Support The PATINS-Project:

Please see this letter in request of your support for the PATINS-Project to continue providing Assistive Tech and UDL support in the State of Indiana.  We would greatly appreciate your voice of suport.
Download Letter Here: PATINS AT letter of support 11-10-09

3D SL Wiki PATINS Staff

Think the idea of multiple parties in multiple locations collaborating on a single piece of writing in a traditional Wiki is cool?  Try to wrap your head around the possibilities that exist with a 3 Dimensional Wiki where each node or page of the wiki can contain text, links, notes, objects, etc!   Here’s a screen shot of the PATINS Staff participating in a 3D wiki experience on our Second Life Island regarding a Project Based Learning Book Study.   More to come on the possibilities here!  Don’t forget today at 2pm in my office on our Second Life PATINS Island will be the Accessible Technologies Round Table Discussion!  Here’s the slurl:

Mac Accessibility: Today, I’m doing a session for a district on some of the built-in accessibility features of Mac OS X and thought I’d might as well share a couple things here!

• Great Video Demonstration: Accessibility in Action
• Take your accessibility preferences with you: “Once you’ve customized your own Mac, you can take all your VoiceOver settings with you on the road. To do so, connect a USB flash drive to your Mac and choose Create Portable Preferences from the File menu in VoiceOver Utility.”

Quick Thoughts:

• Today’s students are expected to have about 7 careers, NOT 7 jobs in their lifetime.  How should this impact what we teach them and how we are teaching them?
  
• When you think about ACCESS to your curriculum; physical and sensory access is usually pretty concrete, but we must also think in terms of cognitive access.  What, specifically, are you doing with your teaching to account for cognitive access to the general education curriculum for ALL of your students?
  

TEXT TO BRAILLE: www.translatum.gr/converter/braille.htm

ENGAGE ME! Check out this video  Something I’ve always believed and something that more and more people are starting to talk about is the idea that the tools that engage our students the most (and that they will be using in their world outside of school) have typically been the same exact tools that we ban from the classroom.   www.handheldlearning.co.uk/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,58/topic,1490.0

Support PATINS-Project: Please see this letter in request of your support for the PATINS-Project to continue providing Assistive Tech and UDL support in the State of Indiana.  We would greatly appreciate your voice of suport.
Download Letter Here:  PATINS AT letter of support 11-10-09

Indiana UDL Success! When you have a moment to read a success story on building up UDL in a school district, click on the link below.
PATINS has had six Bartholomew Schools in total become successful UDL pilot sites through our UDL grant.
We are pleased with their commitment and our working relationship with this school district and excited about how many students have and are benefiting from Universal Design for Learning!  It could build throughout your district too, if, it hasn’t already.
http://udlspotlight.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/a-district-implements-udl/

CAST You Tube Channel: Speaking of CAST, they now have their own channel on YouTube!  Check it out:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=viLC9FIo2a4

JumpStart World Future Land: For years now, you’ve heard me talk about the importance and the relevancy of 3D immersive environments for several different reasons.  One reason, obviously with the development of the new PATINS  Island is for teacher training that requires no travel costs.  Another big reason is that this is the sort of technology that our students are CHOOSING to engage in, have fun with and learn from on their OWN time.  Here is just one more example of the RAPIDLY expanding 3D online virtual spaces specifically intended for children as young as 3 years. http://blog.jumpstart.com/2009/10/16/futureland-is-here/

Kidzui: A controlled, safe web-browser FOR students, even VERY young children.  This one shared to me by my friend Chris.  Thanks Chris! www.kidzui.com

Second Life and Science Teachers: Check out this blog posting about Science in SL.
http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2009/11/second-life-and-science-teachers.html

Teaching Students NOT at School (H1N1 relevant?): With a LARGE percentage of students missing from many Indiana school buildings due to H1N1-like symptoms, the issue of teaching students who might be our of class for 1-2 weeks straight becomes very relevant, very quickly.  Here’s one article on the topic.  I’d also like to remind everyone that I am available and willing to help schools set up things like podcasting, video conferencing and teaching in online immersive environments, for this purpose.  Just let me know!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2009969286_onlineschools30m.html

Windows 7 Accessibility: Windows 7 has a few accessibility features that have been improved from Vista:
www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windows7/

Some Indiana Educational Videosin the Paper:
www.indystar.com/article/20091110/LIVING/911100305/Program+puts+educational+videos+online+and+on+TV

After spending a good portion of this week at the brand new ATIA Chicago Conference, I have a lot of really great tools to share! So, I’m sorry that I’m a day late on posting, but the conference is actually still going on right now (saturday) and I wanted to wait until I had everything possible to share that I could!

First, I’ve also spent quite a bit of time with the folks at Don Johnston discussing and working with Read:OutLoud 6.  I wanted to be sure to remind everyone that you have access to download this new version 6 of Read:OutLoud at no charge to you AND to put it on ALL of your school computers AS WELL as send it home wiht your students for their home computers!  Read more on this opportunity you have to move your educational space toward a more Universally Designed instructional environment:   www.icam.k12.in.us/ DRMs download ROL6 here: www.icam.k12.in.us/downloads.php

CRU’s:

…AND You can get 3 CRU’s just for learning how to use Read:OutLoud!   Here: www.donjohnston.com/state/indiana/indiana_readoutloud/index.html

UDL Blog: Some of you may know of Karen Janowski already.   If you don’t, you should!   One of the many great things Karen has is a real nice blog on UDL (Teaching Every Student)  http://teachingeverystudent.blogspot.com

Wikipedia Simple English Image

Wikipedia Tip: Many of you know my feelings on Wikipedia and if you don’t I’ll be happy to share.  In general, I am strongly in support of allowing the use of wikipedia and teaching students to cross reference and to truly evaluate their resources.  SO, I thought I’d share this little tip.  When performing a wikipedia search, there is a link along the left side of the screen that reads, “Simple English,” within the available languages.  Remember that access to the curriculum is certainly about physical and sensory access, but it’s also just as much about cognitive access.  Play with using this Simple English setting to get the same content presented in simpler terminology.

UDL Concept Map: Check here for a nice pdf of a UDL, AT, RTI, DI concept map from Brian Wojcik: http://59303.wikispaces.com/file/view/UDL+RTI+AT+Relationship.pdf See what you think.  I’d love to have discusison with Indiana folks on how these terms/concepts relate to one another.

Magify! I think I’ve blogged this one before, but certainly worth sharing again.  A MAGNIFIED search tool: http://big.com/home.php

Simplified Web Pages: Allows you to simplify and remove some distracting content on web pages.  There are also add-ins for firefox, apps for the iphone and bookmarklets.  http://tidyread.com/

OK… I have LOTS more to share and I promise I will… I have to make the journey back to Indiana RIGHT NOW, before Jim leaves me in Chicago, but I will try to post another entry perhaps tonight after Trick Or Treating! 

PATINS-Project Second Life OPEN HOUSE this coming TUESDAY!!!

PATINS-Project Staff in Second Life Image

Here’s your chance to see what the PATINS Project is doing in Second Life.
We are hosting an open house on our Second Life Island and you are invited to join us to see what it is all about.
When:    Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Time:     9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and then again 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. EST
Where:  Go to: http://slurl.com/secondlife/PATINS%20Project%20Island/114/98/26

Various PATINS staff will be available during these hours and activities will include island tours, formal address and discussion of potential future events and training/meeting topics.  You must already have your avatar created prior to this event in order to participate. Attached, you will find how to “GET STARTED” on Second Life or visit the PATINS Website http://patinsproject.com/videos.html for 5 video tutorials that walk you through getting your avatar created.  You can always contact us ahead of time for additional help.

Give it a try… and give us feedback on how you like it, and what you would like to see us provide you on our island.

1. Do you have an Avatar created? See here: www.patinsproject.com/htm/TrainingVideos/SecondLife/SecondLifeIntro1/Second%20Life%20Introduction%20Tutorial%201.html
2. Do you have the software downloaded and installed? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/?lang=en-US
3. Have you checked to make sure you can access Second Life and that your computer meets the minimum system requirements? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements
4. Do you have the address or slurl for the PATINS Island? Here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/PATINS%20Project%20Island/114/102/26
5. Need The One Page Getting Started Hand Out? Second Life Getting Started Informational Sheet

Free Online Sketch Pad: I’ve recently been playing around with the potential use of a pen/tablet type of device in place of a traditional mouse.  During this experimentation I’ve been fascinated by the ability of many of these devices to respond to pressure (pressure sensitive) and have been looking for a free way of utilizing this technology.  Check out this Free Online Sketch Pad. www.onlinesketchpad.com

RFB&D Books! The ICAM is pleased to announce a recent agreement made with Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic to provide audio digital format to certified students with a print disability textbooks and trade books (novels). The Agreement allows at no cost to the school district to place request for materials and download materials through your ICAM registered Digital Rights Manager. To learn more on training and how to access RFB&D See the Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic tab on the Tools & Downloads page.

• Announcement Letter: www.icam.k12.in.us/RFBDannouncementfall09.pdf
  More Info Under the RFB&D Tab here: www.icam.k12.in.us/downloads.php

Read:OutLoud Image Logo

Read: OutLoud: NEW VERSION FREE!!!!   FOR ALL YOUR COMPUTERS!!!!  Version 6 has many GREAT improvements!

More info and perform download here: www.icam.k12.in.us/downloads.php

Caption YouTube Videos: Just sign in with your Google Account and quickly caption YouTube Videos to make them accessible.  Easy and Free: http://captiontube.appspot.com/

Are You Ready?

The PATINS Second Life Open House is only 11 days away!

1. Do you have an Avatar created? See here: www.patinsproject.com/htm/TrainingVideos/SecondLife/SecondLifeIntro1/Second%20Life%20Introduction%20Tutorial%201.html
2. Do you have the software downloaded and installed? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/?lang=en-US
3. Have you checked to make sure you can access Second Life and that your computer meets the minimum system requirements? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements
4. Do you have the address or slurl for the PATINS Island? Here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/PATINS%20Project%20Island/114/102/26
5. Need The One Page Getting Started Hand Out? Second Life Getting Started Informational Sheet

Regarding System Requirements: The two most common issues with some computers not being able to access Second Life are High Speed Internet Connection and a new enough Video Card and Drivers.  The high speed internet connection speaks for itself, but you can check here for info on updating your computers video card drivers to the latest, which just might solve your problem:

Update Your Video Card:

• ATI Video Card Drivers: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
• NVIDIA Video Card Drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Info on Letting Second Life Through! Here’s some techy info which may be necessary for accessing Second Life from your teacher computer at school:

• Hardware firewalls need to allow access on certain network ports. Second Life needs to connect to ports:443/TCP, 12035/UDP, 12036/UDP, 12043/TCP, and 13000-13050/UDP.
• You should configure your firewall to allow outbound traffic on those ports, and related inbound traffic.
• You’ll need to consult your firewall’s documentation, or the manufacturer’s website, for instructions on how to make these changes to your firewall.
• As of Version 1.13.2, released Jan. 10th, 2007, you need to enable UDP/TCP in order to access Second Life.Second Life Subnets used for connections:
  • 63.210.156.0/22
  • 64.154.220.0/22
  • 8.2.32.0/22
  • 8.4.128.0/22
  • 8.10.144.0/21
  • 216.82.0.0/18

Contact Us
With Questions.  We’re Happy To Help!

CRU’s for ROL:

You may or may not be aware that you can get CRU’s just for learning how to use  Read:OutLoud software that Indiana has made available to every computer in your district AND take-home rights for students.

• CRU’s available here: www.donjohnston.com/state/indiana/indiana_readoutloud/index.html
• More info on ROL here:  www.icam.k12.in.us/downloads.php

NPR in Second Life: As I’m sure you’re eagerly awaiting the Open House for our very own PATINS Project Island in Second Life on Oct. 20, you might want to spend some time over at the NPR Island, especially on Fridays when they have their “Science Friday” presentations!   Here is a great set of resources on the blog: www.storyofmysecondlife.com/?p=397 and here is the Island Location in SL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Science%20Friday/205/250/23

Two Other Virtual Spaces: I’ve blogged about lots of different virtual spaces, in addition to Second Life, including the 150 or so that are specifically intended for school aged children.  Well, here are two more that are new to me.  I’ve not explored either of them yet, but wanted to throw them out there and if you decide to check into one or both, I’d love for people to report their thoughts back here to the blog as comments.

• Blue Mars: www.bluemarsonline.com
• Metaplace: http://metaplace.com

Jokaydia Island and Resources:  “…a community of educators and artists exploring Second Life. Lots of great, creative resources here.

• The Wiki: http://jokaydia.com/2009/10/02/trademarks-and-the-sleducation-wiki/
• The SL Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/128/128/25

1 Quick Teleporting Tip: Ever teleport away and want to go back?   See here:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/tnt/blog/2009/10/01/quicktip-ever-accidentally-teleport-away-and-want-to-go-back

K-12 Podcasting: …had a few questions this week about podcasting at the K-12 level.  Here’s just a real quick and NOT comprehensive list, but a good place to get started if you are new to the concept of podcasting:

• http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
• http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
• http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~nshelley/
• http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml
• http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/podcasts/
• http://kathyschrock.net/podcasting/podcasting.pdf
• http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/
• http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/

I do have a free hands-on podcasting workshop scheduled for Feb. 9.  We can also come out to you to do a training and/or we can have a training online in our new Second Life Island for free, saving travel costs for everyone!  Let us know how we can help!

8 Year Olds with iPod Touches: Check out this Learn 4 Life article and video on using iPod Touches with a classroom of 32 eight year old students.  They were all networked through an Airport AND allowed access to the internet! www.l4l.co.uk/?p=835

Featured Teacher! This week I spent a couple minutes talking to Maria Demopoulos about some of the things she is using video iPods for, specifically for social stories/scripts for some of her students on the autism spectrum.  Let me know if you know of other amazing teachers doing great things for students from a Universal Design for Learning or accessibility point of view!

Download

Flip Video Educational Pricing: Many of you have probably heard me talk about Flip Video cameras in my workshops and trainings and I wanted to point out that there is special educational pricing on some of their video cameras for teachers through the Digital Wish program.    http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/product?id=4310

Mac Accessibility: I got a couple questions this week, one from Warsaw and one from Jim about software to access an Apple computer.  Immediately coming to mind is the built-in Voice Over utility that comes on Macs and also some of the iPods now. www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover

• 50+ Reasons: …to consider using VoiceOver on your Mac. www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/reasons.html

Karen Kangas: …a handful of seats remain!
Sensory Processing, Integration and Seating with Karen Kangas: PATINS is once again bringing Karen Kangas back to Indiana for 2 intense workshop days at no cost to you!   There are still a few spots remaining for this workshop.  If you’ve heard Karen before or heard me speak ABOUT Karen, you know this isn’t one you want to miss!  November 17, 18.   Click Here to Register!

PATINS Project Island Main

PATINS Island Open House! Don’t forget to spend 10 minutes:

1. Creating Your Free Avatar:
   www.secondlife.com
2. Download and Install the Second Life Software.  Remember this can be installed to a $5 Thumbdrive and run from there.  No need to install to your computer’s hard drive if you’d rather not.
3. Make sure you can access the Second Life Grid by trying to log in once step 1 & 2 are completed above.
4. If you cannot log in, contact me.  I have some ideas that could help.

On OCTOBER 20, ALL DAY LONG, at least one PATINS Staff Member will be available on our Island to greet you, give you a tour, answer your questions, provide you with training demonstrations, etc.  Contact me with questions via email or leave comments on the blog!  Additionally, if you want to log in to SL earlier than October 20th to explore our island and would like one of us to meet you there, just let us know!

Additional Resources for learning about Second Life and getting started:

• PATINS Video Tutorials on Getting Started (5 minutes long)
• Second Life Getting Started Informational Sheet
• SL_Keyboard_Shortcuts

Remember you can register for any of the FREE trainings PATINS offers:
www.patinsproject.com/regional.html

Article on Sight-Words: www.donjohnston.com/enewsletter/teacherleadermcnulty.html

AudioPal: This is a free way to embed an audio message in your blogs, wikis, facebook, websites, etc.  You can do it in 4 different ways:

• Record by Phone
• Text To Speech (You can choose from several voices)
• Record By Mic
• Upload Audio File

What a COOL way to build in a little bit of accessibility to your online content like class blogs, school newsletters, etc.  Immediately coming to mind is the parent who contacted me last year, who was blind and unable to access her child’s school newsletter.  Build in some audio prompts for your students!  This could also be used as an alternate response method for some of your students!  Definitely worth checking out:   www.audiopal.com

Pogo Boards: “Pogo Boards: AbleNet Edition is the world’s first all-in-one, full-featured, robust, web-based, board-making solution.” The light version of this board creating online software is FREE!   Definitely worth a look!  I hope to play with this more next week and post some detailed thoughts.

Second Life Building Help: The real power of Second Life is the ability to model, teach and interact in 3 dimensions. Everything in SL is of course, built by users like us!   Here’s 2 tools to help you get started!

• Basic Building Info and Definitions: (in text format)
• Top 10 Building Tips from Vlad! This a very informative video.  I learned a lot myself!
• Keyboard Shortcuts for SL: SL_Keyboard_Shortcuts

Some AAC Tips and Resources:
…from my friend Chris: www.aacintervention.com

Register for Workshops:
Don’t forget to register for regional PATINS Workshops: www.patinsproject.com/regional.html

Sensory Processing, Integration and Seating with Karen Kangas: PATINS is once again bringing Karen Kangas back to Indiana for 2 intense workshop days at no cost to you!   There are still a few spots remaining for this workshop.  If you’ve heard Karen before or heard me speak ABOUT Karen, you know this isn’t one you want to miss!  November 17, 18.   Click Here to Register!

Regional PATINS Workshops: Having personally spoken with several people this week that are new to this blog, I thought I’d post a quick link to the Regional Training Opportunities you might be interested in knowing about.  Many are already scheduled and additional trainings can be scheduled by request!

Go here and click on the link representing your region of the state: www.patinsproject.com/regional.html

Adapted Spelling Tests: I got a request this week to help make a spelling test more accessible for a student who struggles with handwriting (fine motor control) and thought my response might be worth sharing.  This was something I used to use in my classroom with a student who has since passed away, but who still inspires me almost every single day.  She would take all day to write her spelling test and we still couldn’t read it, but cognitively knew 90% of her spelling words or better every week.  So, I simply utilized the FORMS TOOLBAR in Microsoft Word OR the FORM CONTROLS TOOLBAR in Open Office.  This works in either one.  I would used these tools to create a form consisting of a combination of Form Fields, Drop-Downs, Radio Buttons, and Check Boxes, which allowed my student  to truly show what she knew with regard to spelling.  No longer was she being given a spelling grade based on her handwriting ability.  This is super easy, free and quick.  See screenshots below.  I’m also happy to walk through this over the phone/email with anyone needing help.  Of course, Forms can be used for so many things beyond spelling tests too!  Be creative!

Open Office Screenshot

MS Word 2007 Screenshot

A Sample Shot of the Final Product

Don’t Forget…To get your avatar created and Second Life software installed and running so that you can participate in the PATINS Project Second Life Island Open House on October 20th!

1. Creating Your Free Avatar:
   www.secondlife.com
2. Download and Install the Second Life Software.  Remember this can be installed to a $5 Thumbdrive and run from there.  No need to install to your computer if that’s an issue.
3. Make sure you can access the Second Life Grid by trying to log in once step 1 & 2 are completed above.
4. If you cannot log in, contact me.  I have some ideas that could help.

On OCTOBER 20, ALL DAY LONG, at least one PATINS Staff Member will be available on our Island to greet you, give you a tour, answer your questions, provide you with training demonstrations, etc.  Contact me with questions via email or leave comments on the blog!  Additionally, if you want to log in to SL earlier than October 20th to explore our island and would like one of us to meet you there, just let us know!

Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet: Down load here: SL_Keyboard_Shortcuts

Scuba Diving with Disabilities: An avid diver myself, this caught my interest and thought I’d pass it along.  This is really cool in so many different ways.  If you’ve heard me talk about broadening your definition of assistive technology and thinking more along the lines of accessible technologies, then you probably already know what I’m talking about.  But, maybe the barrier preventing someone from learning is the engagement piece.  Or maybe the barrier is actually someone’s preconceived notion that “they can’t do it.”  For example, “people without arms can’t scuba dive.” …right?

“Elliott is undaunted by the nature and degree of a diver’s disability, or age. He works with children, starting at 8, who are visually impaired, paralyzed, have autism, cerebral palsy or almost any other disability.”

Here’s a man ‘undaunted‘ by the severity of someone’s disability when it comes to taking them under the water with a regulator and compressed air to give them what could be a truly awesome sensory experience or motivational experience.  It makes me wonder why we still seem to have so many educators so ‘daunted’ to take these same students with disabilities into their classrooms to provide them with equally wonderful experiences.  In the light of Project Based Learning, this is exactly the sort of experience that could just ignite motivational wild fires in some of the students we struggle with in class to get even a little participation from.   Click Here for the Article

Shoot With Your NANO: If you haven’t heard about Apple’s new releases this week, you will!   I’m particularly excited and interested in the new capability of the iPod NANO to shoot video!  If you’ve talked to me much in the last 3 years you likely pretty familiar with the stuff I do using iPods and Self-Operated Video and Audio Prompting systems using free software.  Well, now I’m hoping that the whole video camera component of that workshop can be eliminated!   For $150, a NANO will both shoot and playback our self-operated prompting videos!  If you get one of these, I’d LOVE to get your feedback on the video feature!
www.apple.com/ipodnano …and you know the NANO is accessible with voice over right?  

Online Learning: This week I participated in an ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) webinar on Project Based Learning and Collaboration.  One of the many very interesting components of the discussion in that webinar was some recent meta research looking at online learning.  While the search turned up relative little research in the K-12 world, the results did indicate that more learning occurred online that face to face and even better performance yet was obtained by utilizing a combination of face to face and online training.

PATINS Project Island Main

PATINS Island Open House! Don’t forget to spend 10 minutes:

1. Creating Your Free Avatar:
   www.secondlife.com
2. Download and Install the Second Life Software.  Remember this can be installed to a $5 Thumbdrive and run from there.  No need to install to your computer.
3. Make sure you can access the Second Life Grid by trying to log in once step 1 & 2 are completed above.
4. If you cannot log in, contact me.  I have some ideas that could help.

On OCTOBER 20, ALL DAY LONG, at least one PATINS Staff Member will be available on our Island to greet you, give you a tour, answer your questions, provide you with training demonstrations, etc.  Contact me with questions via email or leave comments on the blog!  Additionally, if you want to log in to SL earlier than October 20th to explore our island and would like one of us to meet you there, just let us know!

Talking Calculator for iTouch/iPhone: Of course you probably are as used to me blogging about the extraordinary educational power in the iTouch/iPhone as you are me blogging about immersive 3D environments!  …but, Nanette from Elkhart came to see me today to pick up her refurbished computer, talk about some accessibility issues, NIMAS and other stuff.  One of the things she was looking for was a big-button talking calculator that didn’t make her student feel like she was standing out or using an “un-cool” tool.  Again, if it’s not socially valid, it’s not likely going to be engaging.  A quick look in the app store yielded a .99 application that is a very simple talking calculator with larger buttons.  It’s not perfect, but for .99 is worth looking at for some students.

Some of the problems, illustrated nicely: I’ve talked recently to quite a few of you in person about this video and we were unable to access it, so I thought I’d post it here in hopes that you will be able to watch it.  It demonstrates very nicely, the problems with printed textbooks and linear reading.

Text To Speech Options:
Most of you know how I feel about text to speech in that for those it works for, it works very well for.  But for any students with breath support or articulation issues, speech recognition has a long way to go yet.  However, I’m also firmly planted in the belief that it rarely ever hurts to try!   A couple weeks ago Tina shared with us these links, which are incredibly useful for comparing the speech recognition options available:

• http://www.consumersearch.com/voice-recognition-software/review
• Nice grid layout:
  http://www.pacer.org/stc/pubs/VoiceRecComparison_CTG_checks2009.pdf
• Comparison of Vista’s to Dragon:
  http://www.direct-laptops-guide.com/vista-vs-dragon-naturally-speaking-voice-recognition.html

Jumpstart 3D Immersive World now on the Wii: True story: Tuesday night my 7 year old told me that Jumpstart World (the online 3D immersive world like Second Life) would be coming to the Wii gaming system.  I, shamefully, sort of blew her off.  I mean, how could this 7 year old possibly know this information before I did, and I’d not heard this.   Well, Wednesday morning I receive the email from Jumpstart announcing this!  Wednesday night, I told my daughter how smart she was and thanked her for keeping her father current on this sort of information.    If you are new to this blog or haven’t talked to me in the last 3 years, Jumpstart World is an 3D immersive space for THREE YEAR OLDS!  Just another reminder for me that our children are learning differently, using an expanded vocabulary and expecting the adults in their lives to keep up.  This is also the world we claim to be preparing them to live and work effectively in.  Yet, for many students, their school requires them to ‘power off’ when entering.  They get through the school day so they can ‘power back on’.  I recently heard someone compare this to getting on an airplane.  Sitting in rows, all facing the front and being forced to turn off all electronics and restrict their normal activities, their normal personal and professional learning and social networks, their audio and video content, their access to more efficient ways of performing.  ….an uncomfortable necessity in order to get from one place to the next.  …just something to consider.

Virtual Authors: This morning we had a staff meeting on our Second Life Island and Vicki introduced us to this blog for improving reading, writing and communication skills.  This is great because she’s doing it with students with more severe disabilities, giving them an authentic purpose for writing and allowing others to comment on their writing without the fear of correction from their teacher, which really isn’t authentic.  This makes absolute sense to me as it is pretty much what I’ve been doing with my daughters since they were about 4 years old.  I can’t say for sure why, but they do love to read and to write now at 6 and 7.  Blogging is FREE by the way. 

Learn WITH The World Webinar: This one is not free unfortunately, but looks really good and certainly supports the concept of removing barriers between the real world and the school environment.
Learning WITH the World: Using Technology to Connect Students Globally in Project-based Learning is an ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) webinar happening Sept. 9 at 4pm EST.   More info here: www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ProfessionalDevelopment/WebinarSeries/20092010Webinar/Learning_with_the_World.htm

PATINS Project Island Main

PATINS-Project Island Open House! The PATINS PROJECT will be hosting an open house for most of the day and a portion of the evening on October 20th on our Second Life Island.  Watch for more information on this to come in the next several weeks.  There will be PATINS Staff Avatars available to give tours of the island, answer questions and help you out!   You will need to have an avatar created and Second Life software installed ahead of time.  See the PATINS website’s 5- Video Tutorial series on getting started in Second Life and creating your avatar.  …or contact me for help!

Have a great LONG WEEKEND!