UPDATE: TRUESCORES blog post: Trends in Alternative Assessments (with links and resources about/for the "2-percent" group)

I recently discovered an interesting post, Trends in Alternative Assessments, written by Natasha J. Williams, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Psychometric and Research Services at Pearson. The post was published in the TRUESCORES blog, and raises some very good points regarding the assessment of students who are assessed using the "2 % test", a term used in educational circles that describes alternative assessments that are given to students who have cognitive disabilities. One of the goals behind this is to measure AYP (adequate yearly progress.) for this group of students.

At the high school level in my state, North Carolina, the "2-percent test" refers to the OCS Extend 2 exam. Many of the students within this category are classified as Intellectually Disabled, Mild,  and function cognitively  below the 3rd percentile for their age -  at or below two standard deviations from the mean.  The OCS Extend 2 exams were recently eliminated in North Carolina.  Current 9th grade students in the OCS program will be required to take Algebra I, Biology, and English 9 exams at the end of the 10th grade.  A cohort of students will take these exams at the end of the current school year. 

How will these changes impact they way we conceptualize and measure transition outcomes for these students?  In the US, in many high school,  students who receive special education services have a much higher drop-out rate when compared with their peers.   We haven't solved this problem!   Those within the "2 percent" range need a high degree of support to develop the skills needed join the workforce and participate more independently within the community.

Here are some quotes from the  blog.  I encourage you to read the original post!

"There are differences in opinion about how students should be performing on the 2% test. If students perform poorly is that to be expected because they shouldn’t be able to perform well on grade level material or does that indicate that the test has not been modified enough for these students to be able to show what they know? If students perform well on the assessment does that mean that the modifications have been done well or that the wrong students are taking the test? We would like to think that the intent of the legislation was for states to develop a test that assesses grade-level content in such a way that students could be successful. Even so, we have heard the argument that if students taking the 2% test are not doing well they are still performing better than they would have if they had taken the general test."


"Growth models for both the 1% and 2% assessments are also being developed. Again, the type of growth expected from the students taking these assessments is questionable, especially for the 1%. The question is how to capture the types of growth these students do show. Models are being implemented now, and we are curious to see what the evaluation of these models will show. Are we able to capture growth for these students?"


One of my concerns is that no-one is exactly sure how to appropriately measure AYP for students with cognitive disabilities:

The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Act: A Progress Report (2007)
Scott Swail, Educational Policy Institute, Betsy Brand, American Youth Policy Forum  (National Council on Disabilities).
This 2007 progress reports includes a discussion about  issues related to the assessment of students with disabilities who fall within the lowest 1% and 2% of the population.

"Most interviewees voiced these two concerns: first, education policy needs to recognize that some students will need more time to meet grade-level proficiency standards, and second, we are too bound by the traditional structure of education and the requirement to complete high school in four years."  Recommendations begin on page 97.

Additional reading:
NCLB and Special Populations, Selected Readings (Pearson)
NASSP President Testifies Before Congress (2007)


RELATED READING AND RESOURCES
Although some of the resources below focus on K-8 students, they may be appropriate for assisting high school students with cognitive disabilities:


Universal Design for Learning Guidelines
Video Series:  Universal Design for Learning
On-line Planning for All Learners Template
National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials
CAST: Center for Applied Special Technology
Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities pdf (Richard Jackson, National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum
Developing Effective Fractions Instruction for K-8 Students pdf
IES Practice Guide, What Works Clearinghouse
National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities
Special Education Resources, Grades 7-12
What Works Transition Research Synthesis
Evidence-Based Secondary Transition Practices
Resources for Implementing Evidence-Based Interventions Across Transition-Related Indicators
Transition Assessment Toolkit
Predictors of Post-School Success

Chid-Computer Interaction: A Featured Community at the Upcoming CHI 2011 Conference

During CHI 2010, I signed up for the  "Designing for the iChild" course.  In one afternoon, I learned more than I had expected, especially the technique called "Layered Elaboration", a collaborative design strategy that involves inter-generational teams of children and adults.  One of the leaders of this course was Allison Druin, Associate Professor and director of theHuman-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland.  Dr. Druin's focus is in the area of child-computer interaction and how children can be meaningfully involved as partners in the design process.  

The quote below, found on the HCIL Children as Design Partners website, explains why this is so important:

"We have a chance to change technology, but more importantly we have a chance to change the life of a child. Every time a new technology enables a child to do something they never dreamed of, there are new possibilities for the future."  -Allison Druin

In my work as a school psychologist, I use technology with students quite often, especially when I'm at Wolfe, a program for students who have more complex disabilities, including severe autism.  I have been fortunate to have a new SMARTBoard at my fingertips, and access to the school's SMARTtable.  I learn from my students every day.

I believe that we are only at the "tip of the iceberg" with this sort of technology- and related applications such as the iPad and similar devices.   In my experience, well designed technologies and applications can open up a meaningful window to the world for children, teens, and others with disabilities.

Most of the information below was taking from the CHI 2011 conference website:

About the Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) community:

"At CHI, the CCI community will want to attract papers and contributions that represent real advances in the understanding of, or development and refinement of methods for, child computer interaction. It will also seek to unearth groundbreaking innovations addressing the needs, capabilities and preferences of children that have the potential to become reference works for developments in this field."

"By its very nature, The CCI community will have to be divergent in its thinking at CHI; it must also be about two of the mainstream CHI communities – engineering and design, but will potentially also be concerned with many of the communities of technologies (Smart devices, surfaces, mobile), of experiences (Play, Learning, Communication) and of methods (participatory design, evaluation)." ....

"Child Computer Interaction is a new community for CHI. It is a place for contributions where a method or a design is proposed that is especially suited to children and that could not sensibly be easily adapted for adults.  

We are keen to have contributions to all the usual CHI tracks but are also offering four special tracks for our own extra special community. These are:

• Child Partnership Projects (CPP): A design competition for teams that include children.

• Participatory Papers: Scholarly publications that are disseminated for children readers. (i.e. written in a different way)

• Lessons from the Trenches: Targeting industrial cases and experiences. A lively venue where experiences can be exchanged, and researchers can be exposed to the realities of industrial practice in this domain.

• Theatre pieces: High quality video contributions, available in a library after the conference, of methods that can be re used and learned from."

Child-Computer Interaction Chairs:
Janet C. Read
University of Central Lancashire
Panos Markopoulos
Eindhoven University of Techology
Allison Druin
University of Maryland
childcomputerinteraction@chi2010

RELATED
Walsh, G., Druin, A., Guha, ML, Foss, B., Golub, E., Hatley, L (2009)  [PDF] Layered Elaboration: A New Technique for Co-Design with Children.  ACM CHI 2009 

Last year, I attended CHI 2010 and participated in a workshop about the next generation of HCI and education.  It was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas with people from all over the world who are interested in emerging technologies, kids, and education.  I plan to attend CHI 2011 in Vancouver, Canada next May 7-11, and even though the conference is months away, I can barely wait.  The good news it that the Child-Computer Interaction community will have an important presence at the 2011 ACM CHI conference.  I wanted to share a little bit about this development on this blog. 

Note: This was also posted on the Interactie Multimedia Technology blog.

Kids with Autism DO grow up! Learn more about Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism

"On July 15, 2010, Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism hosted a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C. that brought together federal legislators, national policymakers and advocates for adults with autism -- including individuals who have autism -- to discuss priorities for action in the public and private sectors that address the increasing and unmet demand for effective services for adolescents and adults with the disorder."

RELATED
Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism Congressional Briefing Videos


Must-reads about what needs to take place within our communities to prepare for the rising number of young people with autism who are approaching their young adult years!
Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism 2009 Think Tank Report (pdf)
Executive Summary of the AFAA National Town Hall Meeting (pdf) 11/13/2009

Digital Storytelling Resources: Make Me a Story (Lisa C. Miller)

When I first became involved with digital storytelling, there were very few resources around.  I'm  updating my resources and as I go through this process, I'd like to share some of my newest finds.  Lisa Miller's Make Me a Story: Teaching Writing through Digital Storytelling is a good reference for people working with K-5 students who want to support writing in a way that is meaningful to young people. This is especially important, since most children entering the fifth grade this school year were born in 2000, and their "formative years" have been influenced by the explosion of digital technologies.


Make Me a Story


Podcast:  Lisa Miller on Digital Storytelling

EduTech: ClassDroid, Collaborative PrimaryPad, Android Apps - Lots of Possibilities!

ClassDroid is an application designed for Android-based smartphones. It lets you take a picture of the student's work, or of the student, or anything else,  and instantly upload it to the student's on-line portfolio. 


ClassDroid is available for free from the Android Market. According to Johnny McClear, the app "supports images being stored on the wordpress site which can be accessed through a web browser on any web-enabled device. Parents and pupils can then view their work and grades online."

Here is a demo video:


PrimaryPad is a "web-based word processer designed for schools that allows pupils and teachers to work together in real time". 

Primarypad - Etherpad Guide from ian addison on Vimeo.

PrimaryPad is a clone of EtherPad, a web-based collaborative word processor application that is now part of Google.  It is similar to PiratePad, which is powered by EtherPad. The EtherPad code is open source and can be found at http://code.google.com/p/etherpad/   Additional information can be found at http://etherpad.org/

Exciting Ways to Use Primary Pad in the Classroom 
Primary Paint goes public Beta! (Primary Paint is part of Primary Pad, I think.)


RELATED
John McLear's School Technology
Top 10 Google Android Apps for School #education (John McLear)
Richard Byrne's blog: Free Technology for Teachers

(Cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.)

Laying the Groundwork for Interactive Video Activities for Students with Special Needs: Community Places Road Trip

Followers of this blog know that I've been experimenting with videos set to calming music for teachers to use with students who have significant special needs, including severe autism.  


One of the schools I serve as a school psychologist has interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in every classroom, including the room that I use with students.   Since most of our IWBs are new SMARTboards that provide good screen resolution and a decent sound system,  I use high-definition video for my projects.


Many of the students are learning about the community- community places, community and safety/road signs, community workers, community helpers, and so forth.    On a recent weekend afternoon, I went for a ride with my husband in his convertible car, with the top down, around part of the countryside of Union County, NC, and then up and down the main drag, I-74, between Indian Trail and Monroe.   I was able to capture just about every sign we passed.   I edited the video to about 12 minutes.  I used more upbeat music for this video, selected from the collection in iMovie.   


The video, as it stands, can be used on an IWB, and stopped at any point for a discussion about the scene.  I was amazed that the students paid attention to the entire clip.  They especially enjoyed it when I stopped the video at a scene of about a dozen shiny new trucks - we counted all of the trucks.  This particular class has a field trip planned to visit Target soon, so we stopped the clip to look at Target.

My plan is to transform this video (or a similar clip) into an interactive video, and create hot spots that students can touch to obtain additional information or activities that tie into various scenes.

For now, "low tech" activities will be OK. One idea I had was to provide the students pictures of the various signs in the video, and have them go on a virtual treasure hunt.  One student could be in control of the video and stop it when requested by another student who "spies" the sign.

Link - Autism Research: For Measuring And Analyzing Child Behavior, NSF Awards $10M To Develop Computing Techniques (Georgia Tech)

Autism Research: For Measuring And Analyzing Child Behavior, NSF Awards $10M To Develop Computing Techniques


"A team led by the Georgia Institute of Technology has received a $10 million "Expeditions in Computing" award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop novel computing techniques for measuring and analyzing the behavior of children."

"These technologies will be used to enable new approaches for identifying children at risk for autism and other developmental delays. In addition, these methods may potentially improve the delivery and evaluation of treatment."

RELATED

Carnegie Mellon University joins NSF-funded initiative to research behavioral disorders

Autism Research Group at Georgia Tech

Information below was taken from the Georgia Tech Autism Research Group website:

Faculty

Dr. Gregory Abowd	Full, Distinguished Professor
Dr. Thad Starner	Associate Professor
Dr. Jim Rehg	Associate Professor
Dr. Rosa Arriaga	Senior Research Scientist

Students

Name	Role	Projects
Tracy Westeyn	Ph.D. Student	Early Detection via Smart Toys, Wearable sensors
Ping Wang	Ph.D. Student	Early Detection via Computer Vision
Maithilee Kunda	Ph.D. Student	Cognitive Modeling of Autism
Nazneen	Ph.D. Student	SenseCam
Fatima Boujarwah	Ph.D. Student	Refl-ex-Teaching Social Problem Solving
Yi Hon	Masters Student	SenseCam
Hyorim Park	Masters Student	Early Detection
Aaron Bozorg	Masters Student	Supporting Data Collection in Special Education settings
Sudarsun Kannan	Masters Student	RapidABC
Hwajung Hong	Masters Student	Refl-ex Teaching Social Problem Solving

Link: Mobile Learning in the UK: MoLeNET Research Article "Modernizing Education and Training: Mobilizing Technology for Learning"

I've been following the research about learning and mobile/handheld devices since 2003,  and can now say with confidence that the era of mobile learning has arrived.   Netbooks, smartphones, e-readers, and iPads are in the hands of people of all ages, and more people are spending time learning "on-the-go" - for informal learning as well as learning that is attached to a formal course of study.


Thanks to the hard work of researchers around the world, there is a growing body of scholarly research that supports this trend.  The following article, published this year (2010), focuses on research in the UK, but is worth reviewing by educators (and learners) in the US and other countries:


MODERNIZING EDUCATION AND TRAINING: MOBILIZING TECHNOLOGY FOR LEARNING
http://www.moleshare.org.uk/molehole/7032BFB756/100103.pdf


Authors: Jill Attewell, Carol Savill-Smith, Rebecca Douch, Guy Parker
Mobile Learning (MoLENET) Program

Summary
"In recent years there have been amazing advances in consumer technology. The Mobile Learning Network (MoLeNET) initiative has enabled colleges and schools to harness some of this technology in order to modernise aspects of teaching, learning and training. The result has been improvements in learner engagement, retention, achievement and satisfaction. This publication draws on the experiences of the 11,253 learners and 2261 teachers involved in the 2nd year of MoLeNET. It also reports the findings of research which sought evidence of the impact of introducing handheld and wireless technologies for learning. This evidence has been collected and analysed by LSN Technology Enhanced Learning Research Centre researchers and by practitioner researchers trained and supported by LSN. The handheld technologies used by MoLeNET 2 learners included mobile phones, MP3/MP4 players (e.g. iPods), iPod Touch, netbooks, gaming devices (i.e. Nintendo DS and Sony PSP) and various tiny cameras and specialist scientific technologies. 


Positive reactions from practitioners include one teacher commenting that the introduction of mobile technology has had more impact on their teaching than anything else in the last 10 years adding 'there is no doubt that mobile technology has a place in the classroom'. Another reported that 'learners in outreach centres or work-based environments felt better supported' and a senior manager told researchers 'it has transformed teaching and learning in some areas. It's opened up a world of new possibilities'."

Jill Attwell is the Research Manager and Carol Savill-Smith is the Development Officer at the Research Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning  Both have been involved in research about mobile learning for many years. Below are a few links to some of their previous work:

The use of computer and video games for learning – a review of the literature for the m-learning project.  Carol Savill-Smith, Alice Mitchell, published in September 2004

Learning with Mobile Devices   Papers from the MLEARN 2003 conference, Carol Savill-Smith Jill Attewell, published in May 2004

The use of palmtop computers for learning – a review of the literature for the m-learning project.  Carol Savill-Smith, Phillip Kent, published in August 2003

Computer games and simulations for adult learning – case studies from practice, Carol Savill-Smith,  Sara de Freitas and Jill Attewell, published in December 2006.


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Universities and Libraries Move to the Mobile Web  
Alan W. Aldrich, Educause

iPad Apps: Supporting Communication for Young People with Autism (& Links to Moms with Apps)

Have you ever watched a kid pick up an iPad for the first time and just go with it? 


Some parents have found that the same is true for their of children who have autism.  The  iPad is a great way to support learning and communication in that it is user-friendly and easy for children- and parents- to understand. 


Here are two videos that were shared with my by Liz Ditz,  author of the "I Speak of Dreams" blog.  The first video is of a boy with autism. The second video is of his little sister, interacting with the iPad to watch a "home-made" social story about a family trip to a coffee shop, created in the "Stories to Learn" app.


iPAD Spelling App

YOUTUBE INFO:

"Another too-cool app for his iPad, this one all about writing as well as spelling (http://itunes.apple.com/app/iwritewords-handwriting-game/id307025309?mt=8). For each letter in the word, the app says the letter, has him trace it in super-easy guided steps, and his written letter replaces the original letter in the word (at top of screen). When he finishes, the word appears in his handwriting. The program then spells it and pronounces it, displays a kid's illustration of the word -- and Leo gets to shake the original letters into a hole in the corner of the screen. LOVE IT."

STORIES TO LEARN

YOUTUBE INFO:
"Our family (and a friend) worked together to make this social story about visiting our local coffee shop for my son with autism. We used Stories2Learn (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stories2learn/id348576875?mt=8), on our iPad. It was so easy! And he loves it. In fact he loves it so much I had to have his sister demo it, as he loves to play the voiceovers over and over again. :)"


RESOURCES
Moms with Apps
Moms with Apps for Special Needs
Moms with Apps:  Characteristics of great apps for kids with autism


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Posts on the I Speak of Dreams blog:

• What Are The Most Important Research Questions About Interventions for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders?
• What Are The Most Important Research Questions About Interventions for Learning Disabilities?

Cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.

Accessible Instructional Materials: Exploring the On-line AIM Navigator and Universal Design for Learning Resources

The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials at Cast has an on-line interactive program for IEP teams to use when planning for students who require accessible instructional materials.  Here's the description from the AIM Navigator website:


"The AIM Navigator is a process facilitator that guides the work of a collaborative team as they work through the AIM-related needs of individual students. It is not a screening or diagnostic tool. The Navigator consists of a series of guiding questions to assist teams with decision-making about need, selection, acquisition, and use of accessible instructional materials. Learning supports for completing each decision-making step are available throughout....As a team works through the decision-making process, the Navigator collects the decisions made along with any notes entered into text boxes at each point. All are included in a summary that can be viewed at any time, saved to a local computer, or printed."


UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING AT A GLANCE
"Today's methods are hands-on, interactive, engaging, so hopefully by doing that and having them (the students) actually doing something, instead of reading about sugar molecules, we're going to demonstrate it in a different way."  (Discussion about a UDL science lesson)


David Rose on Implementing Universal Design for Learning


RELATED
National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials
National Center on Universal Design for Learning
Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age:  Universal Design for Learning
(On-line interactive version of the 2002 book of the same name.  Still very good!)
Universal Design for Learning Research
UDL in Detail:  UDL Guideline - Version 1.0

Autism Every Day: Take 7 minutes and watch this video! Update- read the comments about the controversy this video generated...

UPDATED COMMENT:

The "Autism Every Day" video came to my attention from a parent of a young adult with severe autism who also works as an advocate. The video was also shared by a director of an advocacy/support agency who previously worked with students with severe autism and cognitive delays as a special educator.

After I posted this video, I received a comment from Liz Ditz about the controversy that this video generated within the autism community. Part of the problem is that the video did not depict any positive scenes. For example, if the purpose of the video's creators was to generate awareness of the needs of families raising children with autism, it might have been useful to devote some time showing families who experienced positive outcomes and specific examples of the supports have been put into place.

My deep concern is that in my state (and others),  funding was significantly cut for community support services for young people with severe autism, as well as for young people with severe psychiatric disorders, as well as their families. Special education funds were cut, and we have been prepared to expect a "funding cliff" at the end of the 2010-11 school year.  Related services providers in the schools, such as speech/language therapists and occupational therapists have larger caseloads than in the past, and in some cases, are not replaced if they move.

Below are my original comments, written in an attempt to bring awareness that our schools, community support agencies, and health care systems need to provide more supports for the growing number of children, teens, and young adults with autism spectrum disorders and their families.

ORIGINAL COMMENT
The children with autism in this video are young, and in no time will reach their teen and young adult years. I work with teens and young adults with severe autism in my job as a school psychologist. We need to prepare our middle and high schools for the increased numbers of young people coming through the doors.

If you know of a similar video that targets the needs of teens and young adults with autism, please let me know, and I will share it on this blog and my on-line social networks. I would be willing to help produce a similar video locally, with the cooperation of parents, if one has not yet been produced.

Note: This video will include positive vignettes!

Reflections on Technology: Interactive Whiteboards, School Psychology, and Speech & Language Services...

Background:  For those of you who are new to this blog, I work as a school psychologist in a public school district in North Carolina. During the mid 2000's, I took a variety of computer courses, leading up to a decision to work part time while taking graduate courses part-time such as human-computer interaction, games, information visualization, ubiquitous computing, VR, etc. I returned to work full time in 2008, due to the economic downturn.

I continue to maintain my passion for technology that supports natural user interaction, and share my interests on this blog and to a lesser extent, two other blogs.  I initially started blogging because it was a requirement for one of my courses, and found that my blogs served me well as on-line filing cabinets.

Update:  I don't usually post much about my work on this blog, but I have some exciting things to share.

New School Year, New SMARTBoard: I'd like am excited about the upcoming school year because my "home" school, Wolfe, a program that serves mostly teens and young adults up to age 22 who have more severe disabilities (including autism), now has an interactive whiteboard in every classroom.

School started for Wolfe students on July 26th, and three more whiteboards were installed.  One of the new SMARTboards is in the speech and language room, along with a multi-touch SMARTTable the school received last April, one is in the Art/Work Adjustment room, and one is in the room I use with small groups of students, which is used for music one day a week.

Although I have used interactive whiteboards in my work with students for several years, this is the first year that I have had one available to me most of the time in a school. Since most of the teachers received their IWBs over the past year, there is a pressing need to figure out what works, why it works, and how to create useful interactive content that is appropriate for the needs of students who have severe or multiple disabilities. We really can't wait.  

Why is this important to me?

Observations of positive changes:

Students who previously had limited interest in applications on the computer, or a limited attention span for such activities, demonstrate a high degree of interest and engagement with the activities on the IWBs we've tried so far.  Many students who do not attend to learning materials, or only for brief periods of time, actively look at the IWB screen and even interacting with it, and smile.   Some students who rarely-or never- speak sometimes vocalize more often during IWB activities!   Some are making connections between learning materials and what they interact with on the screen, something that simply did not happen previously.  Some students who rarely established eye contact with others or demonstrated joint attention do so during IWB activities, something I discussed in a post on the TechPsych blog.

Technology and my role as a school psychologist:
Designing effective interventions is part of my job as a school psychologist, and mixing interactive whiteboards and interventions is fairly uncharted territory.  I know that there are probably a few other school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and speech/language therapists out there who are wondering what to make of this technology and the students they serve directly, or indirectly through consultation.  There isn't much literature about this topic, so it is difficult to know what is truly "evidence based".

We are in the process of discovery. Within a school that has an IWB in every classroom, serving students with the most complex needs within the school district,  how can I best follow professional school psychology practices(pdf) regarding the provision of direct and indirect services. Some of these expectations are listed below:

"School psychologists promote the development and maintenance of learning environments that support resilience and academic growth, promote high rates of academic engaged time, and reduce negative influences on learning and behavior."

"School psychologists use information and assistive technology resources to enhance students’ cognitive and academic skills."

"School psychologists work with other school personnel to develop, implement, and evaluate effective interventions for increasing the amount of time students are engaged in learning."

"School psychologists facilitate design and delivery of curricula to help students develop effective behaviors, such as self-regulation and self-monitoring, planning/ organization, empathy, and healthy decision-making."

Working towards solutions:
I work closely with my colleague Kelly Cross, a speech and language therapist who serves Wolfe school and two classrooms of students with severe autism at a "regular" elementary school. Kelly also serves as the assistive technology and augmentative communication consultant for our school district.  She's used interactive applications and web resources for many years along with more traditional "hands-on" materials,  but like me, has had limited access to IWB's until recently.  She now has a SMARTboard in her room, along with the portable multi-touch SMARTTable Wolfe received last April.  We work with many of the same students, so with the influx of IWBs in our school, we've stepped up our collaboration.

One of Kelly's challenges is to figure out ways for teachers to integrate assistive technology and/or augmentative communication systems into their work with students during activities that involve interactive whiteboards.   Most of the research the area of assistive technology/aug com focuses on the use of technology to access applications as they are displayed on laptops or computer monitors, or factors related to the use of individual communication devices. The vSked project, led by Dr. Gillian Hayes at the University of California at Irvine, is on the right track in that it incorporates the use of a large interactive display that was used with students with autism, along with smaller hand-held communication systems, which I've discussed in a previous post.



vSKED in action

Workshop Presentation
This past week, Kelly and I presented at a workshop held in the Arlington VA school district that focused on the use of interactive whiteboards and related applications and web resources with students with special needs.  We shared some of the exciting things we've noticed with our students and shared "before and after" examples.  Included in the presentation were some of the video clips I quickly put together during the first days of school that had an impressive positive impact with students when they were used during interactive whiteboard activities. (Some of these video clips can be found in a previous post: Video clips that help students with autism learn and feel calm at the same time!)

During the workshop, we discussed a few guiding principals, such as the "least dangerous assumption" and the concept of Universal Design for Learning.   We also provided a sampling of resources previously used on the "small screen" appear to powerful when used with students interacting on the larger whiteboard screens.  Below are a few of the resources we shared:

Clicker5 is an application to support reading and writing that provides a natural voice output, and child-friendly word processor. It works well on interactive whitboards It can incorporate several communication symbol systems. It is a good tool for informal assessment with students with communication and other related needs.

Clicker5 

Sensory World provides an intuitive navigation system for students to use as they explore various areas of a house and engage in learning and related activities. The site map for all of the areas of the house, as well as the activities, is graphical.

Sensoryworld.org

Partial Screen Shot of Sensory World Site Map

We shared resources from the National Gallery of Art's Kids Zone, a great website that plenty of interactive content:

Interactive Jungle

Interactive Dutch Dollhouse

Teachers who want a limited browsing environment for their students the Zac Browser is great for use on IWBs and the new large all-in-one touch screen displays:

Zac Browser

Another website that is good for visual-based browsing is Symbol World:

Symbol World

"The intention is that symbol readers, teachers and carers will contribute, and we are delighted at the number of contributors that have already sent us their work"

We shared a recent find, Taptu rthat can be used on an IWB.  Although Taptu focuses on the mobile touchable web, accessed through smartphones with internet access, it provides links to a wide range of websites designed with intuitive touch interaction in mind, perfect for students with special needs.  In many cases, Taptu web navigation resources work fine on the larger screen of the IWB.  The advantage is that a icon/visual based touch navigation system supports students who can't type and also those who have very limited reading skills.

Sports Navigation for Taptu

Below is a slideshow about the touchable web:

Taptu: Virtual Roundtable

Update: SMARTTable

At Wolfe, we'd like to create a conversation wheel with related activities for the SMARTTable that co-ordinate with SMARTBoard activities.  We'll probably experiment with the conversation wheel concept on the SMARTboard first.

Considerations:
One thing we've learned over the past few months is that it is bit more complicated to create content and activities for the SMARTTable than for the SMARTBoard notebook or Promethean flipchart.   We hope to have it customized to support scaffolded, customized classroom activities for students with special needs, but it might take more time than we had anticipated.  The school's immediate need is for touchable interactive content for all of the classroom IWB's, suitable for our students.

Complications:
Programming for the SMARTTable, for those who have 64-bit computers, requires Windows 7, Visual Studio 2008, and Expression Blend 3.   My HP Touchsmart, my home computer, is 64 bit, but runs Vista.  My school-issued laptop runs Windows XP and is also 64-bit.  To upgrade it, I will have to send it to the tech department for several weeks.   It will be slow-going, since I have to plan for my day-to-day activities and evaluations with students first.

Possible SMARTTable Solutions:
I'm hoping that some students from UNC-Charlotte might want to try their hand at multi-touch programming and help us out!  We'd welcome volunteers from other universities as well.   Wolfe's principal, Mary Jo Breckenridge, is very supportive of the use of innovative technologies with students with special needs, and would figure out a way to make a collaboration happen.

RELATED & SOMEWHAT RELATED

Multi-touch & Gesture Responsive Web & Related Applications: Helpful if you have a touch-screen or IWB

vSked:  Interactive Visual Supports for Children with Autism

AAC-RERC

"The AAC-RERC conducts a comprehensive program of research, development, training, and dissemination activities that address the NIDRR priorities and seek to improve technologies for individuals who rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies. The mission of the AAC-RERC is to assist people who rely on augmentative and alternative communication to achieve their goals by advancing and promoting AAC technologies and supporting the individuals who use, manufacture, and recommend them."

Promising Innovations in AAC for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Research: Design AAC Systems that Provide Dynamic Shared Interactive Context for Children

Janet Light, Kathy Drager, Penn State University

Jeff Higginbotham's Bibliography:  Viewing AAC Through Authentic Social Interactions (pdf)

ProLoquo2Go (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad communication system)


Also posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog