has introduced a computerised random name generator to choose who will answer questions. It has been very effective for keeping pupils attentive. Since no one knows who will be chosen, it stops pupils drifting off . Now pupils only put their hand up if they want to ask a question.

Widgit software sails into calmer waters

Literacy, New technologies, software, special needs, ,
Cate and Tina Detheridge

Two generations of the Detheridge family are now at the helm of Widgit software. The company has been in the doldrums lately with fears that it might be bought out by competitors, interested only in its assets and not in its development arm.

Mike and Tina Detheridge set up Widgit in 1981 to provide symbol support for young people who struggle to read English text. This includes pupils who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) and those with learning disabilities or certain forms of autism.

In 2001 the family sold a large stake of their then 20 year old business to Logotron but 10 years later it came to grief when Logotron went into receivership in August of this year. The Detheridge family put together a rescue package with support from Terry Johnson, former partner in the highly successful US company Mayer Johnson, and other right-minded investors. This week they learned that their bid had seen off competition from outsiders.

Now the second generation of Detheridges is leading the way. Cate Detheridge is product manager for the company and develops the symbols while Simon is chief technical officer, responsible for much of the sophisticated programming which underpins the symbol collection in different languages.

Tina Detheridge said she was delighted with the news that their bid had been successful, ‘Widgit has been our life’s work and we were desperately worried that it would disappear. Because of the complex technical developments, I don’t think that any other company would have the programming skills, let alone the vision and passion, to take it on.’

Widgit is in safe hands now and is making headway with a number of improvements and new developments.

Thank heavens for shortcuts!

software

I have been much vexed by Internet Explorer 9. This puts favourites and history on the right hand side of the screen. Maybe this is handy for people who read right to left but is a real nuisance for those of us who are used to having everything on the left. That is where it has always been.

I tried clicking on the star and then the arrow to shoot the favourites across the page but you have to do that each time you close the home page. Now I have discovered the short cut CTRL Shift and the letter I. The favourites appear on the left. Just as they should. I can live with that till the designers of Internet Explorer get bored with this little gimmick.

Don’t you just love technology?

Literacy, software,

I do -when it goes right. I know there are those times when we curse it as we sit and watch the timer going on forever and nothing loads.  But on a good day it does nice things.

I used to use Scraps in an old version of MS Office. If you had a piece of ext you would be using again and again to send to different people you could just highlight it and drag it onto your desktop then when you needed it you could drag it into an email or whatever.  I was quite sad when this facility disappeared from later versions of Office but this morning I realised that Notes in Outlook does the same sort of thing.

easy to re-use text
Tired of typing text over and over again?

1 Grab some text from a document. Either highlight and drag it onto the Notes icon in the Outlook sidebar or copy and paste if that is easier.
2 When you want to use that text in an email,  just drag the note icon onto the mail icon, hold and wait.  The email will open with the text in the body of the message.

Dyslexia and Dyspraxia

Literacy, software, special needs,

I am writing a book for Crimson Publishing called How to Help your Dyslexic and Dyspraxic Child. It is aimed at the parent market and gives ideas for activities to do at home, how to get an assessment, confidence building. I have just typed a plan and pasted the text into Wordle which makes a word cloud from any piece of text.  The more often a word appears in the text, the more prominent it is in the Word Cloud.

a word cloud from pasted textLooks like the key words are games, co-ordination, spelling activities and memory. Yup that seems about right.. Better stop playing and get writing!

And the winner is …Proloquo2go

BETT, disability, New technologies, software, special needs, ,
Proloquo2go wins the award
Sal and comedian Alun Cochrane meet the winners from Proloquo2go

Rebecca Bright is a Speech and Language therapist and has been closely involved with Proloquo2go so she was delighted to learn that it had won the BETT Special Needs Award 2011. It is an app which can be used on an iPad or iPhone to give a voice to those who have a disability such as cerebral palsy or autism which prevents them getting their message across.

Proloquo2go is an affordable solution for those who need communication aids. There are many specialist augmentative and assistive communication (AAC) devices on the market but they often cost thousands of pounds and demand outstrips supply so some young people are left literally without a voice. Now, with increased funding restrictions, there are more people who need a reasonably priced aid and Proloquo2go offers access to many people who would formerly have found AAC out of reach.
Proloquo2go
AAC in your pocket

“Proloquo2go is also very socially acceptable,” said Rebecca. “It works on devices which everyone else has or wants to have so it is not seen as a specialist device for people with disabilities This has had a knock on effect. In the past some learners were unwilling to use their communication aids outside the classroom or home because it marked them out as being different but now that stigma is removed. There are over 300,000 apps on iTunes and we are finding that users are going for a mix and match approach. They might use Proloquo2go symbols for a message and then switch into YouTube to show a video and then call up photos of their family as part of a conversation. All of us at Proloquo2go, the developers AssistiveWare and those of us who work at the UK partner TherapyBox  are delighted to win the award. It is good news for us but it is also good news for those who need communication aids. It shifts the spotlight from dedicated technology to low cost, mainstream mobile technology.

Watch a video t osee how Proloquo2go changed one little boy’s life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulf11Kg8-lI

Final Leg of Special Needs Award

BETT, disability, software, special needs

The BETT Special Needs Award 2011 will be announced at the Hilton Park Lane on Wednesday 12th January. Six entries have been shortlisted and they represent the diversity of products for young people with disabilities and learning difficulties.

 Two products are aimed at literacy:  Catch Up Literacy Digital Games 3 is for struggling readers aged 8 to 14 working at NC Levels 1-3. It works on high frequency words, comprehension and recall, segmenting and blending phonemes and is available in Welsh too.  JISC’s MyStudyBar is a great money saving tool. It brings together freeware and open source software for students who have problems with planning, reading, writing, This free download has been used by learners as far afield as New Zealand and Australia and is likely to be very popular in these money straitened times.

 Pupils who need help with speech often need expensive specialist Augmentative Assistive Communication devices but now there is another solution with Proloquo2Go.  It is an app which will run on an iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It has natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols and an inbuilt vocabulary of over 7000 items. Another hi-tech solution is Nisai Virtual Academy which takes education out to pupils who cannot go to school. It offers qualifications from Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 5 and includes live lessons with teachers and other students from all over the UK.

HelpKidzLearn
free games for switch users

 Pupils with more profound disabilities will welcome TTS Sound Shuffle, a simple device that records up to four minutes of multiple messages and plays them back randomly or sequentially. It’s great for audio recordings for non- readers and ideal for adding sound or voice to wall displays. The final shortlisted entry is HelpKidzLearn, a set of free games which offer fun and purposeful activities for young switch users. Try whacking gophers down a drainpipe – great for develop anticiopation skills – and create a digital magic potion: leg of frog, eye of newt, and of course, lots of slime. Lovely!

 The final decision on the winner of the BETT Special Needs Award 2011 will be announced on Wednesday night but all these entries will certainly find new audiences in 2011.

 http://www.catchup.org.uk/

http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eduapps/mystudybar.php

http://www.nisaiva.com

http://www.proloquo2go.com/

http://www.tts-group.co.uk/

http://www.helpkidzlearn.com/

 

National Schools Film and Animation Awards 2010

gifted and talented, New technologies, software, special needs, youth and community, , , ,
Lady Floella Benjamin, chair of judges for National Schools Film and Animation Awards 2010
A firm but fair chair of judges

Children’s TV presenter Lady Floella Benjamin is a superstar. She is also a great chair of judges as I discovered yesterday at the Bli National Schools Film and Animation Awards 2010 in Sheffield where a group of educators and journalists spent the day looking at over 40 shortlisted entries covering all the key stages.

We saw reworkings of familiar stories such as the Three Little Pigs and Tell Tale Heart, several pieces on internet safety and lots of entries focusing on environmental issues. There were some strong issues-based pieces covering teenage pregnancy, under age drinking and life in the run down areas found in so many cities in Britain. These would not have looked out of place on Channel 4 and were highly polished productions which avoided the sanctimonious preaching tone often associated with teenage documentaries. Other pieces were very school based and provided a little affectionate mockery of teachers, their habits and mannerisms.

As judges, we learned a lot about film making and animation as we got a crash course in what works and what doesn’t. You could see where entries were under-rehearsed or needed editing. It was obvious where technology dominated and the focus or storyline had become obscured. We talked about everything from the colour of titles to the use of camera angles and sound effects.

Floella is passionate about encouraging children to be creative but she is also a stern critic,” ‘Good enough’ is just not good enough. They should be aiming for the best,” she said of one entry. But she was also quick to point out where pupils had conveyed a story or communicated to their audience particularly effectively.

The results of the awards will be announced early in 2011 but you can be certain that whatever form the ceremonies and celebrations take, Floella Benjamin will be there, sharing her passion for creativity and encouraging children to try that little bit harder to be the very best that they can be.

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