The Magic Carpet interactive projection system is just one of their new technologies. The system projects interactive games and images onto the floor so that users can play with and control the images simply by moving on or over the projected image – even with the slightest of movements. Its multi-user interaction supports group activities allowing for collaborative play with able-bodied peers. Add in the Tobii PCEye, (a clip-on eye control device for a computer) and Sensory Eye FX software, and students with even the most significant physical disabilities can actively participate in games with their peers. They can join in by controlling the fun Magic Carpet activities by eye control alone. A great way to build competence in eye control before moving on to more demanding applications too.

Mmm … it’s hard to convey how cool these tools are with words alone. Click here to watch a short video to help to bring it all to life for you!

To see some of the other truly innovative multi-sensory environment installations being created by the Sensory Guru team in the UK, visit their website or join their active Facebook Group. Their inspirational catalogue of options and ideas is also wonderful to flick through.

The great news just in this week is that these technologies are now available across Australia and New Zealand from Bas Tijdhof at Link-AT Assistive Technology in Adelaide. Bas will also be displaying the Magic Carpet and EyeFX at the Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference 2012. It will be a popular (and fun) exhibit for sure!

At the most basic level, Intellipad offers a keyboard with word prediction, some basic spell checking and text-to-speech support. The student can hear words being predicted before selecting them – and the same support is offered for the spell checking. The word prediction is a bit of a weakness in what is otherwise an excellent app – it can be a bit idiosyncratic (as in the example below where it predicts weekendish) and doesn’t have any options for phonetic word prediction or for adding word lists or custom vocabulary.

The spell check automatically kicks in whenever the program sees that you are typing a non-word or a word for which there are variations. The spell check can sometimes compensate for the word prediction. For example – I typed the sentence “On the weekend I went to the zoo and saw an amimal”. Although the word prediction didn’t ever offer “animal” as an option, the spell check did.

Whenever the student wants to hear what they have written, they just need to select the speaker in the top right corner and an Acapela voice reads out their typing. Having had some recent contact with the developer, they tell me that speak word-by-word and speak on punctuation will be available as options soon – with an update due out in the next few weeks.

For the speech itself, currently a range of US and UK Acapela voices are offered in the settings with more to come in the next update. And while I’m discussing settings – word prediction, spell check and text-to-speech can be turned on or off through the settings at any time. Other settings include changing the response rate of the keyboard and turning key repeats on and off. Documents can be printed or emailed to save a student’s work.

As well as using the standard keyboard shipped with Intellipad, custom keyboards can be created at any time. This is the really exciting feature of Intellipad as it allows us to provide scaffolds for some students – but also to create custom literacy activities.

In the example below, I have made a “silly story” overlay with story beginnings, middles and endings. I tried this with some students last week – and lots of laughter was the result!

I can make up a keyboard with words jumbled up as an extension activity to a guided reading book – where the student needs to re-order the sentence. Or I can make a keyboard to do some of Caroline Musselwhite’s Poetry Power activities – the uses for these custom keyboards are many and varied.

As I build a keyboard, there are quite a few options that I have control of: I can choose to combine keys along a row to make a larger key; I can select the background, foreground and text colours; I can select the font size; I can delete keys to leave spaces; and I can attach a recording to a cell.

The screenshot above was taken while I was in the process of making up a keyboard for doing an onset rime activity with the word family –ill. I can also make up keyboards for Making Words (Cunningham, 1991). And once I have made up a custom keyboard, I can choose to share it online with others, and also check out what others are sharing using the share button within the app.

And finally, there is one more feature of Intellipad that I really like. I can make up a writing document with a picture beside it – perfect for writing about personal experiences or keeping a journal. The picture is pulled from your picture library on your iPad and the writing space appears next to it. Fabulous for writers of all levels!

Intellipad isn’t perfect – I’d love to have more control over the editing and the word prediction could definitely be improved – but it goes a long way to filling a hole in the current writing and literacy tools on the iPad and I know I will be using it lots and lots!

Intellipad is available on the iTunes store for $20.99AUD. Videos and more information about this app are available from http://www.intellipadapp.com.

Just add a laptop or an iPad 2! No data projector needed. No shadows. Fully height-adjustable. Even project wirelessly from your iPad 2 (using an Apple TV unit and a WiFi connection)!

We have been looking for an attractive alternative to interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the classroom for many years. We think we have found it now! The 65″ and 55″ EDUSS Multi-touch Interactive LCD screens can be operated via direct finger touch – no need for a special pen or stylus. No need for a data projector which casts shadows on the screen as students approach and shines its light into the eyes of anyone at the front of the classroom. On top of these benefits, when mounted on the custom-built LCD Touchscreen Mobile Trolley it is fully height-adjustable, making it accessible for students of all heights and abilities. Including those in wheelchairs.

Best of all, the LCD Touchscreen and trolley combined are cheaper than many interactive whiteboard options. AND do not have the ongoing costs and inconvenience of data projector bulb replacement. The five year warranty also helps for peace of mind that this new technology is classroom-tough.

How does it work? Just plug in your Mac or Windows laptop and run any of your favourite touchscreen or interactive whiteboard software programs. Titles like Clicker 5, SwitchIt! Maker 2, ChooseIt! Maker 2
and Boardmaker Plus or Studio are excellent applications to combine with your Interactive LCD screen. So we have bundled these (and many more) together as the “All-you-need Interactive Touchscreen Classroom Bundle“. This comprehensive special school classroom bundle offers 100 titles designed to support students requiring cause-and-effect and early choice-making activities, all the way through to those requiring upper primary level literacy resources. Save over $500 by buying the bundle.

Can you use it with an iPad? Yes! In fact, when the LCD Touchscreens were in action at a recent conference, visitors were referring them as “giant iPads on speed”. Just plug your iPad 2 in using an HDMI cable and all apps installed on the iPad will be available on the big touchscreen allowing collaborative group activities not possible on the smaller iPad screen. Even better, you can project wirelessly to the LCD touchscreen allowing freedom of movement around the classroom for both the teacher and the iPad being projected. All you need to make this happen is to purchase an Apple TV unit, an HDMI cable and have access to a WiFi connection. Magic … well almost!

The EchoRA Speech Amplifier and Teaching Aid is a small, portable amplifier which is great for providing loudness and clarity for those with quiet voices or someone who just wants to make sure they save their voice!

It’s also a great option for students with hearing impairment as the teacher can wear the transmitter and lapel and the speakers can sit on the student’s desk. Or it could help amplify conversations at home for those couples where the spouse is always complaining about selective deafness. The EchoVoice EV5 Speech Amplifier is also another option for people who need to amplify their voice eg. Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis.

When we first saw the EchoRA and had a play, we had great fun. My colleague had the microphone headset and walked out the front door and I could still hear her in the office. The range was fantastic and it had great clarity and volume.

Both of these amplifiers are available in our equipment trial scheme if you need to try it out. Give us a call if you require more information or want to give it a go.

Read2Go works with Bookshare. Any book available to you through your Bookshare login can now be downloaded to your iPad or iPod touch and read on your mobile device – offering a more accessible, portable library. (If you need more information about Bookshare and how to subscribe click here to check out an earlier blog post by Anita Raftery on this topic).

I found Read2Go very easy to use. In fact, within minutes of downloading it from the iTunes store on my iPad I was already downloading books from Bookshare. I just needed to log into my account and then was able to use the search facility to find books.

Using “Search by author” I was able to easily find the Suzanne Collins books I wanted and download them. At all stages, speech support provides assistance for browsing and selecting items – either during a search or in picking a book from your library. This will work well for many people who need support with print and text due to a learning difficulty. For people with visual impairment who need more speech support (descriptions of screen contents, etc) then the App based speech support can be turned off, and VoiceOver can be used instead.

Other search options include browsing the latest additions to Bookshare, the most popular books, categories of books and available periodicals for your region. Downloading a book takes a matter of seconds on either 3G or WiFi – and once a book is downloaded it stays in your local bookshelf – until you delete it.

And then you can open it at any time, read it, create bookmarks and return to it whenever you need to. If using the in-App speech support, speech is provided by the Acapela voices Heather or Ryan – with the user able to easily select the voice the prefer in the Settings.

Users also have access to a range of settings to customise the way in which books are read and the visual aspects of the book presentation. Users can change the font size (although not the font at this stage) and a range of other visual settings, including the text colour, background colour and highlight colour.

It would be fabulous to have some extra accessibility options in the future – particularly switch and scanning support and other options to change the way in which the touch screen responds – to address the needs of students with physical disabilities.

However, the current range of visual settings and speech options, along with the range of books from Bookshare, immediately make this eBook reader a game changer for accessing texts for many students with learning difficulties. Overall, this is an excellent start on providing an accessible eBook reader for all students’ needs.

Read2Go is available from the iTunes store for $20.99AUD or $19.99USD. Click here to view it in iTunes. If you are using Read2Go and need any help with the App, the online help files can be found here. Happy Reading!

The first two books listed below explore the issues relating to interactive social media, emerging wireless technologies and disability. These books are not intended as resource manuals, but rather books for those interested in understanding the potential of this technology and the reality of the impact on the learning and social lives of people with diverse learning needs. Both these books are not cheap, intended more as text to be found in a university library, and probably not suited to bedtime reading. That aside, anyone interested in the social construct of these new emerging technologies and disability will find it worthwhile to seek them out.

Books dealing with assistive technology are always welcome to support families, teachers, therapists and administrators to consider the essential role of technology in learning programs. The last two books are useful and practical guides to using assistive technology for those students who struggle with traditional methods of teaching and learning. Reasonably priced and easy to read, both books would be very suitable additions to any school and service providers library, and made available to families and professionals alike.

It should be noted that of the four books listed below, three are available for purchase in a digital format for readers in Australia or New Zealand. Worthwhile books such as these need to be accessible to ALL readers, not just those who can access print-based media. Of these three books, two are available as a Kindle Book, enabling readers to access the text-to-speech feature available in the new Kindle Reader. The third book is available in PDF format.

Breakthrough Teaching and Learning: How Educational and Assistive Technologies are Driving Innovation
Tracey Gray & Heidi Silver-Pacuilla (Eds) (2011) Springer, NY
http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/learning+%26+instruction/book/978-1-4419-7767-0

Available from:
http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Teaching-Learning-Educational-Technologies/dp/1441977678/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303198144&sr=8-1 $US129.00 plus shipping
http://bit.ly/fjEbo4 fishpond.com.au $AUD114.00 Plus shipping
http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-1-4419-7767-0/contents/ Individual chapters available for purchase as digital downloads

Students with diverse learning needs require more than ‘conventional , presentational, print-based instruction’ to ensure access, participation, independence and progress throughout a curriculum. This book, edited by Gray and Silver-Pacuilla and only newly released, presents seven chapters by different authors who examine the developments in applying emerging technologies to teaching and learning for these students. These developments include the convergence of trends in educational and assistive technology, the potential of social networking, the importance and benefits of social media and exergaming for students with disabilities, what education technology can learn from the brain, and the use of technology to personalise student assessment.

Back Cover: “Interactive media and mobile devices have vastly enhanced the potential for teaching and learning both in and outside of the classroom. Personalised learning through technology can level the playing field for all students, particularly those with special needs. Breakthrough Teaching and Learning explores this concept of personalisation and its application to diverse student populations, its limitless possibilities for innovation, and its ability to tap into previously underused areas of the human mind.”

Disability and New Media
Katie Ellis and Mike Kent (2011) Routledge, NY
http://murdoch.academia.edu/KatieEllis/Books/384845/Disability_and_New_Media

Available from:
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415871358/ £UK80.00 plus shipping
http://www.holisticpage.com.au/DisabilityAndNewMedia_KatieEllis|9780415871358 $AUD199.50 plus shipping
http://amzn.to/hV9jOp Kindle Edition $US84.00

Disability and New Media explores the growth of the digital world, Web 2.0 and its associated new media applications, eg Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life, and analyses how they both prevent and embrace the inclusion of people with disability. The significance and potential of the social construct of accessibility is central to the readings provided in this book.

Web comment: “If you think that ‘new media’ and ‘social media’ has improved the lives of people with disability, this book begs to differ. Disability and New Media is a new book that explores the contemporary new media environment and its impact on people with disabilities.”

The Practical (and Fun!) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools
Christopher Bugaj & Sally Norton-Darr (2010) International Society for Technology in Education
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Practical-and-Fun-Guide-to-Assistive-Technology-in-Public-Schools/207932585655

Available from:
http://iste.org/chewat, International Society for Technology in Education Non-Member Price: $US31.95 / Member Price: $US22.37 plus shipping
http://bit.ly/gM812h fishpond.com.au $AUS29.97 plus shipping
http://amzn.to/fFTG651 Kindle Book $US12.95

This book aims to provide a practical guide to developing AT teams in a districts and schools. While written for the US market, the ideas and underlying principles are easily transferred to Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Suitable for both a beginner and advanced practitioner, it is written in a very accessible and fun style, and explores the why and how of building an AT team. Divided into five parts that can be read one section at a time, with each section being ‘free-standing’: 1. Defining and understanding assistive technology, 2. Assistive technology and the IEP, 3. Building an assistive technology team, 4. Assistive technology services, and 5. Putting the pieces together.

Back Cover: “Educators new to AT will find the step-by-step layout helpful in building an AT team and procedures, while seasoned AT professionals will find value in the fresh ideas on reducing paperwork, expanding the AT team, and strategies for considering AT for all students.”

The Ultimate Guide to Assistive Technology in Special Education: Resources for Education, Intervention, and Rehabilitation
Joan Green (2011) Prufrock Press, Waco Texas.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95481051133

Available from:
http://www.prufrock.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1762 $US39.95 plus shipping
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Assistive-Technology-Special-Education/dp/1593637195 $US39.95 plus shipping
Digital format not currently available

Written for families, teachers, and therapists who are searching for information about how to use technology to help individuals who struggle with communication, literacy, and learning. This book explores assistive technology tools, software, devices and online resources that support speaking, understanding, reading, writing, cognition and memoir. Aimed a new to AT user, this resource will also benefit a more experienced AT professional who is looking for additional resources they might not have considered. The assistive technology paradox, “you don’t know about AT you don’t know about”, is true for all of us and this book is a handy resource guide.

Back Cover: “The book presents a broad overview of the uses of assistive technology before helping readers zero in on powerful, cutting-edge technology tools they can use to improve students’ areas of weakness as well as to compensate for them.”

Book review: http://www.geekslp.com/2011/05/book-release-ultimate-guide-assistive-technology-special-education/

To do Making Words, you need to write or make up a number of letter cards. Each student is presented with 7 letter cards and asked to spell words. What is awesome about the Making Words approach, though, is that you can use it to scaffold students to spell words they thought they could never do. This, in turn, gives them a HUGE confidence boost and often helps them to turn that corner into seeing themselves as readers and writers. Yay!

A sample Making Words script for the teacher would be:

• Take two letters and make at.
• Add a letter to make the three letter word art.
• Change the letters around and turn art into tar.
• Now change just the first letter and tar can become car.
• And so on….

If you want to learn more about Making Words, I strongly suggest you buy and use the Making Words books. They are all available from Amazon.

What the real topic of this blog is, though, is one of the challenges I have faced in doing Making Words with ALL the students I work with – particularly those who can’t manipulate the cards that I would normally write the letters on. To try and make this excellent literacy activity accessible to all, over the years I have made up pages for the DynaVox Series 5 devices and for Clicker 5 that let you do Making Words activities. If you are interested you can download these from our Activity Exchange. For the DynaVox package click here and for Clicker 5 click here. These options have been good – but not quickly and easily replicated for new sets of letters.

So my real excitement at the moment is down to Boardmaker Studio. Boardmaker Studio now includes a number of well designed templates, which let me make literacy activities for all students quickly and easily. I know that everything I make up in Boardmaker Studio can be accessed by a keyboard, touch screen, interactive whiteboard or a switch. And some of their templates are specifically designed for creating Making Words lessons. It’s so simple – I can now put in any group of letters and have a Making Words activity that ALL students can access in under 2 minutes. Yay!

A making words exercise made with a template in Boardmaker Studio

I hope that you share my excitement about this excellent new tool – which is cutting down my preparation time while allowing me to practice Universal Design for Learning. I will definitely write some more about the literacy templates in Boardmaker Studio soon. They are very clever, simple, fast – and I’m loving using them.

I’ve not found any apps with all the features many users who have low vision will need. For example: contrast adjustment, foreground and background colour adjustment and white on black/black on white options are features that I haven’t been able to find in any magnification apps.

Challenges for users requiring magnification and considering utilising an “i” device may include;

• Holding the device steady, finding or creating a suitable stand for stability
• issues with using a camera for magnification that isn’t centrally located in the device – something to be aware of now with the iPhone or iPod Touch, but being a small device it’s fairly easy to adjust to having an off centre camera.

I considered adding a rating for each of the apps, but after some discussion with colleagues, decided against the idea. It’s better for each individual (teacher or user) to focus on creating a list of features that they require a magnification app to have that will meet their visual needs, then search for an app that best meets that criteria.

My personal criteria are;

• Inbuilt illumination option
• easy zoom functionality, either pinch or slider
• full screen magnification
• quick auto focus when moving across text

My preferred magnification apps that most closely meet my criteria are;

Easy Reader with LED $1.19 (also compatible with iPad2)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/easy-reader-with-led-torch/id383057234?mt=8

Magnifying Glass with light $1.19 (or free with advertising)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magnifying-glass-with-light/id406048120?mt=8

Magnifier $1.19
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/magnifier-tiau/id410315449?mt=8#

iCanSee FREE
http://itunes.apple.com/app/icansee/id332451821?mt=8

I’d be very interested to hear feedback and also suggestions for additional magnification apps to consider.

Now that the new iPad 2 is available and it includes a built in camera, I’m looking forward to trialling more magnification apps on a larger screen, (I’m hoping to receive a iPad2 very soon) the larger screen format of the iPad, may mean that functional magnification options are available to more people requiring higher levels of magnification, at a fraction of the price of a traditional CCTV (Close Circuit Television). It’s possible to purchase an iPad and magnification apps for around $500 rather than the $5000 that many CCTVs are priced at. The iPad 2 device’s true portability and multifunctional capabilities through utilising task oriented apps will add an interesting addition to the list of possible tools (SETT process)* we can consider to provide access to print based (and digital texts) materials for people who have a vision impairment.

The ZoomReader app from Ai Squared was showcased at ATIA conference earlier this year, unfortunately it still isn’t available to purchase through iTunes, I’m looking forward to trialling the app once it is released. Here’s some information about the app from AI Squared.

“ZoomReader will be a combination video magnifier and OCR app. It uses the built-in camera on an iPhone or iPod Touch to zoom in on printed materials, apply color filters, and to take a picture of something and have the text in that image read out loud…At $19.99, it’s a very competitive and affordable price point for a mobile application that does real time screen magnification, OCR reading of images, plus voice recognition.”
http://www.aisquared.com/news/more/zoomreader_app_for_the_iphone_and_ipod_touch

You Tube video of ZoomReader in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GcOXfNnovY

Girl using monocular telescope 1

I’m now working on trialling and evaluating apps that may be useful for enhancing distance vision; many individuals who have low vision rely on using a monocular telescope (sometimes not very “cool” looking) to give them visual access to things in the distance such as signs. There are some camera apps that may assist, here are a couple;

10 X camera tools $1.19
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/10x-camera-tools/id347016223?mt=8

Useful features include; Add text notes to photos, Snap multiple photos with continuous tapping, Date/time, file size, resolution, and GPS Tag location, Black & White option, live zoom magnification on screen using slider.

Camera Zoom $1.19
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/camera-zoom/id349879562?mt=8

Useful features include; up to 5 X live magnification on screen with digital zoom slider on screen, anti hand shake

Please share any tips or apps you’ve tried and found useful in enhancing distance visual access.

* More information about the SETT process
http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/blog/permanent-resources/2010/02/sett/

iPad 2 Update 31/5/2011

Evaluation of iPad2 as a Low Vision Aid, using magnification apps

I finally received my iPad2 and held it in my hands last week  after quite a protracted wait between ordering and actually receiving it, I’ve been able to use it all weekend to find out if it lives up to my expectations!
The reasons I decided to purchase an iPad 2 (I already have an original iPad) was to have access all the features of the original iPad – PLUS the additional features of:
•    front and rear facing cameras
•    faster operating speed – according to  Macworld May 2011 1.6 X faster than the iPad, and 1.9 X faster than the iPhone 4
•    lighter weight
•    ability to “mirror” all apps (particularly handy for teaching and training)
•    ability to lock screen rotation
I was particularly keen to evaluate the iPad 2 for use as a low vision aid.  Even though I had read some reviews describing the iPad 2 cameras as poor – I really wanted to find out for myself. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/just-how-bad-is-the-ipad-2-camera/

One of the first problems I encountered, after a lot of searching was… No LED light??? Therefore I wasn’t able to activate the additional lighting on any of the magnification apps I tried. Using magnification apps in anything but a well lit area, or bright sunlight achieved very poor results. Although there is an illumination sensor on the rear of the iPad2, magnification in less than perfect lighting conditions really requires additional illumination – which unfortunately isn’t available in the iPad 2.

The second problem I encountered was the image quality, blurry, grainy, and increasing the magnification makes the image even more blurry and unreadable. After looking into the specifications of the iPad2 camera, as compared to the iPhone 4 the reason for the poor image seems to be the difference in the camera specifications and the display resolution.
iPad2 rear-facing camera less than one megapixel  0.92  front facing camera VGA up to 30 frames per second VGA-quality still camera (640×480)
backlit sensor to give better low light performance. Display – 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)

iPhone 4 rear facing camera 5 megapixels. (iPhone 3Gs has 3 megapixel camera)LED flash, backlit sensor to give better low light performance. Front facing camera has VGA-quality photos and video at up to 30 frames per second Display: 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
http://ipod.about.com/od/ipadcomparisons/a/ipad-iphone-3gs-ipod-touch.htm has a useful comparison chart of the specifications of the iPad2, iPhone4 and iPod Touch
http://digitalphotobuzz.com/ipad-2-camera-review-compared-to-iphone-4 “how does the actual image quality of the iPad measure against the iPhone 4′s camera? Unfortunately its a disappointment, I don’t think the iPad is going to replace the 8×10 viewcamera any time soon. Especially in low light situations. the images taken on the iPad 2 are pretty bad. The noise that you get makes low light images look splotchy and almost have an appearance of a watercolor image”
Unfortunately, I found when using magnification apps  that the quality of the iPad 2 camera isn’t able produce images of good quality, contrast or clarity. I had hoped that the larger screen of the iPad2 compared to the iPhone 4 would result in improved and enhanced image and magnification options for low vision users, instead the larger screen makes the poor image quality more apparent as magnification increases. The magnification apps I trialled that worked on the iPad2 hadn’t been modified or adjusted to make full use of the iPad 2  larger screen size. The apps launched in a small size (similar to an iPhone 4 screen size) and to obtain a whole screen view, I had to activate the 2X button, which digitally enlarged the view to the whole iPad 2 screen, but also enlarged the “white noise” blur and made the image very grainy.
Positioning the iPad 2 and stands
I haven’t had the opportunity to trial any stands as yet, however looking at the reviews there are several available which may suit magnification apps. I’m not sure if these stands will hold the iPad 2 in an appropriate horizontal position to facilitate using magnification apps, and given, in my opinion the poor quality of image quality when using magnification apps, I’m not sure it would be worthwhile purchasing a stand for this purpose alone.
Jadu Skadoosh approx USD $69.99?  adjustable, portrait and landscape mode  www.jadu-industries.com
Slide portable iPad 2 stand http://www.expansys.com.au/just-mobile-slide-stand-for-apple-ipad-208325/ approx $40 AUD adjustable, portrait and landscape mode
Summing up – Unless the next version of the iPad camera is vastly improved, it’s unlikely that the iPad will be a viable option for magnification for people who have low vision.
If one of the features important to you is good magnification of text, or small objects you may find the iPad 2 is not up to the task – the iPhone 4 performs better than the iPad 2 due to:
•    5 megapixel camera in the iPhone 4 as compared to less than 1 megapixel camera in the iPad 2
•    image quality when using the whole screen of iPad 2 is poor contrast and lacks clarity when increasing magnification levels
•    inbuilt LED illumination available in the iPhone 4, absent in iPad 2
•    smaller size makes it easier to hold the iPhone 4 steady to obtain the best possible picture.
•    Smaller size makes the iPhone 4 easier to hold, and operate controls, pinch – zoom or slider magnification controls as compared to the larger, and heavier iPad2
I imagine the camera quality in the iPad 2 may mean that magnification and OCR apps such as ZoomReader may not ever become available for this device. http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/zoomreader/id414117816?mt=8

The popular ReadingDoctor ReadingSounds 1 Pro program has just been released as a fully networkable version making it so much easier to share with all students who will benefit from its early literacy instruction approach. An “Unlimited Site Licence” option is also now available – making it so much easier for your IT team to manage and ensuring that ALL students in your school have access to the program!

Why use ReadingDoctor software?

Research indicates that one of the most important factors in determining whether a child will become a successful reader is their ability to use letter-sound patterns to ‘decode’ unfamiliar words. There are a number of crucial skills which children must develop in order to crack this code in written language. ReadingDoctor ReadingSounds 1 Pro is a software program designed for children who are beginning to read, and for children who are struggling readers. It is ideal for children aged between 4 and 8 years old, although it is suitable for older children who are experiencing reading difficulties.

The following short videos show the program in action, being driven by Bartek Rajkowski, founder of ReadingDoctor and proud developer of the software program.

• ReadingSounds 1 Pro Theoretical Background
• ReadingSounds 1 Pro Teaching Method
• ReadingSounds 1 Pro Guided Tour 1 Part A
• ReadingSounds 1 Pro Guided Tour 1 Part B

More information on the program is available on the Spectronics website.

The latest edition of the Queensland Department of Education and Training’s OnLine Newsletter has just been published and it is a special issue for those who are supporting students with reading and note taking. It outlines considerations when looking at note taking, identifies various aspects of digital pens and reviews a number of digital pen hardware and software options including the popular LiveScribe Pen. These pens digitally record information that is handwritten using the pen. This information can then be uploaded to the computer for a range of purposes.

At Spectronics, we often receive enquiries about digital pens and found this month’s newsletter answered many of our questions too. Click here to download this informative edition of OnLine.

To receive your own copies of the OnLine Newsletter, simply visit the OnLine listserv page and select “OnLine Newsletter” from the drop down menu. Or to view past editions of OnLine, visit the Department of Education’s Assistive Technology Professional Community page. If you have any problems subscribing or have any questions, just contact Jeff Souter, Editor of the OnLine Newsletter on jeff.souter@deta.qld.gov.au.