Dictation using Siri on the iPad 2

Although there are a couple of options for students to be able to create and store notes, I've tried to explore the most cost effective way of enabling students who have difficulty with written production to create and organize notes. Months ago, I discovered the Notability app, which allows you to create notebooks and within each notebook, store note pages.  At a reasonable cost of $1.99, this app has great functionality. You can add photos, audio recorded content, graphics, web links, and sticky notes.  I have now discovered that when you enable SIRI in your iPad settings, you can easily dictate the notes you would like to create into the notepage.  With SIRI activated, one can create highly customized notes with visual content to support the ideas covered in the classroom.

Here is an example of what can be created with the options in Notability.  I dictated the text from a book called,  A Buffet of Sensory Interventions: Solutions for Middle and High School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Susan Culp, MS, OTR/L.  I added a photo, wrote on a sticky note, and added a link to a video on sensory integration.  The note was automatically dated and stored in the notebook of my choosing.  This is a great tool that has a multitude of options to allow students to easily gather and store information.

Dictation and Text-to-Speech with Google Chrome

I am always looking for ways to meld free technology applications together to produce great results.  The other day, I attended an IEP meeting for a student who required a dictation application, as written work production was a real challenge. Today, I tested out a couple of applications, loaded onto my Google Chrome browser, that would meet the above mentioned student's needs.  Google Chrome is fantastic as you can add apps and extensions to your browser which can make Internet searches, writing, and producing content a whole lot more accessible. The two applications that I loaded onto my browser from the Chrome Store are Speechlogger and SpeakIt! Speechlogger is a great, accessible dictation software that allows users to customize the dictation by adding a title, dictate using a USB microphone, and enter multiple entries that can be exported to a text file or emailed.  Using SpeakIt!, alongside this dictation software, gives the user the capability of highlighting their text and playing back what they have dictated.  An excellent tool for students who have access to a desktop or laptop computer with an inexpensive microphone.

Access YouTube

If you are a regular user of YouTube, you will already have come to the realization that it can be overwhelming to try and find videos for instructional purposes.  Unless you have a specific video in mind, it can be a challenging task to try and find what you are looking for, due in part to the layout of the website.  I recently read a blog post that had information on an accessible YouTube searching tool.  Check out http://accessyoutube.org.uk for an easy-to-navigate web tool.  The search bar is enlarged in size, search results are displayed in an organized array, and all of the same YouTube content is brought forth once the search terms have been entered.  Accessible buttons appear once you have selected a video, allowing users with low-vision or those requiring a more organized display to easily search and view videos.

Curriculum Focus Presentation

On Friday February 7, I was fortunate enough to present to a small, but enthusiastic group of colleagues on technology that could be used with senior years students.  Here is the presentation that I created for the session, which pulls pedagogical ideas about technology together with practical tech tools to transform teaching and learning.  I very much appreciated having the opportunity to sit down with other tech enthusiasts to hear about the tech tools that they use and love in their daily instructional practices.

Digital Notetaking

Notetaking is one of the most dreadful tasks that high school students can conjure up in their minds.  Never having learned or been taught how to take proper notes, it was a bit of a guessing game when I first starting having to record what my teachers presented in class, commencing around grade 7.  It was one of those things that you were expected to learn through osmosis, similar to how I recall learning how to read. There wasn't an explicit way I was taught- I seemed to pull those skills out of thin air.
Jennifer Hart and Allison Papke, doctoral candidates at the University of South Florida, presented some practical strategies that students can use to take a proper set of notes on the second day of the Florida Educational Technology Conference.  One of the first strategies presented in their Get Caught Passing Notes presentation, was using the Cornell Note-taking system, which has students structure their notes using a graphic organizer.  Check out this helpful video here, which clearly outlines the process.  As participants, we were given an article and asked to go through the process of summarizing the article using this outline.  I found it incredibly useful and wished I had heard of this technique years ago.  Jennifer and Alison suggested that this technique be presented to all students, taking the time to go through and model each step of the process.  You can copy and use the template that was shared with participants here.
What I enjoyed most about the session other than the above mentioned tool, was the fact that the presenters discussed tech tools I had never heard about.  One of them was Canva, which allows users to create a infographic using pictures and text.  It was pretty user-friendly and new to me.  An easy way to cite references is to use citelighter, which, if you are a regular user of Google Chrome, can also be added as an app to your browser.  Simply highlight text from an online article and the app will cite a reference in APA, MLA, or Chicago format.  Jennifer and Alison presented  few other amazing tech tools, including my favourite, Evernote. This comes in both a web based and app form.  If you haven't heard of any of these technology tools, then I would highly suggest checking out these great apps that can be used to assist students at the middle and senior years level.

Using Digital Assessment Tools in the Classroom

Yesterday morning, bright and early, I sat in on a great session delivered by Mike Meechin at FETC.  The two hour session was appropriately-paced and informative.  Meechin spoke about a variety of free online assessment tools that can be used to collect data on student understanding in an efficient and engaging way. He is proponent of quick and easy-to-use tech solutions to collect instant student data, feeding into the instructional practices of the educator.  Although I had downloaded the free Socrative app about a year ago, I've never really had the time to play around and learn the ins and outs of this application, available in both iDevice and online form.  What I like about this app, (other than the fact that it is free) is that classroom teachers can quickly set up tests and quizzes to give to students prior to lectures or as an exit slip after a lesson plan to determine student understanding quickly and without heavy marking.  The Socrative app allows teachers to set up an online 'classroom' which students can enter and complete teacher assigned tasks. This app provides students and teachers with instantaneous feedback about their understanding of facts related to the concept taught. Rather than handing students a paper quiz and collecting dozens of papers for marking, the teacher can quickly administer and collect the data needed to inform their teaching on the fly.
A similar tech tool that was presented during Meechin's session was the use of www.infuselearning.com (Also free!). Sign up for an account online and the app does all the things Socrative does, but allows educators to push out links which open up in a browser tab as soon as the student clicks on it.
One of my favourite suggestions from Meechin's presentation was the use of QR codes, a piece of technology that I've never used before, but have heard other educators rave about.  He had a couple of QR codes set up in his presentation slides.  When we scanned them using our smartphones, using a QR reader app, we had access to content that he had placed in each of the codes.  Meechin suggested using this tool to have students go through a gallery walk.  You could easily infuse this technology in lessons to have students complete think-pair-shares, responding to questions that you have placed up around your classroom.  

Nutrition and Living Sustainably

One of the most important life skills we can impart on our students is knowledge of good nutrition.  In the next couple of months, I plan to teach a unit on Healthy Lifestyles, incorporating mental wellness, proper nutrition, and exercise.  As always, I had a look for some great apps that could be used to review these important concepts.  I found the review in iTunes on Nicholas' Garden to be quite good.  It encompasses the 'farm to fork' values that are key to living sustainably.  Students can view healthy, kid-friendly recipes, create grocery lists, all while making healthy choices.  His recipe board is set up in a very visual manner, much like Pinterest.  You can check out the Nicholas' Garden website here.  The Apple app is free in iTunes. Another great app designed for both the iPhone and iPad is Awesome Eats. Reviews peg it as a kid-friendly and engaging way of exploring healthy foods in a game-like platform.  I plan to use both of these free apps in my unit and I hope that there are ways you can incorporate them into your teaching as well!