Communication Project

This week I turned in my communication project for class, so I wanted to share with everyone some of my experiences. I was given the assignment to not talk for one hour. I was to use a communication board I created to communicate for this hour. No signs, no gestures, no sounds. I picked a family dinner to try my communication board out.

At first, I figured this was going to be easy. I have programmed Dynavoxes (is that the plural of Dynavox?), I have used communication boards and am very experienced with boardmaker. So, I thought, can this be any easier? Well getting into and thinking about it a little more, I realized that this was going to be a communication nightmare. I had to find a way to communicate with Beata, my wife, Davin, my 7-year-old son, Simone, my 3-year-old daughter, and Nadine, my daughter who is only 10 months. Right away I knew that Nadine and I were not communicating for this hour. She claps, waves and approximates some words, all of which are against the rules. That still leaves me to plan for communicating with an adult and 2 small children. If I was just with Beata, I could easily have created multiple boards and with smaller symbols and words in order to communicate. This would not work with the younger ones. Davin is a reader and can read the symbols and understand some of the more complex symbols. Simone does not read and would need to rely on larger simpler pictures. Therefore, I created a simpler board that was 5 x 6 and utilized 1 ½ inch squares. I was hoping to use the least amount of symbols to clearly communicate my wants and needs.

Needless to say, dinner did not go as planned. I went over my board with Davin and Simone beforehand. We started my hour at dinner prep. I had Davin and Simone wash their hands. I was happy to be able to communicate this seemingly simple message effectively. I did not, however, tell Simone to not strip while washing her hands. I totally did not plan for that. Fail #1. I had absolutely no way of telling Simone to get her clothes back on. Not a huge issue so we moved on. Next, I had Simone and Davin sit in their chairs. Well, again in true Simone fashion, this became a game. Every time I had her sit, she would, I would turn my attention to dinner and would hear her giggling as she stood up, wanting me to ask her to sit again. We went through this several times before dinner was finished. Thankfully, the rest of dinner went along uneventfully.

At the end of my hour, I reflected on dinner. A few things really got me thinking about my teaching and how I have my students communicate. First, I was able to clearly communicate my wants and needs but was missing out on some of the spontaneous conversations that normally occur during any family meal. I had to sit back and listen while Beata steered conversation. My personality really was not able to come out and I mostly became a passive participant in dinner. Next, in creating our boards we were told to make a symbol that said, "No symbol" to indicate that we understood what is being said but can not communicate a response. I really never thought of this before. It is unfair of us as teachers, parents, and other professionals to assume we know everything that a child could and would want to communicate. It is our responsibility to say, we can not plan for everything. In this case, we need to give the child the way to communicate that instead of forcing a response from them.

I suggest everyone try this. It does not have to be for a full hour, but just try and find alternative ways to communicate and see how effective or ineffective you are. However, learn from me and if you have small children make a plan to communicate to them to put their clothes back on.

The iPad and UDL

This week's topic was Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This is a system for curriculum development that focuses on making learning accessible for all students. This week I will review an app rather the give strategies for finding appropriate apps as I have done in the past. 

I downloaded UDLinks, designed by the Maryland Department of Education. This app was downloaded for free and is available on iOS and Android devices. I could not see many differences when trying this app on my iPod touch and my son's nexus 7.  The main page allows you to create a classroom profile, look up resources, visit favorite pages you have marked, and learn more about UDL principles. When you use the classroom profile nor the resources page you can search for online activities based on which UDL principle you are focusing on. Once you select a resource, the app will take you to a page that provides more information on the site. You will get a description of the site, subject, and grade level of the site. Furthermore, you will get which principles the site is good for. I also liked the features where you can send the link to email or share on Facebook or Twitter, save the resource as a favorite, and view the link from the app. I especially liked the fact that some site descriptions added if the site has flash media, which is not supported by iOS.

I really liked this app. There were however a few downsides. First, this app has not been updated since December 2011! That is along time and the internet is vast. It is very likely that many high quality websites have come up since the last upstate and are not included in the database. Luckily, I did not find any sites that were no longer up. Next, there is no user option so that every time you open the app you have to go through the classroom profile if that is how you search for sites. Favorites are also saved locally on each device so if you find a site you want a certain student working on you have to search for it every time or make sure the get the same device each time.

I would certainly recommend this app. It is free, has a ton of great resources in its database, and it is a great resource of information on UDL.

The iPad and Physical Disabilities

This week’s topic was physical disabilities. It is difficult to talk about which apps are best without discussing how to make the iPad accessible in the first place. I did a lot of research for this topic and found a terrific resource, RJ Cooper & Associates.  I’ve broken the solution into the 4 S’s, Speakers, Stands, Styluses, and Switches.

The first thing to consider is the speaker of the iPad. I wish I would have thought about this a little more in the week I did communication (click here to read that blog). If you have ever used an iPad you know that the speaker quality is not the greatest. Yes, alone in your living room it is functional, but trying to use it as a voice output device in a crowded space and you are going to have some major difficulties being heard. There are several options for additional speakers that can easily be attached to the case of your iPad so that it can be a more effective voice output device.

Next, you will need to consider stands. The iPad is a great resource for many students but it needs to be accessible for students to use it properly. Again, there are numerous stands out there that will allow users to adjust the exact location of the iPad. There are stands that attach to wheelchairs and ones that will attach right to a table top. I liked how RJ used Super Velcro to attach his stands to surfaces. I have never heard of Super Velcro but it sounds pretty strong, you have to use a credit card or old cd to pry the two sides apart. 

Next, you may have to consider the usage of a stylus to access the iPad. Some individuals with physical disabilities may have difficulty with the fine motor skills necessary to navigate the iPad. There are several styles of styluses to assist in the fine motor gestures needed to navigate the iPad. There are ones that attach to the head, are inserted in the mouth, or attach to hands/wrists with velcro. 

Finally there are switches to make selections on the iPad. The iPad will scroll through a series of choices and the user will press a button (switch) to make that selection. The major drawback with this is that very few apps are switch accessible. There is a way to use the iPad’s voice over control, built into the accessibility features, and switch made specifically for this function to navigate apps. I was impressed with the ingenuity of this piece of equipment and amazed at the lengths that people will go in order to make the iPad accessible to everyone. 

Again with this blog is the disclaimer that you have to make the decision of which adaptations are going to be best for your needs. You may find that a simple stand is going to work for you instead of the high-priced one. Please, go out and shop around and see what is out there.

Apps for Early Childhood

This week the topic was using technology with early childhood students. There are many resources talking about the proper use of technology with children this young. If this is your field I strongly suggest looking into the research for this age group. However, my topic is looking at the apps that are out there. You can find the site we used HERE.

There are many apps out there but you have to know where and how to look. I went to the app store on iTunes. One of the main topics was apps for preschool and kindergarten. I was thrilled thinking my job this week was going to be easy. I clicked on the link and was taken to a page where I had to pick an academic area to narrow my search. I selected math and went to the number and quantity section. I was surprised at what I found.  19 apps!!! Guess what else. Go on, guess. There was only 1 free app! Now I know that this could not be right. How on Earth could there be only 19 apps for number and quantity in the hundreds of thousands of apps out there and that only 1 of those 19 apps is free? Well I decided to take a different approach; I typed “numbers” in the search and came up with a far more robust list of apps. Yes, some of them were not appropriate for this age level. I’m pretty sure that there are not too many 3-5 year olds out there ready to tackle Sudoku problems. This just shows why it is important to take the time to look for the best apps for your student and taking the easy way to find an app is not always the best. 

For many schools and classrooms cost is going to be a factor in deciding if an app is purchased. Many schools are enrolled in Apple’s volume purchasing program; this is where you can get a discount if you purchase 20 or more licenses of an app. However, not all apps allow a discount. Let’s take one of the apps I found in that list of 19, Team Umizoomi Math. I honestly have no idea what an Umizoomi is but this app is developed by Nickelodeon. I went on Apple’s volume purchasing site and found this app is priced at $4.99. Multiply that cost by 20 and it is going to cost $99.80! Say you have 50 iPads; that will cost $249.50. For larger districts with 100 iPads the cost will be $499! Or you could take an extra couple of minutes and find qCat- Toddler’s Count game. Yes the “q” is intentional. This app is FREE! So downloading this app 20 times will cost you $0, 50 times $0, even 100 times it is still $0. Hopefully you see my point. Taking the extra couple of minutes is well worth the effort in the end. It is important to evaluate each app for their strengths and weaknesses and look at exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the use of the app and then make an informed decision on which app to buy. You still may decide the Umizoomi app is best for you in your situation. If you do, please email me or leave a comment and let me know what an Umizoomi is.