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- 1. Productivity, Accessibility & FreeEnabling Technology Tools Are the best things in life free? A summary of free enabling technologies to support learning differences. Margaret McKay – Advisor: Inclusion 05/13/13 1
- 2. Outline for Today •Free enabling technologies that can be downloaded and run from a pen drive or accessed via the college network. • Web based and other downloadable enabling technologies.
- 3. How Mature areYou? http://bit.ly/jG4eKR
- 4. Alternative Interfaces Recording Tools PlanningTools Communication Tools Visualisation Tools Writing Tools Texthelp Claro read Kursweil 3000 Penfriend CoWriter Audio Notetakers Dragon Naturally Speaking ZoomText Inspiration Mindmanager Reading/Writing Tools Commercially available assistive technologies can offer support to all (but are often only available to those with disabilities)
- 5. Traditional models ofsupporting students with barriers to learning No, it’s not insured not for you to use in the public library No, it’s not insured not for you to use in the public library If you do not disclose that you have dyslexia we cannot give you enabling technology – you are not eligible! If you do not disclose that you have dyslexia we cannot give you enabling technology – you are not eligible! If you don’t have a disability you are not eligible to access any assistive technology, regardless if it would make a difference or not. If you don’t have a disability you are not eligible to access any assistive technology, regardless if it would make a difference or not.
- 6. Assistive… Maybe BetterDescribed as Enabling Technology Timeline
- 7. Creating an AccessibleCollege
- 8. Inclusion for Everyone ..becausethings are not always as they seem..because things are not always as they seem Assistive technology solutionsAssistive technology solutions can make a significant difference to acan make a significant difference to a much wider range of people.much wider range of people. Especially free technologiesEspecially free technologies that can help a widethat can help a wide range of technology users.range of technology users.
- 9. A typical classof students on a mainstream course highlighted the following barriers to learning • Blurred/fuzzy print. • Headaches/discomfort if text too close together. • Strong/bold print leaves a shadow. • Lose place on line - Small print. • If questions long/complicated – structure answer. • Vocabulary difficult/unfamiliar. • Not always know what is important/essential. • Forget if sentences long. • Missed/lost handouts. • Time to read/take notes in class. 9
- 10. How They Learn Reflecton knowledge or skill Write responses Interact with resources Record information Plan responses Reading Tools Alternative Interfaces Recording Tools Planning Tools Communication Tools What They Do How To Help Visualisation Tools Writing Tools Introduce new knowledge or skill Exemplify new knowledge or skill Test understanding of new knowledge or skill by completing specific assignments Reflect on knowledge or skill Technologies can support the learning process in schools, colleges, universities and employment
- 11. Free and PortableEnabling Technologies at www.eduapps.org EduApps consists of four different collections of incredibly useful software: • AccessApps provides a range of solutions to support writing, reading and planning, as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties. • TeachApps is a collection of software specifically designed for teachers or lecturers. • LearnApps, as its name implies, is specifically designed for learners. All learners or students can benefit from LearnApps. • MyStudyBar provides a suite of apps to support disabled users, literacy and support for those with English as a Second Language. • MyVisBar is a floating toolbar which delivers a range of open source and freeware applications to support learners with visual difficulties. Currently containing 90 open source and freeware software applications which can be entirely used from a USB stick on a Windows computer. Created by JISC RSC Scotland N&E
- 12. Web Based EnablingTechnologies
- 13. A new wayof doing things • Do less work but create more accessible resources. • Create alternative formats without being an accessibility specialist. • Make audio/ podcasts for a learner (without speaking or installing software). • Make mobile learning (without buying software). • Give poor readers reading help (without being there). • Give poor spellers prompts (without being there). • Define vocabulary (without being there).
- 14. • MyStudyBar putsa whole range of individual and essential tools at your fingertips. Together, these have been designed to support the study skills and other support needs. • MyStudyBar has 6 sections; each has a drop down menu offering personal choice, flexibility and independent learning, particularly for those learners who require additional strategies to support their learning. With over 15 apps to choose from, • MyStudyBar is a useful free study aid for a wide range of people.
- 15. • Planning -Xmind mind map, sunbird portable calendar and HottNotes • Reading - T-Bar, RapidSet, ssOverlay (screen tints) Vu-Bar screen ruler, Orato text reader. • Writing - LetMe Type - word prediction, Lingoes talking dictionary, Balabolka text to speech/mp3, stamina touch typing. • Vision - Magnifier, Sonar cursor ring, NVDA – screen reader.
- 16. Planning & OrganisationalTools Xmind • XMind is mind mapping program, similar to Inspiration, Mind Manager and Mind Genius. Who would benefit? XMind can help individuals who think, plan and learn visually.
- 17. Planning & OrganisationalTools Sunbird Calendar Hott Notes 4 – Sticky Notes
- 18. • Try xmind,Sunbird and HottNotes
- 19. Dyslexia Many dyslexic peopleexperience visual stress if reading black text on a white background Issues for Dyslexic People? Simultations of Different Disabilities
- 21. Reading Support Vu Bar– read text one line at a time
- 22. Reading and WritingSupport TBar SS Overlay
- 23. RapidSet RapidSet gives readersthe chance to change the colour of font and background on any MS Office environment Helpful for people with poor vision, dyslexic people and those who need help reading text.
- 24. • Try VUBar, T Bar, SS Overlay and RapidSet
- 25. Orato Orato is astraight forward text to speech application. Simply highlight some text, press speak and Orato will read back words highlighting them as you. Helpful for people with poor vision, dyslexic people and those who need help reading text.
- 26. Writing Support LetMe Type– Word Prediction
- 27. Writing Support Lingoes TalkingDictionary Current version not working on MyStudyBar but can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/8wRowT
- 28.
- 29. Watch the tutorial Balabolkais a very good free Windows text-to-speech tool. It includes magnification (2X to 16X) and spell checking. It is also keyboard accessible. This software will create audio files from text–MP3, WAV, OGG, WMA to be saved and listened to on an iPod or other mobile device.
- 30. Dspeech and Balabolkatext to speech and save as MP3 Dspeech willDspeech will hook into the speechhook into the speech engine on anyengine on any windows PC youwindows PC you use and will eitheruse and will either read out text orread out text or convert to MP3convert to MP3 http://tinyurl.com/br8fsqq
- 31. Download Heather theFree Scottish Voice for your College • The Scottish Government has funded CALL Scotland to provide a Scotland-wide schools licence for 'Heather' - a high quality Scottish computer voice. • www.thescottishvoice.org.uk/Home/
- 32.
- 33. • Try Oratoand Balabolka
- 34. Visual Support • VirtualMagnifier
- 35. Visual Support Sonar MouseRing Listen to a lecturer talking about how he uses the sonar mouse ring
- 36. Visual Support Listen tothe creators of Thunder Screen Reader http://tinyurl.com/3yat47o Thunder Screen Reader- http://bit.ly/g3UiSH
- 37. Help Icon • Thiswill take you to the animated online tutorials and to the EduApps website.
- 38. Case Studies • SouthLanarkshire College offers MyStudyBar across the college - http://bit.ly/p2tBlh • Free applications assist dyslexic media student at Stratford-upon- Avon College - http://tinyurl.com/ycbv4hy • Mind-mapping supports visual learners - http://tinyurl.com/39s7q2f • Visually impaired student achieves fantastic results through the benefit of accessible resources - http://tinyurl.com/vison • Integrating interactivity to enrich study skills - http://tinyurl.com/24hchdo • Coatbridge College students identify which resources meet their learning needs - http://tinyurl.com/395xe9h • A lecturer at Dumfries and Galloway College explains how he uses free tools to enhance the deliver of his teaching - http://tinyurl.com/3ynk3ew
- 39. Downloadable and WebBased Enabling Technologies
- 40. Cam Studio • CamStudio Camstudio.org • Jing – www.techsmith.com/jing watch a video both record all screen and audio activity to create multimedia learning resources
- 41. Other web basedtext to speech converters RoboBraille http://www.robobraille.org/Conversion Watch a video about RoboBraille http://bit.ly/abkbz6 * Learn now to convert pictures to words and text to sound using RoboBraille http://bit.ly/p9nqZc
- 42. Text to Audio •Word to MP3
- 43. http://www.howjsay.com/ Are you anEnglish learner willing to improve pronunciation? Do you want to know how to pronounce words in English? In that case, you might be interested in this website. Howjsay.com is free online pronunciation dictionary where you can learn how to pronounce words in English. Read more: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/howj
- 44. WebAnywhere • WebAnywhere: AScreen Reader On-the-Go • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfjD06aOxts
- 45. FRS Talking Calculator http://fastrabbitsoftware.com/talking Anonscreen talking calculator with large keys and sums seen vertically. This software may be helpful for those with dyslexia or dyscalculia and for those who appreciate hearing the calculations as well as seeing them on the screen.
- 46. Ginger www.gingersoftware.com/ • Works withms word and PowerPoint, Internet Explorer and Outlook. http://tinyurl.com/3vvt5fb
- 47. Zotero A Web BasedResearch Assistant www.zotero.org
- 48. DeeperWeb www.deeperweb.com • A searchengine or rather augmentation that allows navigation by employing a more visual way of finding results. • Uses Tag Cloud techniques • Searchers can refine by date of material to be sourced and view results in different ways. • Tutorial
- 49.
- 50. Other Visual SearchEngines • http://www.nexplore.com • www.quintura.com • www.vewzi.com • www.googlewonderwheel.com
- 51. • MyStudyBar putsa whole range of individual and essential tools at your fingertips. Together, these have been designed to support the study skills and other support needs. • MyStudyBar has 6 sections; each has a drop down menu offering personal choice, flexibility and independent learning, particularly for those learners who require additional strategies to support their learning. With over 15 apps to choose from, • MyStudyBar is a useful free study aid for a wide range of people.
- 52. Voice Voice recognition isin Windows Vista and Windows 7 • Windows Speech Recognition • Watch a tutorial • Learn more about Vista Voic
- 53. Visual Support NVDA (nonvisual desktop access) General Features of NVDA: Browsing the web (with Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox) Reading and writing documents with programs such as Wordpad or Microsoft Word Sending and receiving email with Outlook. Producing basic spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel General computer management through My Computer / Windows Explorer, Control Panel applets, and other generic Windows tasks. Listen to a blind student talking about NVDA Watch an NVDA tutorial
Editor's Notes
- #6 The alien ’s view of learning support paradigms: 4.Alternatively we may loan students an expensive laptop with expensive software installed – but if they don’t choose to disclose their disability they get no help, and the laptop can only be used for their studies and it can only be used in their home or on their course since it’s not insured for anything or anywhere else…. 13/05/13
- #7 Initially regarded by many as being useful only for people with disabilities. Recognition of their benefit to a wider audience in personalising what people access on their computers. Increases productivity for everyone. Growing range of free and more recently portable resources. Increasing number of web based assistive technologies also.
- #8 In many organisations accessibility is associated with a particular group of people (disabled learners) and a particular group of staff (learner support or disability officers). This perception is unhelpful for two reasons: It may fail to recognise the spectrum of accessibility needs which goes beyond learners with declared disabilities. It may fail to recognise the very significant role that well informed teaching and learning staff e.g. lecturers, trainer, tutors, librarians or technicians, can bring to the learner ’ s experience.
- #9 In many organisations accessibility is associated with a particular group of people (disabled learners) and a particular group of staff (learner support or disability officers). This perception is unhelpful for two reasons: It may fail to recognise the spectrum of accessibility needs which goes beyond learners with declared disabilities. It may fail to recognise the very significant role that well informed teaching and learning staff e.g. lecturers, trainer, tutors, librarians or technicians, can bring to the learner ’ s experience.
- #11 13/05/13 There are a number of ways of categorising assistive technologies but the one that has most direct relevance for teaching and learning is that developed by TechDis which maps the process of learning to the tasks needed to engage in the process to the tools needed to complete the tasks. When a student engages in learning a new subject they generally go through a learning process in which they first reflect on their current knowledge or skill, they then introduce and exemplify their new knowledge and skills. Students then test their new understanding by completing specific assignments. In order to go through this process of learning a student would have to interact with resources, record information and plan and write responses. Using this approach to learning we are able to identify seven genres of ‘ Assistive Technology ’ which may be used by the learner at any stage of the process. These genres include assistive technology ranging from traditional ‘ Assistive Technologies ’ such as alternative interfaces (tracker balls, adapted keyboards, screen readers) to less widely recognised (but much more widespread) assistive technologies such as visualisation tools – videos and animations. The full list includes reading tools, alternative interfaces, visualisation tools, recording tools, planning tools, communication tools and writing tools. The benefits of this approach are threefold: The focus is on learning not technology, disability or medical condition. A single category (for example read assist tools) may contain a wide range of alternative solutions ranging from high tech to low tech and even pedagogical solutions. A single technology may provide a solution for more than one accessibility need – for example the use of styles and outline in Microsoft Word can provide both a reading tool and a planning tool. Note the distinction between the traditional screen reader which we regard as an alternative interface, and text to speech which we regard as a reading aid. The former makes information on the monitor (including navigation, structural layout and text etc) accessible to a blind user. The latter makes the meaning of text more accessible to a print disabled user who can see the text but not make sense of the meaning. Note also that the same tool (for example alternative interfaces) may be used at more than one stage of the learning cycle.
- #14 13/05/13 This was the main slide of the presentation and the delegates chose the demos they felt were most relevant to them: Do less work but create more accessible resources. Make a podcast for a learner (without speaking). Make a podcast with a learner (without installing software). Make a learner make a podcast (without using a computer). Make a video (without a video camera) . Make mobile learning (without buying software). Make a highly accessible learning object (without technical know how). Make a VLE (without a technician). Give poor readers reading help (without being there). Give poor spellers prompts (without being there). Define vocabulary (without being there).
- #16 Xmind mind map, sunbird portable calendar and HottNotes T-Bar, RapidSet, ssOverlay (screen tints) Vu-Bar screen ruler, Orato text reader. LetMe Type - word predictin, Lingoes talking dictionary, Balabolka text to speech/mp3, stamina touch typing Magnifier, Sonar cursor ring, NVDA – screen reader.
- #17 Open Writer ‘Save As’ Microsoft Word It is possible to make Microsoft Word the default ‘Save As’ in Open Writer. This means that users don’t need to save to Word each time they use Open Writer, for example, between home and college etc. It also provides for a seamless interoperable ‘Save As’ feature between Open Writer to Word and vice versa. In Open Writer: § Select ‘Tools’ then ‘Options’ § In the ‘Options dialouge box’ on the left-hand pane select ‘Load/Save’ then ‘General’ § In the right hand pane under ‘Default File Format and ODF Settings’ and under ‘Always Save As’ – select Microsoft Word (and the version of your choice) Export mind maps in Xmind to Word One of the most popular features of mind mapping programs such as Mind Manager etc is the facility for learners to export their mind maps to Word. Although Xmind currently doesn ’t have this feature it is possible to export it to Word. In Xmind: § Go to ‘File’ and then ‘Export’ § Select the ‘Export to HTML’ option and save to a location of your choice (this offers a range of options, eg, headings, include image etc. § Open the saved HTML file in Microsoft Word (if it opens in web view simply change to normal view)
- #18 Planning & Organisational Tools - helpful for people who find memory or organisational skills a problem worked with a young man with head injuries and he found some of these portable tools very helpful People with dyslexia are often very visual learners and mind maps can really help Mind map which can export to word
- #20 Impossible to cover every potential learning difficulty – highlight some of the more common issues Dyslexia – one of the more common barriers to learning.10 % of population (or more) show some signs of dyslexia More common in males than females As common as being left handed
- #24 A straight forward text to speech application. All text input is carried out through the clipboard. Settings allow Orato to read either on demand or automatically when new text is added to the clipboard. Other options will display the text if required, with highlighting of the word or sentence being spoken. Orato can either be installed to the hard disk or copied onto a pen drive for portable use. RapidSet gives readers the chance to change the colour of font and background on any MS Office environment
- #27 LetMe Type – starts as an empty dialogue box but lexicons can be added by copying Learn words copy and past in to untitled let me type pane Change colour – settings Decrease number of letters before the prediction starts to work
- #28 Lingoes Talking Dictionary Lingoes is an easy-to-use talking dictionary. Who would benefit? Lingoes can help individuals with literacy or language support needs. Main features: Easy-to-use powerful word search. Customise colour and font settings. Text-to-speech. Works with web applications such as Google, Wikipedia, and Wiktionary etc.
- #30 Balabolka is a Russian word that means “ chatterer ” . Balabolka is also very good free text-to-speech software for the PC, running in all versions of Windows–from Windows 2000 through Windows 7. There are two versions of the program, one that is installed on a host computer, and a portable version that will run from a USB flash drive. Balabolka is available in the following 15 languages: English; Bulgarian; Chinese, Czech; Dutch; French; German; Hungarian; Italian; Polish; Brazilian Portuguese; Romanian; Russian; Spanish; Ukrainian.
- #36 Visual Support Vu Bar – read text one line at a time Sonar Mouse Ring EnorMouse (works best with windows vista)
- #37 Non Visual Desktop Access is another free screen reading software available to download. Comparison of NVDA and Thunder August 2011 Issue Volume 12 Number 8 http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw120803
- #46 FRS Talking Calculator is an easy to use calculator with several features that make it ideal for use in situations where assistive software technologies are desirable. Big buttons are easy targets for students with limited motor skills. Large type on buttons and displays makes reading the calculator easier for students with vision impairment. Voice feedback aides students with vision impairment and benefits students with some types of reading difficulties.
- #54 Visual Support Vu Bar – read text one line at a time Sonar Mouse Ring EnorMouse (works best with windows vista)