In the last year alone, Priory Woods School web site received over thirty million visitors from around the world. A large proportion of those were from Australia and New Zealand. Most of these visitors are teachers and therapists like you; many are parents sitting together with their children who have physical or intellectual disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Why do they come in their millions?

They come to find inspiration, ideas and advice on the use of technology to support the learning, communication and leisure needs of their students or children. Some, almost four million of them, download switch and touch screen activities for use in their classroom; others sit with children and use the activities with them online. They come because they know that for some children technology will be their way to interact with the world around them, their way to communicate, their way to learn and have fun, their way to independence!

Every day I receive emails from colleagues and parents around the world who are using these activities successfully and want to make their own.

This pre-conference hands-on workshop will look at what constitutes a good cause and effect or choosing activity. You’ll discover how and where to gather great image and sound resources and learn how to combine them into motivating and meaningful teaching activities that can support any area of the curriculum or be personalised to meet the specific and individual learning needs of your student or students.

You’ll learn to edit and record sounds and music, convert YouTube and other videos. You’ll learn to use Chroma key and have your students swimming the Great Barrier Reef or walking on the Moon. Together we’ll explore a range of programs, tools and techniques that will give you the skills and confidence to make great cause and effect and choosing activities that your students will love. Most importantly you will leave enthused and filled with ideas to try in your classroom the very next day. Everyone attending this pre-conference workshop will receive a CD packed with example files, ‘how-to’ guides and hundreds of pre-made activities you can use and share with your colleagues.

Please note: Because of unprecedented demand for places in this workshop, we have moved it to a larger room and will now be running this session as a B.Y.O. laptop workshop. If you registered before 1st March, 2010, when it was being conducted in the Hands-on Laptop Lab, we will be in touch with you to see if you would prefer to work on your own laptop, or to share one of the Laptop Lab computers (two-people-per-laptop). Please feel free to contact us to discuss your preference on conference@spectronicsinoz.com or phone (07) 3808 6833.

If you are registering after the 1st of March, you will need to BYO your own Windows laptop for this workshop. If you do not already have SwitchIt! Maker 2 and ChooseIt! Maker 2 installed on your computer, a copy will be provided for the day and you will need administrative access to your laptop to be able to install the software. Please ensure you have 110MB free space on your hard drive and that your computer meets the systems specifications required to run SwitchIt! Maker 2. For information on this please see -http://www.spectronicsinoz.com/product/switchit-maker-2.