Free Bookshare App for Android

There is a new free app for Bookshare called Go Read. This app reads Bookshare books on Android devices.  It's great for users to have more options for ways they can access Bookshare books.

Any reader with an individual or institutional Bookshare membership can use Go Read to download content, which includes popular fiction, nonfiction, and educational titles.  Those with documented disabilities can join Bookshare for free.  The Walled Lake Consolidated School District, where I work, has an institutional membership for Bookshare; Special Services teachers can assist students who qualify use Bookshare, or parents can apply for an individual membership.

Unlike Read2Go, which costs $19.99 for the Apple iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, Go Read is a free open-source app.  Users can suggest improvements on the Go Read forum and let others know that they can contribute to the future development of the app.   Download Go Read here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adult Gadget Ownership Growth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The graph above is included in the highlights of the Pew Internet Project’s research related to mobile technology. The use of mobile technology has exploded over the past few years. Currently, 88% of American adults have a cell phone, 57% have a laptop, 19% own an e-book reader, and 19% have a tablet computer; about six in ten adults (63%) go online wirelessly with one of those devices.

Smartphones:  Among cell phone owners, 53% own a smartphone as of February 2012. This means that 46% of all American adults own a smartphone. Those under the age of 45 – 71% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 now own a smartphone as do 67% of those ages 18-24 and 54% of those ages 35-44. Even among those with a household income of $30,000 or less, smartphone ownership rates for those ages 18-29 are equal to the national average.  49% of blacks and Latinos are smartphone users.

Tablets: The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% in just one month, between mid-December and early January.

eReaders: 29% of Americans own at least one digital reading device.

Text Messenging: 73% of adult cell phone owners send and receive text messages (an average of 41.5 messages on a typical day).  Cell phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day.

 

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What About The Kids?  If the use of mobile technologies is on a steady rise for adults, it makes me think about the use of mobile technology by K-12 students. According to the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan,  it’s expected that nearly all of the Class of 2015 will have smartphones by the time they graduate.

Mobile learning is here and it is impacting how students learn and how educators teach. Students are more technologically aware than ever before, and using mobile technology to learn is as natural a move and non-disruptive for them as it was for their parents to bring encyclopedias out of the library and into the home. The time is right for schools to encourage students to BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology)!

 

 

 

 

 

Education On-Air: Google Apps (and more) PD

Education On Air is an education technology conference entirely
online and completely FREE.  It will take place on Wednesday, May 2nd, from noon to 10pm EST.  Since my district is moving to using Google Apps for Education next year, this comes at a perfect time.

There are over 40 sessions scheduled and they look fantastic; see the full schedule here.  There were some tough choices to make, but the sessions I plan to attend include:

• YouTube in the Classroom 12pm


• The Paperless Classroom with Google Docs 1pm


• Google Docs for Writing Instructors 2pm


• Blended Learning 3pm


• Digital Literacy & Citizenship 4pm


• Creating Comic Strips with Google 5pm


• Google Apps and Other Products in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Environment 6pm


• The Play, The Playwright, and Your Scene: Using Google Docs, Sites, and YouTube 7pm


• Google Sites for Your Classroom (Basics) 8pm

- Learn more about how to participate in the conference on the website:
https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/.




 

 

 

 

 

 

April is Advocacy Month!

April is Advocacy Month. Advocacy means different things to different people. It may mean speaking up at a staff or school board meeting, writing a letter to your representative, or participating in a rally around a common cause. Ed tech advocacy comes in different shapes and sizes, but all these efforts add up to a greater emphasis and awareness about how to improve learning and teaching through innovative and effective uses of technology.

I'm guessing that the folks who visit this blog believe in the incredible power of using technology when in the hands of students and teachers. We all are so busy making a difference in the local roles we play in schools across the country, and sometimes it is difficult to take the time to do one more thing. However, it is critical for us all to take the extra step to tell our personal stories about the impact of using technology on our students - to our neighbors, school boards, and legislators. Policy makers are also very busy and cannot possibly be knowledgeable about everything. If we can help them understand a bit better, perhaps we could influence the decisions they make.

Please make your voice be heard by doing one or all of the following:

• Tell everyone you know about how you use technology and how it affects students.


• Be a little more public by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper, submitting an article to your school district's newsletter, posting your thoughts on Facebook, etc.


• Participate in ISTE's "My Technology Story Contest."  If you do this, you might win a Kindle Fire!  Enter by April 23.


• Set up a meeting with one of your representatives.  Sounds scary, but here are some tips to help you know what to do.


• Send a letter to Congress via the Ed Tech Action Network.  This takes only 2-3 minutes!

Every voice matters. Together we can make a difference!

Mobile Learning Conference

The program has just been announced for the April 27 Mobile Learning Conference to be held at Kalamazoo RESA.  The conference is a joint project of MACUL, the REMC Association of Michiganand Kalamazoo RESA.  Registration, which includes breakfast and lunch, is only $65.  SB-CEU's will be offered.

Many of the sessions that were standing room only at the recent MACUL conference are being repeated at this event.  To see more information and to register for the conference, link here.

Sessions include:

10 Apps to Use in Your Classroom on Monday and Where to Find More!
A Day in the Life of a 1:1 Classroom (K-4)
A Single iPad Classroom- What Can I Do?
Apps Taskonomy: Digging Deeper into the Application of Apps
Beyond Angry Birds: Getting Productive with Your Mobile Device!
Branding Your Class Using Twitter Use Inside and Outside of the Classroom With Students Make Your Own Digital Textbook (Not in iBooks)
Can My Students With Special Needs Use an iPad?
Close Encounters of the App Kind
Creating an Interactive Whiteboard With Just an iPad
Creating Digital Content on the Mac
Digital Textbooks with iBooks Author
Flipping the Classroom Using Mobile Technologies
Flipping Your Classroom into the 21st Century
Fun with Socrative! Free, App-Based & Browser- Based Student Response System
I Have an iPad...Now What?
Increasing Access to Instruction for Students with Disabilities Using the iPad
IOS Management Options for Beginners
iPad Implementation and Roll Out: Everything You Need to Know
iPadding Around in the Elementary Classroom!!
iPads, Marzano, and McREL-Oh My!
iPads: Weapons of Mass Instruction!
Joining Our Students in the 21st Century: Using iMovie and iBooks in the Language Arts Classroom
Leveraging Your Android Phone to Improve Student Achievement
Managing IOS Devices
Managing Your Mobile Classroom
Moving Beyond the iPad as a Consumption Device
Moving Your “School” to a Global Learning Hub: It’s Inevitable!
Padding with a Purpose
Portable Mobile Devices and Peer Observation
Quick and Easy Formative Assessment Using Mobile Applications
Successful iPad Implementation from Beginning to End Educating the Mobile Generation-What Every School Should Consider Before Deploying a 1?1 Mobile Learning Program
Texting as a Tool: Using Cell Phones in the Classroom
The Flipped Classroom: Making Learning Possible Beyond 7:30-2:30
Using daqri and QR codes to take your class mobile
Using the iPad/iPod in the Special Education Classroom
What’s on Your iPad?
Which App for That?
Why You Want an iPad Instead of an Interactive Whiteboard

iPad Apps for Special Education Students

Here are some iPad apps that were recommended by Randall Palmer from the Children's Institute, Verona, NJ.  I enjoyed seeing all the quick demos!

Communication Apps:

• Scene Speak: This app allows you to take a picture and audio-lable the items. $10.  Works great with younger children.


• Proloquo2go: a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking.  Works great, but is expensive. $190


• Verbally: An app that does what proloquo does.  Try the free version, which may be all that is needed.  There is an upgrade version for $99


• Functional Communication System: This is new and has the advantage of using real images instead of stick figures.  $50

Social Skills:

•  Sōsh:  is a mobile app designed to help ‘tweens, teens and young adults improve social skills. It is especially designed to be used by individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome.  Randy couldn't say enough about this app.  It is for high functioning students and is packed with options.  It includes a dictionary of idioms, talking strategies, recognizing feelings,  voice meter that is helpful in speech therapy, a shredder for ridding negative thoughts, and more.  $40


• Stories to Learn:  Students can create their own social stories that include pictures and audio. $13.99


• Conversation Builder:  Neat app! Students select responses  and record their voices. $9.99


• Sharing Timer:  an animated timer with sound effects show kids when it’s time to take turns


• Look in My Eyes:  A game-type format to help children learn to make eye contact. $2.99

Activity Schedules:

• Chore Pad HD: an electronic checklist.  Can add rewards if you wish. $2.99


• First Then Visual Schedule:  designed for caregivers to provide positive behavior support to increase independence and lower anxiety during transitions through different activities.  $9.99


• Video Scheduler:  Blends activity schedules with video modeling. $12.99

Self-Regulation:

• Time timer:  A visual timer that would be helpful in any classroom.  $1.99

Misc Supports:

• Read2Go by Bookshare: an accessible daisy e-book reader. $19.99


• Constant Shopper: is visual shopping list with pictures of items  $2.99


• Dragon Dictation: voice to text app that is very accurate.  Free!


• Twin Calc: Two large screen calculators that work side-by-side.  $.99

Moms with Apps:  a catalog of great children's and family-friendly apps. Search by educational categories and age groups to discover new apps and developers. Check out their website for "Free app Friday" where vendors make their products available free for one day only.

Curriculum 21

Heidi Hayes Jacobs was a keynote speaker at FETC that I very much enjoyed due to her common sense suggestions.  She is the author of six books, most recently, The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates and Tools for Effective Professional Development, co-authored with Ann Johnson, a book available on ASCD.

Her message:  "We do not need educational reform.  We need new-form."  She believes that we are using 19th century schedules , 20th century curriculum,  and our students are 21st century learners.  The time to make changes is NOW, as the common core curriculum standards are implemented.

Strategic replacement of curriculum is what needs to be done.... short term replacements with long term vision.   Dr. Hayes Jacobs recommends for every school to do the following:  Have every teacher in the school choose one upgrade.  Example: convert a persuasive essay assignment into a persuasive videocast.  The move to the Common Core Curriculum standards is a huge opportunity to upgrade.  Think of the collective difference this could make if everyone made just one upgrade to their current instructional practice.

To help teachers identify their one upgrade, the Curriculum 21 Clearinghouse can be used.  Websites and web 2.0 applications have been reviewed and tagged with curriculum-friendly terms to make it easy for teachers to choose curriculum and topics.  It's a tremendous resource; check it out!