Group items tagged

"What is Snappy Words visual English dictionary? It's an online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words. You can easily see the meaning of each by simply placing the mouse cursor over it."

"We want to know what UDL means to you! How has UDL influenced you as a learner or as an educator? Submissions can be text, audio, video, or a photo/drawing - be creative, we want to see "multiple means of expression"!"

Social skills development can be a rocky road for many children…we like to call it a "Social Adventure." When given concrete and creative means to learn about and practice social communication and friendship, the journey can be fun rather than confusing and frightening. One passion we all share is leading groups to facilitate and enhance social cognition. Another is introducing technology as a motivational learning medium wherever and whenever we can. As many of you know, the introduction of the iPad has led to an absolute explosion of creativity for new therapy activities! We have found technology to be a wonderful means to collaborate and learn from and with each other, regardless of background, education, or training. Technology has become a common and accessible connection for parents, teachers, and therapists in helping children learn. For some time now, we have been incorporating the use of apps in our individual and group therapy. We are now ready to jump into development ourselves.

"The Lexile ® measure of text is determined using the Lexile Analyzer ®, a software program that evaluates the reading demand-or readability-of books, articles and other materials. The Lexile Analyzer ® measures the complexity of the text by breaking down the entire piece and studying its characteristics, such as sentence length and word frequency, which represent the syntactic and semantic challenges that the text presents to a reader. The outcome is the text complexity, expressed as a Lexile ® measure, along with information on the word count, mean sentence length and mean log frequency. "

"Our students benefit from learning in an environment where they feel included and where they are taught in ways that recognise and support their needs as individuals, and as part of a learning community. Our commitment to inclusivity means we recognise and value our diverse student body. It also means we take measures to improve the success of specific groups, where research has shown that the route to educational success is less straightforward. "

"It's an online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words. You can easily see the meaning of each by simply placing the mouse cursor over it." Very similar to Visual Thesaurus, but a free resource.

The name "Twurdy" comes from a play on words with the question "Too Wordy?". The philosophy Everyone has different reading abilities. Some people searching the web are university professors and others are 5 year old children. Twurdy has been created to provide people with access to search results that suit their own readability level. What does it do? Twurdy uses text analysis software to "read" each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand. The Goal Twurdy's goal is to provide web searchers with information that is most appropriate for them. This will mean that 10 year olds doing school assignments don't have to click through difficult material to find something they can use. It will also mean that phd students do not have to click through websites designed for kids in order to find what they are looking for.

"Our app features 25 graphic organizers for students to use to organize their thinking while reading or preparing to write. Covers all common comprehension skills: cause /effect, main idea/detail, sequence events, pro/con, story elements, characterization, word meaning, plot, KWL and much more. Save to your device and/or email. Use again and again. Project on board and collaborate with team members. Use to organize notes while reading or use them as a prewrite to school papers. Great tool for instructors as well."

"In my whole teaching career, I've only had a mish mash of tech. Currently, we don't have a class set of anything, but we do have small sets of different tools. Nevertheless, at any given time, it's possible to be 1:1 on the internet in our room. I prefer teaching with the limitations of no class sets, because it means we're constantly reflecting on the merits of each tool for the given purpose"

SpeechTechie is an effort to combine my two passions: fostering language development through contextualized intervention, and interactive educational technologies. My goal is to post several resources a week, and present each resource "through the language lens," meaning with an eye toward how the website or program would be helpful in speech and language interventions.  I hope that this blog will be helpful not only to SLPs but also to ESL/ELL teachers, language arts teachers, special education teachers, or anyone who loves words

Pictures are commonly used to represent language. A variety of picture sets and systems are used within the field of AAC. Many AAC systems use Single Meaning Pictures (SMPs) to represent words, phrases, and sentences, tapping into language metaphors represented by that picture. When using a Minspeak device, these picture metaphors are used systematically to represent language. This systematic use of picture metaphors requires significantly fewer pictures to learn in order to communicate a large body of vocabulary. However, it requires teachers, parents, and therapists to rethink how they assess for and use pictures.

"Ten Simple Steps Toward Universal Design of Online Courses Implementing the principles of universal design in online learning means anticipating the diversity of students that may enroll in your course and planning accordingly. These ten key elements will greatly enhance the accessibility and usability of your course for students with and without disabilities."

"Audio story books are a great means of improving learners reading and listening skills. There are several website resources now offer free audio materials but not all of them are free. To look for quality audio books that are free can take you a lot of time and energy. In this regard and in an attempt to make it easy for educators visiting Educational Technology and Mobile Learning to get a free access to the materials I have been reviewing here about the best websites you can browse for free audio books, I have compiled a list of links in a presentation that you can download and share with your students. I have reviewed all the links included and if you want to read the review just click on any title and you will be directed to the post."

"The iPad offers tools for providing multiple means of representation as well as tools for students to have a variety of options to express their learning. Because it is such a cutting edge technology, it also has the added benefit of engaging students in learning. Simply put, it is a trendy and attractive tool - one that students desire to use. It has the power to be assistive without marking students look different when using it. If we can leverage this technology, the potential to support all students is tremendous."

"This textbook is the result of over a year of collaboration between several individuals. Garth Holman, the Social Studies department chair and 7th grade world history teacher envisioned this project as a way to engage students through the use of technology and help them see the "big picture" that is often lost, or ignored, in history classes. Beginning in the summer of 2006, Garth began working with a student teacher, Michael Pennington (Currently teaching at Chardon Middle School). Another member of this project was Angie White, an intervention specialist at Beachwood Middle School (now at Hilltop Elementary in Beachwood CIty Schools). Angie provided a strong knowledge of curriculum differentiation and techniques to include students of varying abilities. A project of this nature, allows students to disseminate knowledge in a digital format that is congruent to the world in which they live. Our students are digital natives and this new technological paradigm allows for the democratization of knowledge. Wiki technology and the ability to instantaneously communicate across cultures and physical boundaries means that nothing our students create is isolated. We not only want our students to learn, but understand how the puzzle pieces fit to create the world in which we live."

"I will begin with the words of my son, H, when he was 13: "I am not a tragedy and autism is a part of who I am. Mom - autism means I think differently… and that is a good thing. Isn't it?!?""

"The UDL Placemat of Core Apps Serving Learning for All is a starting point to utilizing the exceptional universally designed iPad to meet the needs of a wide range of learners. The iPad's versatile settings and wide range of Apps is also an exceptional tool for representing information in a wide variety of formats to meet the needs of all learners. The list of Apps provided are by no means complete and they will, no doubt, be added to and change with time. The App icons provided are clickable links to descriptors of the App and what the App can do for various users. Further explanation of how to use the App in the classroom will be provided in other published documents"

"As with most polarizing topics, things can get downright ugly when debating them with people who have opposing views. The concept of inclusion is no exception. I believe this is because there are different opinions on what it actually means and what it is supposed to look like. "

"Key Word Sign This is an external link continues to be a most valuable tool in our tool kit when supporting people with communication difficulties. Just because we have a shiny new iPad, it does NOT mean you stop moving those hands! Keep signing people! And your iPad can actually help! This blog post has some apps and ideas to help you use the iPad to support your use of Key Word Sign."

"The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) National Coverage Determination for Speech Generating Devices (IOM 100-2 §50.1), specifies that in order for a speech generating device (SGD) to be considered for reimbursement under the Durable Medical Equipment (DME) benefit, it must be a "dedicated" device. Dedicated device means that the SGD must be a device limited solely to the generation of speech, for use only by the individual who has a severe speech impairment. "