In Conclusion....

I have thoroughly enjoyed this course.  I had no idea there was so much AT available! It's unfortunate that budget cutbacks in this province will, without a doubt, prevent a lot of this AT from entering our schools.  However, something as relatively inexpensive as a IPhone of an IPod Touch would certainly go a long way. Once question I had throughout the course was:  What happens when a diverse learned decides that he/she wants to enter University of community college, but may not be able to without alot of AT (expensive) in place? And, what if they are unable to work during the summer month because of their impairment, how will they ever afford it?  Well, I did some digging and this is what I found...

There are two separate programs; a provincial program, and a national program.  Both offer a variety of supports, including:  note taking, tutoring, educational assistant services, test accommodations, alternate formatting services, and a wide variety of assistive technology. In addition, on each campus in Nova Scotia, there is a Disability Resource Facilitator to help with the entire process.

From the province if Nova Scotia, this is what is available...

Provincial Access Grant

To be considered for the Provincial Access Grant, you must submit a Nova Scotia Student Loan Pre-Study Report. This form is used to confirm your income during the pre-study period and to update your sources of income while you are in school. Until this form is processed, your Nova Scotia Student Loan, grants, and additional Canada Student Loan may not be issued.

Funding for the Provincial Access Grant is limited; therefore, you should submit your Nova Scotia Student Loan Pre-Study Report to the Nova Scotia Student Assistance Office as soon as possible.

You can access the Pre-Study Report here to file your Pre-Study Report electronically through the Nova Scotia Student Loan website.

For more information on the Nova Scotia Student Loan Pre-Study Report go to the Student Loans pre-study report information page or see the Nova Scotia Student Assistance website, www.studentloans.ednet.ns.ca, or call 424-8420 in Halifax, 1-800-565-8420 toll-free within Canada, or 424-2058 TTY

How do I apply?

By applying for a Canada/Nova Scotia Student Loan as a student with a permanent disability, you automatically apply for this grant. Be sure to complete and submit your Pre-Study Report as explained above

What will I get and when will I get it?

If you are eligible and funding is available, you will receive this grant in one of two ways.

• You could receive an additional cheque made payable to you if you have unmet financial need after receiving the maximum student loan and any other eligible grants. 
• You could receive notification that the eligible amount of this grant was paid directly toward your student loan, reducing your debt. This will happen if your financial need was met with other grants and student loans.

What is the maximum grant?

The maximum grant is $2,000 per year if you are attending university and $1,000 per year if you are attending college. (Note: Funding for this grant is limited.)

Do I have to pay back the grant?

No. This grant does not have to be repaid. However, the grant is considered taxable income, and a T4A form will be issued to you.

If you withdraw from courses or your program, this could affect your grant.

How will this grant affect my student loan?

This grant may be paid in addition to student loan money or may be used to pay down your loan. Therefore, it will not affect the amount of student assistance you are eligible to receive. Withdrawing from courses or your program could affect your grant.

And from the government of Canada, this is what you may be eligible for...

Canada Student Grant for Students with Permanent Disabilities

How do I apply?

When you apply for a Canada/Nova Scotia Student Loan as a student with a permanent disability, your eligibility for this grant is automatically assessed. If you are eligible for the Canada Student Grant for Students with Permanent Disabilities, your need for grant funding will be determined before your need for loan. Click here, for Canada/Nova Scotia Student Loan Information and how to apply.

What will I get and when will I get it?

For Example: if your assessed need is $10,000 the $2,000 Canada Student Grant for Students with Permanent Disabilities would be issued before your need for loan is determined.  If your assessed need is only $1, you will receive $2,000 Canada Student Grant for Students with Permanent Disabilities and no loan.  If you are studying more than 23 weeks, the grant will be issued in 2 equal disbursements.  The first disbursement will be issued at the start of your program and the second disbursement half way through your study period.  If you withdraw within the first thirty days of the program, the grant will be converted to loan.

What is the maximum grant?

The maximum grant is $2,000 per year.

Do I have to pay back the grant?

If you withdraw from your program within the first thirty (30) days of the program, the grant will be converted to loan. If you withdraw after the first thirty (30) days of your program or continue as a student in your program the grant will not need to be repaid.

Click here, to find out what you need to do if you withdraw from courses or your program as it could effect your grant.

How will this grant affect my student loan?

This grant is part of the money you will receive from student loans. For example, if your need is assessed at $10,000, the first $2,000 would be grant money and will not have to be repaid. Therefore, you would owe only $8,000 as a student loan. Withdrawing from courses or your program could affect your grant.

VoiceOver for IPhone

The same VoiceOver screen reader made popular on the Mac is now a standard feature on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS. It’s the world’s first gesture-based screen reader, enabling you to enjoy the fun and simplicity of iPhone even if you can’t see the screen.

What makes VoiceOver on iPhone truly remarkable is that you control it using simple gestures that let you physically interact with items on screen. It’s easy to learn and fun to use. Instead of memorizing hundreds of keyboard commands, or endlessly pressing tiny arrow keys to find what you’re looking for, with VoiceOver, you simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then gesture with a double-tap, drag, or flick to control the phone.

VoiceOver delivers an experience unlike any screen reader you’ve ever used before. Traditional screen readers describe individual elements on the screen, but struggle to communicate where each element is located or provide information about adjoining objects. This contextual information is very important but typically filtered out by other screen readers. For example, “off-screen” models used by traditional screen readers to represent applications and web pages intentionally strip away contextual information and describe web pages as a list or menu of items. But with VoiceOver on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS, you’ll experience something entirely new.

Because VoiceOver works with the iPhone touchscreen, you interact directly with objects on the screen and can naturally understand their location and context. So, when you touch the upper-left corner of the screen, you’ll hear what’s in the upper left corner of a web page, and as you drag your finger around the screen, you’ll learn what’s nearby, providing an amazing new sense of context and relationship between the items you hear. For many, VoiceOver on iPhone will provide, perhaps for the first time, a true sense of how things appear on screen, not just descriptions of what they are.

You’ll hear descriptions of every item on the screen, including status information such as battery level, Wi-Fi and cellular network signal levels, the cellular network provider, and time of day. It even lets you know when the display changes to landscape or portrait orientation, and when the screen is locked or unlocked.

The speaking rate is adjustable so you can set it to a speed that best suits your listening ability. VoiceOver uses distinctive sound effects to alert you when an application opens, when the screen is updated, when a message dialog appears, and more. And, when Voiceover is talking, the volume of background sounds and music is automatically lowered, “ducking” under the voice, so you can clearly hear what VoiceOver is telling you.

Class #8: May 21/12

“All we have is hope - no child with a learning problem needs to become a lost child or is beyond rescue.”

Chapter 1 (Nathan’s story)

o 1 in 5 students struggle with learning .

Example:

o Bright child, articulate, leader athletic and then school.

o Can't read, struggles with math

o School contacts home

Solution:

o Repeats grade 1

o Finally gets help

o Mel Levine - finds out how the brain is wired for students with learning difficulties and provides strategies for these students and the teachers.

o Nathan has decoding issues.

Chapter 8 (Adam’s story)

q 16-year-old behind bars for break & enter.

q He feels being behind bars was actually good for him.

q Allowed him to learn in a comfortable environment where he could finally feel positive about school.

q Small classroom sizes that allowed for differentiated instructed (used all senses to present information)

q Early recognition is needed in order to provide the necessary accommodations.

q When you don’t give a student what they need, the chances that they will eventually give up is so much more likely to happen.

q Some states are accurately predicting crimes rates based on 3^rd & 4^th grade literacy levels.

q Education is starting to become a significant public health concern. (drop outs, drug and alcohol use, mental health issues, and criminal activity)

Chapter 8.1

o This chapter recognizes the struggles and pain that parents of children with learning disabilities and the children themselves with learning difficulties experience.

o We can help these students.

o With early diagnosis, a consistent plan for support that is followed from grade to grade, remediation and compensation plus the continued development of positive coping strategies, we can keep these children in high school and out of jails and hospitals.

The Chapter that I was most interested in was Adam's story because I have seen so many students, some that I grew up with, and some who I have taught, "slip through the cracks" and not get the attention they needed. This led them down the wrong path which they are still on.

This chapter motivated me to search for more stories about crime and learning disabilities.  Here is a great video that talks about the adverse effect that the criminal justice system has on people with disabilities.  Not what I would call an even playing field. 

Class #7: Inspiration Software

Class number 7 was focused on Inspiration Software. I cannot believe all the great improvements this program has gone through in such a short time! During this class, we had the opportunity to work in groups to create a word web, which is great to help minimize the complexity of any reading on virtually any topic.  Tonight's class forced me to find out more information about Inspiration. This is what I came up with.

To start, here is a video on how to use Inspiration for Mac:

For visual mapping, outlining, writing and making presentations, use Inspiration® 9, the ultimate thinking and learning tool. Brainstorm ideas, structure your thoughts and visually communicate concepts to strengthen understanding with the Diagram and Map Views. To take notes, organize information, and structure writing for plans, papers and reports, use the integrated Outline View to focus on main and supporting ideas and to clarify thinking in written form. With Inspiration's Presentation Manager, transform your diagrams, mind maps and outlines into polished presentations that communicate ideas clearly and demonstrate understanding and knowledge.

Visualize & Develop Ideas. Understand & Retain Concepts.

Create webs, idea maps, mind maps, concept maps, graphic organizers, process flows, and other diagrams for thinking, organizing and writing. Use these proven visual thinking and learning techniques to brainstorm ideas, explore and explain relationships, and integrate new knowledge with what you already know. Inspiration® encourages deeper, more critical thinking and that improves creativity, comprehension and retention.

• Brainstorm and capture ideas quickly with RapidFire® tool.
• Represent information and trigger memory with symbols and images. Choose from Inspiration®’s Symbol libraries with 1+ million images, searchable by keyword, or import your own.
• Jumpstart the writing process by adding notes to symbols.
• Highlight key concepts and group information with different text and link colors and font styles.

In Diagram View:

• Add symbols and images in multiple ways. Point and click to place them, use the Create tool, or drag and drop from the Symbol palette. Choose the method that works best for you and your project.
• Show relationships between ideas with links.
• Explain the relationship between ideas with linking phrases – choose from a list of common phrases or write in your own.
• Organize ideas effortlessly using the Arrange tool or to create various tree charts and webs.

In Map View:

• Expand your central idea by adding new topic and subtopic branches.
• Rearrange and connect ideas easily by dragging branches into place.
• Use the Relationship tool to show connections among branches and topics.
• Branches and their sub-branches automatically maintain the same color to visually keep related thoughts together.

Plan & Organize Written Work

Organize ideas and think through projects and assignments more effectively using Inspiration’s Outline View. Structure your work for planning and writing. Learn how to brainstorm and create essay outlines to support the writing process. Gather and keep track of research information and develop a logical flow for written and oral communication. With Outline View, you can quickly develop main and supporting ideas and add detail helping you write to a purpose. Outlining, paired with the integrated visual views, lets you move seamlessly between visual and written expressions of your thinking to expand and refine ideas and produce quality work.

In Outline View:

• Transform diagrams and mind maps to outlines with one click.
• Continue the writing process by adding topics, subtopics and notes text. Diagram View and Map View update automatically.
• Organize ideas and information with power outlining tools:
  • Rearrange topics simply by dragging. Subtopics and notes move automatically. 
  • Change idea hierarchy, split or combine topics, transform lists to topics and subtopics, and demote and promote groups of subtopics to fine tune your work.
• Manage your outline structure and order by hiding or showing subtopics and notes.
• Keep visual connections intact. See associated symbols and linking phrases from Diagram View in Outline View.
• Meet word and page count requirements with Word Count.

Improve Communication & Build Presentations

Improve communication and share what you’ve learned with Inspiration’s Presentation Manager. Use the content you’ve developed in Diagram, Map and Outline Views and expand your work into more thoughtful and compelling presentations and final projects. Inspiration provides all the tools to create organized, polished, formal presentations that convey ideas clearly and demonstrate your understanding and knowledge. Use the FREE Inspiration Presenter to show your presentation easily on any Macintosh® or Windows® computer.

Assistive Technology and First Nation communities

During this week's class there was a student who made her presentation who is First Nation and is working in a First Nation school. Her thoughts regarding the lack of access to assistive technology really resonated with me. For the past year I have been working as Project Manager for a business mentorship program through the Purdy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies at Cape Breton University.  

In this course I we are discussing so many great assistive technology tools that could be utilized in all First Nation schools, but some do not have the access (financially) to this.  Also, teacher training on AT is just as important as the financing.  If teachers don't have proper training, whether it be Kurzweil, or iSpeech, or Dragon, what's the point in having it?

Of the 13 First Nation communities in Nova Scotia that I work with, some would be considered remote.  However, there are communities in this country that can only be visited by plane, or my using ice roads in the winter time.  So, even if you have the fund to purchase great AT for your school, how accessibly is the training for teachers on this AT? I will admit, that now of days, teachers can use things like Skype and Webinars to  take training, but its certainly not the same. 

As mentioned above, iSpeech, is one that I found very interesting from last weeks class:

Speech for developers

iSpeech offers mobile developers a free way to integrate speech into their applications. The iSpeech cloud combines powerful text to speech (TTS) and automated speech recognition (ASR) technologies with easy to use APIs and SDKs. With 100% uptime in 2010, while serving over one half-billion audio files, iSpeech is the go-to solution for quality and stability.

Class #4: April 25th

Presentation Night


I thoroughly enjoyed preparing for our presentation and making our presentation.  Until we began 4 weeks ago I had no idea the endless amount of assistive technology tools available for teachers to use.  I use a Apple MacBook and Apple Ipod Nano, but do not use Ipad, Ipod Touch, or Iphone. As a result, many of the apps we discussed in our presentation, and in the other presentations (which were great by the way!), were brand new to me.  


One point worth noting is that many of the apps that were discussed during this class are apps that I wouldn't normally consider an AT app. 


For example,  Think Geek Joy Stick-It

• ·       Gives you a real physical joystick for increased precision with touchscreen-based games.
• ·       No wires or batteries needed.
• ·       The JOYSTICK-IT works with thousands of different game apps.
• ·       Simply run your game of choice, place the JOYSTICK-IT over the on-screen control pad and push down.
• ·       The JOYSTICK-IT sticks to the glass of your display and is ready for action.

This is an app that makes gaming more accessible for everyone  - even more so for students requiring AT.  

All and all, I can't believe all of the apps that Apple have created and implemented to date. I was always a BlackBerry user, but next time I upgrade, I will be choosing Iphone!

AT helps more people than you think...

I spent the last few days thinking about my topic for this week's blog -  I got my answer this morning.  A few days ago I learned of an individual, Troy Adams who is running across Canada to raise awareness for brain injuries. On April 1st, he began his journey in St. John's NFLD, and is currently in Cape Breton. Troy is running 40 plus kilometres per day. So far he has ran 940 kms to date!

I was fortunate enough to be able to run with him today for a bit - this is where AT comes into this story. As mentioned, he is a brain injury survivor, and as a result of his injuries, learns differently than he did prior to his injury.  We had a long discussion during our run today - some of which involved the adverse effects this injury has on his brain.  While he was speaking, I couldn't help but think of all the apps he could use with his IPhone to accommodate his everyday life. I wont get into too much detail because I know this can be read by anyone online, but the moral of my story is that, now of days, AT can be used by a lot more people than we think!

For more information on Troy's story check out troysrun.com,  http://www.facebook.com/CrossCanadaRun, or @troysrun. Watch for him in your community!!