PATINS PROJECT -Rapid Fire-

Productivity is one of those words thrown around in society that act like a non-specific band-aid for fixing whatever is wrong.  If we increase student productivity…  Teachers need to use their time more productively…  and so on.  Sometimes increasing productivity requires increasing stimulation.  While researching this week’s tip I came across the focus@will site.  www.focus@will.com    The site streams music that is picked to increase productivity.  It has tips running along the bottom, and 8 different genres of music to run in the background.  Listening to music without lyrics works really well for me.  The trick in a classroom is to find a music style that suits the students that need it while not disturbing the ones that don’t.  In this way it becomes yet another tool in your UDL tool box!

This is what I was listening to while writing.

I started out researching “SpeakIt”, a free app on the Chrome Web Store.  For those using the web browser Chrome, once installed, this app will translate all highlighted text to speech while on the internet.  SpeakIt adds a speaker button to the right of the bookmark star just outside of the URL address box on the Chrome browser.  The user just needs to highlight the selection to be spoken and press the speaker symbol.  The pictured box will appear and read.  To get this app, go to https://chrome.google.com/webstore/category/home  search SpeakIt in the search window and follow the instructions.  While I would not recommend this app for all text to speech needs, it is free, easy to download and can be used in some non-essential ways.  One of my favorites is for proofreading.  I will let the computer read what I have written while I listen for content.

So how did one thing lead to the other?  I pulled up this article http://edudemic.com/2013/04/cycle-of-productivity/ ”This Is The Modern Cycle of Productivity” by Katie Lepi on Edudemic.  I was testing SpeakIt for this post.  It is a quick fun article and lead me to focus@will.  Try the app on the article and you will notice that the graphic will not read.  That is because it is just a picture of the original graphic.  This is an issue that has been discussed and will continue to be discussed when looking at truly accessible reading material.

Don’t forget that it is Autism Awareness Month.  The Appy Mall as well as Appolicious have been listing several free and reduced autism apps!

See you at the PATINS Tech Expo!

PATINS 2013 Tech Expo

Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Fountains
502 East Carmel Drive
Carmel, IN  46032

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!

Accessible Instruction: EVERY Educator’s Responsibility

What did your students do today? Read a textbook or a chapter? Take a pop quiz?  Imagine you are given a reading assignment or told to take out a blank sheet of paper for a quiz… but are unable to read the page of a textbook or physically handle a pencil.  Every educator impacts students, but are they able to effectively reach ALL their students? Anyone working with students with disabilities who fails to provide accessible instruction and materials is inadvertently building barriers to learning.  Please watch the video and then take the pledge!  Once you have completed the pledge which is only 4 questions, then your name goes into a drawing for an IPAD 2 to be drawn the first week in January 13th.  Join the PATINS Project as we take the Accessible Instruction Pledge.

I pledge to do my part to bring accessible instruction to all students.

Click here to take the Accessible Instruction Pledge.

By completing this form, I pledge that at every opportunity I will…

• Understand the individual needs and abilities of learners to ensure that my instruction is accessible to all students
• Advocate for accessible instructional materials
• Choose to purchase materials that have accessible versions available
• Create documents and handouts that can be read and completed using assistive technology
• Support others in their efforts to learn more about supplying accessible instructional materials
• Maintain an accessible website

Myths About Students Using Their Own Devices:  If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ve likely heard me say many of these same things.  I particularly like #5 on this list with regard to students and teachers being able to access content at school:  http://thejournal.com/Articles/2011/11/09/7-BYOD-Myths.aspx?Page=2

Affordable CCTV (Thanks Vicki):   You can watch a video of how to use a webcam with the upcoming ZoomText version 10 to turn your computer into an affordable CCTV.
http://bit.ly/v8Yt7g

A Few Note Taking Apps:

• SoundNote (can be used similarly to a LiveScribe Pen): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/soundnote/id364789577?mt=8
• NoteMaster: (free lite version or 3.99)  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notemaster-for-ipad/id409275846?mt=8
• Notability:  (.99)  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notability-handwriting-note/id360593530?mt=8
• PaperDesk: (free lite version or 3.99)   http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paperdesk/id367552067?mt=8
• Omicron Notes: (4.99)  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omicronnotes-probably-best/id392039438?mt=8
• Writings: (4.99)  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/writings/id386276831?mt=8

Don’t Forget to Use Keyboard Shortcuts:  ….use them whenever you can to eventually work faster and free your hand up from using that mouse all the time.  I borrowed this image from a friend on Facebook and thought it was a great little visual to help you remember 3 of the most basic Keyboard Shortcuts.  Of course, on the Mac, just change the CTRL to CMD and they work just the same!

New Equipment For Loan From the PATINS Libraries!  Remember, it’s always free and easy to borrow from us!   Just go here:
http://www.patinsproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=24

• A Few more iPads!
• Sensor Switch Evaluation Kit
• Aumed Aumex LCD Color Video Magnifier
• Mount n Mover Complete Evaluation Kit
• Dynavox Maestro
• Pebble Portable CCTV
• Motorola Xoom
• Samsung Galaxy TAB
• TextSpeak TS Wireless AAC
• Optelec Clear Reader

NE PATINS Office has a NEW LOCATION!
As of TODAY, the Northeast PATINS Site is located at:

1091 Central Avenue
Wabash, IN 46992

Phone: (260) 563-5148  ext. 30
Fax:  coming soon
Email (same) nepatins@ciesc.k12.in.us

What this means: Moving mid-year like this isn’t easy and presents some potential for minor problems.  I am sorry for any inconvenience.  We’ll be as flexible as possible during this transition.

• If you currently have items on loan from the NE Lending Library, please return them to this NEW LOCATION listed above.  NOT to our old location in Columbia City.  This may mean that you need to UPS them with insurance to Wabash rather than use the Region 8 Courier.   If this is a problem contact me directly.
• Mail any new correspondence to the NEW Wabash address
• Plan any face-to-face meetings, attending any face-to-face trainings,  or in-person Lending Library browsing at the NEW Wabash location, not Columbia City.
• At this time, we are NOT planning to cancel any meetings, trainings or workshops that have been previously scheduled:  www.patinsproject.com/training.html
• Email me with questions or concerns: nepatins@ciesc.k12.in.us

Read:OutLoud (ROL): Training, FREE, Monday morning before school! Don’t forget, or in case you haven’t had a chance to check out the PATINS Online training Calendar, there will be a ROL Basics ONLINE training.

• Register here before Monday morning: 
  www.surveymonkey.com/s/Oct42010ROL
• Starting promptly at 7:30am est till 8:30 or whenever you need to leave
• Will take place in Go To Meeting where you’ll see a live demonstration of my computer screen using ROL and opening NIMAS Files, PDFs, Word Docs, etc.

ROL and Formatting: One teacher contacted me last week to say she was scanning in tests, quizzes and worksheets from the teacher workroom copy machine and emailing them to herself as pdf files.  Of course, they are just images of text on those pdfs, so she needed something the pdfs back into real text so that ROL could read them.  She found a piece of software called 123FileConvert that offers a 45 day free trial and then about $40 to buy.  I’m not familiar with this software, but apparently it converts the inaccessible PDF files into Word Docs. OCR software, if you will.    This teacher would then save the Word Doc as an RTF or rich text format file which would open in ROL.   The problem was with formatting and the RTF in ROL looked very different than the same worksheet looked in Word.  So, here’s a quick fix for that formatting issue that might help some of those problems.  As shown in the screenshot below, go to the Home Ribbon in Word and then click the Clear Formatting button.

ICAM DRM Podcast Transcript: As announced last week, the Digital Rights Manager Podcast is now live and available from the front page of the ICAM Website: www.icam.k12.in.us.  However, the transcript of the first episode with Kathy Brewster is now available as a PDF download (Thanks Sandy & Carrie), when you go to either: Kathy’s episode’s page or the archive page.

Additionally, the ICAM DRM podcast is now available and searchable through the iTunes Store:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id394731602

BLIO!! The FREE Blio ePub Reader officially released this week!  This is a really cool reader that will read ePub files.  For now, it’s only applicable to PC computers, but Apps for mobile devices will be coming soon and I assume Mac compatibility will too.  Check it out, it’s FREE: http://blio.com/meet_blio

ePub?? So, now you’re wondering what an ePub is and why would you want a Blio to read one?   ePub is just a form of digital text, often books.  They are often very well done and can be a powerful tool for your students and for yourself!  So, you’ll need to be able to create you own ePubs from your existing documents.

• Listing of tools for creating ePubs: www.lexcycle.com/faq/how_to_create_epub
• In particular, these are some of my current favorites:
• Calibre: http://calibre-ebook.com/  (for mac and pc)
• Stanza:   www.lexcycle.com/desktop  (for mac and pc)

Free Magnifier: Also had a couple inquires this week about screen magnification.  I know I’ve blogged about this free tool in the past and have talked about it a lot, but thought it was worth another quick mention.  DRAGNIFIER:   Free, but only for PC:  www.halley.cc/stuff/dragnifier.html

PATINS Email! As you probably know by now, ALL PATINS Staff have new email addresses as of July 1.  Several of us have had some difficulty getting emails to our contacts from our new addresses.  If you have a minute, please check your email settings and/or make sure that “@ciesc.k12.in.us” is on your whitelist of accepted emails!   It might be worth checking with your technology staff to make sure.  We’re afraid some of you aren’t getting the information you deserve!  Let your colleagues know to check here on the blog on Fridays as well.  Better yet, subscribe to the blog and rest assured you’ll always receive announcements, info, resources, tips & tricks, etc., each Friday!

Dropbox: Are you using Dropbox to share your files?  I’ve had an account for quite some time, but never really used it until this week with my colleague Jeff!  Jeff shared three large images with me that were well over 3MB each using Dropbox and it all happened in a matter of seconds.  These sorts of files would normally be way to large to email.  It’s FREE up to 2GB and then modest fees if you need more than the free 2GB.  It’s super-simple to use.  Check it out and share files with other teachers!  With moving to RAPIDlY increasing ONLINE training and professional development, keep in mind that PATINS Staff can share large files with you in this way too!  www.dropbox.com.

Computers Needed!

The PATINS Refurbished Computer Program needs to find organizations and/or individuals who can donate their laptops, desktops, and 17” monitors to our program. We will arrange the pickup of any donations.

• Read more here: www.patinsproject.com/refurbished1.html
• Contact us: www.patinsproject.com/contact.html

iPad Apps & Autism Spectrum Video: www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/18/ipad-apps-for-autism-and-_n_686020.html

Mobile Learning Lags… behind other areas such as healthcare and private use: http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/08/30/Report-PreK12-Mobile-Learning-Hindered-by-Institutional-Restrictions.aspx?Page=1

Microsoft Accessibility Guide For Educators: www.microsoft.com/enable/education/default.aspx Of particular interest, to me anyway, is the decision making tree near the end.  Check it out!

• Download the Word Doc here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/7/3/073c1245-78c9-4790-ba41-73132204e43e/Accessibility%20Guide%20for%20Educators%20version3.doc
• Get the WindowsXP version in English or Spanish here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/7/3/073c1245-78c9-4790-ba41-73132204e43e/AccessibleTechnologyGuideforEducators_v2.doc

Read:Out Loud: YES, it is FREE for ALL of your K-12 Indiana Public School students to use on ALL your district computers AND to send home with ALL of your students for use on their home computers.  It is NOT just for students with IEPs, for NIMAS qualified students, for students with visual impairments, etc.  It can be used with ALL students.  (I got this question a couple more times this week and wanted to make sure everyone knows that this can be used with ALL students!)

• Contact me with questions:  nepatins@ciesc.k12.in.us
• More info here:  www.icam.k12.in.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33&Itemid=22

~ Upcoming Events & Courses ~

11 More Days! …to register for the 2010 PATINS Assistive Technology Overview Course!

• NE Region Register online here: www.surveymonkey.com/s/2010ATOverviewRegistration
• All other Regions: www.patinsproject.com/training.html

2011 Tech Expo! Don’t forget to save the date for the PATINS Tech Expo, April 13, 2011.  Download a Flyer Here: http://nepatins.edublogs.org/files/2010/08/TECHEXPO2011SaveTheDate1.jpg

Trainings & Workshops: Look for PATINS Regional trainings and workshops to be scheduled soon.  MANY of them to be online!  Don’t be shy to request trainings from PATINS Regional Sites!  We’re here to serve your needs at no cost to you and have several methods for providing these trainings online now!  Next week: Lots of info relating to online teaching and learning!  Get your avatars ready!

Have a great, long, safe, holiday weekend everyone!