A variety of sessions including Universal design for learning (UDL), assistive technology (AT), augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), accessible instructional materials (AIM) focused on improving access and achievement.
Attendees will have an option of selecting one of three general sessions to attend on Mon., June 22. On Tuesday, attendees will be able to attend any of the offered sessions.
Monday, June 22
Denise C. DeCoste, Ed.D.&Linda Bastiani Wilson, M.A., Ed.
Digital Reading: From Evaluation to Implementation
Digital reading presents new opportunities and challenges. Struggling readers now have access to text reader applications to support decoding, fluency and comprehension, but is it appropriate for all students? What process do you use to determine whether text readers may be effective? And beyond spoken and highlighted text, what features are important to consider? This presentation will cover these topics and more. General education teachers, special education teachers, therapists, and diagnosticians will leave this presentation with state-of-the-art information that covers evaluation to implementation.
Lisa Bardach, MS, CCC-SLP - Representing AAC TechConnect, Inc.
Augmentative&Alternative Communication Evaluations Simplified
Do you want to improve your augmentative communication (AAC) evaluations? This workshop will assist participants in organizing and systematizing the AAC evaluation process by providing a module using a suggested list of low-cost “toolkit” components. A variety of templates, tools, and a list of online resources will be provided, and a process will be shared which can assist in your evaluations of persons with simple-to-complex communication needs. By the conclusion, you will be able to build your own toolkit, and with the new resources demonstrated, you can more easily provide effective and efficient AAC evaluations.
Judith Sweeney - Representing Onion Mountain Technology, Inc.
Technology and Math
Learn how to bring the language and world of math to your students through a full continuum of technology tools. This demonstration workshop is designed to help teachers match assistive and educational technologies to national math standards and to use brain-based teaching strategies to make sure that the lessons "stick." Participants will explore a variety of low-tech tools for measurement, color, problem alignment, highlighting, use of rubber stamps, markerboards, magnifiers, and more. They will have the opportunity to compare features in calculator categories including talking, giant, conversion, subject specific and money calculators, and participants will discover how to make talking flash cards with a simple AT digital recording device. They’ll look at scanning pens that read problems to students and hand-held electronics for data collection "in the field." With high-tech, they’ll explore computer programs that help complete computations on screen, programs that help students visualize number relationships, and specific programs that help students master graphs and spreadsheets. While we call these assistive technologies, this workshop is definitely for everyone who wants to learn "special" tools can make any math class more successful!
Tuesday, June 23
This is a list of featured presentators on June 23. Additional presentations/sessions will be available.
Skip Stahl - Representing NIMAS Development Center, AIM Consortium, and CAST
Create&Share: Accessible eBooks with UDL BookBuilder
This hands-on tutorial will lead participants through the process of building digital books using CAST’s free, online UDL BookBuilder. Learn how to plan and design curriculum resources that incorporate text, images, recorded audio and embedded learning prompts via animated interactive agents. This session will lead participants on through a step-by-step process of designing and building ebooks that are accessible for all students using readily available web-based resources. BookBuilder books can be shared online or downloaded for use on any classroom computer. Originally designed for grades 3- 5, BookBuilder has been widely adopted across the K-12 instructional spectrum and provides a powerful and easy was of enhancing the curriculum in any classroom.
Skip Stahl - Representing NIMAS Development Center, AIM Consortium, and CAST
Pocket Pals: Portable Apps for Learning
This session will offer a guided tour of a wide range of portable PC applications – software designed to be run from a thumb drive on any windows-based computer. The majority of these applications are freeware, and range from text-to-speech readers to notetakers, pocket organizers, web browsers and dictionaries that do not require installation and can equip students in grades 3 and up with powerful learning tools that pick up and go.
Judith Sweeney - Representing Onion Mountain Technology, Inc.
Flipping Over Adobe Acrobat
With ever-increasing teaching demands and so many different software packages developed specifically for students with special needs, teachers don’t have the time to explore extremely powerful programs developed primarily for business and professional use. One of these programs, Adobe Acrobat Professional, offers special educators and their students a variety of exciting features that impact both reading and writing. This hands-on workshop is designed to be a tutorial on use of the major features of this program. Beyond that, it is designed to provide participants with examples of when and where to use the program in a variety of creative, time-saving ways that are not necessarily covered in the manuals. Participants will learn how to create a variety of PDF files, use publisher created PDF files, create comments and audio notes, use built-in accessibility features, add fillable field fields to worksheets, bind multiple files, use links, and more.
Judith Sweeney - Representing Onion Mountain Technology, Inc.
Technology Tools and Organization
Organizational skills plague many students in --- and out – of special education. Students have problems keeping track of assignments and long-term projects; finding and storing papers; keeping their desks, lockers, and backpacks organized; making their work readable and organized; and prioritizing the importance of competing tasks. This presentation will provide participants with a way to label what kind of organizational problem the students face (temporal, spatial, categorical, attentional, or prioritization), and then demonstrate a variety of low, mid and high tech tools which can help them be more independent and successful in these areas. Throughout the day, participants will learn their own strengths and weaknesses through a variety of hands-on individual and group activities. As they learn how we all organize differently, they'll find it easier to provide the best tools for their students' needs.