Assistive Technology to Support Math

Last week, my blog entry focused on using assistive technology to support writing. This week, my blog entry will focus on using assistive technology to support math. I hope you find the resources below useful!

Chapter 5 Focus Questions

3 Key Questions to be Considered When Selecting Educational Applications to Meet Students' Goals and Objectives
- According to Assistive Technology In the Classroom by Dell, Newton, and Petroff, when selecting educational applications to meet students' goals and objectives, there are several questions that must be considered. The first question is, "What is the intended outcome of the use of the educational application?" The second question is, "Is the educational application likely to fulfill its stated purpose?" The third question is, "Can the educational applications be used as an alternative to traditional classroom activities to enhance students' participation?"   

Educational Applications That Address Automaticity/Math Fact Fluency
- FASTT Math (Basic math facts)
- Timez Attack (Focuses on multiplication facts)
- ArithmAttack (Played online or downloaded)

Technology Tools to Address Visual-Spatial or Motor Control Difficulties
-  MathPad (Talking math worksheet program)
- MathPad Plus (Extends to fractions and decimals)
- Virtual Pencil Arithmetic (For students who are "pencil impaired")
- Virtual Pencil Algebra (Extends to algebraic equations)
- Number Navigator (Simple "math processor" with customizable colors, fonts, and font sizes)
- Microsoft Word's Equation Editor (For students with good mouse control but difficulty with handwriting)
- Math Type (For students in advanced math classes)
- Scientific Notebook (For solving equations)
- Meander's Annotator (For handwriting problems in geometry) 

Educational Applications to Teach Math Concepts, Math Skills, and Problem Solving
- National Library of Virtual Manipulatives (VP)
- Illuminations (Online activities)
- Computing Technology for Math Excellence (More VPs)
- Internet 4 Classrooms (High-quality resources)
- Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics
- Math Playground (Free, online math activities)
- Conceptua Math (Fractions)
- Destination Math (Math reasoning and conceptual understanding)  

Low-Tech and Mid-Tech Adaptations to Assist Students with Disabilities With Math Assignments
- Manipulatives
- Rubber fraction stamps
- Manipulative number line
- Laminated addition and multiplication tables
- Ruler with transparency overlays
- Large calculators
- Talking calculators
- See 'n' Solve Calculators
- "Coin Abacus"
- "Coin-u-lator"
     
Suggested Activities

1. Explore Virtual Manipulatives- I visited the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives' website and was very impressed. It's great that you can choose a grade range, a math category, and even specific topics. When you're planning a lesson, you want to try to reach as many learners as possible. This is one way to try to reach visual learners, as well as learners who may have good mouse control but have difficulty using physical manipulatives.

2. Add to your portfolio- After conducting a search, "websites for teaching math" I found many great resources:
- http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/newsletter/0704/math.cfm 
Offers a list of the "Top 10 Math Websites." It also provides links and descriptions to the websites.

- http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/08/a-list-of-great-free-math-websites-for.html
Offers the same thing as the link above, but it offers more resources and a clip art image of each.

It's amazing just HOW many math websites there are out there for teachers to use! Many of them can be found by using a simple search on Google or another search engine. 

Chapter 12 Focus Questions

Strategies Teachers Can Use to Overcome "Learned Helplessness"

According to Assistive Technology In the Classroom by Dell, Newton, and Petroff, there are several strategies that teachers can use to help students overcome "learned helplessness."

- "Build a daily expectation of communication through specific activities such as choose the activity during recess, picking a book to read, or identifying where to eat at lunch."
- "Construct a brief daily report to parents that is communicated by the student."
- "Allow natural consequences to occur and provide avenues for repair. This includes setups that alter the environment to provide less support or sabotage."
- "Provide powerful phrases on the device for students to reject or protest something."
   
How Augmentative Communication (AC) Can be Integrated Into the IEP
- AC must be considered for all nonspeaking students
- Specify components
- Specify USE of components
- Incorporated into goals, as a way to accomplish the goals
- Include list of the AC services to be provided by related service personnel
- Include identification of the people responsible for maintaining and operating the device  


Importance of Supporting the Use of AC Systems at Home and in the Community
- Communication demands of home and community can be very different from those at school
- Parents and family members must be included in AC planning and implementation. This will help them support the child's attempt to communicate in other environments.
- Reinforces skills learned in school  

How a Student's AC System can be Designed to Meet the Communication Demands of Home and the Community

HOME
- Consider family involvement, culture, and places/activities that students frequent
- Teachers must be actively involved
- Provide training to families
- Provide direct instruction on the use of the system
- Identify vocabulary that is relevant to the home
- Teach family members to provide opportunities for communication and to wait
- Provide sample data and evaluation sheets for home and community
- Give parents permission to expand the child's communication
- Keep it simple!

COMMUNITY
- Teacher can plan field trips in the community and special activities with devices that have been programmed to ask specific questions
- Practice interacting with unfamiliar people     

How to Monitor the Progress of a Student Using AC for Rate and Quantity of Progress in the Development of Language and Communication
- Monitor for progress in increasing communication skills
- Monitor for progress in developing communication skills
- Instructor's behavior must be monitored as well, to document and/or adjust the support they provide

Assistive Technology Implementation Resources

Assistive Technology Implementation: Working Together to Make a Measurable Difference
The link above, is an invaluable resource for implementing AT. The website has many training modules that are free to view. For example, there is a module about about reading strategies to use with students. You can download a presentation slide, as well as notes. Each module clearly identifies the purpose, objectives, and downloadable materials. The presentation slides are organized and laid out clearly, with great visual representations to engage the audience.

University of Kentucky Assistive Technology (UKAT) Project
The link above, is another great resource to use when learning about how to implement assistive technology. The UKAT Toolkit includes an overview of AT, an overview of the toolkit, instructions, tools, sample application of tools, as well as resources. Downloadable presentations are available for users to learn more about AT and how to implement it with students. I did not care for the layout of this website, as much as I liked the first website (it was not as ascetically pleasing), but it is still a great resource.

Chapter 14 Focus Questions

How AT Can Serve as a Reasonable Accommodations for Students with Disabilities in College

- Under Section 504 and the ADA, colleges must provide, at no cost to the student, reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities

- Some examples include:

* Note taking- use of a portable note taker

* Understanding lectures- Assistive listening system

* Taking tests- text to speech software for reading support

* Accessing course materials- Captioned videos

* Reading- eBooks

* Completing papers and assignments- Graphic organizer applications

* Accessing the Internet- Providing screen magnification

* Registering for classes- Making college web-based systems accessible

* Telecommunicating- email, text messaging, instant messaging, and voice-relay systems

How Apps Can be Used to Provide Visual Supports for Students with Severe Disabilities

Apps can be a wonderful way to provide visual supports for students with severe disabilities. Below, are reasons why apps tend to work for students with special needs:

 

- Highly motivating for many students

- Consistent, repetitive practice needed to master functional skills

- Simple, uncluttered presentations

- Customizable

- Graphics

- Spoken instructions

- Adjustments in response time

- Variety of response methods

- Auditory feedback keeps many students engaged

- Customizable level of difficulty   

—Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. (2nd ed., pp. 3-22). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

Assistive Technology to Support Writing

Summary

Writing can be a very difficult and daunting task for some students. The writing process includes prewriting, drafting, reviewing, editing, and sharing/publishing. While there are many parts of the writing process, teachers can implement certain strategies in the classroom to assist students. Many students with disabilities may appear to be avoiding doing their work when they are supposed to be writing, but it really may be that the process is too difficult for them. It is the teacher's job to make it doable for the student. Some ways to do this are using graphic organizers, word processors, word prediction, custom dictionaries, text-to-speech, talking dictionaries, and digital storytelling, just to name a few. With the help of assistive technology and patient teachers, students can experience success with the writing process.

Work Cited: Dell, Newton, Petroff. Assistive Technology in the Classroom (Pearson Education, 2008), 52. 

Writing Process

1. http://www.readwritethink.org

This website is beneficial for students with reading and/or writing disabilities. The website is very organized; you can search by grade level, resource type, learning objectives, and even different themes. Different resource types include: lesson plans, student interactive activities, mobile apps, calendar activities, and printouts.  Aside from being an extremely versatile website, it's also free! Lesson plans incorporate popular children's books, such as Fancy Nancy, so they seem highly engaging for students. Teachers could use this website during guided-reading activities, to help students organize their thoughts, recall information about a book, and retain important story elements. This is an easy-to-navigate, teacher-friendly website.

Graphic Organizers

1. http://www.inspiration.com/

This is another great website for students with reading and/or writing disabilities. It could also be helpful for students with ADHD, who may have difficulty focusing during traditional classroom activities. This website offers a product called Inspiration. Inspiration is a great product to help students (grade 6 - adult) with visual mapping, outlining, writing, and even making presentations. Inspiration is available for a free 30-day trial download, if you would like to test the product before making a commitment. A single Inspiration licenses costs $39.95, but if your school is looking to purchase more than one license, they do offer discounts.

This would be a great website to use to take notes during class or while reading, to organize ideas for a book report, and so many other activities. In addition, the website offers similar products for younger students, as well.

2. http://www.matchware.com/en/products/mindview/education/examples.htm

MindView is a product that provides students with templates that they can use with language arts, social studies, and science. The great thing about the templates is that they allow students to focus on the content of what they are learning, and less about how they are going to go about recording the information. The templates can be edited, customized, and saved for future reference. Clip art is also included, to keep the templates interesting and engaging for students. I can really see students with reading/writing disabilities, as well as we all students, using this product to demonstrate an understanding of the concepts they read about or studied. The website has a ton of information, it is organized, and teacher friendly. Depending on the product purchased, a single-used license ranges from $249-$279.

Word Processing for Drafting

1. http://www.ldresources.org/?p=171

This website provides resources for people with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. It is also a place for people to comment back and forth about issues and trends, regarding learning disabilities. If you click on the "links" section, you can find information about the following topics: adult literacy and ESL, books and videos, camps and residential, colleges, computers and software, education issues and ideas, electronic text collection, events and conferences, and much more. This website is free to use, and can provide teachers and parents with resources to help children succeed.

2. http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html

Talking word processors are great for students with reading/writing disabilities, but they are also great tools for other students too! One example is called Write:OutLoud. It provides speech feedback as the user types. It can read individual letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. Similar to word prediction software, this type of software can help students with spelling and grammar. This program is wonderful for students to use when editing their work. Students can adjust the size of the text, as well as the color of the font and/or background, to help the student follow along as the word processor reads their work to them. This can help students become more successful when editing their work.  It includes: a simple tool to help students make a bibliography, a talking spell checker, human-sounding voices, an age-appropriate dictionary, as well as a homophone checker! The price starts at $84 per computer.

Word Prediction

1. http://www.goqsoftware.com/

Word prediction software is a type of product that works by predicting the next word that the user is going to type. One great product that I found is called WordQ. It is great for students who have difficulty with spelling, grammar, and word choice; students with writing disabilities would benefit greatly from this type of product. WordQ can be used with young children but also with adults. It is an add-on that can be purchased to work with Microsoft Word and other word processors. This type of product is great for students who may develop anxiety while writing or have fine motor difficulties, as well as various other needs. The product costs $199 to purchase for a single computer.

2. http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/tools/writeonline/default.aspx

Write Online is a tool that students with writing disabilities can use to improve their writing. It can be accessed online, at any time, but it can also be installed on a computer. It costs $300 to download the software, which is slightly pricey. This product could be beneficial for many different kinds of learners, especially learners who have difficulty with writing, spelling, grammar, and poor handwriting. The product works by predicting the words as you type, making sure the words fit the context. This can help improve student confidence and success rate!
 
Speech Recognition

1.  http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm

Speech recognition software is great for students who struggle with reading and/or writing disabilities, such as dyslexia. The example above, is Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speech Recognition. It is simple to use; the student talks, and the software types what the student says. All that is needed is a computer and a high-quality microphone. Students can use this product to write stories, send emails, open applications, move the mouse, and more! It is a very well-rounded product. It allows them to focus more on the content of their writing, instead of remembering where the keys are and how to spell words. The cost for a PC license is $74.99.

2. http://www.goqsoftware.com/product-details/speakq/

SpeakQ is a product that you can use if you already have WordQ installed on your computer. SpeakQ can be used to write short assignments or longer assignments. One nice thing about the product is that you can use a combination of speaking and typing to complete your activity. SpeakQ allows you type the words you know and use voice-to-text to say the the ones you do not know. Another nice thing about this product is that it offers suggestions for words you may be unable to pronounce. The price is $99 and would be beneficial for students who were completing a writing assignment and had difficulty with spelling, grammar, or typing in general.

Text-to-Speech

1. http://nextup.com/

TextAloud is a product that can turn text from documents or emails, into naturally-sounding speech. This can be useful for students with reading disabilities because it will transform hard-to-decode text, into words they can listen to and comprehend more easily. A free trial is available, and the product is fairly-priced at $29, making it more affordable than some other educational programs.
 
2. http://www.gingersoftware.com/

Ginger is a program that can be used as a grammar and spell checker for students with writing difficulties, and many other students as well. It works in a very interesting way; it takes your sentence and compares it to similar sentences on the Internet and proofreads your work. It scans your work as you type, but it can also scan your entire document as well. The website is easy to navigate and it has a clean and simple layout. The best thing is that the product is free!
  
Phonetic Dictionary

1. http://www.donjohnston.com/products/write_outloud/index.html 

Write:OutLoud is a great program for students to use when editing their work. It includes: a simple tool to help students make a bibliography, a talking spell checker, human-sounding voices, an age-appropriate dictionary, as well as a homophone checker! The price starts at $84 per computer. Students with writing difficulties could really benefit from using this product when writing in school or at home. A great thing about this program is that the definitions are age-appropriate, making it accessible for young children.

Dell, A., Newton, D., & Petroff, J. (2012). Assistive technology in the classroom. (2nd ed., pp. 3-22). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.