PLUK News feed

iPod Helps Students Learn English Through Songs, Audio Books, and More

Link: iPod  As school leaders ponder the implications of new technologies for their classrooms, one dedicated New Jersey educator has turned theory into practice, using the iPod to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) students. During an International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) webinar titled "iPods as Teaching Tools for Language Learners," Grace Poli, media specialist at Jose Marti Middle School in Union City, N.J., and an Apple distinguished educator, discussed how the iPod is transforming learning in her school.

Autism Training DVD for Police Officers

Link: FREE DVD This year SaharaCares produced a DVD that will be used to train police officers at training facilities and in regular pre-duty training sessions. The purpose of the DVD was to raise awareness of the rising prevalence of autism in our communities. It discusses ways to recognize the disability and gives constructive suggestions for dealing with people with autism. The DVD is being offer for free to any organization that can benefit from it.

Free Software For Children Who Can't Use a Mouse

Link: Free Software  My name is Sara. I have 2 boys who both showed an interest in the computer, but didn't know how to use the mouse or keyboard. Since there was nothing on the market to meet their needs, I developed a series of educational computer software programs that they could operate on their own by simply pressing the spacebar. I am making these programs available at no charge to any parent or teacher who thinks they may be able to use them.

The programs are based on high interest subjects, such as nursery rhymes, holidays, and birthday themes. The software keeps children engaged and actively learning. And for children with limited language skills, my programs can help give meaning to words and concepts. Holidays, birthdays, going to the doctor, dentist, or getting a haircut, are all broken down into sequential steps to thoroughly explain the event.

This educational software is made for children 18 months to 4 years of age (or higher for children struggling with language delays due to autism or other causes).

Bias Against Blind Book Lovers

Link: Blind Book Lovers I love to read. My wife is also an avid reader. But my wife and I are blind, and we have many blind friends. And although many of us read everything we can get our hands on, we can't get our hands on very much to read. There are services for us, of course. Government entities and nonprofit organizations convert books into Braille, audio, or digital form for our use. But only 5 percent of all books published undergo such a conversion. Nowadays, a solution to the problem of reading material is tantalizingly within our reach: the e-book. When Amazon released its new Kindle 2 e-book reader earlier this year, it announced that the device now includes text-to-speech software and can read e-books aloud. Our hope quickly turned to despair, however - and then to anger. The Authors Guild doesn't want the Kindle 2 to be able to read books aloud. They say this new capability violates authors' copyrights.

Switch-Adapted Digital Camera

Link: Digital Camera "I want people with special needs to be able to do everything an able-bodied person can do, at least those things within my sphere of influence. Switch-Adapted Digital Camera - it's just what it sounds like, along with the accessories that I've found to be useful! Bear in mind that I do not just go out and buy a camera and adapt it. I go through many cameras, all their features, their quality, their picture quality, durability, and how well I can adapt them. It takes several months for this process. I put time, money, and energy into finding just the right item for the job, and adapting it strongly. I've packaged it with the accessories that people wanted."

Screening Babies for Broken Hearts

Link: Broken Hearts In the middle of one night in August, a seemingly healthy 1-week-old infant named Ryan Olson suddenly began gasping for breath at home in Massachusetts, and his frantic parents rushed him to the hospital. There, emergency room doctors noted the critically ill baby had bluish feet and no pulse in his lower body. That almost certainly meant the boy had a “coarctation,” or blockage of his aorta. Ryan’s story isn’t that unusual. How can we identify these normal-appearing newborns before they leave the hospital, become critically ill like my patient and perhaps die? Recently, researchers have identified a promising new method called pulse oximetry to screen all babies for heart defects.

New AFB Video Portrays Difficulties Faced by Cell Phone Users with Vision Loss

Link: AFB Video Link: AFB Story Ever wonder what it would be like to use a cell phone without being able to see the display screen or keypad? Would you be able to dial calls, send a text message, or even get help in an emergency situation? This is often the reality for people with vision loss because the majority of cell phones do not offer talking menus and magnification options, and those that do cost much more. To improve the accessibility of cell phones for the more than 20 million Americans with vision loss, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is urging cell phone manufacturers and providers to focus on cell phone accessibility. As part of its cell phone accessibility efforts, AFB has launched a new video illustrating the challenges people with vision loss face when trying to purchase a usable and affordable cell phone.

Teaching Tech-Hungry Parents: an SLP’s Take on Technology

Link: SLP Technology Famed Irish author George Bernard Shaw (1865-1950) once wrote, “Some see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?” Others see things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?’” In the past, some speech-language pathologists (SLPs) were slow to take up the cause of technology as a way to provide education support to young clients. Increasingly, however, SLPs are seeing technology not as a threat, a crutch or as a passing fad that lacks substance, but instead as an education equalizer for children with disabilities. Such technology is most beneficial when used not only in a classroom setting but also at home under the guidance of parents made knowledgeable by tech-savvy SLPs.

eschoolnews.com: Text-to-speech reversal kindles disappointment

Link: eschoolnews.com
Ceding control of the Kindle 2's text-to-speech functionality to publishers is a blow to advocates for the disabled; Amazon also faces patent suit

google.com: Maine expanding school laptop program with Apple

Link: google.com
Maine started its first-in-the-nation program by distributing more than 30,000 computers to each seventh- and eighth-grader in all of the state's public schools in 2002 and 2003. Now the goal is to provide a laptop to every public school student in grades 7-12 by the fall.