PATINS PROJECT -Rapid Fire-

 YOU ONLY HAVE 1-WEEK  LEFT To REGISTER!

There still is time to register for the 2012 PATINS State Conference, which is 2 days full of exciting interactions with professionals in teaching and technology. This is a great opportunity to absorb and share not only hi-tech applications you never knew were possible, but also practical low-tech classroom solution. Even if you can get away only one day, you will gather much usable information and engage in valuable networking and sharing. We have 2 exciting keynote speakers who will make you think, and make you laugh, and make you learn. We have great give-a-ways for door prizes! PGPs will be awarded for each session you attend! Lunch is included in the registration fee, so you don’t need to leave your parking space for lunch! You can take advantage of the Government rate for overnight accommodations!  You can stop by the DRM Corner Chat area anytime and freely discuss your ICAM, PATINS and IERC needs, concerns, and/or suggestions!

And now, the Top 10 Reasons you want to attend the PATINS State Conference!

10. Learn to enhance instruction, energize your students by increasing technology in your learning environments!

9.   Hear about the Instructional Consultation Team and how to build one; no Journey is alone!

8.   Impact instruction with small steps (or big leaps) toward UDL.

7.   Revitalize/galvanize CCC meeting with solid tips from experts on how to encourage interaction and clarify the process.

6.   Compose effective Social Stories that motivate, learn how to digitize them quickly for immediate use.

5.   Design one lesson plan to reach many.

4.   Help students pave a well-marked path to a productive transition into college or post-secondary vocations.

3.   Identify Twice Exceptional Learners and help these extraordinary students succeed.

2.   You’ve been told you when it comes to accessibility, mac products are inferior to pc. Hope you didn’t believe that.

And, the number 1 reason you should attend the PATINS State Conference:

1.  You want to make your classroom/school/corporation into a vibrant, stimulating laboratory of learning for all students.

The Presentation Schedule: http://bit.ly/PresentationGrid 

Full Conference Booklet: http://bit.ly/FullBooklet 

Register Online:  http://bit.ly/PATINSStateConf2012

 Nov. 8-9, 2012, Indianapolis

Ritz – Bennett Debate Video:  Just in case you missed it, here’s the Archived Video of this week’s debate between Tony Bennet & Glenda Ritz for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Watch it. Vote. Wisely. http://www.youtube.com/wabashcollege

iPhone As Assistive Tech:  A very short article/interview with 3 men who have vision impairments and a cool little 6 minute video about using VoiceOver on the iPhone, iTouch, iPad.  Very informative and worth 6 min of your time.  Lots of helpful tips and tricks for using VoiceOver in this video.  I learned several things and I thought I was a pretty descent VoiceOver user!

• Article:  www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/the-iphone-as-assistive-technology-the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny
• VoiceOver Video: www.blindness.org/blog/index.php/the-iphone-as-assistive-technology-the-good-the-bad-and-the-funny

 Money Reader App: Not free, it’s $6.99, but looks really cool if you have a a vision impairment or just need some assistance identifying money: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/money-reader/id492823753?mt=8

Click The Image Above and submit your info for entry into a special drawing
for some PATINS Goodies and a Full-Day PATINS  AIM & AT Training on topic of your choice, at your school!

It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that I’ve been posting to this blog for nearly 4.5 years!  For anyone who might be fairly new to the blog, it started as a replacement for sending out emailed newsletters to my contacts in the NE part of the state.  At the time, it just made a lot more sense to post that information in a blog format rather than emailed.  One of the greatest advantages is that all past  information in the blog is archived and searchable by month/year, by keyword, or by category!  So, I thought it’d be fun and interesting for this 200th Blog Posting to look back at this day in each of the previous years and see what the buzz was all about at that time!   Here we go!

September  2007, when this blog first started: 

• First REAL Post; 2 Vista Gadgets for Students

• 9/21/2007; Free Switch Games & Podcasting Tips

• 9/29/07: More Podcast Tips and Free Study Cards & Supporting Resources

 February  2008:

• ATIA ’08, Open Source ReadingTeacher, ForgeFX, PATINS TechExpo and Announcing EduChallenges

• 2/8/2008: Citation Machine, Math Resources Online, iPod Protection and The Very First EduChallenge!

• 2/15/2008: iDump Alternative to iTunes, GoogleReader, Big Search’n and Friendly Images and Sounds

• 2/22/08: Today’s Podcasting Workshop, Microsoft Acess Guide, Reading Website, Another iTunes Alternative and the EduChallenge

February  2009:

• 1/31/2009: ATIA 2009, Free Picasa for Mac, Text To Speech Recommendations, Reading For The Dogs

• 2/6/2009: Your Read:OutLoud Software, More from TRLD and ATIA 2009, Mac Screen Capture

• 2/13/2009: Alternative Seating, SL Art Locations, Video Format Conversion, A Great Accessible Book List, More TRLD Stuff

• 2/20/2009: More TRLD, Free Wii, Second Life Learning Experiences

• 2/27/2009: Suggest a Workshop, Promethean Offer, Touch Screen Videos, Immersive Worlds Examples, UDL Collaboration and Indiana Moms!

February , 2010:

• 2/5/2010: Google Wave For Students, Collaborative Drawing and Imagery, Highlight Web Pages, Typing Speed Comparison, David Davis on our Island!

• 2/12/2010: Are You Ready To Teach Online? David Davis in SL, ISTE Connects, Wired Kids, Podcasting Accessibility, Website Evaluation, Looking Back At The Tools, Family Center on Tech and Disability & Two Little Girls Grab My iPhone for Valentines Day!!!

• David Davis in Second Life (FREE) in 2 Weeks! Are You Ready? Some Ideas!

• 2/19/2010: 50 Free Graphing Apps on The Web! FREE IEP App for iPhone, 45 Education-Related Second Life Locations, iPad Still Lacks Flash, L.D. Statistics, Brains & Learning,

• 2/26/2010: News About Your Stimulus Dollars, Virtual Worlds Best Practices In Education Conference! Punishment Systems and UDL Engagement, Cool Twitter Apps! A Good Classroom Blog Example, and Two FREE Events Coming SOON!

February , 2011:

• 2/4/2011: PATINS AT Overview Online Module, Learning in 3D Online, LEGO Universe, SketchUp and ASD, Apps for Special Needs, PATINS Tech Expo Registration

• 2/11/2011: Readability, SHIFT Planning, iPad Evaluation in Education, Plug Into PATINS, Shorten URLs Easily

• URGENT: Mid-Week Post Requesting Your Help Now! IDEA Part B Funding at Immediate Risk

• 2/18/2011: Free UDL Forum, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference, Second Life Firewall, Digital Nation Video, Safe Online, More!

• 2/25/2011: No Snowdays Online, Your Docs to ePubs, Feedbooks, Education Killing Creativity, Allow Kids To Fail? Proloquo Keyguards, How/Where Do You Work?

February 3, 2012!  For today, as a little bonus, you’re going to get a 2nd, separate, blog posting with lots of great tips including, “2/3/2012: 6 Free Ways to get Books on Your iPad, Mac OS LION Experiences & iBooks Author, Congrats Kristin from Wabash, Digital Learning Day, AIM For Young Children Reminder! “  Watch for it to post later today!  Also, remember that I post during all months of the year, not just February!  So feel free to browse the monthly and yearly archives on the right side of this blog anytime you wish!  There just might be some good OLD stuff back there!

Thanks for being a part of the blog over the last several years.  Many of you have left comments (though I wish more would) and many have emailed me, met me in person at conferences, etc., and many great discussions around Assistive Technology and Accessible Instructional Materials have resulted!

Even though it’s often a lot of work, it’s been a real pleasure to do the blog each week and it’s something I almost always look forward to!  I certainly hope to continue this blog for many years to come!  Remember you can always leave comments, questions, suggestions, requests, here on the blog or just click the image below to give us feedback.  We’re here to serve you!

PATINS TTA (Targeted Technical Assistance) Grant Selections Announced!  The PATINS Project thanks all districts who applied for your interest in the 2011-2012 Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) Targeted Technical Assistance Grant.  Congratulations to the districts who have been chosen to participate in this year’s grant process.

A few applications were not considered because they were only partially completed.  However; this is an on-going grant opportunity and we will be considering the provision of more grants to interested school districts throughout this school year.  So, if you wish to reapply for this grant, please watch for the next opportunity which will be posted to the IDOE Learning Connection, here on this blog and on the PATINS Website.

A Listing of Some Funding/Grant Sources :  www.especialneeds.com/funding-resources-special-needs-adaptive-equipment.html

Hacking Autism in California: (Thanks Chris)    http://www.hackingautism.org/#/apps

iOS 5:  Just in case you didn’t know yet, iOS 5 is now available to update your iPads, iPhones and iTouches and has some really nice accessibility features added, among other nice upgrades.  However, it can take a very long time to update depending on what you have on the device that needs to be backed up/restored.  My iPhone took 4.5 hours last night.  My iPad is taking about a hour and a half this morning.

Some nice features include messaging between devices (not text messaging) which could be a very powerful tool in classrooms.  I also like the new wireless syncing and cloud based storage which could be big news for students accessing things like textbooks on the go.  Lots of other nice upgrades & features too: www.apple.com/ios 

• Accessibility Features of iOS5 (of particular interest to me is the increased attention paid to physical access and custom gestures):  www.apple.com/accessibility

Social Networking for Education:I had very interesting and on-going conversations this week with a couple different educators in NE Indiana about the many benefits and potential dangers of utilizing the many very powerful social networking tools for education and then came across this listing.  Top 20 Social Networks FOR EDUCATION:  www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=2980 

FETC Virtual Conference: October 27, 10:30am – 6pm

• Register: http://vts.inxpo.com/scripts/InXpo.nxp?LASCmd=AI:4;F:QS!10100&ShowKey=6890&AffiliateKey=13793&AffiliateData=NXF2
• Attendee Guide: https://presentations.inxpo.com/Shows/1105/FETC/10-27-11/Guides/ComingSoon.html

TextHelp Announces WEB APPS:  See them in action in this video:  Web Apps in action

iPad Case Studies:  in Victoria Australia:    http://www.ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au/ipad-education-case-studies/10-warringa-park-school

Lisa Nielson’s 5 Favorite MATH RESOURCES for learners who hate math:    http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3055

Weekly TIPS!  Are you remembering to check out the Weekly Tips & Tricks each PATINS Site Coordinator is posting to his/her Regional Page on the PATINS Website?  There are some good ones!  Be sure to check back each week!  www.patinsproject.com

PATINS Trainings: …also, remember to check the PATINS Training Calendar as new trainings are added all the time and they are all FREE!  http://bit.ly/PATINSCalendar

Quick Links:

• www.myskillbott.com — 21st Century / Soft [Employability] Skills Training; and
• www.apangea.com — 3 Levels of Intervention (latter 2 comes with LIVE, Certified Math Teachers ONLINE).
• www.texthelp.com — a TRUE RTI Tools…a “Swiss Army Knife” of features, for example, if you have a Blind Student then you can take all their work and create a File for their MP3 Player, etc., etc., etc.
• www.eyecuereadingreadiness.com — teaches ‘fluency’ skills by using ‘colors, shapes, coins, picture, etc.

Does YOUR Indiana school district need help with any of these?

1. Supporting the provision of appropriate, high-quality instructional materials in specialized formats.
2. Providing specialized formats  of materials in a timely manner.
3. Developing & Implementing written guidelines defining responsibilities and actions for specialized formats.
4. Supporting Professional Development and Training for staff around students with print disabilities and implementation of specialized formats.
5. Developing & Implementing a systematic process for monitoring & evaluating the provision of specialized formats.
6. Utilizing data to guide changes that support continual improvement around the provision of specialized formats.
7. Allocating sufficient resources to ensure the delivery & sustainability of services to students with print disabilities.

If So:  I’d strongly encourage you to look at this
Targeted Technical Assistance Grant  from PATINS:

• http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TTAGrantApp2011_1

• Contact us with questions about this great opportunity:  www.patinsproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39&Itemid=29

Grant Writing Seminar: Sept. 20 & 21, 2011 at the Central Indiana Educational Service Center. 

• Develop, expand and extend your grant writing power, find funds, and prevail in this new economy.  Learn step-by-step how to obtain funding for your projects, your community or your organization.
• Please Register at www.ciesc.k12.in.us
• Flyer Here: All Districts CIESC GRANT WRITING SEPT 2011 Flyer

Autism & Having An Authentic Audience: If you’ve not seen this ABC special yet on Carly, check it out:  http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video?id=8280703.

• Here’s the direct link to Carly’s Blog:  http://carlysvoice.com

Mac Lion and Boardmaker or Speaking Dynamically Pro: Here’s a quick heads up from our NW Site Coordinator, Jim Lambert.  Boardmaker is not compatible as this point with Mas OS 10.7 or Lion.  They are actively working on the problem.  So, if you are a Mac and a Boardmaker/Speaking Dynamically Pro user, you probably want to wait to upgrade to the Lion operating system.

iPad Trick: Here’s a nice little tip from Tina Jones, our SE Regional Coordinator.  When/if you have a student who has trouble isolating just one finger to use on an iPad or iTouch or iPhone, you might consider covering all other fingers with a sock or buying a cheap pair of gloves as well and cutting the tip of only one of the fingers off.  This could even allow someone to lay their entire hand on the screen for support and only activate the screen with the one finger tip.

iPhone/iPad Apps for Magnification/Vision Impairments:  www.readability.com/articles/cz7xpbc2?legacy_bookmarklet=1

NEW PATINS Website! … and trainings being offered NOW!

If you haven’t noticed yet, PATINS Project has a brand new website with a new, more functional, look!  www.patinsproject.com .  A couple of things I’d like to draw your attention to with the new website:

• Upper right hand area; there are up/down arrows allowing you to change the font size to match your needs
• Just Below the up/down arrows, you’ll find the Regional Menu.  Here you can go straight to your PATINS Regional Site’s Page to see trainings being offered, Tips & Tricks, Contact Info, Lending Library Request Info and more!  Lots of trainings are already being scheduled.
• Check it out, let us know what you think, we’re always interested in ideas to make it more useful to you!
• www.patinsproject.com

Roger Ebert, “Remaking My Voice”: www.ted.com/talks/roger_ebert_remaking_my_voice.html Consider for a moment, the importance of having a voice and what having a voice really means. “Online, everyone speaks at the same speed.”  Do you provide ways for your students to have a voice online?  Do you need help coming up with ways for your students to have online voices?

• Apple Voiceover: www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover

Air Display: Very cool! Not free, but I can think of all kinds of uses for this in classrooms!  What ideas do you have?

http://avatron.com/apps/air-display

Free, Legal Music Downloads: www.jamendo.com/en

Cell Phones in Class Ideas: www.cellphonesinlearning.com/p/lesson-ideas.html

Next Generation Digital Book: While I don’t think this book is perfect, with regard to accessibility, it’s very cool and very clearly demonstrates where this market is headed quickly.

Next Week:

• New Featured Teacher Video Interview with a Logansport teacher!
• ICAM Webinar video recording
• Lots More!

Hard to believe we’re 1 semester down already in the 2010-2011 school year!  I hope you are all enjoying some relaxing time with family and friends, so I’ll keep it short this week.

Great WRITING Resource! (thanks Jim):  Found by NW PATINS Site Coordinator, Jim, this writing web resource is quite powerful!  http://livebinders.com/play/play/2170

TapSpeak CHOICE: …another AAC CHOICE for the iPad.  at $99, this deserves a look!  As soon as I can establish enough iTunes credit I plan on doing so myself and posting my thoughts.  In the meantime: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tapspeak-choice-for-ipad/id408507581?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

SpaceKraft iPod Switch: A cool, simple, wireless switch interface for the iPod!  Check it out:  www.spacekraft.co.uk/shops/sk/Product.aspx?cref=PD1682800

“Online Professional Development is Key to Infrastructure for Learning ” Here’s a quote from this interesting article in Tech & Learning:

“The importance of online professional development training is evident through these benefits:

• flexibility and versatility
• potential to build community among teachers and across groups
• new possibilities for accountability
• improvement of teacher retention by enabling teachers to become more directly involved in their own learning and professional growth, and
• blended professional development makes the most of the access to technology, combining online and face-to-face interaction.”

READ the article for yourself here:  www.techlearning.com/article/34862

Remember PATINS is providing many free online training opportunities to you that include PGP Points:   www.patinsproject.com/training.html

Replacing a Pile of Textbooks with an iPad: Here’s an interesting article that was recently linked to on the PATINS Facebook account.  It seems like I’ve also been talking to a lot of you recently about the pros & cons of replacing textbooks with something like an iPad.  Thought this article was definitely worth a quick read.  It’s this sort of interactive, collaborative and on-the-go learning that I believe needs to replace the traditional reading of printed textbooks at most educational institutions.  One thing we have to keep in mind is accessibility.  Digital does not equate to accessible.  This must remain a priority and a question we ask first.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/replacing-a-pile-of-textbook-with-an-ipad/?ref=technology

• Here’s the link directly to Inkling, mentioned in the article:  www.inkling.com

Have A Great Holiday

My Experiences with Built-In iPhone  Accessibility Tools: Check out all the Built-In Accessibility features that come on the iPhone/iPad without needing any other equipment or software.  I’ve been playing with the settings on my phone and have a few thoughts.  www.apple.com/iphone/features/accessibility.html

1. Many of you know that I spend A LOT of time in my car.  About 800 hours per school year to and from my office to be exact! This is a lot of time that I could be using more efficiently and these accessibility features built into the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch are so helpful to me!  No, I do not have a vision or hearing impairment and yet I still benefit tremendously from these accessibility features.  UDL???
   
2. So, I on my iPhone, I go into Settings, General and then Accessibility.
   
3. In Accessibility, I set Triple-click Home (at the very bottom) to VoiceOver. By doing this, every time I press the Home button at the bottom of my iPhone 3 times, Voiceover turns on and pretty much EVERYTHING on my phone can be read out loud to me!  Another 3 presses of the Home button turns it back off.  There are other accessibility settings in here, but I’ll focus on VoiceOver for right now.
   
4. So, now that my phone is set to use VoiceOver anytime I hit Home 3X, I can be anywhere on my phone: my email, my google docs, my texting, my skype, my twitter, etc., and have my iPhone READ TO ME!
   
5. I am constantly emailing myself documents that I want to have read to me on the drive to or from my office.  I simply navigate to that email and open the text, then hit Home 3X and touch where I want the iPhone to start reading!
   
6. This is built-into one of the most popular mainstream devices of all time!  This is no longer Special Education Technology.  It is real life, it is useful and we should be teaching ALL of our students to utilize it to it’s fullest!
   

A Few Accessibility-Specific Apps:

• Subtitles (free): Offers subtitles for a huge library of movies in 20 different languages: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/subtitles/id358913522?mt=8
• Magnify (1.99): Uses the iPhones camera to magnify!  Cool.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magnifi/id331937421?mt=8
• Read 2 Me (4.99): I believe, the first and only full speech synthesis app.  Library of texts OR bring in your own url based txt files.  I’ve been waiting for this and it’s pretty huge!  It’ll support reading your own Google Docs as well.  It’s not perfect, but it’s getting closer to what we actually need!  I’ve been personally using it on my commute and really loving it.  I can read from my Google Docs, from a url, or from the built-in library.  I can change voices, speed, and even set my own bookmarks!   http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/read-2-me/id313752154?mt=8
• Text Enlarger (.99): Communicate in a crowd or use forVision & Hearing impairments: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/text-enlarger/id374861680?mt=8
• ADA/ABA Accessibility Guidelines (1.99): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ada-aba-accessibility-guidelines/id378755255?mt=8
• SynthSpeech (1.99): Speaks text that you either type or copy/paste from elsewhere: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/synthspeech-text-to-speech/id373481329?mt=8
• Easy Speak (1.99): Sort of a communication device type of app.  Includes 4000 editable words and phrases: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/easy-speak/id382620857?mt=8
• SayText (free): This app lets you shoot some text with the phone’s camera and it will perform OCR and read it back!  It’s not quite as good as you might hope, BUT it’s free and improvements will hopefully be on-going!  Personally, I’ve found it to work pretty.  It’s just a little slow.  But hey, it’s FREE OCR on your phone!!!  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/saytext/id376337999?mt=8
• Keyboard Shortcuts Ref (.99): If you’ve been to a workshop with me, you probably know how much I push people to use at least the basic keyboard shortcuts like ctrl+C for copy.  Well, here’s a little reference app that lists over 3000 keyboard shortcuts for over 20 different programs!  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/keyboard-shortcuts-reference/id358349722?mt=8
• VOD or Voice Of Daisy (25.99): A DAISY Audiobook Player:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vod/id335608379?mt=8

Transition To College: Do you have students with print disabilities transitioning from high school to college?  Check out the press release for Read:OutLoud University Edition.  Good info to at least pass on to parents as students leave the K-12 building.

www.donjohnston.com/about/news/2010/PR_ROL_UE_July2010.html

Facebook Image

Are you a Friend of PATINS Project on Facebook yet?

Interactive White Boards a Waste? …not if you asked me!  However, there are some heated debates about this very issue within the educational technology circles.  Here’s one.  Check it out, become aware and weigh in!  www.techlearning.com/blogs.aspx?id=31098 I’ve found the success of any technology in any classroom is directly related to the time and effort the educator in that room is willing to put forth in addition to the teaching style of that particular teacher.  I love have students up out of their seats coming to the Interactive White Board, but I’ve visited effective teachers’ classrooms who just don’t prefer to teacher that way and are quite effective using a slate.  What are your thoughts?

Educational Apps: Here’s a few I’ve come across recently.

1. Trace: (Free) Draw your own platforms to navigate past obstacles.
2. Typing Class: ($4.99) Practice to improve your on-screen keyboard typing speed and accuracy. 
   
3. My Writing Nook: ($2.99 for iTouch) ($4.99 for iPad) Write anywhere with a font editor, password protection, dictionary, and more.  For the more serious on-the-go writer. 
   
4. Letter Tracer: ($.99) Trace letters/numbers on screen with your finger, including voice-over!
   
5. Pocket Whiteboard: ($.99) Save your drawings as images, stroke by stroke replay, more.
6. Word Magic: ($.99)  Kids fill in missing letters based on picture that is given, word is then read out loud.  Nominated for best educational app. 
   

100 Ways to Learn/Study with iPod Touch: http://oedb.org/library/beginning-online-learning/100-ways-to-use-your-ipod-to-learn-and-study-better

Remember: Summer is a perfect time to create yourself an avatar in Second Life and come explore the happenings on the PATINS Project Island! It’s looking very much like all travel in Indiana could be seriously restricted next school year indicating a real need to be doing more and more online.  The PATINS Island is a great tool for online meetings, trainings, conferences, presentations AND it’s open to other organizations for use.  See guidelines for outside organizational use of the island here: www.patinsproject.com/SecondLife/PolicyGuidelines2010.pdf

• Create Your Own Avatar Here: http://education.secondlife.com/
• View Getting Started Videos and PDF Downloads here: www.patinsproject.com/SLEventsCalendar.html
• Visit The PATINS Project Island here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/PATINS%20Project%20Island/111/98/26
• Contact me:  Happy to meet you on our island, show you around, answer questions etc.  danielgmcnulty@gmail.com

Have a Safe & Fun 4th of July Weekend Everyone!

Hopefully, you made it to the PATINS Tech Expo last Tuesday.  Either way, keep your eyes, ears and QR Code Readers ready for information on next year’s events!
Here’s a few photos from the Tech Expo:

Accessibility Changes Lives: I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged about this Accessibility resource for Mac computers before, but check out this newer section on personal stories: http://atmac.org/accessibility-changes-lives/

iPad & Accessibility: More from the same resource listed above all about the iPad!  http://atmac.org/ipad-assistive-technology-disability-round-up

Second Life Economy: You’ve probably heard me speak or read my postings on the amount of money exchanged in Second Life before, but here’s some more up to date stats for Quarter 1 of 2010:

• User-to-User Transactions totaled US$160 million, a 30% increase year-to-year and an all-time high
• Total Sales on Xstreet reached US$2.3 million, an 82% increase year-to-year and a 24% increase over the previous quarter
• Total L$ exchanged on the LindeX totaled US$31 million, a 9% increase year-to-year
• Residents active in the Economy reached 517,349 in March, a 2010 high
• Monthly Unique Users with Repeat Logins peaked in March at 826,214, a 13% increase year-to-year and an all-time high

…a pretty clear indication to me that this sort of technology, Second Life in particular, is not going away.  Large financial exchanges are happening here and if this much business is taking place, I think we almost have to assume that as educators we must have an awareness at the very least and also be preparing our students to work and train in online virtual immersive environments.  Are we?

Drop Box for iPad: iPad support added for the iPad!  Thanks Jim! FREE! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8

A couple other Apps worth checking out (Thanks again Jim):

• My Pictures Talk: www.grembe.com/home/my-pictures-talk
• iCommunicate: www.grembe.com/home/icommunicate
• iReward: www.grembe.com/home/ireward

Second Life Viewer 2.1: on the way!  http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/technology/blog/2010/05/05/on-the-road-to-viewer-21 Hopefully, you’re already using Viewer 2 when you come to most training events on the PATINS Island.  Many people are not used to viewer 2 yet and there are certainly some legitimate complaints about it, but the shared media it offers is powerful!  And we are utilizing Shared Media features of Viewer 2 on the PATINS Island.  Each seat in our Main Auditorium, for example, now has a personal web browser for attendees!  You must be using SL Viewer 2 to utilize them though.

NIMAC Search Image

Search For Accessible Books: In addition to NIMAS files, which are ideal for your students not able to access printed books, there are many  other resources available to you and many of them are FREE.  Don’t forget that anyone, DRM or Not, is free to use the Library Search feature on the ICAM website:  www.icam.k12.in.us/library.php. Even Non-DRM’s can search the actual NIMAC Library that houses the NIMAS Source Files Federally to see if a particular textbook exists before requesting that your DRM download it.

The RFB&D Indiana Support Site has been launched!  The URL is www.rfbd.org/indiana

Just want to share that the AirSet for iPhone feature is now available to all AirSet users! AirSet for iPhone automatically pushes new contacts and calendar events over the air to your iPhone, so the Calendar and Contacts on your iPhone is always up-to-date. Moreover, you can make updates to your AirSet Calendar and Contacts directly from your iPhone.  Learn more about this feature here: http://getsatisfaction.com/airset/top…

Free OCR/Scanning Online: You’re limited to a certain number of pages per month, so this is not your answer if you’re needing to scan lots of pages.  However, it is a free and very easy way to handle a few pages here and there as classroom teachers need to make pages, worksheets, tests, quizzes, etc., more accessible.
www.abbyyonline.com

Student Response System using iTouch:
www.turningtechnologies.com/studentresponsesystems/mobiledistancelearning/higheredresponseware/

Cool Teacher Podcast Weblog:
http://mrolson.podbean.com/

Check out this UDL Case Study on Slideshare:
www.slideshare.net/gunderwood/udl-case-study

Fun Stuff With Your Photos (Thanks Jim!):
http://bighugelabs.com/

Apps To Install on Your Thumb Drives!
www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eduapps/accessapps.php

Precisely!!!!
www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?print&i=62282