Home Spectronics and ZYGO Australia Assistive Technology Summits 2000

Read about the Sydney Assistive Technology Summit

Sydney November 13-15 2000

Masonic Lodge in Goulburn Street, Sydney

Well, it’s all over! 70 delegates have once again thoroughly enjoyed the third and last Spectronics and Zygo Australia Assistive Technology Summit 2000 . This Summit was held at the Masonic Lodge in Goulburn Street in Sydney. As with the two previous Summits, a few delegates chose to travel from interstate to attend.

Our tireless keynote presenters challenged everyone to reassess how they introduce and use technology. Hundreds of ideas for programming and setting up communication devices, learning systems, language activities and music exercises were demonstrated. Pati and Caroline used a variety of Assistive Technology devices, such as IntelliKeys, Overlay Maker, ClickIt!, Discover products as well as Macaws.

Numerous software applications were presented as well, many being Freeware (i.e. programs that are free to copy, use and share) as well as Shareware (i.e. free to trial or use, with a small payment to the author usually required). Many of these packages are available on the Web, so scroll down to see the sites that were mentioned in Sydney, or surf through our site and locate the Brisbane and Melbourne Summit updates. One of the most comprehensive sites is http://www.kidsdomain.com/where you will find MS Windows and Macintosh programs for users of all ages. It especially has quality shareware to suit children.

Our keynotes Caroline and Pati challenged the delegates to evaluate their practices and invited everyone to consider alternative methods and ideas. Delegates were kept busy as the presenters offered a great deal of information, in a fun and entertaining manner! So much to learn … in so little time! Delegates enjoyed the frenetic pace as all presenters accommodated all delegates. A range of needs were catered for with the use of introducing simple ideas through to developing complex frameworks. The SUMMIT theme ‘literacy’ brought to life the numerous ideas featured in their book… “Emergency Literacy Success”.

A few new Web sites were mentioned again in Sydney. These useful sites were shared by delegates and appear in this update. Already there is evidence that customers that could not attend the Summits have “discovered” many of these sites that have been published on our site that have been posted in the updates in the “What’s New” section from our previous Brisbane and Melbourne Assistive Technology Summits.

Overview

This is a brief list of the various resource sites that were promoted by speakers, organisers and delegates. One major advantage in participating at event such as the Summit is the sharing of ideas, strategies and leading practice. If you navigate to these sites, you will find a wealth of information, resources, templates, overlays and practical ideas that you can implement in your setting.

Take time to explore these sites. Some will cater more to AAC or speech pathology, others to teachers in general. These sites will be of interest to those involved in using communication devices and Assistive Technology with children and adults who have special access, communication or learning needs.

Please share these resource sites with colleagues, other practitioners and parents. Just surf to one site a day! It will be worth your while. Remember the K.I.S.S. principle – Keep It Simple Stupid !

Site URL and Brief description

• http://www.creative-comm.com/ – Pati King deBaun’s company site
• http://www.aacintervention.com/ – Caroline Musselwhite’s shared site
• http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ – a site that has some great puzzle activities
• http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/WWWResources/general.html – Handy list of resources for education in general
• http://www.abc.net.au/ – The ABC Education site

These next few sites are termed Parallel Search Engines as
they query other search engines and integrate the results. It
is a fast and efficient way to gain an overview of Web Sites
on a particular topic.

• http://www.metacrawler.com/ – one of the more popular and well known sites
• http://www.dogpile.com/ – great name!
• http://www.beaucoup.com/ – a third to try that will bring up quick results. It has a comprehensive collection of links to software and shareware

A few more that may be of general interest.

• http://www.funbrain.com/ – A learning network
• http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~casey931/conway/games.html – Clever games for high achieving students (the other end of the special needs spectrum!)
• http://www.irsc.org/disability.htm – Internet resources for disabilities in general
• http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/internet/pathfind/disabil.htm – Internet resources for disabilities in general based on the University of South Australia Library web site
• http://www.4teachers.org/ – An American site that aims “to empower learning with technology”