TREATS - Technology Resources for Education's

Assistive Technology Solutions

Weekly Resources for the Assistive Technology Service Provider Community

Volume 5, Issue #48 for Weeks of 11/29 AND 12/6/04

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: “The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.” (Elaine Agather)

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING WEBSITES OF THE WEEK:

http://www.inclusiveschools.org/nisw04/info/welcome.htm The 4th Annual National Inclusive Schools Week will be celebrated December 6-10, 2004. We urge you to promote action towards increasing the capacity of schools and communities to provide a quality education to an increasingly diverse student population, particularly those who have disabilities. The online information includes a celebration kit.
http://cosn.org/resources/emerging_technologies/hot.cfm Hot Technologies in K-12 Education: The Emerging Technologies Committee (ETC) of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) looks at the most promising technologies in store for schools.
http://vod.unitedstreaming.com/ United Streaming, a product of Discovery Education, is offering a free one-year subscription to their video-on-demand learning service. The offer is available for one school in every school district in the United States that is not already subscribing to the service.
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2004/newmarketplace.htm “Design for Inclusion: Creating a New Marketplace,” aims to educate designers and manufacturers about the way electronic and information technology (E&IT) intersects with the needs of individuals with disabilities, and how designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of targeted markets for E&IT.

ACCESSS SOLUTIONS:

http://www.Lburkhart.com/ Linda Burkhart’s comprehensive site on technology integration.
http://www.assistiveware.com/index.php SwitchXS® 1.6 for Mac OS X improves gaming and adds layout editor.
http://www.vcu.edu/partnership/pda/ The Consortium for Handheld Technology. Participation is limited to Virginia residents only, but, the content is quite applicable to any of us here in New York.

ADMINISTRATIVE SOLUTIONS AND CONCERNS:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JSD/is_9_58/ai_79006772 This is a new search engine that specializes in locating articles and references for school administrators – a real find.
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=52600733 Top 10 Returns On Investment. Here is the experts’ take on which technology factors are the best investment for schools to show that technology will work in education.
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=5120136 The seven essential Components of a successful mentoring program.

ADVOCACY SOLUTIONS:

http://www.projectparticipate.org/ Project Participate provides families, educators, administrators and therapists with simple strategies to increase the active participation of students with disabilities in school programs.
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/idea/index.htm Pete Wright outlines major changes in IDEA here and the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates provides a complete comparison of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 and IDEA ’97 here: http://www.copaa.net/content/IDEA97-04COMP.html
http://www.cec.sped.org/pp/IDEA_112304.pdf The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) has posted a summary of the bill with an analysis from its perspective here. (from Laura Paris)

COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS:

http://www.liberatedlearning.com/ These partners collaborate to research and develop new applications of speech recognition technology to fulfill their mission of equal access to information for all students.

CONSULTING SOLUTIONS:

http://www.thefacilitator.com/cgi-bin/tf_displayarticle.php?artnum=targetcharacteristics This link provides a descriptive list of Target characteristics for facilitator candidates

DEPARTMENT SOLUTIONS:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/idea/idea04.index.htm for a complete text of the IDEA Act of 2004.

FUNDING SOLUTIONS:

http://www.donorschoose.com/ “Every Teacher a Grant Writer, Every Citizen a Philanthropist.” Public school teachers use DonorsChoose to propose resources for their students. Concerned individuals like you can then select a proposal to fund.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS:

http://www.paec.org/teacher2teacher/ Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, this website offers “on-demand” learning to teachers in a variety of subject areas.
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/arphome.html A Blockbuster site for Action Research Resources for those of you who are concerned about defensible ways of determining the effectiveness of Assistive Technology interventions.

REHABILITATION SOLUTIONS:

http://www.ncds.org/RTI/KTC/education.shtm The home site for the Kornreich Technology Center.

TEACHING SOLUTIONS:

http://www.distance-educator.com/dnews/Article12482.phtml The Kindersite Project has 1,000s of links to the best Games, Songs and Stories for young children. (from the Distance Educator Source: Kindersite)
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html Visit this site for a list of the top 100 speeches. Speeches are available in both audio and text format. In most cases, the full text of the speech is available.

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

http://www2.alphasmart.com/products/software/dana_software_overview.html a complete list of software for the Dana

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

* http://www.colligo.us/ Reading: Access and Comprehension

* 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.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

* http://www.kurzweiledu.com/products_k3000win_demo.asp Free copies of the Kurzweil 3000 trial CD are available through our web site.

* 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: 518-464-6346.

Fax: 518-464-6353.

Toll free in NY: 1-800-248-9873. URL: trecenter.org

ABOUT TREATS:

*Please respond directly to the person posting an item.

*To submit questions or items for consideration, send it to david@TRECenter.org If you know others who would like to receive T.R.E. AT Resources, please direct them to: http://www.trecenter.org/treats.htm for subscription information. To speak to a human about newsletter issues, please contact David Grapka at 518-464-6346 (toll free in NY 800-248-9873).

DISCLAIMER: T.R.E.A.T.S is published by the T.R.E. Center, Capital Region BOCES. At times we may list dot. Com companies in "T. R. E. A. T. Resources. Mention of dot. Com companies and resources in this newsletter is not an endorsement by the TRE Center or the New York State Education Department. We take no responsibility for the accuracy of the postings except our own. All contents of the postings are the responsibility of the posting party.

*Copyright 2004, T.R.E.A.T.S. Permission must be granted to reprint any Item (other than your own posting). Copyright note: Submission of an e-mail message or art work affirms that you are able to and have given THE EDITORS non-exclusive permission to reprint the content of your message in all forms, electronic or otherwise, in all languages throughout the world.

Our archives serve many purposes for you. First, they are a handy reference guide for clients and audiences hungry for technology tips. Secondly, you have ready access to our newsletter articles with permission to reprint. We hope that your access and distribution of these reprints will encourage new subscribers and provide great publicity for all the good work that you do. Third, we believe that our archives represent a trecenter.org web site that is "information-rich" that serves as a history of our site for potential clients to review. Finally, our archives are living proof that subscribers receive worthwhile information on a consistent basis.