Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Learning Magic is Sponsor of Blog contest to Win Free AT Software

Learning Magic is donating free software to the winner of our Blog Contest.
Byron Wilkes, CEO and founder of Learning Magic (http://www.learningmagicinc.com/) is one of those rare individuals that gives out of a huge heart. His actions say "You receive by giving" and he does this with a joyful heart.
With a background in education, software design and a special needs child of his own, Byron left Intellitools to cooperatively build software that is high interest in the area of ecosystems, wildlife, nature and science. He has travelled the world to get his African wildlife photos, snorkeled the barrier reef to get footage of the marine life, etc. I reckon he could be the AT and education equivalent to the Crocodile Hunter, Marty Stouffer or Marlin Perkins!
If you are not familiar with his packages of software you need to check them out. Several years ago, Byron donated 2 days of his time to drive from Seattle to assist me in an assistive technology teacher institute. He donated a copy of each title to our library to load on our three laptops for folks to check out and try the software. They play on Intellitools, Clicker 5 and SoftTouch software like My Own Bookshelf and Test Me Score Me. He continues to send new titles as they come out and they are full of wonderful content that allow students to read, write, hear and watch wildlife and habitats. The cognitive levels allow struggling or developmentally delayed students to have high-interest content to challenge and captivate them. Byron has co-produced software with Ann Brundige, Patti Rea and Dr. Caroline Musselwhite.
Over the next weeks of the contest, I will share some of the CD's that are in the Learning Magic collection. Intellitools is offering the ITAN player for the titles that play with their software. This will allow folks who buy a CD using Intellitools products to use the attached player to play the titles for no additional charge. It is being tested right now and will be released as soon as it is found stable with the older software titles.
So join me in visiting their site and thanking Byron for investing and believing in blogging as a resource for assistive technology specialists, educators, students and parents. If you don't know about our contest, read the rules for entry. The deadline is June 16th - so start blogging!
Other News:
Blog Talk Radio: No Limits to Learning Live Today at 10:00 a.m.
Listen in as CEO and designer of "Ghotit" talks about his Dyslexia and his struggles trying to live up to the professional standards in his career area of marketing and management. "Ghotit" is a unique spell-checker he created that picks up Dyslexic-unique errors. This interview will be streaming live from Israel and my state of Oregon via the Internet.
Assistive Technology Blog Carnival Submissions due by this Friday night, May 23.
Our topic for May is "Synthesized Speech". You can send us your post link on your thoughts about and experiences with synthesized speech at lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com
If you don't have a blog, start one here at blogger.com, write a post on synthesized speech, submit it to the carnival AND send the link to your blog to me to enter in the contest. You will have done 4 major important things right there!
Read more on the AT Blog Carnival and past issues here: AT Blog Carnival
I have now added a label index to all my old posts at the bottom of my blog if you are interested in something iin particular. I hope it helps.
I hope you have a great day...all the best to you!
Lon

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