We are constantly finding new ways of sharing great articles, links and resources with you, with the Spectronics Blog being the central place for display of all of our resources. We are also adding posts by new Guest Bloggers – including Gerry Kennedy from Australia and Ian Bean from the UK. Did you know you can now sign up to be notified by email every time a new Blog post is uploaded? Some people tell us that they find this easier than trying to keep track of RSS feeds.

Scoop.it

Our latest find is Scoop.it – a really cool and visually-rich “magazine style” presentation of information. The Spectronics team is now collating content for six different topic areas on Scoop.it. Why not check them out and follow the topics of interest to you if you find this a cool way to receive your news.

• Inclusive Learning Technologies
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
• Learning Support Technologies
• iPads in Special Education
• iPads for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication)
• Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference

Slideshare

We are SO often asked for copies of the PowerPoint presentations used by the Spectronics team for workshop and conference session presentations, that we have started putting them up online at Slideshare for you to view and share with others. Visit the Spectronics Slideshare page and join the 7,000 other visitors we have had since the page went live a few months ago! We will soon be incorporating these into the Spectronics Blog pages too. Another good reason to subscribe to the Blog. ☺

Boardmaker Studio, the first update to Boardmaker for a number of years, was released late last year. It is becoming very popular now, so it might be timely to take another look at why you might consider upgrading your current copies of Boardmaker or Boardmaker Plus! to Boardmaker Studio.

What are the advantages of Boardmaker Studio?

• No CD in the drive is required to run the program! This has been an issue for many Boardmaker users in the past, and is eliminated as a problem with Studio.
• Multi-site licensing for organisations is possible with licences able to be remotely rolled out via an innovative online District Management Centre (DMC) making management of the licences purchased very streamlined as shown in this explanatory video. This great system for managing software across multiple geographic sites is now available in Australia and New Zealand for purchases of just 10 or more licences.
• Seamless integration with 1000’s of free activities on the BoardmakerShare Activity Exchange site is built into the program.
• Hundreds of “Studio Starter Templates and Gadgets” are provided to help speed up creation of onscreen activities.

If you would like to see Boardmaker Studio in action, you are welcome to view the pre-recorded one hour webinar by Charlene Cullen. Charlene and Katie Lyon are both Speech Pathologists at Spectronics and have many years of practical use of Boardmaker behind them. We are also building more recorded sessions for you and will let you know about these via our Blog and in our next emailed newsletter to you.

Pricing for upgrading single user copies of any prior version of Boardmaker to Boardmaker Studio are available on the Spectronics website. If you would like a quote for the cost of upgrading multiple copies of Boardmaker to Boardmaker Studio, please contact Spectronics on mail@spectronics.com.au in Australia or mail@spectronics.co.nz in New Zealand and we will be happy to assist.

Jane Farrall, Spectronics’ Senior Speech Pathologist, recently wrote a helpful guide which steps you through the process of creating books for the iPad, iPod touch or iPhone starting with books on the TarHeel Reader website. The resource-rich TarHeel Reader site offers over 20,000 ready-made ebooks which can be transferred to your iPad by following Jane’s helpful directions in her Spectronics blog post titled “TarHeel Reader Books – a great resource for iBooks on your iPad”.

Download Weally Wonderful Websites (MS Word docx 3.1 MB) – Use Firefox to download if you have problem with saving the file under Internet Explorer.
Download Weally Wonderful Websites (zip 2.6 MB)

If you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can download a free Microsoft Word viewer.

Download Weally Wonderful Apps (MS Word docx 1.8 MB) – Use Firefox to download if you have problem with saving the file under Internet Explorer.
Download Weally Wonderful Apps (zip 1.7 MB)

If you don’t have Microsoft Word, you can download a free Microsoft Word viewer.

Do you use any of the above pictured “easy-tech” tools from AbleNet in your classroom or disability support organisation? Do you use any at home? Tools like the PowerLink 4 Control Unit, BIGMack, Step-by-Step Communicators, All-Turn-It Spinner, the MEville to WEville Early Literacy and Communication Skills Curriculum Collection, Jelly Bean or Jelly Beamer switches, or the popular SuperTalker Progressive Communicator? Any other AbleNet technologies?

If you do, and if you share your story about how you use these technologies, AND you are attending the Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference in May 2012, you will be in the running to win a fabulous prize of a fully-funded return trip from Australia or New Zealand to the USA in January 2013 to attend the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Conference in Orlando, Florida. A prize worth over $5000 … and just a 10 minute drive to “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Centre” (in case you are so inclined)!

We sincerely thank AbleNet, as a conference Gold Sponsor, for making this opportunity available as the ATIA conference offers many opportunities to hear presentations by prominent assistive technology practitioners from across the globe. It also includes an extensive trade exhibit hall, again featuring all key assistive technology suppliers from many different countries. A great chance to update your knowledge and form lasting valuable contacts.

What do you have to do to enter the competition?

It’s simple! Just register to attend the Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference 2012 and show us how you are using AbleNet technologies in the classroom, within your school, organisation or at home. Submit a presentation (in any format) to tell your story and to share with other Inclusive Learning Technologies Conference delegates over the days of our event. The only proviso is that all entries must be submitted online by Friday 4th May 2012. An online entry form will be coming soon, but if you have any questions at all, just contact Eliza Bale, Conference Convenor on conference@spectronicsinoz.com.

Maybe spend some time thinking about how you might like to be in the running to win over your Christmas/New Year break? Especially as we have no entries to date. Could you be the lucky winner?

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!

All Key AAC Technologies and App Developers will be on-site!

If you are interested in the very newest trends in technologies supporting Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), we will be offering an Australasian first! All seven of the key international developers of AAC apps for iPads, and a comprehensive group of developers of dedicated speech generating devices both within Australia and internationally will be exhibiting and/or presenting at the conference!

Not only will this offer you a one-stop-shop option to check out all of the new developments under the one roof, it will allow you to evaluate and compare options. When is an iPad app best? When would a speech generating device be more appropriate? In what situations are both appropriate and complementary to support communication by your students and older AAC users? Save yourself hours of research by having the chance to speak directly with the technology developers and see the tools first-hand!

So, who will be there?

AssistiveWare (Netherlands)

Developers of the ground breaking AAC app Proloquo2Go – the first full-featured AAC app for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. It continues to be a ground breaker through its frequent updates and Proloquo2Go 2, with its many new features, will be available for you to check out first-hand.

Therapy Box(UK)

Developers of the TBox apps range, Therapy Box offers two great switch accessible AAC applications for the iPad – Predictable and Scene&Heard.  More recently they have begun to diversify and have started to produce some speech and language therapy apps as well.

AbleNet(USA)

Developer of a wider range of assistive technologies – of which their excellent SoundingBoard AAC app is one.  SoundingBoard is now a Universal App, is switch accessible and has a range of professional-created boards available for in-app purchase.

TapSpeak (USA)

Developers of a range of AAC apps. Beginning with TapSpeak Button, a single message communication app and moving through to TapSpeak Sequence and TapSpeak Choice, they offer a range of switch accessible apps for a range of AAC users. 

Alexicom Tech (USA)

Developers of the world’s first Internet-based (but not Internet-dependent) AAC System. It works anytime, anywhere on iPad, Android, PC and Mac. AlexicomAAC is a full featured AAC app which is also switch accessible and has a range of other exciting features. 

Tobii ATI (Sweden)

Tobii ATI develop a wide range of AAC technologies including their new AAC app Sono Flex. Offering a continuation with the page sets available for Tobii Communicator, Sono Flex offers a combination of core vocabulary and situation specific page sets to meet the needs of a wide range of learners. They will be represented at the conference by Link-AT in Australia.

Attainment Company (USA)

Attainment have also recently released an AAC App. To complement their existing range of speech generating devices, the well-known GoTalk range, the GoTalk Now app offers great templates for making a range of communication displays for different users with options such as text-to-speech, digitised speech and a range of image imports available as you design each page. The Attainment Switch app also provides the option of turning your iPad or iPhone into a switch – and can be used to control a computer or another iPad running GoTalk Now.

In addition to all listed above, suppliers and/or developers of dedicated speech generating devices from DynaVox, Liberator (PRC), Toby Churchill, Saltillo and AMDi will also be available to answer your many questions in this rapidly evolving sphere of technologies. We are really very excited to have ALL on board for you!!

Keynote Presenter: Joy Zabala | Universal Design for Learning advocate and developer of the SETT Framework

The next of our wonderful keynote and featured presenters we’d like you to meet is Joy Zabala, pioneer in special education and assistive technology (AT).

Joy has spent over 25 years conducting professional development and training to expand the use of AT as a means to increase the communication, participation and productivity of people with disabilities. She is a frequent presenter on AT decision-making, implementation, and evaluation of effectiveness, as well as how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and AT work together as complementary supports for student achievement.

Joy is the developer of the SETT Framework, a collaborative decision-making tool, a founding member of the QIAT Community and facilitator of the QIAT List, and a past-president of the Technology and Media Division of the Council for Exceptional Children. She serves on the Advisory Boards of the Family Centre for Technology and Disability and Bookshare. Currently Joy is the Director of Technical Assistance at CAST, where she also directs the technical assistance efforts of the National Centre on Accessible Instructional Materials and serves as the evaluator of the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard Development Centre.

Come along and see her plenary session Raising the Achievement Bar with Universal Design for Learning. Joy will lead participants on a journey that begins with the early development of UDL and proceeds right up to most current thinking about implementation. Hear about how UDL works with AT, AIM and Learning Technologies. Learn about the National Centre for UDL, the UDL Guidelines, and many other free resources, supports and tools. To see the full plenary blurb click here.

Accommodation at Jupiters Hotel

With only six months to go it is time to start considering your trip to the sunny Gold Coast! We have negotiated discounted rates at the conference venue – Jupiters Hotel Gold Coast.

The discounted accommodation rates we’ve negotiated with Jupiters are lower than those at the hotels we’ve used in previous years, meaning a saving for you! By using Jupiters’ accommodation, you also help us to keep future registration fee increases to a minimum – the more rooms booked at the hotel by conference delegates, the less the cost of the venue hire to us, meaning we are effectively able to pass these savings onto you. As well as securing free wireless internet for all delegates on the conference floor, we have also arranged for FREE wireless internet in delegates’ rooms at Jupiters – that’s a saving of $25 per day!

To take advantage of the conference rates simply book via the Spectronics booking link and quote the special rate code – full details are available on our website.

And as an added incentive to stay at Jupiters we have secured a fantastic prize – read on for details!

Delegate prize draws

Accommodation Prize

All delegates who book their conference accommodation at Jupiters Hotel will automatically go into the draw to win a spectacular prize valued at $775! The prize includes two nights’ accommodation in a superior room for two adults (including full buffet breakfast each morning) at Jupiters Hotel Gold Coast. You will also receive tickets to the impressive Jupiters Theatre – dinner and show tickets for two!

Please be aware that only those delegates who use the special conference accommodation link will go into the draw. So make sure you use this link and quote the special rate code! The lucky winner will be drawn during the conference and will receive a voucher for their prize.

Early Bird Conference Registration Prize

Complete your conference registration by Monday 9th April 2012 to automatically go in the draw to win a dinner and show package valued at $198!

The prize includes dinner for two at any participating Jupiters Restaurant, followed by a show at the Jupiters Theatre. The shows at Jupiters change every few months but if you’d like to know more information please see Jupiters Theatre Attractions. The lucky winner will be randomly drawn and announced in the April 2012 Conference Emailed Update, and contacted via email.

Wishing you all the best for the last weeks of the school term!

Before you start this process, make sure that you have downloaded Apple’s free eBook reader iBooks and have it available on your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone. If you need assistance with this process there is a video with the process at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0QaycZGtE0.

Now let’s start getting a TarHeel Reader book ready to go! To begin, go to www.tarheelreader.org. Search for a book you think your reader might be interested in – or you can use a book that you already know that they enjoy reading of course!

Once you have selected a book in Tar Heel Reader, make sure you select the Setup button on the title page of the book.

Once you are into Setup a range of options are now available to you. The one we are interested in is “Download as PowerPoint”. Download the TarHeel Reader book as a PowerPoint and save it on your computer.

Once you have the book on your computer, open the TarHeel Reader book in PowerPoint and then save it as a PDF. Depending on your computer and your operating system the process for saving it as a PDF will be different. Saving as a PDF is built into the Macintosh operating system – but on a Windows computer you will need a 3^rd party program to do this with. If you don’t have a PDF program already loaded, try a free PDF converter like CutePDF.

Screenshot on Windows 7 with PowerPoint 2007 and Adobe Acrobat installed

Screen shot on Mac OS 10.6.8 and PowerPoint 2008

Once you have saved the book as a PDF then you just need to drag and drop it into iTunes on your Mac or PC. Make sure you drop it into the top left hand corner of iTunes, as per the screenshot below.

Now you need to sync your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone and the book will go across. You might just want to double check that your iPad is setup to automatically sync books by clicking on your iPad (on the left hand side in iTunes) and then clicking on the Books settings (at the top of the screen) and checking that “Sync Books” is ticked. See the screenshot below.

Once your iPad has finished syncing, grab your iPad and open iBooks.

The PDF will automatically have been added to the PDF bookshelf. To get to this, click on the Collections button on the top menu bar and then select “PDFs”.

You can now use the same Collections button to make new bookshelves and create custom bookshelves for individual students or on different topics. You can then use the edit button to move PDFs, purchased books and other ePubs where you want them. Two examples are below:

I hope you enjoy using TarHeel Reader to expand your iBooks collection – and let me know if you have any questions