Maureen LaFleche spotted this great resource and here's what she has to say about it "Check out CK-12.org. It is a website that provides open-source content and technology tools to help teachers provide learning opportunities for students globally. Free access to high-quality, customizable educational content in multiple modalities suited to multiple student learning styles and levels, will allow teachers, students and others to innovate and experiment with new models of learning. CK-12 helps students and teachers alike by enabling rapid customization and experimentation of teaching and learning styles. Text can be read at two different levels - grade level and basic. You can download books and activities as pdf, epub or mobi." I have checked out several of the units and they look excellent for middle and high school.
Has excellent resources for younger and older students. Includes downloadable .pdfs colouring books on Geologists and Mining, great list of links. The items in the interactive geologist backpack game are a little too small.
Text to speech site that accepts typed text, uploaded Word and .pdf files and creates an audio with a talking avatar. You can then download as mp3, podcast, email. Free account is limited to 30 second recordings but special teacher package is available.
This is the wiki from the iPad apps session I just attended at CSUN 2011. Great info about good apps for accessibility and great hands-on workshop. They have videos and .pdfs on their site.
BCTF Researcher Charlie Naylor published this paper in January 2013 in reaction to a presentation by Bill Standeven and Rod Allen from the Ministry on the government's new directions in Special Education which include a focus on UDL/RTI. Charlie, who worked with the BC UDL project on action research strategies, laments the demise of the BC UDL Project and endorses UDL strongly. (see page 4).
Ray Kurzweil has designed a free screenreader with text-to-speech, tracking, highlighting, note-taking and lots of books for free or purchase. I am investigating whether it's possible to convert .pdfs and .doc files into the format it uses. PRCVI is investigating this reader as an alternative for students who don't have Kurzweil.
This is a great 174 page document on differentiation that was put together in Ontario. Includes explanation of UDL and Differentiated Instruction and very useful templates for developing learning profiles.