Technology Chats Over Micro-brews:Let's Get Instructional and Assistive Technology Working Together

We need to "marry" instructional technology in the schools with assistive technology - what better way to start than over a micro-brew?
It is Sunday night, I have spent the late autumn afternoon in a true Oktoberfest, wandering a green and gold corn maze in the country near Walla Walla, WA. We drove with some of our friends and all of our children, by vineyards and hay bales, making our way to the little farm which has a hot dog stand and lawn chairs around a bonfire at the entrance. This is tradition anymore. We have been taking our children here since they were 2 - even have gotten our family Christmas card pictures taken here. We love it.
After the corn maze we visited another tradition, a micro brewery, and sat outside and had nachos, onion rings, buffalos wings and sweet potato fries - oh yes and a locally brewed Walla Walla Wheat beer with lemon. I am now sitting by the fire ready to write a Monday post with a full tummy and happy heart. So what did I learn today? I think I need to start a new series on my blog: "Technology Chats Over Microbrews"
The friends we went with happen to be our regional instructional technology gurus - really. They handle all the professional development with teachers in our region for instructional best practice with technology. They serve at the state level in the instructional technology state cadre and hold a regional cadre. The first regional one last week had about 50 teachers there from our schools. They all freely donated their time from 4:30 to 7:30 with a free dinner (free food always bribes teachers!). Seriously, the training is so relevent, powerful and exciting that there are often teachers turned down because of a lack of space.
So here we were at the table and we began to talk about projects at work, several things. One is a district that is now applying for the Premier Literacy grant for their suite of accessibility tools. The district wants me to train and help in implementation. I thought what better way to integrate these friends who do our instructional technology than to invite them into the process of implementing this software for the first district in our region to get this grant. What better people to pull into the idea of UDL and accessibility tools for ALL students than these two. If they buy in and help me implement this first district - and they see the power of it, maybe they will help spread the news. We also talked about some tools with the Promethean Board that I hadn't realized could be a boon to us in AT - I will share that tomorrow.

I want to encourage you to look at how you can pull the instructional technology experts in your area into the discussion and implementation of AT for all students. So often we are in different camps - and both are trying to accomplish the same thing - support for education using technology, but we do it seperately. I know that we serve different school populations at times, but with RTI and NCLB, those populations are merging. By combining efforts we can provide a holistic approach, combining the best of both worlds.
I have much more to say on this topic, but will save some for another post. In the meantime, find a corn maze near you in the next 2 weeks, get a carload of friends and spend a lazy Sunday afternoon exploring. Then sit by a fire with your favorite food, drink and friends - but even better, make them friends who happen to work with instructional technology - maybe a first date? See where it leads...

All the best to you!
Lon



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Back to School Basics: Access for Students that Get Overlooked

Back to school means back to supporting learning for some students that "fall between the cracks." More and more, we see children struggling that don't have a visible or severe enough disability to qualify for special services and an IEP. That doesn't mean they should get lost in the shuffle and not have the tools to accomodate for their learning style and lack of skills.
I was doing a training in a high school with regular classroom teachers that were getting access and support technology training for the kids that were in their classes that also had IEP's and needed either modified or accomodated curriculum and instruction. When we were through with the day training, their summary of the day included the realization that the tools we explored were good for ALL students and that they probably had more "regular" students with print disability needs that were more severe than the IEP students they were preparing for.
The problem is that unless teachers are given the tools to identify and support these students, the focus remains on the students with the IEP and the Special Education Specialist for support.
I find that many special education specialists are bogged down with huge amounts of paperwork and they rely on their assistants to follow through with tasks for students much of the day. The Special Ed teacher has some focus in their day on lessons and remedial support, but they just can't "do it all" even if they wish they could.
So where does that leave the regular classroom teacher with questions about how to support these "regular" students that are barely keeping their head above water? Unfortunately, they are low on the priority list for a special education program in a school or district. That doesn't mean they should be low priority, it just means in the scheme of things, the regular classroom teacher gets left on their own to "do what you are paid for and get those kids to learn."
I shared a post on 10 top free online technology tools for students a while back and it was a popular one. I didn't get any comments - but a lot of readers, and I hope you downloaded some of the tools and gave them a try. Those tools are the tools that we explore for ALL learners in my trainings and they can give kids a great start on their year.
I would suggest sharing these tools with teachers of students that you know need the support now at the beginning of the year. If my son had trouble summarizing content and digesting the material, I would want the social studies teacher to know that ahead of time and find a way to get the text converted to an electronic version so it could be heard as well as read.

Some Support Tools Worth the Money:
Along with free tools, there are some tools that cost, but can be well worth the investment. Premier Literacy has a jump drive (Premier To Go) that has 10 software tools on it and storage space to convert Word docs, scanned in textbook pages and pdf files so that the text to speech tools can read them. The jump drive goes with the student on any computer without having to install software, so it could go from one room to another through the day if necessary, and drag and drop a chapter on the jump drive and take it home to listen to at night. This is not a free tool, but the cost is $299.95. They have the "Key to Access" which is a scaled-up version of the jump drive in an Mp3 player for $349. If you have a child going off to college this fall, instead of an ipod, why not get them one of these that will really support their study and learning skills.
The on-computer software that allows you to scan and read is $149. How about loading that on a computer at home for your student to scan textbook pages and worksheets? As long as the student has the book as well, and the scanned chapters are for their use only and get dumped later, you should be fine in doing this without copyright violation.
The software above is available to school districts for FREE through a grant program Premier Literacy has developed. I have 2 districts exploring that option right now and more to come within my region of support. You have to buy the jump drives and Mp3 player tools, but the software on them comes on CD's to load on desktops and laptops at no charge if the district does the simple grant application. If the district wants to upgrade to new versions as they come out, then they pay a nominal fee based on student population - but if they choose not to upgrade, they still keep the free software. You can check it out on their grant page. Premier at Home extends the software to homes for free to any students in the participating district of the grant program. The student is given a password to log on to the Premier at Home website and download all the tools on a home computer - for 12 months, renewable each year as long as the student is still in the district.
I will continue to share thoughts and ideas that support ALL students that need printed material help. When we can tear down the barriers of who gets assistive technology and see the benefits for everyone, we are moving in the right direction.
Look for more on student support and going back to school in the next couple of weeks.
All the best to you!
Lon



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A Day with Steven Timmer from Premier Literacy

I walked into a conference room for a day workshop on alternative text access and podcasting, to see a man looking into a large Mac computer, his face only inches from the screen. Since he was in the front of the room, I knew he was the presenter. He had speakers, a variety of Mp3 players, a data projector and a small light-up hand-held magnifying glass.
I was in for a real treat although I was really not too savvy about who Steven was ( the co-founder and chairman of the company) or what Premier Literacy was. I showed my ignorance when he introduced himself to me by asking him, "Is this like Premier Assistive?" I had forgotten that Premier Assistive had recently changed to a new name, Assistive Literacy, with a new site, Reading Made EZ because of the shift in trends and how the company was evolving. (See their news release, and the April 1, 2008 Access Ability Blog post by Ron Graham on this.) I vaguely remembered having read Ron's post on this, but it was taking awhile for the light to turn on.
Premier Literacy, formerly Premier Assistive Technology, continues to have a grant program that allows schools to fill out the grant papers and receive the suite of software for their school for free. If they want to upgrade to the next version, they have to pay a nominal fee based on the number of users in the school or district. For more on this program go here. The website has a nice area that describes the software and the user disabilities best supported by each tool.

As Steven began to share his outlook on AT in some introductory discussion, one statement really struck me. He said...
"AT must take what you find difficult to do and make it easier for you- if it doesn't, it isn't AT."
Steven distinguished between Assistive Learning Technologies and Assistive Living Technologies. He explained that we need to discern the difference between the two and prescribe and implement them accordingly. Chew on that thought awhile! For example: A software like Intellitools Classroom Suite, supports disability so the learner can access and achieve more, but the primary focus is to teach. When a person uses a virtual keyboard like Click-n-type, they are using something that assists in the ability to carry on a daily life function on the computer like pay bills online, write an email, etc.
Steven shared that he is legally blind but doesn't see some of the things he can't do as being a disability.
"I had my driver's license taken from me when my vision wouldn't allow me to drive anymore," explained Steven.
"I might miss it, and it is an inconvenience, but it is not a disability. There are lots of people in New York that don't own or drive a car - that doesn't make them disabled. I run marathons now instead!"
The more I listened to him share his philosophy on life, AT, and the studies he has been a part of, the more I began to realize I was sitting under a genius.
"I am going to show you some of the software today that we have." said Steven. "If something doesn't work for you or you have problems, you know who's fault it is? Me. I am the one who designed it."
During the day, Steven was so excited, he put his whole energy, expression and body movement into his sharing. He was willing to consider every comment and question and give it his foremost attention. He validated every concern and thought shared through the day. He resolved and issue with my computer with the patience of Job.
I have shared my blog, talk show and other resources with Steven and asked if he will join us for some discussions in the future. He was very thrilled and would love to network. I took many notes and left with a suite of software on a 2 gig jump drive he gave to each participant. We spent the day using it to convert pdf documents to Mp3 files, use an incredible summary function, take notes and work with text - all with what he calls the 15 minute/3 step rule. "if they can't use it within 15 minutes of training," Steven shared, "and 3 steps or less, they probably won't use it."
The co-founder and CEO, Kenneth Grisham, has shared, "Our perspective is that literacy tools should be available to everyone. In order for that to be practical, not only must these technologies be affordable, but they must serve current and future literacy needs. This means nothing less than a 'paradigm shift' to shatter the myths of 'how' and 'why' technologies must be used to address literacy challenges, in school, in the workplace and in our homes."
Steven addressed these issues in his discussions throughout the day. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is invaluable. I am looking forward to keeping in touch and seeing what wisdom we can learn through him down the road.
Stay tuned for more posts on his work and software tools in upcoming posts this week and in the future. Stay tuned also in the future for a No Limits 2 Learning Live show where Steven will be sharing some of his unique energy, humor and opinions on AT.

All the best to you!
Lon