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https://speechlogger.appspot.com/en/ – is a website that allows a user to talk and have his speech turned into text. What makes this site different is that there is no logon and no training making it a tool that schools might wish to use as it works with the browser only. It’s accuracy is quite good and facilities are on the page to save and edit. But it is a simple tool and doesn’t have the options of sentences and grammar as Dragon Dictate has. But great for everyone to try and to have it accessible to all.

Dropittome – this is a really useful website for schools and others to share files with each other. Password protected so that only the person you want can access the facility this is a powerful way to remotely share device material and also to share different file formats as well. Great for collaboration and flipped classroom work!

Sharing files from an iPad in a school setting has been not as easy as it should be. Padlet has lots of useful features that can enable files to be shared in numerous ways from PDF’s to cloud storage like Dropbox, Google drive, etc. Not only that but the visual wall you create can be a great collaborative tool for others as well. Using this pupils can work on joint projects together.

click on the link below for some great features in iOS 9 that would help schools make the most of the new operating system. Note many of these features need an iPad Air !

Best features in iOS9

As this week has been Dyslexia Awareness week in the UK I thought I would give a plug for a surprising device . It is the Chromebook. At first I thought this would be a limited use device due to its small memory and needing wifi to be useful. Both of that is true but you can extend your memory with an SD card and you can download work to be used offline( you can login to the chromebook on startup)

Then if you go to Accessibility>Enable Onscreen keyboard. Instructions as follows. You can then write into any and every application using your voice. It’s truly ingenious and functional. Of course what I am just saying will need wifi to be useful as the speech interpretation is being done online but it doesn’t require any training to perfect the tool and is available at no extra cost on your £168 Chromebook or similar priced Chromebook.

95% of what follows was written with my voice and with no training. Keystrokes were needed to be functionally useful with certain actions like a new line or paragraph but that is all! This is what a dyslexic user might find useful as it also works on any Android device.

To write with your voice on a Chromebook

1. Enable the on-screen keyboard in Settings – Accessibility- Enable on-screen keyboard
2. You will see that there is a microphone on the keyboard
3. You will be able to input textBy clicking on the iconAnd then speaking your words and sentence

And audio beep occurs when the speech is ready to receive text.

You’re not stopped from using the normal keyboard

Fact this is a preferred way of making your text more accessible by using both the speech microphone and the keyboard in a combo fashion.

There is no need to train

Google accepts your speech

As long as you’re connected to the Wi-Fi

And have Internet access

The onscreen keyboard can pop up with pop down as required

This has been covered before but its good to share again as I still meet people who don’t they can do this. For instance every iPad from 3 and above ( as well as some later iPad 2 models) all have this feature, From the keyboard there is an microphone icon by the space bar. If you are online this will work but not if you are not. Using any app with text input such as notes or pages you can use your voice to write with text. Also, use Siri to make notes or send emails.

Google Chrome – the browser from Google has a microphone in the search window. Click on this and speak and Google will go and search out a result. If you are using Android devices you can access a google keyboard that will input text into apps like Office Polaris or Kingston or Writer. Finally Google Search makes your search simple to do now using your voice.

I am attending the above event put on by Texthelp in conjunction with BATA ( British Assistive Technology Association) . The event is the second one put by Texthelp and BATA and will feedback on the research project on exam accessibility conducted this past year. If you are on Twitter then you can follow the event at BATAExamAccess . The use of technology in exams has been a tricky area to get equality of access in over the years. With technology changing so quickly and a multiplicity of tools and devices it is difficult to keep up with as well.But things are changing ! I hope this event will show progress being made.

“Thinnest, Coolest , Most Powerful PC ever made” – Panos, Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/october2015event/en-gb/live-event – watch the presentation yourself !

Microsoft are making some ground breaking products as we speak. HaloLens is a virual reality game headset which brings the gaming into the room. Microsoft Band has been upgraded to make health and data seemless with your device. People are exercising more as a result. Lumia 950 and 950XL can connect with contiuum to a display box that links your phone to an 1080dpi display on your tv making your tv a display monitor. Surface Pro 4 has slightly larger screen and greater power. Lastly, Surface Book is combo Surface Pro with a laptop keyboard and which is thin as a clipboard. There are 110 million active Windows 10 devices will these devices make a difference to those with the need for assistive technology. Classrooms will be pleased if they can use the Lumia 550 to work in lessons and “plug into” a monitor and show the class what they can do. Many pupils with dyslexia would love the power of the pocket and being able to share their work without touching the school network would please school networks all that would be needed would be the display box and a bank of Lumia 550’s. We won’t know the drawbacks until we can try them in our hands! That is at the beginning of November 2016.

The band might provide a monitoring device for pupils with the most complex needs to have health monitoring. For PE and Science data logging could be a more immediate and relevant experience for all pupils. Being fitter, more active, reaching their potential is what the Microsoft Band can offer.

Surface Pro 4 and the SurfaceBook ( sounds very Apple like!) offers lightweight, powerful systems that schools may wish to integrate into their school networks as time goes on as the costs will limit their introduction. Especially as their appears to be a slight backlash to mobile technology in school.  SurfaceBook has a 13.3″ screen which I personally like. Again this is a combo so its a tablet and a pc with power. And the performance and battery power is what schools like as well as being lightweight to carry. Also, the SurfaceBook doesn’t have the flap at the back like the Surface Pro’s 3 and 4 which is a selling point for me who always seems to have fall off a knee. The Surface Pro’s need a flat firm surface to work from which is their drawback and for our clients with assistive needs simpler opening and staying in position is clearly a winner! Let’s see where these products go to in a years time. In the meatime here is a link to some video about the SurfaceBook:-

http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/6/9454051/microsoft-surface-laptop-announced-specs-price-release-date

Testing that leads to action that meets the needs of the individual is vital for mapping out a planned intervention programme. To establish to baseline to work from and map out a learning journey for the individual pupil. The newsletter shares  news on how funding is in direction proportion to levels of SEN pupils identified and raises how schools can afford to test given they have reduced funds to have the expertise at hand. AAS is on hand to give reasonably costed assessment and map a route for intervention. Service to our client is paramount to ongoing progress. Quick fixes and one off assessments aren’t nearly as effective as ongoing assessment and provision approaches in my opinion. Anway, this is what Hamilton House are saying.

When funding is cut, the number of children with SEN falls. And when additional funding is available, the number of children with SEN rises. The problem is somewhat obvious, but what is the solution? I received a press release just the other day reporting on some interesting (though not surprising) research carried out by Bath Spa University. The research cites a sharp drop in the number of children in schools with special educational needs which, yet again, appears to be a response to government policy changes and increasing pressures on school budgets. Quite understandably, without funding schools cannot offer testing for children with SEN, whether this be for autism, ADHD or specific learning differences, to name just a few. Which also means that the additional support and resources for these pupils is limited too. But clearly schools do have funding, just not a lot of it, so using the likes of an educational psychologist to get pupils tested or screened for SEN can be far too costly and hence we see the above trend. And it seems that the waiting list for an appointment with an educational psychologist may indeed be getting longer, particularly when we consider the results of a survey which has revealed that 85% of AEP members reported “substantial” increases in workloads. You can read more about this athttp://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1153720/educational-psychologists-warn-services-face-being-overwhelmed#sthash.PLjZFl8e.dpuf So what is the solution? Many will argue that in identifying the condition or difficulty it is possible to provide the right support in the classroom – which makes the identification somewhat important. Yet it is the support in the classroom that will raise pupils’ attainment and not the statement of SEN itself. It is for this reason that many schools are now, more than ever, using the testing services (and indeed, supporting resources) that private organisations offer (I’ll put some links at the bottom). Such testing services are typically much more affordable and will help achieve the end goal: raising the attainment levels of pupils’ with SEN. Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, explains the need to focus on support rather than numbers: “The SEN reforms are about supporting young people with autism and other SEN being able to thrive and achieve at school – not about an arbitrary change in the way that we classify SEN. If pressure on budgets is driving schools to reduce the number of children they identify as having SEN that is deeply worrying. “Identification of SEN should be based on an assessment of a child’s needs and nothing else. We mustn’t let the debate about numbers distract us from delivering the best possible additional educational support to the children that need it.” Website links to organisations that offer testing: The Dyscalculia Centre – Testing for dyscalculia Dysgraphia Help – Testing for dysgraphia Website links to organisations that offer SEN resources: First and Best in Education Multi-Sensory Learning Dysgraphia Help Behaviour Matters Loggerhead Publishing R time ——————————————————————-

Just uploaded the latest incarnation of office onto my equipment as I have an Office 365 on license. A free upgrade is for present users of Office 365. Initial impressions are:-

• easy to load on all equipment
• clean interface and tablet option available
• can’t see many new features but lots of connectivity both with sharing on social media as well as on the cloud through onedrive and sharepoint sites