ICE Conference 2012 - #ice12

I have been very hard at work preparing for the upcoming ICE conference, here in St. Charles, IL.  What that means is that I've neglected this blog a little.  I am currently getting ready to help run the UDL Playground at ICE to show off the concepts of UDL and some of the great tools there are to support it.  It also means I get to meet a ton of great educators, and let them play with all sorts of gadgets!

One of the resources my collaborators and I have put together is this wiki - http://udlplayground.wikispaces.com.  This wiki is full of great resources for anyone to learn about and implement the ideas of UDL.  We've also included a slideshow with a few examples of UDL to show off during the conference.  If you think a resources is missing, please take a moment and fill out this short form - http://udlplayground.wikispaces.com/addresource.

I've also been working on a presentation for ICE - Google Docs for Special Education.  This presentation focuses on using Google Docs to Collaborate with students and other professionals, Collect data, and Communicate with all stakeholders.  More information on that in an upcoming post!

If you are at ICE, please take a moment to stop by the Marsalis Room (it's near the continental breakfast setup, by the pool!), check out our tools and say Hi!  I'll be doing my best to tweet from the conference, but I encourage you to check out the ICE conference Wiki (live coverage of sessions, including keynotes, and presenter handouts) and Ning for the latest information.

Patrick

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Symbol Resources (@SymbolResources) #spedchat #complexneeds #assistivetech #slpeeps

Symbol Resources (@SymbolResources) is an online resource created and managed by Tina Voizey to help teachers, speech-language therapists, parents, and others  who are interested in creating and using symbol-based materials to support the language development and learning of individuals who have special needs.  This site features information about best practices in using symbols, guides on how to use popular symbol software, & FREE resources supporting monthly themes as well as life skills and academics.   The resources that are available on Symbol Resources are created in Boardmaker, Communicate: In Print and Matrix Maker.

This site is one of a few activity shares geared towards special education that I have recently discovered.  It's great when we don't have to recreate the wheel when it comes to creating adapted/modified instructional materials!

-  Jeremy


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Visual Strategy Templates (Boardmaker, Word/Excel, PDF) #spedchat #assistivetech #complexneeds

You have to check out these awesome collections of visual strategy templates shared by the Autism Department of the Hamilton-Boone-Madison Special Services Cooperative:

For Staff

For Parents

NOTE:  The templates are available to download for FREE in several formats (Boardmaker, Word\Excel, or PDF).  For the Boardmaker files, right-click the file and select "Save Target as" and save the file to your desktop, then right click and select "Rename" and change the .htm or .html to .bm2.

-  Jeremy

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Meet Jennifer Schultz & her SLP Resources wiki #SLPeeps #SLPchat #iTherapy #CommonCore

Meet Jennifer Schultz!  Jennifer is a speech language pathologist with the South Central Education Cooperative in South Dakota.  Her SLP Resources wiki is an amazing treasure chest for SLPs!  Jennifer's wiki is full of resources related to speech-language therapy.  See the topics she covers below:

• Common Core Standards
• Documentation
• Progress Monitoring
• iStuff (using iOS devices in speech therapy)
• Therapy Games
• Vocabulary
• Children's Books and Vocabulary Targets
• Online Therapy Stimuli Resources
• Online Student Resources

-  Jeremy


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Wednesdays with Sam (@SFecich) #spedtech #assistivetech #spedchat

Hello! I am Samantha Fecich, I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Instructional Systems program at Penn State University. This is such a great opportunity to learn, share, research, and collaborate with others in the field.
I was a former special education teacher for four years. I taught at a school for students diagnosed with disabilities. During my first two years of teaching, I taught students diagnosed with Multiple Disabilities. I really enjoyed this class, I learned a lot from my students about assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication, and accessibility. My last two years I taught technology integration, I would go into each classroom and “push in” technology. With the help of my colleagues, we created a technology rich school, which utilized: several interactive whiteboards, laptop cart, Ipod cart, flip video cameras, and more!
I believe that it is very important to have a repository of resources and links to use in the classroom. Some tried and true sites that you can link to during a class presentation. It is also important to give parents and caregivers access to sites and tools to use in the home to reinforce concepts which are being taught in the classroom.

Wednesdays with Sam does just that. Wednesdays with Sam is a resource for teachers, students, speech therapists, parents and other professionals in the educational field. This site is full of interactive tools, resources, sites, and games to reinforce many different topics. The website  has a countless number of resources separated by subject area on the left hand side. Wednesdays with Sam covers the following subject areas:

• Alphabet concepts
• Animals
• Art
• Assistive Technology (vendors)
• Calendar
• Colors
• Community helpers
• Consumer science
• Health
• Matching
• Math
• Literacy
• Music
• Numbers
• Safety
• Science
• Seasonal sites
• Speech resources

… and so much more!

The site is updated weekly as I obtain new information and resources. I find great resources from Twitter, RSS feeds, Diigo, and some of my own digging around on the net. I try to make sure I cite the original finder of a tool or site and provide a link within my Google site.  This site was as a tribute to one of my late students, Michael. He loved working on the computer at school and at home. He used a single switch to access the computer so he could play educational games, read books, listen to music, and watch videos. I want Michael’s legacy to live on within this site. To learn more about Michael click here.  It is important to have a resources of links and tools to use in the classroom. It is also critical that parents and caregivers have access to these sites to use at home to reinforce concepts. Wednesdays with Sam does just this. I hope that you enjoy the site, utilize it within your classroom, and share with others.
Special thanks goes out to Jeremy and Patrick for letting me contribute a guest post to your awesome blog!

Please feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or comments:

Email: SFecich@gmail.com
Twitter: @SFecich
Google + ID: Samantha Fecich
Blog: Sam's Cool Tools for the Classroom  - I created this blog as a resource for educators, parents, and other professionals in the field of education. The blog will review apps for the IPod Touch, tools for IWB, laptops, and more. Join it and follow it on you RSS!

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Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos #sped #spedblog #spedchat

Today, I would like to introduce Barbara Kilburn.  Barbara is a special education teacher in California who works with students ages 6 to 9 who have mild/moderate disabilities in a self-contained classroom.  This will be her 7th year teaching.  She created her blog/site, Mrs. Kilburn's Kiddos, to provide creative resources to fellow teachers and parents.  Barbara shares ideas for bulletin boards, fine motor, thematic units, reading, math, as well as many printables!

-  Jeremy


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Simple Photographic Dictionary #edtech #assistivetech #spedtech #ESL

Simple Photographic Dictionary is a visual (picture) dictionary appropriate for children learning English.  Thousands of common nouns and simple concepts are illustrated with beautiful photographs.  The photographs are sourced from flickr and are under Creative Commons license.

This site differs from other dictionaries in the following ways.

• Language is simpler and easier to understand than sites like Wikipedia
• Definitions are concise
• Every entry is illustrated with a real-life photo
• All names are given for nouns or concepts that are known by a different name in different parts of the world.

Originally this site started out as a personal project to be a quick reference.  The developer was frustrated with wading through verbose pages on sites like Wikipedia.


This is a great resource for all students who benefit from the use of visuals (especially real-life photographs) and simple language (i.e., early elementary, ESL, special needs).


-  Jeremy

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All Abilities ePlayground #a11y #assistivetech #spedtech #spedchat #tck

All Abilities ePlayground is an online, or virtual, playground that features fun and games that are accessible to children of ALL abilities. This site, which is based in Australia, is an initiative of the Gold Coast City Council supported by the Department of Communities (Disability Services) and developed by Sonokids Australia.  The All Abilities ePlayground reflects the values and aims of 17 outdoor all abilities playgrounds funded by the Queensland Government.  Learn more about this ground-breaking project enabling all children to participate in play - Queensland All Abilities Playground Project.


The All Abilities ePlayground, which was developed to create a way for children to visit an all abilities playground from anywhere, aims to:

• reflect an all-inclusive and safe play environment
• offer fun, innovative and accessible ways of interactive online play
• stimulate and support imagination, skills development and cognitive learning
• allow a child with a disability to play as independently as possible
• create awareness and acceptance of alternative ways to play
• support integration and mutual understanding by play and interaction

The ePlayground features a number of entertaining actions as well as 4 games: IbisBuster, Memory, TrixMix, and Roo Hill Thrill.

1. IbisBuster - adventure game in which the player collects different "good things" and "shoo" Iris the ibis who tries to steal them.  The game is accompanied with a great adventure story.
2. Memory - puzzle-type game that involves finding the matching pairs of sounds and images
3. Trix Mix - creative game with music and animations that allows the child to mix and record musical sounds to a set beat.
4. Roo Hill Thrill - action game with a fantasy setting in which a kangaroo must surf over hills and avoid beach balls.

The entire site features audio instructions\narration by BuddyFly, who guides children through the playground.

Also, please note that you will need to complete a FREE registration to use the site.

With regards to accessibility, there are two versions of All Abilities ePlayground:

1.  Mouse and keyboard ePlayground - recommended for children who are able to use a mouse or keyboard.  This version is also accessible for children who are blind using a screen reader.  There are a number of ways the games in this version could be accessed: mouse & keyboard,  interactive whiteboard, touch screen, or trackball\joystick.

2.  Automatic scanning ePlayground - In this version, all actions as well as the games are played feature automatic scanning.  Access options include single switch, space bar, mouse left-click, puffing into microphone (Puff2Play™) , or interactive whiteboard.

The activities and games on the site have been tested by children with print disability, autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, learning difficulties, speech impairments, cognitive delays, and physical impairments.

-  Jeremy
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Skills Workshop (@skillsworkshop) - functional life skills, literacy, math, ESOL resources #spedchat #spedtech #assistivetech

skills workshop is one of my recent Twitter discoveries.  Although this site has existed since 2001, it was redesigned and relaunched in February 2011.  It features over 1,500 FREE functional life skills resources contributed by 400+ registered users.  Resources are categorized under one or more subject area(s):  literacy, numeracy, ESOL, ICT, and contextual.  Then resources are further organized by subject(s) and level(s).  Also, there is a powerful site-wide search engine with extensive filters as well as tag clouds.   ALL of the resources are FREE and you don't need to register in order to view, download, or print.  However, optional registration has a number of other benefits.

Benefits of optional registration:

• upload & catalog your resources to an approval queue
• suggest external links to an approval queue
• edit the descriptions or upload updated versions of your contributed resources
• leave comments on resources or links
• contact other site contributors
• vote on your favorite links
  

-  Jeremy

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Classroom Suite Suggestions

Looking for great ideas for Classroom Suite downloads, or ideas of what to use with kids at different levels?  This site has a ton of great suggestions, with links to download.  Make sure you check them out!

Classroom Suite Categories

Patrick

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Introducing the special needs directory (@SENICTdirectory) #spedchat #assistivetech #a11y

The SEN / ICT Directory has been created in an effort to gather information and resources surrounding special needs.  Although this site is based in the UK, it seems that any resource related to special needs could be submitted from around the globe.

Since the directory was just recently launched, there are not that many listings yet.  Follow @senictdirectory on Twitter to receive updates as new listings are added.

The directory currently has 10 different categories:

1. Companies -  For an annual fee, companies can be included in this category.
   
2. Products - For an annual fee, companies can have their products listed in this category.
   
3. Software - For an annual fee, companies can have their software listed in this category.
   
4. Hardware - For an annual fee, companies can have their hardware listed in this category.
   
5. Equipment - For an annual fee, companies can have their equipment listed in this category.
   
6. Services - For an annual fee, companies list the services they provide in this category.
   
7. Jobs - For a minimal submission charge, companies can post jobs in this category.
   
8. Events - For a minimal submission charge, events can be posted in this category.
   
9. Charities - 
   Charities are able to submit (for FREE) their websites in order to gain much needed support.

   
   
10. Resources  - 
    Teachers & parents can submit (for FREE) useful websites and online resources.  This is my favorite category so far.  It includes a number of great resources featuring switch-accessible activities, interactive whiteboard lessons, visual supports, and printables.  Although none of these resources are new to me, they are some of the best resources for special needs.  The UK has always seemed ahead of the game in terms of developing multimedia activities and resources for children with special needs.

Features:

• Nice, clean user interface.  I really like the use of visual thumbnails.
• It is fairly easy for users to submit resources to be included.
• Information is posted on the website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Suggestions:

• In terms of how the directory is organized, I think some of the current categories could be combined.  For example, the categories Software, Hardware, and Equipment should be sub-categories of Products.
• Also, the Resources could be more clearly defined as FREE Resources and divided into sub-categories like For Kids, For Parents, and For Professionals.  
• Add a site-wide search engine
• Consider asking users to include keywords or tags when submitting a resource.

-  Jeremy

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The Kid Should See This! #edapp #edchat #edtech #spedchat #tck

At the end of each month Mind/Shift shares some of their favorite educational apps that have either been released or updated in the last 30 days.  One of the the apps shared this month was The Kid Should See This (web | Twitter), which is  curated collection of sites, videos, and other online content that is appropriate for kids.  The content on this site is collected by a mother (@riondotnu) and her three-year-old.

-  Jeremy

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Andrea Keller (@akbusybee) shares her LIFE Tech Livebinder

RT @akbusybee: I wanted to share my livebinder - LIFE Tech - geared toward the special education class.

Thanks for sharing, Andrea!!

UPDATE: Andrea's still working on this Livebinder, so if you know of any resources that she should add - just share them by commenting below!

- Jeremy

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WatchKnow.org

WatchKnow.org is a great new website from the creator of Wikipedia. It is a huge collection of educational videos from all over the net. WatchKnow does not host videos, but collects links and shares them. All the videos are pre-approved for content and appropriateness. Here's a short video about WhatKnow.

One of the best features is that you can sort videos by name, age, and curricular content. I've used it on several occasions, and it is expanding everyday. You can suggest videos to add to the site. Check it out the next time you need a video!

-  Patrick

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20 Online Resources for Special Education Teachers

Today's guest post is from Karen Schwietzer from Teachingdegree.org .  She also write for About.com on the topic of Business.  She has shared 20 online resources for Special Education Teachers.

Patrick

The Internet can be a great resource for special education teachers. There are many different sites dedicated to providing assistive technology information, lesson plans, classroom activities, and special education resources. Here are 20 sites worth visiting:

General Resources

• NASET - The National Association of Special Education Teachers devotes itself to supporting current and future special education teachers.  NASET offers an online reference library, information about education, event calendars, and teacher publications.
  
  
  
• About Special Education - This About.com site offers a wide range of information for special education teachers, parents, and students. Specific features include a blog, a community forum, and feature articles.
  
  
  
• Marc Sheehan's Special Education Page - Marc Sheehan's Special Education and Exceptionality Page is an excellent resource for special education teachers. Marc links to associations, adaptive technologies, lesson plans, and many other classroom resources.
  
  
  
• E-Ready - This NEC Foundation of America site offers useful information and resources for anyone who teaches students with disabilities.  Specific resources include lesson plans, a glossary, a listing of national organizations, case studies, assistive technology information, and tips that can be implemented in the classroom.
  
  
  
• Teaching Students with Special Needs - This behavior management course is offered free though the University of Southern Queensland. It can be taken entirely online--no registration required. Self-study materials include a study schedule, readings, and assessments.

Assistive Technology Resources

• AssistiveTechnology Guide - This free PDF guide was written for special education teachers who want to learn more about how assistive technology can be used to assist elementary and secondary school students. The guide includes product reviews, information about online resources, and much more.
  
  
• Abledata - Abledata's database of assistive technology includes information on more than 30,000 assistive technology products. This U.S. Department of Education sponsored site does not sell products but it can lead you to companies that do.
  
  
• Closing the Gap - This magazine/website provides information about assistive technology resources and training as well as information on annual conferences. Teachers can request a free copy of the print magazine or sign up for a free 14-day trial subscription to the online publication.
  
  
• NCIP - The National Center to Improve Practice in Special Education Through Technology, Media, and Materials (NCIP) offers an online library, videos of students using assistive technologies, online workshops, and many other teacher resources.
  
  
  
• DisabilityInfo.gov - This government website provides several pages of educator resources, including a page devoted specifically to special education teachers. 

Lesson Plans

• Curry School of Education - This University of Virginia school has assembled a comprehensive database of effective teaching techniques to help educators develop lesson plans. The database includes research-validated methods for teaching students of every age and grade level.
  
  
• Teachnology - This online teacher resource offers teacher submitted lesson plans for special education students. Other site features include community message boards, printables, and worksheets.
  
  
• TeacherVision - TeacherVision is a good place to find free lesson plans, printables, and other classroom materials. The site also offers teaching tips and other helpful resources for special needs teachers.
  
  
  
• Kodak Lesson Plans - Kodak offers a modest collection of special education lesson plans that have been created and implemented by other teachers. Each lesson plan includes the purpose of the lesson, a list of required materials, and a detailed description of the lesson or activity.
  
  
• KinderArt - This site provides an eclectic collection of free lesson plans for adults and children with disabilities. All of the lesson plans are art related and include detailed instructions along with a list of required materials.

Classroom Activities

• Scholastic - The Scholastic site is one of the best places to find classroom activities online. The site offers more than 10,000 teaching ideas and student activities.
  
  
• RISE - Michigan State University's Resources In Special Education (RISE) page provides a great collection of teaching activities and ideas. Other page resources include classroom management plans and assistive technology resources.
  
  
• Misunderstood Minds - Misunderstood Minds is the companion website to the PBS program of the same name. The site offers a nice collection of classroom activities that incorporate reading, writing, and math.
  
  
• SparkTop - This site was created by a non-profit organization to help kids with learning disabilities. SparkTop provides a teacher resource center with activities and a safe place for students to interact with other kids just like them.
  
  
• Click-N-Type Virtual Keyboard - The Click-N-Type makes it easy to incorporate the computer into classroom activities. This free on-screen virtual keyboard can be managed by anyone who can control a mouse, pointer, or touch screen.

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, who writes for TeachingDegree.org.

Literactive

I came across a great literacy site recently called Literactive. I've been meaning to write about it, but have not had too much time. Here's a great review and idea of the what the site is about from iLearn Technology.

Patrick

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Rhyming

I came across an interesting post today about rhyming. I've been using it in my classroom very effectively to help teaching reading. It's is a widely proven fact that rhyming helps increase children's ability to decode words. Here at Michelle's Special Education blog she lists many different resources for teaching and reinforcing the concept of rhyming.

Teaching Rhyming

Patrick

Accessible Book Launcher

I am very excited about today's post. I just received word about this and can't wait to share with you. First I want to thank Samuel Sennot and Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite. Together they have developed an accessible book launcher. The template available online and in .pdf format can be used to launch online book writing sites, online book download sites, and online sites that you can listen to book at. Take a look at the web version here:

• Accessible Book Launcher Online Version

• Accessible Book Launcher .pdf version

The online version is accessible using 2 switches, the .pdf is downloadable, but only accessible by mouse. This template is a great way to have access to all types of book writing and reading sites. take a look at it!!!


Patrick