TREATS -
Technology
Resources for Education's
Assistive Technology Solutions
Weekly
Resources for the Assistive Technology Service Provider Community
Compiled by David Grapka (mailto:David@Trecenter.org)
Technology Resources for
Education (T.R.E.) Center TRECenter.org
------------------------------------
Note: Some links are time-sensitive. Access
to some may require registration or free subscriptions.
QUOTE
OF THE WEEK: “Our goal is not so much the imparting of
knowledge as the unveiling and developing of spiritual energy.” Maria Montessori
UNIVERSAL
DESIGN FOR LEARNING WEBSITES OF THE WEEK:
·
http://www.educause.edu/pub/eq/eqm05/eqm0511.asp?bhcp=1
How can we staff developers in UDL apply what author
and internationally famous futurist Chris Dede calls
"neomillennial learning styles?" According
to Dede, these styles consist of:
o
"fluency in multiple media and in
simulation based virtual settings;
o
communal learning involving diverse, tacit,
situated experience, with knowledge distributed across a community and a
context as well as within an individual;
o
a balance among experiential learning, guided
mentoring, and collective reflection;
o
expression through nonlinear, associational
webs of representations; and,
o
co-design
of learning experiences personalized to individual needs and preferences."
In other words (in order): podcasts and games; blogs; web conferencing; wikis;
and personal publishing. But all - in a thread that runs tacitly through the
article - under the guiding hand of a benevolent administration. From Stephan Downes as reported in EDUCAUSE Quarterly, February, 2005
·
http://www.aph.org/louis/braillepub.html
Publisher Links from Inge Formenti,
APH Resource Services Librarian, is sharing with us her list of contact
information for publishers. This list may be helpful for inquiries about
permissions and obtaining electronic files, when possible, to assist students
with disabilities. From Julia Myers American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.
jmyers@aph.org
o
A.B. Longman: http://www.ablongman.com/student/faq/1,2937,,00.html#accessible
o
Bedford- St. Martins http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/contactus.asp?company=bsm&page=special
o
o
Jones and Bartlett http://www.jbpub.com/contact/mediaReq_StudentsWithDisability.cfm
o
Jossey
Bass (Part of John Wiley & Sons) http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-152.html
o
O'Reilly & Associates http://press.oreilly.com/pub/pr/561
o
Pearson http://dev.pearsoned.com/permissions/form.html
; http://www.pearsoned.com/legal/form.htm
also http://www.pearsoned.com/pdf/contact.pdf
http://dev.pearsoned.com/permissions/contactlist.html
o
Pfeiffer (Part of John Wiley & Sons) http://www.pfeiffer.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-101687.html
o
http://www.thomsonrights.com/permissions/action/start
Thomson
o
W.H. Freeman http://www.whfreeman.com/contactus.asp?company=whf&page=special
o
W.W. Norton http://www.wwnorton.com/area4/disability_request.htm
o
Wiley Includes: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-152.html
o
Worth http://www.whfreeman.com/contactus.asp?company=whf&page=special
Direct Sources of
Textbook Files, Other than Publishers
o
Bookshare
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html
o
Texas Text Exchange (Braille files) http://tte.tamu.edu/
Secondary Sources (Pages
with lists of publisher/file contacts, not on publisher's websites)
o
http://www.htctu.fhda.edu/divisions/altmedia/ab422/sample_docs/Publisher_Contact_List.pdf
o
http://www.siu.edu/~dss/publishers.htm
o
http://exchange.htctu.fhda.edu/intro.html
o
http://www.mccd.edu/dss/publishers.htm
o
http://www.merced.cc.ca.us/dss/publishers.htm
ACCESS SOLUTIONS:
·
http://www.connsensebulletin.com/software.html
A short article on how to use FineReader
Pro by www.abbyy.com, OCR software for PC,
for scanning/reading purposes. (Jim Nuttall)
·
http://www.daisy.org/tpbreader/download.asp?lang=en
Daisy reader freeware
·
http://www.premier-programming.com/download/free_trials.htm
Scan N Read Pro from Premier Assistive Technology’s free download (PC Version only) good for 50 scans) from Raz Pullen
ADMINISTRATIVE
“SYSTEMS CHANGE” SOLUTIONS:
·
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050227/ap/d88gh7do0.html
Bill Gates: "
COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS:
·
http://www.med.cornell.edu/news/press/2002/feb_15_schiff.html Information Technology: Not So Minimally-Conscious. New studies at
CONSULTING SOLUTIONS: learning histories:
·
http://ccs.mit.edu/lh/
Art Kleiner (one of the co-authors of "The Fifth
Discipline") has posted an explanation and example of a “Learning History”
titled "The Learning History Research Project Home Page.”
·
Learning histories require a facilitator to
manage an iterative project, that both builds the history document (from the
group’s collective memory), & evokes a lot of conversation that grows into
dialogue - that helps elicit a more united view of the group vision and
direction. (from Michael Erickson)
·
I have used these with district and BOCES
teams who seek to move from a traditional staff development model or topic to a
new paradigm. For more on learning histories, check out Art Kleiner's
web site: http://www.well.com/user/art/ Click on
articles, and under themes, click on learning histories.
·
http://www.managementhelp.org/mgmt_dev/mgmt_dev.htm
For a definition of "management development, and an extensive range of
free materials from which a person can develop a learning plan for management
development, Introduction to Management, and Introduction to Leadership at http://www.managementhelp.org/ldrship/ldrship.htm
DEPARTMENT SOLUTIONS:
·
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2005/pr050223.htm
A new report from a task force of the National Conference of State Legislatures
recommends dozens of revisions to President Bush's landmark No Child Left
Behind Act, noting that "changes need to be made in the law's
foundation" if its "lofty expectations" are to be met. An
executive summary and the full report are available online at the National Conference of State
Legislatures Web site.
·
http://www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/TQINewsletter28Feb05pdf
The Teacher Quality and Improvement e-newsletter is a free publication from
CCSSO focusing on efforts at the state and district level to strengthen teacher
quality and school leadership, particularly in high-poverty, low-performing
schools. The newsletter provides links to recent reports, studies, legislative
action, and news articles related to teacher quality and improvement efforts.
·
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/plan.html National
Education Technology Plan. The U.S.
Department of Education's new report "Toward a New Golden Age in American
Education: How the Internet, the Law,
and Today's Students Are Revolutionizing Expectations" offers seven major recommendations, including
“Develop a new generation of tech-savvy
leaders,” and “Improve pre-service and in-service teacher training in
technology,” something we are doing at TRE by collaborating with other staff
development networks in the state, including those in Higher Education. This report reflects some of the best practices involving
the appropriate uses of technology that we have found in
·
http://www.publicagenda.org/research/pdfs/life_after_high_school.pdf
Life After High School. The recently released report prepared by Public Agenda
entitled "Life After
High School: Young People Talk About Their Hopes and
Prospects" looks at attitudes among
a random sampling of 1000-plus young adult
Americans aged 18-25. The survey was conducted in fall 2004 and
concludes that above all else, our goal in
education must be to keep the dream
alive by providing realistic pathways to help every high school student to reach his or her fullest potential
as an adult. (from Bill Daggett)
DISTANCE EDUCATION:
·
http://www.irrodl.org/content/v6.1/brown_voltz.html
Elements of Effective e-Learning Design by Andrew R. Brown and
Bradley D. Voltz
·
FUNDING SOLUTIONS:
* http://www.mattel.com/about_us/Comm_Involvement/ci_mcf_philanthropy_grantmaking.asp
Funding now available from the Mattel Children’s Foundation.
TEACHING
SOLUTIONS:
·
http://www.apple.com/education/ipod Apple
introduces a new recommended iPod solutions and iPod lesson plans to help your schools get started with
using iPod in the classroom. Due to the
tremendous growth and popularity of the iPod in the
consumer and higher education market, there is significant opportunity to use iPods in K-12 schools as well. The iPod can be successfully integrated for teaching and
learning, specifically in the areas of literacy and language acquisition.
·
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
- Podcast urls: (What’s a PodCast you ask? Check it out!) everything podcast
·
http://ipodderx.com/ - client piece to download / sync podcasts with iTunes/iPod
VENDOR
PARTNER WEBSITES AND NEWS:
*
http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org Accessible Books
*
http://www.aacconnections.com AAC connections
* http://www.ablenetinc.com Ablenet
* http://www.alphasmart.com Alphasmart
*
http://www.closingthegap.com
Closing
The Gap
*
http://www.colligo.us
*
http://www.cricksoft.com Crick Software
*
http://www.ea-software.com Educational
Activities Software
*
http://www.enkidu.net Enkidu joins Dynavox
* http://www.greatleaps.com Great
Leaps Reading
*
http://www.infogrip.com Home of the “BIGtrack”
*
http://www.inspiration.com Inspiration
*
http://www.intellitools.com IntelliTools, Inc.
*
http://www.kurzweiledu.com/products_k3000win_demo.asp
*
http://www.laureatelearning.com Laureate Learning
Systems
* http://www.magictouch.com The
Leader in Touchscreen Technology
* http://www.madentec.com Madentec
*
http://www.nasdse.com RIATT
at NASDSE
*
http://www.rjcooper.com/2+2 R. J. Cooper
*
http://www.sunburst-store.com
Sunburst Software
*
http://www.texthelp.com Makers of Read and Write
Gold
*
http://words-plus.com Words
Plus
Please forward T.R.E.A.T.S. to your friends and
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David Grapka, ATP, ATS,
Project Coordinator,
NASDSE Certified Assistive Technology Specialist,
RESNA Certified Assistive Technology Practitioner
Phone: 518-464-6346
Fax: 518-464-6353
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