Accessibility Features on my iDevices

Using the accessibility features on my iDevice to complete assignments for my Masters course.

When I started this term I decided I wanted to use my iPhone to listen to papers using the text-to-speech feature in iOS. I did this by downloading the PDF version of the document, then uploading it to my Dropbox. On my phone, I then opened the PDF in iBooks and used the VoiceOver feature to listen to the document. This allowed me to listen to the papers while driving to and from school. This worked well for getting a general understanding of the topic, but did not allow for solid comprehension. The computer-generated speech was distracting to say the least, and hearing all of the citations also became annoying.

Next, I attempted to read the articles on my iPad using the highlighting features to mark important information that I could come back and reference as needed. Again, I had difficulties focusing while reading the papers on my iPad. The sound and banner notifications drew my attention away from my readings into emails, tweets and messages. These were difficult to ignore and I often found myself losing track, needing to reread sections in the paper. I ended up having more success when I printed off the document and highlighting using a marker.

Finally, I decided to use the voice to text feature to "write" this reflection. I have used dictation software before, with minimal success. Dictation is a skill, very different from writing. Needing to communicate punctuation can be difficult and cause you to lose your train of thought. Seeing the words appear, often incorrectly, was very distracting. I constantly wanted to stop and edit my piece of "writing." I found more success by not looking at the screen and dictating my ideas down and then going back and editing as needed later on.

These processes made me reflect on my current position as a Learning Support teacher at our school. We often use assistive technology as an adaptation to allow struggling students to be successful in their classes. Too often we have the students these tools with little to no training. Our district decided to purchase a district license for Dragon Speak, hoping that it would replace Educational Assistants as scribes for high school students during their Provincial exams. We did not have a lot of success with this process as the training piece was left out. The staff and then the students were given this piece of software without training them on how to use it. The students who had the best success with this program practiced using it for personal use first and then started using it in the classroom. As with most skills, practice allows the user to become more proficient.

I feel these tools, with the right training, could allow students to be more independent. Especially the students who struggle with reading and/or getting their ideas down on paper.

Text-to-Speech Feature

Speak Screen Feature

December 12th, Project update

This week started with a bit of a set back in our project. Mrs. McAstocker, our Science and Social Studies classroom teacher took on the role as acting Vice-Principal. This meant we needed to fill her teaching position. Her replacement, an excellent teacher, does not have any experience using iPads in the classroom. So now we are back in the training stage, while students continue to work on their body systems and biomes projects. Our students are starting to become proficient in using some of the apps, especially Explain Everything, to demonstrate their understanding. The new teacher is taking this opportunity to learn from her student how to use the iPads and apps. During the winter break, the new teacher plans on taking a device home to play with and learn how to use it while thinking of different ways to use it with her class.

We have noticed these devices have allowed our students who struggle completing written assignments to demonstrate their learning and are more willing. We have the keyboards available to the students, but they have been rarely used as the students are finding the on screen keyboard to be sufficient for their needs.

App choice

After some research, discussion, and some simple trial we have come up with a suite of apps to use with our students. We decided, we wanted apps which the students could use to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. Many of these apps, allow the students to either save their project to the camera roll on the iPad or by using a cloud based storage solution. Unfortunately because of FOIPPA, we must get written consent from parents to use storage options hosted outside of Canada. We have sent forms home and with most returned with full permission granted. We decided to choose GAFE (Google apps for education), as this allows the students to use email, blogs, and store their assignments, while collaborating with their classmates. The best part about GAFE is it is free. We purchased a web domain, and this allowed us to have personalized accounts for our school. After playing around with the admin account for a short period of time, we were able to create accounts for all 210 students participating in the project. Each student now has their own email address, blog and Google Drive account with 15 gb of storage. Here is a screenshot of our front page on each iPad.

Dropbox - many staff members have accounts which are linked to a school account. This will be where teachers can share their assignments and rubrics with the students. 

Docs - this is an app that will allow students to create a Google doc and share with partners or classmates and the teacher. They will use their GAFE accounts to login. 

Google Drive - this Will allow students to save their assignments to the cloud and then access them to complete the project at a later date. One issue we that potentially could happen with shared devices is students deleting other students projects. We wanted to prevent this from happening by giving the studio another way to save their project. 

I-nigma - this is the QR code reader that we chose, as it is quick and easy to use. Teachers will be able to create QR codes, which will give students easy and fast access to websites they would like to share. 

Notability - this app will allow students to hand write notes, type notes, as well as annotate PDFs and other documents.

Pic collage - this app will allow students to create posters. 

Popplet - this app will allow students to create webs and my maps to help organize their projects and ideas.

Stop motion - this app will allow students to create stop motion videos. We had lots of success using this app to create claymation movies.

Tellegami - this app allows students to have an avatar read or speak their typed out or recorded ideas. 

Book creator - this will allow students to create e-books. They can add pictures and videos to explain the written content in their book.

Doodle buddy - this app allows students to draw pictures. 

Explain everything - this app allows students create screencasts. It is a very versatile and can be used to annotate documents and videos while recording their voices. You can also be used to create presentations.

Green screen - using a green background students can place themselves and record video of them located anywhere they want. Students enjoyed pretty newscasts, while having their background being the moon or another crazy location. 

Stick around - this app allows students to create puzzles and share them with their classmates for them to solve. This works well when creating diagrams to label. 

iMovie - this app allows students to create and edit videos. Students enjoyed using the trailer function in iMovie. 

We will post as students create examples with each app. 

Exploration

November 16th, 2014

It has been a few weeks since our technology arrived and it has been so much fun!  Our introductory classes were purely exploratory and the engagement was instant.  Students navigated through the apps trying each of them out and discovering the potential uses for these apps in their classes.
Our next project will be using Explain Everything to demonstrate knowledge of Human Body Systems.  Students will outline their understanding of the Immune System, plus two systems of their choice.  Students chose Explain Everything because of its ability to app smash.
We are in the process of making Google accounts for everyone so they can blog, email and create collaborative documents.

On the administrative side, I am still waiting for a few consent forms to come in.  With over 200 students this is not surprising.
I can't wait for the projects to start!

iPads and MacBook arrived

Christmas has come early at RTCS this year. We feel fortunate as we have been selected to take part in a classroom pilot project. Our equipment arrived from Set BC today and we have started the process of getting them set up. We have been researching different strategies for maintaining the iPads. We started by selecting a suite of apps, which will give the students lots of choice on how they will demonstrate their learning. Over the next couple of weeks we will be introducing the students to the devices and available apps.

Now that the equipment is set up, we are now waiting for our students to return their consent forms to use a variety of web tools to share their projects. We decided to use Google Apps for Education and will be creating e-portfolios using blogger. Please continue to follow our journey.