Author: AccessAbility Smyles

This link will take you to a presentation recorded earlier today. Unedited as it happened and completely unscripted. All that work as Scrooge seems to be paying off now! Click below and you will learn from artificial intelligent websites to qr code creation to flipped classroom in 17 mins!!

“The Message is the Media”

A day to promote internet safety. For people with learning disabilities social media sites such as Facebook can be the cause of much joy but also offers potential for breaking relationships. Misunderstandings can occur when sentences have mistakes or mis-spellings that change a postive statement to a negative. Also, “unfriending” people can be very dramatic on relationships as well. How do we make facebook safe?

Well , we cant’t make facebook safe but we can decide on principles that could help.

• when making comments decide to make only positive comments
• never use a negative statement as this may lead to misunderstandings
• don’t unfriend often. This can cause confusion and stress to your friends.
• remember your audience – so don’t share everything!

Here are a few tips on what to write:-

• say only postive things that encourage people ” That’s great! ” “Well done!”
• write short clear statements but don’t write things that connect what you are doing and where you are now . This gives information that might be useful to others
• if possible keep your comments few and lacking in specific detail.

Your privacy settings are important so keep everything to friends only where possible. Facebook’s privacy settings are very complex and you need to have someone to help who understands this and is able to ensure you are safe online.

Taking place on Wednesday 10th February at 3:00pm. Free for teachers and professionals who want to learn how best to use the technology we have at our hands to make teaching and learning more interactive for all learners. To join click the link below. The session will only last 45 minutes.

“The Message is the Media.”

Why not take a look at UKATNews? Aidan Parr who runs the site is a lovely guy with a heart for disabled users and AT. You can subscribe for £25 for a year or why not take his 3 month free trial. There is a wealth of information I will be dipping into from time to time. Why not follow him on twitter at @UKATnews

• http://ukatnews.com/subscription-registration/

Take a look at this website created with the thegrid – intelligent website builder software. News items taking a look at both SEND and ICT will appear in an attractive and easier to navigate website. Let us know what you think

Here is the link:-

https://thegrid.ai/accessability-solutions/

I wrote this last year but discovered I could find an electronic copy on the web at:-

eXam access

What’s App has been around for a few years now and provides a free SMS on wifi to send out your message, either to individuals or groups. This can be using text, photos or videos and audio files. Powerful little tool now making use of VOIP ( Voice Over Internet Provider). Remember to reduce costs use Wifi to send media .

First News is a newspaper designed for young people and  concentrates on giving just the facts .They have brought out a  new virtual classrom tool called “iHub” contains activiites that supports learning using activities.

Symbaloo provides a front end to your browser with some atractive tools that will make a difference. There is a teaching and learning bank of materials. You can sign up for beta test at http://www.symbalooedu.com/beta.

Blue Sky are an award finalist for 2016 and have a good track record in schools providing school improvement through professional learning and collaboration. You can find them at http://www.blueskyeducation.co.uk.

Need some unbreakable headphones then go over to Hills. They have been around a long time and have a range of peripheral goods you may find useful. http:// http://www.hillscomponents.co.uk

High quality 4K Ultra High Definition touch screen and interactive software is very much part of this year’s BETT . I like the ProWise screens. They have a high quality screen that is mountable as a table device. But I especially like the fact that their software is free to download.http://www.eurosimm.com

BETT 2016 was as huge as ever but I like what I did and saw.  Good to have the opportunity to go on the radio with Russell Prue and share what’s been going in the world of SEN and Longleat! Those two items are not connected by the way. 

Seriously I was impressed by Immersive Educations interactive room. Set you back quite a few pounds but worth it. You can design your own content and it puts you in the position of feeling like you are there. Surround film for the interactive classroom. Go to their website http://immersive.co.uk.

Nureva Span is a 40 metre+ wall of interactivity with multi-touch . Enables you to work collaborative both with the wall and with your  mobile devices. STeljes are marketing this in the UK as its made in Canada . I will include some video to the file so you can see what this is in practice. You can probably learn more fromhttp://www.nureva.com .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJzlMi8fneo

In order for good wifi you need good bandwith as well as good coverage. Some guidelines are available for schools at http://www.wificheck.co.uk. Is your wifi working? You can also download the  standard for wifi in schools at EDU-Fi. Does your wifi make the grade? See this at http://www.edu-fi.org.

In the BETT futures zone  Diagnostice Questions – is  a way of helping teachers and students identify , understand and resolve their misconceptions by asking questions . The best thing this outfit have so much belief in their brainchild they want to make freely available to schools one day. At the moment there is cost £30 per teacher. The explore page is free forever. Go and find out more at http://www.diagnostic question.com .Klaxoon is an all device box that allows interactive flipped classroom using your own device across all platforms because it works both asdevice (display box) and as a cloud based product. Go to Klaxoon.com and be amazed! It offers your students quizes, surveys, challenges, brainstorming, instant messaging. Another useful startup for schools who want to appify their school website is berkfield mobile apps http://www.berkfield.co.uk . Go to heir site and you could get a free mock up of your school website.

NASEN have their one-stop online “focuson” SEND training site where the aim is to help SENCOs to train TA’s in high quality provision for SEN students/pupils. Crick software as promised in my previous article have released Clicker 7 which is being shipped from now. Can’t wait to receive my copy. The catalogue says it is is the complete literacy solution. Do go to http://www.cricksoftware.com and get your copy straigh taway. If you are a  school then please contact Crick directly as they work out from your previous licenses what your bulk purchase cost is.  Tablet Academy ran a hands-on live session where you can experience yourself the technology first hand. They offer you a range of support packages, pupil engagement through STEM activities like minecraft and lego. http://www.tablet-academy.com. ClaroSoft have their new Claro ScanPen which talks back any page that has been photograph that has text on it. This is useful for dyslexics in that they can see the text in its orginal format.  I will write much more later today. If you are going to BETT 2016 I hope this gives you a flavour of what to see. Last day Saturday today.

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