Technology Resources for Education's

Assistive Technology Solutions

Weekly Resources for the Assistive Technology Service Provider Community

Volume 5, Issue #40 for Week of 10/04/04

Compiled by David Grapka (e mailto: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.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The Child Endures All Things.” Maria Montessori

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING WEBSITES OF THE WEEK:

http://kamc.louisville.edu/kyecontent/index.htm KENTUCKY ACCESSIBLE MATERIALS CONSORTIUM
http://glef.org/php/biglist.php?id=137 the big list on technology integration. Every site you need in one spot.
E-Text (Electronic Text) free books online. The first nine below are from a handout downloaded from the QIAT listserve but had no identifying info on it. Recognize it?

http://www.bartleby.com/
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/index.html
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/%7Edkbrown/rteacher.html
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/
http://www.childrenstory.com/tales/index.html
http://www.underthesun.cc/Classics/http://www.cast.org/udl/index.cfm?i=1300 CAST e-Text Spider: Searches e-Text repositories that index public domain materials and are free of charge. The e-Text Spider will pass a search term to the various on-line libraries and then display the returned results. If nothing else, bookmark this one!
http://www.icdlbooks.org/ International Children's Digital Library: 531 free children's books online
http://www.tumblebooks.com TumbleBooks are animated, talking picture books which teach young children the joys of reading in a format they'll love (subscription based)
http://www.phschool.com/successnet/preview_it.html Prentice Hall claims: “PH SuccessNet's Teacher Center is the one place, one source, and one login for all your interactive online resources to help you plan, teach, assess, and manage your classes.” Here you can preview a sample of the interactive online textbook.
http://www.epgtech.com/faqs/Glencoe/OnlineStuEd.htm Glencoe (a division of McGraw Hill) has most of their books available on CD. Their website says: “Online Student Editions are available for virtually all of our Academic products dated 2001 and above. These are PDF files that are protected and virtually identical to Interactive Student Editions (ISE).
http://www.Harcourt.com School Publishers has online eBooks that are semi-accessible. You have to register with the site to accesss them and only if you have the registration number from your teachers’ edition of the text you wish to access. This needs more exploration – anyone out there using Harcourt?

ACCESSS SOLUTIONS:

http://www.proportionalreading.com This is a total approach to improving reading for all students. Check out the article titles, which are listed here, in addition to their hardware and software solutions: Improve Reading Immediately, Combining Good Teaching with Good Technology, How to Scan a Book, and Turn Books Into E-Text, Quickly and Affordably” among others

ADMINISTRATIVE SOLUTIONS AND CONCERNS:

http://edstandards.org/StSu/Technology.html a complete list of sources for technology and curriculum standards in the country and the world. Writing a new curriculum that integrates technology? Start here.

ADULTS WITH ADD: RESOURCES AND SOLUTIONS:

http://add.about.com/cs/workplaceissues/a/workaccomodatio.htm ADD/ADHD is covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act and individuals with it can be entitled to certain accommodations at work based on their needs. This article explains how you can access those entitlements and also includes links, e.,g. “Finding Your ADHD Friendly Job.”

ADVOCACY SOLUTIONS:

Here are the candidates’ views on issues concerning persons with disabilities. These are from AAPD, a non-partisan group that shares information about candidates' disability-related policy positions for educational purposes. From Karen Moore.

BLOG SOLUTIONS:

http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1 If you know nothing about blogging and want to become an expert overnight, read this.

COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS:

http://www.aacinstitute.org/TheGoalofAAC/ThePsychologyOfAACSystems.html With permission of the publishers of Communication Outlook, this seminal article is now available at AAC Institute web site. Romich, B. (1994). Knowledge in the world vs. knowledge in the head: the psychology of AAC systems. Communication Outlook. Vol. 16 No. 2., pp. 19-21

CONSULTING SOLUTIONS:

http://www.filigrooves.com/flash/filigrooves.html The authors have created a variety of musical loops reminiscent of music from the 50s, 60s and 70s, some free downloads are available, other loops are available for commercial purchase. A legal source of multimedia presentation background music! "Wesley A. Fryer" ttuviper-tekslist@yahoo.com

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SOLUTIONS:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:1:./temp/~c108fOg4Nh:: S.2650 Preparing Students for a High-Tech World Act of 2004 (Introduced in Senate) contact your senator for more information and for their position on this act.

DISTANCE EDUCATION SOLUTIONS:

http://www.learningcircuits.org/2004/jul2004/allen.htm Why is E-learning boreeding and what can we do about it? An " Interview with 'e-learning guru' Michael W. Allen. By Ryann Ellis, Learning Circuits, September, 2004 from Stephan Downs.

FUNDING SOLUTIONS:

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov New York State Learning Technology Grant Program. The RFP is now available on the EMSC Funding Opportunities web page and can be found if you Click on Funding Opportunities (5th box under FYI). Then click on current.

JUST FOR FUN:

http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp60
http://www.rhetorical.com/cgi-bin/demo.cgi If your student has access to a computer that has speakers but it doesn't have a screen reader and you just want to have a little fun, try this web-based Text-to-Speech Demo using your own inputted text with different languages and accents in male or female voices.

MATH SOLUTIONS:

http://balancedassessment.concord.org/ "Balanced Assessment" offers over 300 mathematics assessment tasks for grades K-12. from Kirk Winter (NSF)

NEW DEVELOPMENTS:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/09/16/nouse040916.html Nose-controlled device may replace computer mouse
http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/Article12101.phtml IBM Unveils First Biometric ThinkPad, Offering Security At Your Fingertips. Integrates Fingerprint Reader with Embedded Security Subsystem;
http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/Article11994.phtml Textbooks Dumped In Favor Of Laptops. Source: eSchool News No textbooks? No problem. A revolutionary new high school outside Tucson, Ariz., plans to do away with the bulky, hardcover tomes in favor of laptop computers, making it one of the first schools in the nation to abandon the use of traditional textbooks for the educational value of the internet.

PARENT AND ADVOCACY SOLUTIONS:

http://p078.ezboard.com/fourchildrenleftbehindfrm17.showMessage?topicID=360.topic Read “Our Children Left Behind” for a heartfelt and reasoned discussion on the parent perspective toward the Reauthorization of IDEA. Suggestions here would benefit us all.

TEACHING SOLUTIONS:

http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html Magical Macintosh Key Sequences: All the magic key sequences to make your Mac do various things. From "Wesley A. Fryer" ttuviper-tekslist@yahoo.com
http://www.leasttern.com/teacher/software.html Extensive hotlist of online tutorials and courses covering a wide range of topics, categories are Administrative | k-12 | Elementary | Middle-Upper-Teacher Digital Portfolio | Programming | k-12 Freeware/Shareware

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 Announces the Neo.”

* http://www.closingthegap.com Closing The Gap

* http://www.colligo.us/ Where your handwriting is read back to you!

* http://www.cricksoft.com Crick Software

* http://www.ea-software.com Educational Activities Software

* http://www.enkidu.net/ Enkidu joins Dynavox

http://www.floridareading.com/ Go small and think big with PocketViewer, a handheld, battery-operated video magnifier from Pulse Data that fits easily in your pocket or purse.
http://www.greatleaps.com/ Great Leaps Reading uses proven instructional tactics with powerful motivators to remediate a variety of reading problems. Efficient in both cost and time expenditure, Great Leaps Reading is widely implemented across the country. Students with reading problems have responded with significant gains.

http://www.independentliving.com/departments.asp?dept=9

* http://www.infogrip.com Home of the “BIGtrack”

* http://www.inspiration.com/ Inspiration

* http://www.intellitools.com IntelliTools, Inc.

* http://www.judylynn.com/prog_win.htm#P219 Judy Lynn Software is proud to announce the release of a new Windows program called "Wheel of Sounds" for students functioning at a cognitive age of 9 months and up. A Free trial version of Wheel of Sounds can be downloaded from their "Downloads" web page at http://www.judylynn.com/downloads.htm

* 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 colleagues who want to learn Assistive Technology Issues and Solutions. Thanks!

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

This weekly email newsletter is free and provides information useful to the community of people interested in the use of technology as a tool to help all students. If you have information to share that would be of value to members of our learning community, including job notices, please write and let us know. We'll be happy to share it here or at our web site. Contact, reprint, and subscription information is at the end of this document.

As always, thank you for your interest in the TRE Center and our work. We look forward to having you share your wisdom with the people on this list and with those you serve.

Sincerely,

David Grapka, ATP, ATS,

Project Coordinator, T.R.E. Center

NASDSE Certified Assistive Technology Specialist,

RESNA Certified Assistive Technology Practitioner

Maywood School, 1979 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12205

Phone: 518-456-9290.

Fax: 518-456-9289.

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