Technology Resources for Education's Assistive Technology Solutions
Weekly Resources
for the Assistive Technology Service Provider Community
Words Compiled by David Grapka
(David@Trecenter.org)
Technology Resources for
Education (T.R.E.) Center TRECenter.org
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Note: Some links are time-sensitive. Access
to some may require registration or free subscriptions.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
"I have yet to find a
man, whatever his situation in life, who did not do better work and put forth
greater effort under a spirit of approval than he ever would do under a spirit
of criticism." - Charles M. Schwab
"The moral test of
government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of
life, the children; those
who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of
life, the sick, the needy and the disabled."
- Unknown
UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING
WEBSITES OF THE WEEK:
· Before Every
Child is Left Behind: How Epistemic Games Can Solve the Coming Crisis in
Education http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/learning_crisis.pdf
According to the authors, "Epistemic games of all kinds make it possible
for students of all ages to learn by working as innovators. They learn in a way
that sticks, because they learn in the process of doing things that
matter." By David Williamson Shaffer and James Paul Gee, July, 2005
· Universal
Summer Reading Lists: http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/DIS/readlist/
The Fairfax County Public Schools offer suggested reading lists for
grades 6 - 12. Teachers will find great ideas to add to their own summer
reading lists. The site provides titles, authors and a
relatively complete description of the books.
· Fair
Use for Educational Purposes? http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105752
Fair use is a complicated situation, especially for K-12 and higher
education. What constitutes fair use of copyrighted materials such as a book or
software?
· Textbooks Give Way To Digital
Curriculum http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/Article13893.phtml
Source: eSchool News. The march from textbooks to
computerized content began to look a little more inevitable this week as
educators in Arizona and Tennessee edged closer to the all-digital curriculum.
· How Technology May Help Shape The Future Of
Education http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/Article13892.phtml Source:
Information Society Technologies. A novel learning platform that uses a variety
of mature technologies to support and expand teaching practices has recently
completed testing, proving popular among high school students and teachers.
ACCESS SOLUTIONS:
· Autism
Teaching Tools http://www.autismteachingtools.com/
This is a good resource for teaching tools to use with
children with Autism. (Deb McGarvey)
· Copying
Internet text: http://www.papercut.biz/emailstripper To save Internet text from any source,
download emailStripper here for free. Then just copy
the text from a Web site source, paste it into emailStripper,
hit "Strip" and it reformats the lines to regular text size. for Windows only. Mac
email cleaners may be found at http://email.about.com/od/macemailcleanuptools/
ADMINISTRATOR SOLUTIONS:
· NCLB FUNDS ENRICH PRIVATE COMPANIES http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/news.htm
An issue brief published by Arizona State University's Education
Policies Studies Laboratory (EPSL) found that No Child Left Behind Act funds
flow from the government, through the states, and into the hands of private,
for-profit companies. The brief, "No Child Left Behind: Where Does the
Money Go?" was authored by Gerald Bracey, an associate professor at George
Mason University, who found that the money schools and districts spend on
implementing NCLB requirements and on sanctions for failing to meet NCLB achievement
goals go to private companies in the testing, curriculum, and
supplemental-education-services (SES) industries, including some with
"close ties to President George W. Bush and his family," according to
the document.
· The FORUM GUIDE TO EDUCATION Indicators
provides encyclopedia-type entries for 44 commonly used education indicators.
Each indicator entry contains a definition, recommended uses, usage caveats and
cautions, related policy questions, data element components, a formula,
commonly reported subgroups, and display suggestions. The document will help
readers better understand how to appropriately develop, apply, and interpret
commonly used education indicators. To download, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005802
· http://thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A5387.cfm
20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have
BILINGUAL SOLUTIONS:
· http://www.babelfish.altavista.com Ever wanted to translate a site into another language for
free? Just enter the domain URL and viola. You can also put a
"plug-in" script at your site to let visitors translate your site in
up to 8 languages. (Laura Turner)
CONSULTING SOLUTIONS:
· http://www.usps.com/netpost/cardstore
Target marketing tip. The most cost-effective and impressive way to contact
your target market is to use invitations or greeting cards. The best way to
process those cards is online through services like the USPS's
NetPost CardStore The best way in which to use the CardStore
is by creating your own cards and uploading them as jpeg images. You can even
include gift cards in your greeting cards. Very sophisticated. Very impressive
to the unsuspecting prospect. (lamar@mchsi.com)