Group items tagged

Here is a site with lists of additional apps that can assist people with special needs. I looked specifically at apps for the visually impaired, but there are many more app lists to look at on this site.

Productivity is at the bottom of the hierrarchy in Figure 2 MWUAHAHAHA. In a recent post I ranted that mobile devices don't make us productive. (Or at least that would be a poor goal.) Warning, this is an academic "conceptual" paper.

Our friends at Common Sense Media are working with another group on rating apps/websites/games for educational value - looks great, might be something to look at for the elementary kids and ipad apps...

"Device Loans - we make short-term equipment (not financial) loans of up to 30 days to allow consumers and professionals try out and evaluate AT devices." A good thing is not only that the VT agency is a resource but also you can in fact borrow equipment!

"Device Loans - we make short-term equipment (not financial) loans of up to 30 days to allow consumers and professionals try out and evaluate AT devices." A good thing is not only that the VT agency is a resource but also you can in fact borrow equipment!

includes a link to a 2 hour audio Global Education Conference via Blackboard Collaborative

The most jaw-dropping educational apps available focus on the hard sciences. It's simply impossible not to understand the properties of mercury better when looking at it in 3-D using an app like "The Elements."

Defining mobile learning

The start of a conversation about teaching and learning with mobile tools.

I do think of my phone as more of an output device than the tablet or pc. Now It is becoming a bit more of an "input also" device!

In what can be considered a major dig at Microsoft ( MSFT), Clay Bavor, product management director at Google ( GOOG) Apps told V3 that the company is not bringing native Gmail or Google Drive apps to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.

Jane E.G. Lipson is the Albert W. Smith Professor of Chemistry at Dartmouth College blogs about the pros and cons of blended and online learning.

Divided as researchers sort out whether readers of tablets or textbooks perform better. As well as hidden costs of mobile devices.

I tried sharing comments using Evernote as an experiment. I don't think it worked, so here is what I had posted there: The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks BY MARGARET ROCK "Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt tested an interactive, digital version of an Algebra 1 textbook for Apple's iPad in California's Riverside Unified School District. Students who used the iPad version scored 20 percent higher on standardized tests versus students who learned with traditional textbooks." * This is interesting. It's noted later in the article that students who read a more traditional textbook in digital format, without the benefit of the bells and whistles of a book designed to play on the strengths of digital media, did no better than those reading paper books. My thinking on this is that the books that moved beyond just the traditional text and images were more intriguing because they allowed students to interact in more diverse ways with the information. One of the reasons I enjoy reading on my Nook is that it more closely resembles the experience of reading on paper. The advantage over paper is that I can annotate and highlight without damaging the book, plus I like the dictionary feature. Reading a book on a computer is not as rewarding as reading on a good quality reader. The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt folks add much more to the experience through videos, audio links, animations, and links to ancillary information while maintaining the options I mentioned in my Nook experience. It's more engaging because there's more to do and more of the senses are being addressed. "A small but growing number of researchers are uncovering evidence that readers are better able to remember what they read in printed books long-term when compared to materials read via an electronic screen, raising questions about tablets in the classroom." "For example, Kate Garland, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Leicester in England, conducted a study on the effects of e-books

The Future of Education: Tablets vs. Textbooks

Published in March of 2011, this article reports on the results of a survey conducted of students at the University of Scranton on the strategies used by postsecondary students to gather information using Internet-capable cell phones, or smartphones. The article concluded: Information literacy instructors should become familiar with new search methods (such as quick response codes) to help students use them effectively and efficiently. Students should be encouraged to review a range of search results, particularly when searching for academic information. Information literacy instructors should help students understand how to evaluate information, especially when it is presented in a nontraditional form, such as a native app. Students may need assistance from educators in applying information literacy skills they have learned while searching on a laptop or desktop to the mobile environment.

Awoke to an NPR interview of a most remarkable woman telling her story of living with Lou Gehrig's disease. With considerable assistance of her husband during this interview, who must translate her strained speech, I learned how she wrote a book using an iPhone (or iPod) with the use of one thumb only. Compelling, inspiring. Grateful for my life and limbs today, going out for an invigorating ski and thinking of her.  Apologies to Frank, an English teacher, for the disjointed sentence starting with "with considerable assistance....., needs editing.

autism website listing free apps

Livebinder with an extensive list of special education information and the ipad

Pin board created to collect ipad/android apps. One that caught my eye was "conversation builder teen".