has ceased trading – but still producing valuable assistive technology information
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.
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
Wyvern training portal do some excellent training videos on ClaroRead and Dragon
Dictate
http://wyvernportal.co.uk/
A new product I saw at BETT was ClaroScanPen which converts PDF into spoken
text, Forget app is also useful for remembering events and lists,etc
http://www.claro-apps.com/claro-scanpen/
Tools to record is AudioNote taker by Sonocent and their is app called Sonocent
as well. Records and you attribute its importance so you have a visual of what
you need.
https://www.sonocent.com/en-us/audio-notetaker
If you want to keep up to speed with what is going on in the world of Special
needs I can suggest signing up to Special World http://specialworld.net
and my new intelligent website which designs the look and feel itself.
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:-
I wrote this last year but discovered I could find an electronic copy on the web at:-
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
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Classroom collaboration system
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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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Anyone had this problem?
Just happened to me today when I tried to load a DVD!!
Apparently I learnt some new options can be accessed if you do get stuck in safe mode. It hasn’t solved my problems yet but here goes. Hopefully , either on the desktop click on the windows logo or splash welcome screen then on the power icon. You will see the options Shutdown or Restart. Hold down the shift key and press Restart and new options will appear like continue, turn off troubleshoot, etc. Reset the PC option after pressing troubleshoot is what I am looking at but -oh dear! – it brings my pc back to a default condition. Drat!! I will try the recovery disc I got from the internet called Easy Recovery. I have a choice of devices so I am going for what looks like my standard CD/DVD. Restarted and the screen has gone black!
Help Google required! Using my speech input into google I asked ” My computer is stuck in Safe Mode in Windows 10 how do I get out of it?” Numerous suggestions appear . The one I choose was to right mouse click over the start menu and select run then type “msconfig” and see what I can change there? I had the computer on minimal selection and so I changed it to “normal boot” Black screen appears and then a polite “Please wait.” – and voila ! My screen is back. I haven’t lost my files and the machine reset to factory setting. Phew!!
That was really bizarre! And all because I wanted to play a DVD . GGrrr – Microsoft! Bah Humbug, Microsoft!!
If anyone can tell me what happened to make my computer do all this I would be grateful? Reply to the blog or facebook page.
A lot has already happened in the world of special needs with New Years honours for Professor Barry Carpenter and also for Sal Cooke of BATA council to name two. So this issue of Special World concentrates on BETT this year. Take a look at the many articles from around the world and see a larger context of the Special Needs world.
AccessAbility Solutions 