I had a call yesterday from a parent who was concerned about her 10 year old son who is dyslexic and dyspraxic. He has been receiving good support from the school staff, particularly with regard to his reading - his mum said that his reading age had been 1.5 years behind but that followed intensive work with staff, using Toe-by-Toe and other techniques, he was now reading at the same level as his peers.

However, she was concerned about his handwriting, which because of his dyspraxia, is difficult to read. He doesn’t like writing at all, finds it very hard to read his own writing, and is getting upset about it. The parent had raised the possibility of her son using ICT instead of handwriting with staff, and said that the school were not very enthusiastic.

Now, I don’t know the details and without meeting the pupil I wouldn’t be able to say whether he should  or should not use ICT instead of or as well as handwriting. But it does make me worried and so I thought I’d offer a few thoughts around this issue. Here’s what I think.

If someone in Primary 5 is dyspraxic and consequently has slow and illegible handwriting then it’s time to stop causing them grief and time to start helping them to access the curriculum. Forcing a pupil to continue writing by hand when there are easier, faster and more effective methods is not good practice. It risks disengagement, prevents them from accessing educational opportunities and creates low self-esteem. It’s not successful, not confident, not responsible, not effective and not what schools should be doing.

Here’s an example of a (different) pupil’s handwriting – he was in Primary 7 at the time:

Here’s a sample of his writing using a simple word processor (an AlphaSmart). Much easier to read, although the spelling is a bit of an issue.

befor you go you haf to make a traye. First get a peace of fishing line about 1  metre long.  Then get a reasnedul sised hook after you have got one big enuf and sharp enuf laiy it to your trais and then get a flote. put the end of the trais that does not have the hook thro the hole at the top of the flot then tiay a not.

And here’s a sample of his writing with a word predictor (Co:Writer). Readable and much better spelling:

First get a piece of fishing line about 1 metre long. Then get a reasonable sized hook.  After you have got one big enough and sharp enough tie it to your trace

No contest, really, is there?

It’s personal

ICT, in the form of a personal netbook, laptop, tablet or iPad is vital for pupils who have difficulties with reading or writing. It’s like an electronic jotter. You need to have a device on your desk, available at all time. Getting up from your desk to go to the back of the room to use the class computer is no good: you wouldn’t expect someone to get up and go to the back of the class every time they needed to use a pencil and write in a jotter, so why accept this with ICT?

It’s a skill that needs taught

We teach handwriting. We also need to teach keyboarding (ideally, touch typing, if possible) and ICT skills. We teach handwriting skills to develop speed, fluidity and automaticity – so that ideally, your thoughts flow direct from brain to page without having to think about the formation of letters. So too with keyboarding – the main reason for learning to touch typing, in my view, is not speed, but to develop the same automaticity.

Despite the notion of ‘digital learners’ young people are not born with innate ability to use a word processor or a word predictor. They have to be taught. By their teachers. This needs staff who know the technology, and time set aside for teaching.

Use it most or all of the time

It’s tempting to think that you only want to use the ICT for ‘extended’ writing, but there can be a few problems with this. It’s too easy to leave the device on the side and not have it ready and inevitably the battery goes flat and you get out of the habit and before you know where you are, the pupil is in S4 and about to use a scribe in his exams. Avoid this: make ICT the default tool, not the exceptional tool.

To do this we need to think digital: use ICT yourself to create resources and give the same resources to the pupil so they can access them on the device. Get digital versions of textbooks from the Books for All Database. Use digital reading books. Scan paper worksheets and other materials into the computer so that the pupil can complete them on the device. (Lots of programs can do this, from the free Foxit Reader, to for example Acrobat Pro, FineReader and more specialist software like ClaroRead, Read and Write Gold or Kurzweil.)

Let’s stop making life hard for ourselves and our learners.

Take a look at this video for some inspiration.

We have some more new maths textbooks on the Books for All Database.

TeeJay Maths Curriculum for Excellence titles

We are very grateful to TeeJay Publishers who have kindly provided PDFs of their six new Curriculum for Excellence textbooks: Books 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a and 3b. These cover Curriculum for Excellence First, Second and Third levels. We have added bookmarks to aid navigation, matched the page numbers to the paper books, and 'reader-enabled' the files so that learners can use the drawing, audio recording and highlighting tools in Adobe Reader to access the books. We have not yet added answer boxes, but learners can type answers in using the Adobe Reader 'Typewriter' tool. You can read and access the books on your iPad using the free Adobe Reader app, or preferably PDFaloud or iAnnotate. Click here to see these new books in the database.  

Thanks also to Caroline Jamieson in Moray for contributing a Large Print copy of the Curriculum for Excellence Book 1b. Caroline has created the first 10 chapters and is working on the rest. See it here. 

Nelson Thornes New Maths in Action

Marie Lawson in Shetland has uploaded an 18 point Large Print version of New Maths in Action S1/1, to add to the 24 point Large Print copy of the S1/2 book that's already there. 

We have also uploaded scanned PDF copies of New Maths in Action S1/3, S1/B and S2/3. These are really most suitable for learners with physical disabilities who need digital versions of books because they have difficulty handling the paper copies. The files are PDFs that have been created by scanning the paper copies, and while we have converted them to readable text, we don't have the resources to check every word and so there may be some text recognition errors. The books can be zoomed and magnified, and the text read out using text-to-speech, so they should be reasonably accessible to pupils with dyslexia or reading difficulties, or mild visual impairment. Again, the books are reader-enabled so that learners can type, draw, highlight and otherwise annotate the files.

Click here to see these new books.

 

Don't Wait - Buy it now!

If you haven't bought the Rolls-Royce AAC App Proloquo2Go (P2Go) yet, NOW is the time to buy it!

Why?

Because Version 3 has just come out  and it IS a major upgrade,  - switch access at last! DropBox! (and already, Version 2 was INFINITELY better than Version 1)

Because the price has stayed at £129.99 for the past four years or so, but the price is going to go up by c. 15% on 17th May (to something like £150 ? not sure exactly) Read why.

Yes, it's a lot dearer than most AAC apps. But it's good.

It was great to see so many people at the Dyslexia Scotland South East Scotland meeting last night, where I was giving a talk on Low Cost Software and iPad Apps to support people with dyslexia. Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting quite so many people so I ran out of copies of the handout, listing the programs and apps I was (somewhat ambitiously!) trying to show during the evening. If you didn't manage to get a copy (or want another one), here it is.

I was asked about useful sources of information on developments in technology for learners with dyslexia and other support needs, particularly with regard to the iPad. These days, the internet is full of useful resources and it is easy to get bogged down with information, but there are some key resources:

• The CALL Scotland Blog is a very good starting point, though we don't always have time to keep track of every interesting new development.
• I did a handout listing iPad resources for a Parents' information Day back in November, and have been adding to it since. You can download it from here.
• I'm a big fan of the Pinterest resource created by Lauren Enders

I'll try to add to this list next week.

I was also asked about dyslexia-related apps for Android devices. Paul Hamilton has an excellent blog where he talks about apps specifically for Android devices. His wider blog has information on other apps.

I was asked earlier this week for advice on an app that would allow somebody to take a photograph of some text with an iPad and then convert the image into editable text that could be read back. This is equivalent to scanning a paper document and processing the image with an optical character recognition (OCR) program to create a text file, which can then be read back using text-to-speech software on a computer.

Prizmo or TextGrabber + Translator?

Normally I recommend Prizmo (£6.99) for a task like this as it generally produces pretty decent results, provided that the lighting is good and the iPad is kept steady, but I read a recommendation for TextGrabber + Translator (£0.69) a couple of days ago so I decided to compare them.

They were both originally designed for the iPhone, but work perfectly well on the iPad 3. When you search for them in the App Store you have to look among the iPhone, rather than the iPad apps. When you first open either of them, they'll only occupy a small part of the screen (equivalent to an iPhone display), but you can enlarge this by tapping on a small circular button marked 2X at the bottom right of the display.

I used both apps to take a picture of a page featuring an advertisement from today's Times Educational Supplement Scotland. and then used the OCR software within each app to convert the text on the page into editable text on the iPad. Prizmo only attempted to convert the black text, rather than white text on a coloured background. There were a couple of mistakes in the main body of the text, but it did surprisingly well when it attempted the very small Terms and Conditions text at the bottom of the page - there were a few mistakes, but the text was recognisable, which I found astonishing given the size of the original text. TextGrabber managed to cope with white text on a coloured background and was perfect in the main body of the text, but the small Terms and Conditions text was unrecognisable.

Reading Text Out Loud

When it came to speaking the text out, Prizmo uses its own text-to-speech system, allowing the text to be read out by pretty decent voices (for which you have to pay separately, typically £1.99 per voice). TextGrabber uses the built-in Apple Speak Selection system so the voice options are a little more restricted. This has to be turned on in the Accessibility Settings - Tap on the Settings icon, select General and scroll down to Accessibility to make sure that Speak Selection is turned on. You should then be given an option to Speak any text you select.

Translating Text

Prizmo and ScreenGrabber + Translate can translate from English into a wide range of foreign languages, which can then be read back in the appropriate language if you have a  suitable voice installed. The translations are not perfect, but good enough to get an idea of what the text is about.

I think I would now lean towards TextGrabber - it is cheaper, slightly less complicated, and the OCR (conversion from an image into text) seems to be slightly more accurate.

There are, of course, other apps that can be used to do this.

Does your child like music? Do they love wading through your iPad music library to find their favourite tunes, perhaps deleting your favourites on the way?!

Help is at hand, from a cool little app called Kidzik and it only costs £1.49!

The app allows you to create a bespoke music library for your child, by first making a 'Kidzik' playlist in the iTunes Music Player app on your device.

The Kidzik app then 'picks up' the playlist automatically and presents it as a choice of album cover artwork choices.

The user then touches the album to select the single song or songs from that album and that's it!

They can play or pause by touching the selected album in the 'apple.' They can also choose tracks by touching the different colours of the 'worm.' The same colour will always be linked to the same song, so that the user will know that the 'green' song is their favourite, for example.

Really nice simple interface and great how it uses the album artwork for the choices, rather than cartoons, numbers or random shapes like the other music player apps I've come across.

Would be even better if it was switch accessible.....

I've put together a video and uploaded it to YouTube which shows how to mount an iPad to a wheelchair using components supplied by an American company called RAM Mount (which are available to purchase here in the UK).

There are also captions available on this video.

Recently I met a learner in first year in secondary school with a physical disability . She doesn't have the strength to hold books and turn pages, and she gets very tired handwriting. After due assessment and consideration of various devices we all concluded that an iPad was most suitable device for her physically: it's small and light enough for her to handle, and she rests it on her knees and against a desk, so that her hands are in her lap, which reduces fatigue. The iPad on-screen keyboard is just the right size for her to type on without stretching, and since it's touch-sensitive, it seems to require less effort than a physical keyboard.

Essentially, she wants to use the iPad for everything: reading textbooks and resources; completing homework and assessments; taking notes in class; etc etc

So, next questions are:

• which apps should she use for different tasks and purposes in school?
• where can she get digital textbooks?
• how does she receive and send materials to and from teachers?

These seem to be fairly basic and common questions, so I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and findings.

For general note-taking in class ('digital jotters'), I looked at quite a few note-taking apps including the built-in Notes, Daily Notes, EverNote and Note Taker HD, to name but a few, and I  liked the look of Notability, which lets you:

• Create notes that can contain formatted text, hand writing and drawings (with pencil and pen), sound recordings, photos (either from the camera roll, or taken and inserted directly), clippings from the web, and drawings.
• Organise your notes into categories and subjects. 
• Use different paper backgrounds (different colours, lined, square paper).
• Search your notes.
• Import and annotate PDFs.
• Save your notes in cloud service such as DropBox and Google Drive.
• Send your notes to other apps, and by email, as PDF or RTF. 

It looks ideal for taking notes in class, for gathering and sorting information for topic or research, and for writing short assignments. (In fact, I'm now using it myself for all my note-taking on the iPad.)

There are a few things which could be better with Notability:

• ‘Speak Selection’ does not work and so you can’t read your notes with text-to-speech.
• Text cannot be inserted directly on top of a PDF, so you can’t use it very easily to type answers into PDF exams, assessments or homework.
• It does not have ‘snap to grid’ for easily drawing straight lines. 
• You cannot easily edit your notes on a desktop or laptop computer: you can only save them as PDF, RTF or text. (For me, if it could share and sync notes with Microsoft OneNote, it would be perfect.)

But of the apps I looked at, and read about, it looks ideal for the secondary school context.

For word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, and particularly for importing and exporting Microsoft Office files, we suggested Apple's own Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

For reading textbooks in PDF (e.g. Hodder Gibson books from us, or scanned books from the Books for All Database), we went for PDF Expert, which has good study and search facilities, and lots of tools for annotation and commenting. It's also good for completing assessments such as the SQA Digital Question Papers. (Why PDF Expert in particular rather than others? While you can read PDFs with iBooks on the iPad, you can't annotate them; the free Adobe Reader app does let you annotate, but PDF Expert has better file management; and I liked PDF Expert's text annotate tool better than iAnnotate's, because you can type directly on the PDF rather than into a separate text field. (iAnnotate has features that PDF Expert doesn't, though, such as voice comments so pupils and staff can record audio notes into the PDF.)

For sharing work with staff, the only practical method in the school at this time is use of email, which is better than nothing but not as good as a file transfer/sharing method such as Edmodo, Dropbox or Google Drive. (The school doesn't use Glow.)

Feedback from the learner about these apps is so far very positive, so we'll see how they work out over time.

How about you? Which apps and techniques have you found helpful in a mainstream secondary context?

Carol Paige from the South Carolina Assistive Technology Programme has compiled a pretty comprehensive chart comparing various apps that can be used for augmentative and alternative communication. It will be very useful, but you might need a magnifying glass to read a printed copy!The same site has a number of other useful lists of apps, including:

• Apps that make life easier
• Concept Mapping Apps
• Note Taking Apps
• Reading / Writing Apps
• Voice to Text Apps
• Web Browser Apps
• Word Prediction Apps
• ... and lots more!

Smiling mind (iPhone)  -  free App designed to support mental health and well-being. Or use web based version

Designed by psychologists for relaxation and 'mindfulness'. Aim is to "help you feel more clear, calm and content". You get a trial session then need to log in with an email address.For different age groups: 7-11; 12-15; 16-22; or adult. Material is presented orally - Very basic relaxation and 'meditation' sessions (lying on floor or seated) last about 7 minutes. Could be delivered to individual or to a small group or class. Requires the ability to stay still, quietly, and listen.

You might think it strange to be talking about handwriting in connection with a portable tablet device, with a built in keyboard, but there are a lot of times when there are definite linkages between handwriting and the iPad, from a young child practising letter formation to a student wishing to annotate a diagram with written notes, or convert from handwriting to printed text.

From Scribbles to Letters

Traditionally, young children have often developed and improved their letter formation (and then handwriting) skills through finger painting or forming letters and shapes in sand. The iPad can provide a similar tactile experience without the mess! There are lots of free, or very cheap, drawing apps that allow young children to start off with random scribbling, leading on to attempts at more formal drawing and practice at letter formation.

Inclusive Technology have just released Finger Paint with Sounds, a free app that can play music, or random sounds while a child is drawing on the screen with their finger. It can either be used with a single finger, or in 'multi-touch' mode - single finger is obviously better for letter formation. The app is engaging and fun, though I found it irritating that the opening screen just leads to a web page with information on other Inclusive products which can only be avoided by a two-fingered double-tap in the top left corner.

I quite like Draw 4 Free, which, once you get past the opening advert, has a very simple interface - a blank screen, with a 'pencil' icon in the bottom left corner that allows access to options for saving / opening a picture, changing pen thickness and changing colours. You could create a picture with horizontal lines, and possibly outlines of letters, as a background that a pupil could use to practice writing with their finger.

If you are looking for something a bit more 'artistic', or 'calligraphic', then you could try Paper. You can create some really nice writing and drawing effects with this app, which was awarded the title of 'App of the Year' for 2012 by Apple. Individual pages are presented as partly-folded notes, which you can expand to full-size by touching on the screen. Note that while the basic app is free, you have to pay for additional pens and colours.

Forming Letters

There are a few apps available that help with letter formation - they generally provide a stencil for a letter or word with a 'route' that should be followed to form the individual letters.

BT Handwriting (Build and Teach, not British Telecom!) provides individual UPPER or lower case letters for the pupil to copy, along with numbers and an opportunity to copy a name. There is a free version, which just provides upper-case letters. The direction and sequence of strokes required to make up a letter are indicated. There is also a facility for taking a screenshot to record how well the letter has been copied.

Touch and Write provides practice in writing letters and words, by following a route on a template. It is more flexible than some of the other apps in this area, offering a range of backgrounds (though they are not all very useful) and a facility to create and use your own word lists. On the other hand, the review and reward provided at the end of each word is long and repetitive. This could become tedious for a pupil who is keen to progress to the end of the task. I have been in touch with the developer, who will consider changes for a future version.

iWriteWords is a similar app for letter formation, providing practice with individual letters, numbers and short words. It has a very simple design, but offers less flexibility than Touch and Write, for example it does not seem possible to edit the words that are presented, or to change their order. A child needing practice with M and P could become bored with forever writing A..N..T. One nice feature in iWriteWords is the use of numbers to indicate the direction of writing to form a letter, though this depends on the child being familiar with numbers.

What can you write with?

Early writing apps are designed for use with a finger, but at some point a child might want to progress to a stylus, which allows more control over fine lines. We have the Pogo Stylus available for loan, but I find that it isn't very good for precise work, a problem that increases as it becomes worn. I prefer the Cosmonaut, which is a bit like a child's thick crayon, but has a definite point.

More advanced writing.

If you want to continue writing with your finger for a little longer, there's a neat app, FastFinga, which allows the user to write at 'normal' size, but with the text automatically 'shrunk' to fit on a page. This has various backgrounds, e.g. 'notepaper' and sheet music which can be useful.

Annotation

This is where things start to get a little more serious! Suppose a pupil is sitting a digital exam provided in PDF format, or simply wants to add notes / drawings to a worksheet or text provided in PDF format. The Adobe Reader app has a basic set of tools for adding typed notes, and freehand drawings.  iAnnotate PDF provides additional facilities, including the ability to add notes and comments by voice. There may still be times when someone will want to add handwritten notes, using a stylus, which both Adobe Reader and iAnnotate allow.

Handwriting Recognition.

The ultimate task in this blog is to have handwritten text converted into printed text. Handwriting recognition has been around with varying degrees of success for tablet computers for some time. There are a couple of Apps for the iPad that are worth a look:

WritePad provides fast on-screen recognition of handwriting, with the screen split into three sections: the bottom for writing into, the middle to let you see what the app thinks you wrote and the top part for the 'end product'. It is a nice idea, but I found the recognition was not consistent enough with my admittedly illegible handwriting for the app to work well for me.

Myscript Memo works better for me in terms of recognition. With this app you can fill a page with notes and then export what you have written as a text file. It is possible to edit the text before sending it. My biggest issue with this app is that it can only be used with the iPad in portrait mode, rather than landscape. It is easy to accidentally touch the iPad screen with the base of your hand as you are writing, interfering with the writing process. There is a built-in software 'writing guard' which is supposed to 'deactivate' the part of the screen where you are resting your hand, but I found it very flakey.

 

From now until 1st January 2013, Pictello, the versatile photostory App for iPad is going cheap - at £8.99 instead of £13.99.  There's also a competition to enter - prizes available.

But don't worry if that's still too dear- there are lots of similar Apps for much less money

Go to the iTunes Store and check out

• Fotobabble (iPhone version works fine on iPad) - free - talking postcards
• My Story - £1.49 - you can write or draw on the photo
• Book Creator (the absolute (Rolls Royce of photo story makers) - £1.49  - also plays video & sound files
• My Pictures Talk - £2.99 -plays video as well as photos, super easy and quick to use

Crick have just released 2 Clicker Apps – they had said the official launch would be at BETT so they have actually got this out earlier than expected! I’ve just installed them and these are my first thoughts.

In the Clicker Docs App (£17.99) there are some grids/WordBanks available from Learning Grids which is just a couple of taps away in the app itself. It then automatically saves the grid so it is available whenever you want to use it. Or you can create your own wordbanks. The speech option allows you to have it set letter by letter, word by word or full sentence. You can also use the ‘Shift Speech’ button to have individual words/cells read out from the grid, predictor or document. There is a choice of 3 voices (Rachel, UK; Heather, US; Tyler, ANZ). Prediction is available and SoundsLike Predictor is an option. There is a choice of number of words from 250 to 60000 but you don’t seem to be able to add new ones. It did seem very slow as I typed in or used the word grid.

Clicker Sentences app (£14.99) is for writing sentences using whole words. You can add pictures to the grid from the iPad photos library (or take a photo).

To get to the next screen you have to swipe so you can build up the piece of writing. You can choose to have a ‘model sentence’ or a ‘model sentence pop’ for pupils needing a bit more support. Using the speech is the same as in the Clicker docs.

Despite the popularity of the iPad it is surprising there are only 23 background wallpapers to choose from.

These consist of a range of mellow or atmospheric images and scenes including dewy grass, a cobbled street, tree rings, a carved totem pole, flowers, crashing waves, denim and other patterned options.

Although you can download many other wallpaper scenes from a range of online sources, they tend to follow a similar vein and lack the simplicity of a plain natural background.

Many users may find the selection of wallpapers currently on offer (or as the iPad’s default) unsuitable, distracting and/or even difficult to view. I personally use a yellow background/wallpaper, and although it isn't a perfect solution, it does help me when I'm looking at the screen for long periods of time.

Choose and download a colour wallpaper of your choice

To help, CALL have developed a selection of plain, simple and natural coloured wallpapers which you can download and use on your iPad for free.

Although you can’t set the wallpaper to function as a global colour (e.g. in Settings and other Apps) you can use one of the plain coloured backgrounds when viewing the main screens and when moving between screens of Apps.

Choose from 11 different plain colours

We currently have 11 colours that you can freely download and use on your iPad, regardless of the model (iPad 1, 2 or New iPad).

I recommend that you download your chosen background by using your iPad. If you are unable to download the background then try sending it by email to your iPad (see below for instructions to set the background/wallpaper).

Download the Yellow background

Download the Cream background

Download the Mauve background

Download the Rose background

Download the Purple background

Download the Orange background

Download the Mustard background

Download the Blue background

Download the Green background

Download the Grey background

Download the White background

Changing the background with your chosen wallpaper

First, you will need to download one of the backgrounds and save it to the Photos App which comes as a pre-installed App with your iOS. When the downloaded file appears tap and hold your finger until the pop-up menu appears. Select 'Save Image' - the image automatically saves to the Photos App.

Next, choose "Brightness & Wallpaper" from the menu on the left side of the settings screen.

Choose the Wallpaper tab under the brightness settings to go to the Wallpaper settings – there is also an arrow just to the right of the two iPad images.

Look for the wallpaper you have just downloaded and select it.

After choosing your selected wallpaper, you will be taken to a preview of the picture you want to use for the iPad's background. 

To set the background, either tap the button labelled 'Set Lock Screen' to set the photo for your lock screen, 'Set Home Screen' to make the photo appear underneath your app icons or 'Set Both' for the background to be used as the global image or colour for your iPad.

If you require a 'global' colour solution you can purchase transparency coloured overlays which you fit onto the iPad's screen.

You can download the complete tutorial in PDF by selecting this link

Nearly 50 parents of children with additional support needs came to CALL on Saturday for our Parent Information Day on iPads.During the course of the day there was a series of presentations by CALL staff on different aspects of the use of the iPad to support learning and communication, along with exhibition space with various stands where visitors could have more in-depth discussions with CALL staff and browse through some of the extensive information downloadable from the internet on the use of iPads to support learning.Stuart and Paul provided an overview of the use of the iPad to read books available in different electronic formats (primarily ePub and PDF), using apps including iBooks, iWordQ and VoiceDream Reader.

In a parallel session, Sally demonstrated a number of picture-based apps that could be used to support communication, including BitsBoard, Book Creator, Sounding Board and GoTalk Now.

The morning finished with a presentation by Craig highlighting basic functions of the iPad, such as file management and the creation of folders, and the accessibility features of the iPad.After lunch there was time for people to browse through a vast array of information resources (listed in a handout) and to ask questions. Many people took the opportunity to buy CALL's book on the iPad, iPads for Communication, Access, Literacy and Learning, available as a free download, or to purchase in paper format from CALL.

What people thought of the Information Day

Here are some comments made by people attending the Information Day:

• "CALL is a brilliant discovery for us, and I feel it should be promoted to EVERY dyslexic kid as a matter of course - by law!"
• " I liked the depth & breadth of experience and approachability of presenters."