Tahirih Bushey's Autism Games Blog

Tahirih Bushey is a speech and language therapist who works with children who have autism. She describes herself as a "collector and recorder of good games for children with ASD". She blogs at Autism Games and also has maintains the Autism Games website.

The video clip below is one of a series about the Stage Play Games acting class for young people with autism:


Be sure to read Tahirih's post, "Why Games".

You can follow Tahirih on Twitter.

School Psychologist "On the Job" reflections...

This is a copy of my post to the NASP School Psychologist "On the Job" blog:

I'm at home today due to a ill-timed stomach bug. I plan to spend some of my time resting as I work on reports and review some student data.

As the school year comes to an end, I often have mixed feelings. On one hand, like the students, I can't wait until the first day of my summer break (all 5 weeks of it!) and jump into the pool... On the other hand, it is a time of reflection about the school year and what I've done in my little corner of the school psychology world to make things better, and also reflect on the direction I need to take for the upcoming year, giving some thought to current research.

I'd like to devote this post to one of my interests, improving outcomes for youth with disabilities.

In my opinion, the best measurement of intervention outcomes is what happens to the lives of the children and teens as they transition to adulthood. Despite our well-intentioned efforts, often focused at the elementary level, high school students with disabilities continue to drop out of school at an unacceptable rate, especially in urban school districts.

If you skim through recent journal articles in the field of school psychology, it is obvious that most university-sponsored research targets the lower grades. This research is important, but it is not enough, given the data that we have regarding outcomes for youth with disabilities. My hunch is that many university school psychology educators have minimal experience working at the high school level, otherwise we'd have many more journal articles devoted to secondary-level research and best practices!

As a profession, are we losing sight of the bigger picture? How much do we understand what is going on at the high school level regarding third-tier interventions for students who receive special education services? At this level, what are the roles and responsibilities of the school psychologist regarding progress monitoring and assessing treatment integrity? How does this fit in the IEP and transition planning process? Who is responsible for putting together the secondary school psychology road-map?


When I returned to work this school year full time, I hadn't worked in a regular high school setting for about three years. One of my goals was to re-acquaint myself with research related adolescent literacy, drop-out prevention for students with disabilities, and transition planning. Below are some of the resources and links I found along my way:

NASP: School Psychology Forum: Research into Practice

Adolescent Literacy
IES Practice Guide: Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices

The Content Literacy Continuum

ARCC- Appalachia Regional Comprehensive CenterAdolescent Literacy Resources & Toolkit

National Institute for Literacy: What Content-Area Teachers Should Know About Adolescent Literacy pdf (2007)

Note: The above publication has specific strategies for instruction included in the appendix, with some useful graphic organizers.

Learning Disabilities Online: Adolescent Literacy and Older Students with Learning Disabilities (pdf)

National Center for Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) Adolescent Literacy Resources

Edutopia: How To Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom

Meeting the Needs of Significantly Struggling Learners in High School: A Look at Approaches to Tiered Intervention

This publication explains the need for and challenges of implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) at the high school level. This brief introduces the RTI model, illustrates two RTI approaches, discusses implementation issues, and provides a list of resources for more information.


Transition, Dropout-Prevention for Students with Disabilities

Effective Interventions in Dropout Prevention: A Research Synthesis
The Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Intervention on Dropout for Youth with Disabilities pdf
Brian Cobb, Pat Sample, Morgen Alwell and Nikole Johns, Colorado State University

What Works Transition Research Synthesis

Making Connections Across Indicators to Improve Post-School Outcomes
Cathy Hammond, Ph.D., Loujeania Williams Bost, Ph.D.

Evidence-Based Dropout-Prevention Programs

Collecting Post-School Outcome Data: Strategies for Increasing Response Rates pdf

What Works Clearinghouse: Dropout Prevention

National Post-School Outcomes Center

National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) was established in January 2004 to support states in assisting local education agencies to increase school completion rates and decrease dropout rates among students with disabilities. NDPC-SD is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and is part of OSEP’s Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network designed to support the national implementation of provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Our Focus
The mission of the NDPC-SD is to build the capacity of states to provide local education agencies with enhanced services related to dropout prevention and re-entry programs to increase school completion rates for students with disabilities. In keeping with our mission, the primary focus of our Center is threefold:

1.to synthesize research and practice into actionable information that can be readily used by states to develop and/or enhance dropout prevention programs for students with disabilities. This actionable information includes, but is not limited to, producing research-based manuscripts, information monographs, and a toolkit of evidenced-based strategies to serve as technical assistance documents for administrators, educators, policymakers, and other service providers in designing dropout prevention programs.
2.to provide effective technical assistance and dissemination activities to "scale up" the use of research-validated programs and interventions in dropout prevention. We believe effective technical assistance to be a systematic process for transferring knowledge about dropout prevention research, practices that work, and policies to assist states and their stakeholders to accomplish goals and plans for systems change in reducing dropout rates and improving school completion rates for students with disabilities. Part of our agenda will consist of translating work being done in other venues into actionable information that states can readily use.
3.to expand state and local practices through intense technical assistance and coaching, which will lead to the development of model sites—exemplars that others can replicate.

Books
McEWan, Elain K. 40 Ways to Support Struggling Readers in Content Classrooms, Grades 6-12 (2007) National Association of Secondary School Principals & Corwin Press

Beers, Kylene, Probst, Robert.E., & Rief, Linda (Eds.) Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice (2007) Heinemann

Ohler, Jason Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity. (2007) Corwin Press

School Psychology Blog and Podcast with Dr. Gaston Weisz

Dr. Gaston Weisz is a school psychologist who is involved in positive behavioral intervention and supports. He maintains a blog, a wiki, and also podcasts regularly.

If you visit the blog, make sure you scroll down and see his great links posted on his sidebar!

Cobo Cards: On-line Collaborative Flashcards

"Cobocards are virtually created flashcards. You can print them and study offline, edit them again and again, compare with older versions, check the status of your knowledge, upload pictures and graphs, include formula with LaTeX, share your flashcards with friends, set a deadline for exams,..."

You can create a free account at the Cobocards website, and also watch the guided tour.

Revisiting the CITEd Website: Center for Implementing Technology in Education

The CITEd Research Center has expanded a bit since my last visit. It is worth the time to browse around the site.

"CITEd's Research Center offers evidence-based, promising, and emerging practices based on the latest research. Explore how technology can be used to enhance instruction with an emphasis on students with special needs. Browse research and its implications for your classroom, school, and district."

You can now follow CITEd on Twitter.

Here is a sample of the topics and related resources from the CITEd site:

Multimedia Instruction of Social Skills

Learning with Computer Games and Simulations

Universal Design for Learning in a Digital Multimedia Environment

Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners

Technology to Support Writing

Data Systems and Data-Driven Decision Making

Technology to Assess Student Progress

Evidence-Based Practices

Types of Learners

If you have the time, you can take an on-line course, "Differentiating Instruction", through CITEd, via AIRlearning. The course is free, an you can sign-in as a guest.

Also visit NCTI & CITEd's TECHMATRIX

"Each product in the TechMatrix has features that assist students with special needs. For example, products that read text aloud help students with visual impairments and learning disabilities."

The resources included in the TECHMATRIX are also organized by learning supports across all subject areas.

Black Briefcase, a school psychologist's blog..."I didn't know there were people in the building (school) who didn't know how to turn on the computer"

The Black Briefcase blog is written by a school psychologist who writes about "true tales from a School Psychologist. An ongoing monologue about the state of education and what's really happening inside our schools."

I especially liked this post:

Land of the Luddites

"Maybe Luddite is too strong of a word. Technologically naive seems more appropriate. I've been on a crusade to get people in my school to embrace basic technology: email, web-based programs, word processing programs, i.e., nothing fancy. As I've been trying to educate others I've noticed the different levels of technology naivete that people have in my building. My district, like many others in the nation, has moved towards using a web-based program for writing IEPs. The problem has been that only two people out of 6 are comfortable enough with the program to complete an IEP. Everyone else has expressed their trepidation towards using the computer. One of the drawbacks is that the entry fields do not appear as they do within an IEP so that those who are used to completing them by hand do not know what they are looking at on the computer...." -Black Briefcase

This sounds a lot like the EasyIEP program that was adopted by my school district this year! It doesn't map to the real world, and for teachers who aren't used to doing more than sending e-mail, the application can be quite daunting.


Black Briefcase goes on to provide a couple of examples that shed light on why technology is lagging in many many classrooms:

"The last week, I've experienced two different eye-opening moments on the vast technological divide that exists in my school. Those on the inexperienced end amaze me. I was asked by a co-worker how to attach a file to an email. I thought that was the lowest, but that was beaten the next day. I was sitting in my office when I got an internal call from another room. A teacher was on the other line and she asked me if I had turned off the computer when I used it in the lab. I used the lab when I taught my coworkers how to use the web-based program last week. I guess I turn off the computer out of habit; I was finished using it so it seemed like the thing to do. I didn't know that there were people in the building that didn't know how to turn on the computer. So I figured it must have been something complex. I went to the lab to see what was wrong. The LCD projector was working so that was one less problem to deal with, but the screen was black. I thought that maybe something was unplugged and when I looked at the computer, I realized that it wasn't on. I pressed the button on the CPU and the computer sprang to life. It couldn't have been that easy, I figured that I would have to do something more than that. Well it appeared that the teacher was pressing the wrong button. Instead of the on/off switch she was pressing the button that opens the CPU. If you're familiar with old Dell computers then you know what I'm talking about. She was pressing the wrong button and couldn't understand why it wouldn't turn on. That was a new one for me. I thought I had seen it all until that moment." -Black Briefcase

One of Black Briefcase's solutions to address the "luddite" phenomenon is to share tech tips from David Pogue's New York Times blog post. That is a great idea!

Deric Bownds' Mindblog

I came across Deric Bownds' Mindblog via Kevin McGrew's blog today. Deric is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, where he is the director of the Program in the Biology of Mind. He is also the author of the book, Biology of Mind. The book serves as the textbook for a multi-disciplinary course, "Psychology, Anthropology, Neuroscience, and Zoology".

There are a few treasures to be found on the online resources for the book and course!

Educational iPod Touch Apps for Students and Teachers: Eric Sailers' blog

Eric Sailers is a speech and language pathologist and assisted technology specialist who explores new technologies that he's found useful in the schools. Below is Eric's demonstration of applications such as "I Write Words", Wikipanion, Preschool Adventure, Twitterific, Google Mobile, and the calendar.

To demonstrate the iPod Touch,Eric uses the Elmo document camera that projects onto a screen. Note that as Eric demonstrates the Twitterific application, , he navigates to a link to a blog of one of his colleagues, which highlights the way one school is using the Wii as an augmentive communication tool and also an assessment tool for occupational therapy.



Take some time to explore Eric's Speech-Language Pathology Sharing blog. It is full of great information!

Update: Here are two video clips Eric created to prepare for an interview as a finalist for the Cox Communication Innovation in Special Education award. In one of the videos, Eric discusses the EduSim application, a 3D multi-user virtual world platform and authoring toolkit intended for classroom interactive whiteboards.

Interactive Applications for Special Education: Wiimote Whiteboards and iPod Touch in Special Education, Part I


Wiimote Whiteboards and iPod Touch in Special Education, Part II

A teacher explores the multi-touch, multi-user SMARTtable in his classroom

From what I can see, multi-touch, multi-user applications are ideal for students to learn collaborative, cooperative social skills at the same time they learn academic skills. Smart Technologies, well-known in the education world for interactive whiteboards, has unleashed a few tables, known as SMARTTables, in classrooms. One teacher, Tom Barret, is sharing his journey with technology, including the SMARTtable, on-line via his blog, SPACE FOR ME TO EXPLORE

The following is a video of young children doing math on a multi-touch SMARTTable. In order to solve the finger- arithmetic problems, the students must work cooperatively

Addition App - Set to multi-touch finger counts from Tom Barrett on Vimeo.

(In the video, you will see some shapes that Tom mistakenly added, so disregard them as you view the video.)

Here is a quote from Tom's blog about his experience with the addition application:

"I was most pleased with the level of engagement from the children and although on the surface this seems to be a simple application, it definitely requires a level of teamwork that you often do not get.

It is intriguing watching the children’s first attempts and how they realise they need to work together. As the challenge is small scale, once they have been successful they begin to refine their approach, communicate better and so get to later answers quicker."

Michael Haller Discusses Multi-touch, Interactive Surfaces, and Emerging Technologies for Learning

I came across an excellent overview of interactive display technologies that hold promise for education. The link below is a research article written by Michael Haller for BECTA, formally known as the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.

Emerging Technologies for Learning: Interactive Displays and Next Generation Interfaces(pdf)
Becta Research Report (2008) Michael Haller Volume 3 (2008)

"Multi-touch and interactive surfaces are becoming more interesting, because they allow a natural and intuitive interaction with the computer system.

These more intuitive and natural interfaces could help students to be more actively involved in working together with content and could also help improve whole-class teaching activities. As these technologies develop, the barrier of having to learn and work with traditional computer interfaces may diminish.

It is still unclear how fast these interfaces will become part of our daily life and how long it will take for them to be used in every classroom. However, we strongly believe that the more intuitive the interface is, the faster it will be accepted and used. There is a huge potential in these devices, because they allow us to use digital technologies in a more human way." -Michael Haller

Michael Haller works at the department of Digital Media of the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences (Hagenberg, Austria), where he is the head of the Media Interaction Lab.

Michael co-organized the Interaction Tomorrow course at SIGGRAPH 2007, along with Chia Shen, of the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL). Lecturers included Gerald Morrison, of Smart Technologies, Bruce H. Thomas, of the University oof Southern Australia, and Andy Wilson, of Microsoft Research. The course materials from Interaction Tomorrow are available on-line, and include videos, slides, and course notes.

Below is an excerpt from the discription of the Interaction Tomorrow SIGGRAPH 2007 course:

"Conventional metaphors and underlying interface infrastructure for single-user desktop systems have been traditionally geared towards single mouse and keyboard-based WIMP interface design, while people usually meet around a table, facing each other. A table/wall setting provides a large interactive visual surface for groups to interact together. It encourages collaboration, coordination, as well as simultaneous and parallel problem solving among multiple people.

In this course, we will describe particular challenges and solutions for the design of direct-touch tabletop and interactive wall environments. The participants will learn how to design a non-traditional user interface for large horizontal and vertical displays. Topics include physical setups (e.g. output displays), tracking, sensing, input devices, output displays, pen-based interfaces, direct multi-touch interactions, tangible UI, interaction techniques, application domains, current commercial systems, and future research."
It is worth taking the time to look over Haller's other publications. Here is a few that would be good to read:

M. Haller, C. Forlines, C. Koeffel, J. Leitner, and C. Shen, 2009. "Tabletop Games: Platforms, Experimental Games and Design Recommendations." Springer, 2009. in press [bibtex]

A. D. Cheok, M. Haller, O. N. N. Fernando, and J. P. Wijesena, 2009.
"Mixed Reality Entertainment and Art," International Journal of Virtual Reality, vol. X, p. X, 2009. in press [bibtex]

J. Leitner, C. Köffel, and M. Haller, 2009. "Bridging the gap between real and virtual objects for tabletop games," International Journal of Virtual Reality, vol. X, p. X, 2009. in press [bibtex]

M. Haller and M. Billinghurst, 2008.
"Interactive Tables: Requirements, Design Recommendations, and Implementation." IGI Publishing, 2008. [bibtex]

D. Leithinger and M. Haller, 2007. "Improving Menu Interaction for Cluttered Tabletop Setups with User-Drawn Path Menus," Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer Systems, 2007. TABLETOP 07. Second Annual IEEE International Workshop on, pp. 121-128, 2007. [bibtex]

J. Leitner, J. Powell, P. Brandl, T. Seifried, M. Haller, B. Dorray, and P. To, 2009."Flux: a tilting multi-touch and pen based surface," in CHI EA 09: Proceedings of the 27th international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, New York, NY, USA, 2009, pp. 3211-3216. [bibtex]

P. Brandl, J. Leitner, T. Seifried, M. Haller, B. Doray, and P. To, 2009. "Occlusion-aware menu design for digital tabletops," in CHI EA 09: Proceedings of the 27th international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, New York, NY, USA, 2009, pp. 3223-3228. [bibtex]


References from the BECTA paper:

Elrod, S., Bruce, R., Gold, R., Goldberg, D., Halasz, F., Janssen, W., Lee, D., Mc-Call, K., Pedersen, E., Pier, F., Tang, J., and Welch, B., Liveboard: a large interactive display supporting group meetings, presentations, and remote collaboration, CHI ’92 (New York, NY, USA), ACM Press, 1992, pp. 599–607.

Morrison, G., ‘A Camera-Based Input Device for Large Interactive Displays’, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 52-57, Jul/Aug, 2005.

Albert, A. E. The effect of graphic input devices on performance in a cursor positioning task. Proceedings ofthe Human Factors Society 26th Annual Meeting, Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society, 1982, pp. 54-58.

Dietz, P.H., Leigh, D.L., DiamondTouch: A Multi-User Touch Technology, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), ISBN: 1-58113-438-X, pp. 219-226, November 2001.

Rekimoto, J., SmartSkin: An Infrastructure for Freehand Manipulation on Interactive Surfaces,
CHI 2002, 2002.

Kakehi, Y., Iida, M., Naemura, T., Shirai, Y., Matsushita, M.,Ohguro, T., ‘Lumisight Table: Interactive View-Dependent Tabletop Display Surrounded by Multiple Users’, In IEEE Computer
Graphics and Applications, vol. 25, no.1, pp 48 – 53, 2005.

Streitz, N., Prante, P., Röcker, C., van Alphen, D., Magerkurth, C.,Stenzel, R., ‘Ambient Displays and Mobile Devices for the Creation of Social Architectural Spaces: Supporting informal communication and social awareness in organizations’ in Public and Situated Displays: Social and Interactional Aspects of Shared Display Technologies, Kluwer Publishers, 2003. pp. 387-409.

Morrison, G., A Camera-Based Input Device for Large Interactive Displays, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 52-57, Jul/Aug, 2005.

Ishii, H., Underkoffler, J., Chak, D., Piper, B., Ben-Joseph, E., Yeung, L. and Zahra, K., Augmented Urban Planning Workbench: Overlaying Drawings, Physical Models and Digital Simulation. IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality ACM Press, Darmstadt, Germany.

Han, Y., Low-cost multi-touch sensing through frustrated total internal reflection, UIST ’05 (New York), ACM Press, 2005, pp. 115–118.

Hull., J., Erol, B., Graham, J., Ke, Q., Kishi, H., Moraleda, J., Olst, D., Paper-Based Augmented Reality. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence (Esbjerg, Denmark,November 28-30, 2007). ICAT ’07. IEEE, 205-209.

Haller, M., Leithinger, D., Leitner, J., Seifried, T., Brandl, P., Zauner, J., Billinghurst, M., The shared design space. In SIGGRAPH ’06: ACM SIGGRAPH 2006 Emerging technologies, page 29, New York, NY,USA, 2006. ACM Press.

Research email: emtech@becta.org.uk
Main email: becta@becta.org.uk
URL: www.becta.org.uk

(This was also posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.)

Technology and Children and Teens with Asthma: The Vena Wireless Asthma Inhaler

Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness of children in the U.S.

According to the American Lung Association, "Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness of children in the U.S. In 2006, an estimated 6.8 million children under age 18 (almost 1.2 million under age 5) currently had asthma, 4.1 million of which had an asthma attack, and many others have "hidden" or undiagnosed asthma. In 2006, the highest current prevalence rate was seen in those 5-17 years of age (106.3 per 1,000 population), with rates decreasing with age. Overall, the rate in those under 18 (92.8 per 1,000) was much greater than those over 18 (72.4 per 1,000). Asthma is the third leading cause of hospitalization among children under the age of 15 and one of the most common causes of school absenteeism."

Technology is here to help combat these statistics.

According to a recent CNET article written by Dong Ngo, Cambridge Consultants is offering a wireless asthma inhaler that links patients with health care providers via wireless technologies and electronic medical records such as Google Health or Microsoft Health Vault.

"The platform, called Vena, employs two emerging wireless standards, including the Infrared-based IEEE11073 and the Bluetooth Medical Device Profile. Vena embeds the two into a single chip as the combination of them ensures compatibility of data exchanged between different types of devices and the security in the transmitting of medical data."

Design Matters

The design of the Vena inhaler is stylish, and I'm sure that children and teens with asthma wouldn't mind carrying this around at school.

A less-attractive alternative for the connected teen is the bulkier prototype, a collaboration between SiliconSky GPS and David Van Sickle, a University of Wisconsin researcher. One major problem with this prototype is the design. How many teens would want to flash this thing around?

According to another CNET article by Dong Ngo, "The prototype GPS inhaler is packed with technologies. It features Assisted GPS, a GSM modem, integral antennas, an embedded microprocessor, and an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery. The battery allows for up to 10 days of operation between charges."

The GPS inhaler might be useful and usable, but will not used as medically intended unless it has a great "look & feel".

With the increase in the numbers of children and teens with asthma, it is important to design on-the-go medical devices that increase compliance and healthy choices. It has to be cool.

Some references from the American Lung Association:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey Raw Data, 2006. Analysis by the American Lung Association, Research and Program Services Division using SPSS and SUDAAN

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy Youth! Health Topics: Asthma. December 7, 2007. Available here.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Healthy Youth! Health Topics: Asthma. December 7, 2007. Available here. Accessed on December 20, 2007.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics, Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics. The State of Childhood Asthma, United States, 1980-2005. Number 381, December 12, 2006 (Revised December 29, 2006). Available here. Accessed on December 20, 2007.

Classroom 2.0 has more than 22,000 members!

Classroom 2.0 is a fantastic on-line community of over 22,000 members who are interested in the use of collaborative technologies in education. Many of the members maintain blogs, either on the Classroom 2.0 website or independently. Classroom 2.0 offers a range of resources, including a wiki, "how-to" information and links, free live workshops, and a forum. Members are provided with their own page and blog space.

One of the great things about Classroom 2.0 is that the members are quick to share links to great resources. If you are just beginning to explore collaborative and emerging technologies, this on-line community is a great place to start!

Also take a look at Steve Hargadon's blog. "K-12 Educational Technology: Web 2.0, Free and Open Source Software, and the Future of Education." Steve is the founder of Classroom 2.0

Another good resource is the International Edublogger's Directory. The directory was created by Patricia Donaghy, in January 2008, after she responded to a Classroom 2.0 thread I started at the time, "Let's Share Links to our Blogs!". The thread is still active.



Patricia Donaghy's Blogs:
Using ICT in Further Education
Free Resources for Education

Gaze system developed by IT University of Copenhagen provides low-cost means interacting with computers via large-screen displays.

The ITU Gaze Group at the IT University of Copenhagen has been doing some very interesting work to develop a low-cost eye-tracking system that can benefit people who have severe mobility limitations. The source code is free and open-source, which is a good thing, since commercial gaze tracking systems can run up in the thousands of dollars. The project was sponsored by COGAIN, a network of people working on interface technologies to benefit people with disabilities.

The following video shows how a web-cam based gaze system can be used along with a large interactive display:

Gazetyping on large projected displays:


ITU Gazetracker Quick Guide - provides demonstrations of how set up the gaze tracker remotely and also how to set it up using a web camera that is near the user's eye:




This shows how you can calibrate and set up the tracker system:
ITU Gaze Tracker:







I have a new student at my school who might benefit from this system!

From the move + play + learn blog: iPod Touch in the Elementary Classroom

I recently came across the move + play + learn blog, maintained by Dr. Michael A. Evans, Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech, and graduate students in the instructional design and technology program. A recent post on the blog discussed how 40 iPod Touch devices were "air dropped" to an elementary school for a math and language art teacher to use with their students. The above picture shows how the teachers used their creativity to establish a space to store the iPods when not in use. He'll be posting more about the iPod Touch airdrop in the future.


Dr. Evans supports the use of games in educational settings and posted the following interview with Dr. James Paul Gee about ways videogames can be used for learning and ongoing assessment.


"Grading with Games: An Interview with James Paul Gee"

Dr. Gee is the author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003, Second Edition 2007), and Good Video Games + Good Learning: Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning, and Literacy

Establishing Joint Attention with Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders using the HP TouchSmart PC and NUI Suite Snowflake Software

I've been using my HP TouchSmart PC at work with students with disabilities. I'm experimenting with the NUI Suite SnowFlake on my TouchSmart.

The software utilizes a plug-in from NextWindow that allows for more than one touch on the screen at a time. I found that interacting with the Particles application delighted students with severe autism.

I found that many of the activities included in the Snowlake software provided opportunities for the students to establish joint attention. I also noticed an increase in the number of vocalizations and/or verbalizations among the students. Of course, this was NOT a scientific study.

NUI Suite Snowflake Multi-Touch Applications (Demonstrated on a touch-table, but the effect is similar on the HP TouchSmart.)

Note: The Particle application starts at 3:00 - the demo is set to show how it could be used as a social activity in a bar, but it is clear to see the possibilities for use with students.

Update: Here is the SnowFlake application running on a TouchSmart:


More about the HP TouchSmart PC in education:
Interacting and Communicating with HP TouchSmart Notes: Photos, Video, Audio, and More


Joint Attention:

Definition of Joint Attention from UConn:
"Joint Attention is the process of sharing one’s experience of observing an object or event, by following gaze or pointing gestures. It is critical for social development, language acquisition, cognitive development…"

Establishing joint attention is an important step in the development of social interaction skills among young people who have autism spectrum disorders.

Joint Attention Study Has Implication for Understanding Autism Science Daily, 9/29/07
Asperger-Advice: Joint Attention
Autism Games: Joint Attention and Reciprocity
Why is joint attention a pivotal skill in autism?
Tony Charman

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2003 February 28; 358(1430): 315–324. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2002.1199.

Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Children and Teens: The Challenge Software Program

Brad Chapin is a psychologist and director of community based services for a mental health center.

Brad developed the subscription-based online Challenge Software Program to teach children and teens how to problem-solve and moderate their thinking processes. Students who have significant mental health problems do not always have the coping strategies they need to prevent things from becoming extremely out of hand, as in the case of violent fights, school shootings, or suicide.

Links to information, including video tutorials, about Challenge Software:
What it does
How it works (This is important to view, as it describes the assessment process, the scenarios, and the games.)
Pricing and Features
Endorsements
Supporting Research
News and Events
Contact

The program provides a scenario approach to assessing the child or teen's problem solving skills and coping strategies, using video scenarios and an easy-to-use assessment interface.

Brad maintains a blog that complements the Challenge Software Program. Here are links to a couple of his posts:

Teaching Cognitive-Behavioral Strategies to Small Groups of Children

School Violence and Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention

Brad Chapin is a member of Classroom 2.0, the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education.

Cross-Post: Henry Jenkins, Games and Learning, Media Literacy & Quest to Learn School in NYC

Henry Jenkins will be moving from MIT to USC Annenburg School of Communication and the Cinematic Arts School. He'll be teaching courses such as "Transmedia Storytelling" and "New Media Literacies".

"...there is a learning ecology now, one that takes place outside of the classroom in the after school world...and right now, schools are cutting themselves out of the learning ecology by blocking games, by blocking YouTube, by putting filters on the computers. They block off ways the students are technologically connected, from the best ways of learning..and they leave those students who are trapped behind the participation gap from having access to the experiences that prepare the technically literate for the future."

"..Good teachers are fighting a valiant battle just to be able to access the materials of YouTube .. the other day we discovered that students could not access online resources about Moby Dick, the great American novel, because it had the word "Dick" in it."

My high school blocks websites about games. TeacherTube is blocked, too!

In the above video, a school that integrates the use of games within the curriculum is mentioned. The school is Quest to Learn, scheduled to open for the 2009-2010 school year. It is known as "New York's school for today's digital kids".

"Quest supports a dynamic curriculum that uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences for students. Games and other forms of digital media also model the complexity and promise of “systems.” Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century."




Institute of Play (A partner of the Quest to Learn school)
Quest to Learn Press Links
A Win-Win Scenario: "Game School" Aims to Engage and Educate
Eliza Strickland, Wired 8/6/07

AccessApps: Open-Source Assistive Technology from RSC

From the AccessApps Webpage:

"AccessApps is an initiative developed by the Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres in cooperation with JISC TechDis. It consists of over 50 open source and freeware assistive technology applications which can be entirely used from a USB stick on a Windows computer (here is a full list of applications on offer)."

"AccessApps will run without needing to install anything on a computer and provide a range of e-learning solutions to support writing, reading and planning as well as visual and mobility difficulties."

AccessApps has a good help page that includes "how-to" information in video format, a step-by-step guide that you can download, and a FAQ page. Categories of applications include a free installable screenreader, games, utilities, presentation tools, multimedia tools, keyboard/mouse alternatives, visual support, reading and writing support, planning and organization, productivity software, and guides.

AccessApps won an award from the Scottish Open Source Award 2008.There is more information about the various applications on the AccessApps download page.