We're looking forward to the ICT and Inclusion Day at CALL Scotland in Edinburgh on Tuesday 18th June, run in partnership with our friends from the BRITE Initiative.

iPads Lead the Way!

There's a definite iPad theme to this year's ICT and Inclusion, showing the level of excitement created by these devices. Edinburgh's Digital Learning Team will be showing how iPads are being used in schools across Edinburgh and will be showing some of the fantastic resources they have created - and made available to anyone who wants them through their web site. Paul Nisbet and Craig Mill from CALL will be giving a presentation on using iPads to support learners with reading and writing difficulties. In another session, Craig will be talking about the use of iBook Author to create engaging interactive books. Niall Hardy from BRITE will talk about effective iPad use for students, not just in terms of individual apps, but also in the development of study skills and strategies.

Several exhibitors will be demonstrating apps in their presentations. Inclusive Technology have new apps to show, while Crick Software will be demonstrating their new Clicker apps, designed to complement Clicker 6. Therapy Box and Ability World will be demonstrating apps to support communication.

We're not ignoring the other tablets, of course. Fil McIntyre from BRITE will be comparing iPads, Android and Windows tablets, particularly with regard to accessibility, while Shirley Lawson and David Gilmour will be reporting on the use of ChromeBooks in East Lothian. Iansyst will be demonstrating their CapturaTalk reading and writing support app for Android devices.

Its Not Just About Tablets!

There's a lot more to see and hear about than just iPads and other tablets at ICT and Inclusion. Optelec and Dolphin will be demonstrating some of the latest equipment to support learners with a visual impairment, while Concept Northern, Claro Software and Iansyst will be focusing on the use of technology to support learners with dyslexia. Paul Nisbet will be presenting on how to make inclusive digital learning resources in PDF format - also very relevant for people with reading and writing difficulties.

Communication is also an important theme for this year's ICT and Inclusion - Dean Robertson, a pupil from Oaklands School will be using PowerPoint to describe his journey through school. Sally Millar from CALL will be demonstrating resources designed to promote support for people who use augmentative and alternative communication. Smartbox AT, Logan Technologies and Mayer Johnson will all have resources and equipment to support learners with communication difficulties.

Make sure you also visit the Sherston stand to find out about their latest software to support a broad range of learners. Sometimes the 'smaller' stands can be among the most interesting ones at ICT and Inclusion. Don't miss Doorway Online to find out about the latest resources available on this fabulous web site. Andrew Manches from Edinburgh University (aka Pling Toys) uses technology in revolutionary ways to create engaging toys for learning, while Claire Murray will have some great resources on her Emotion Works stand.

Prize Draw

Don't miss the Prize Draw at the end of the day, providing a chance to win lots of prizes provided by the exhibitors. You'll have to stay to the end of the day to take part.

It's Not too Late to Register!

Register Now!

CALL Scotland has been organising the FREE annual ICT and Inclusion road-show since 2001. It provides people with an opportunity to see and compare the latest software and technology to support students with additional support needs from most of the leading UK companies.

Location and dates for the exhibitions are:

• CALL Scotland, Edinburgh - 18 June 2013
• Thistle Hotel, Glasgow - 19 June 2013

Suppliers will describe their key products in timetabled sessions and there will also be short presentations by staff from CALL Scotland.

The exhibitions will be open from 9.00 am until 4.00 pm.

Free Lunch! A free buffet lunch is provided at each of the three venues. It is therefore important that people register for the exhibition in advance so we have an idea of numbers before the day. Please indicate when you book a place if you wish to stay for lunch.

To find out more and to book online, go to the ICT and Inclusion web page or telephone CALL Scotland on 0131 651 6235 to book a place.

In case you didn't already know, the Summer 2013 edition of the ContAACt newsletter, produced by Augmentative Communication in Practise: Scotland, is available to download now!

On page 5 you will read about Lee Ridley 'Lost Voice Guy,' the first Stand Up Comedian to use AAC, who will be doing a one-off gig for Scottish AAC Users on 19th August 2013 from 10am-3pm at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, at the 'Finding Our Voices' event.

This is a UNIQUE opportunity to have a laugh with Lee, meet up with other AAC Users and have a great day out in the height of the Summer in the Festival City!

It's also FREE and lunch is included. For more details and to book a place please email enquiries@acipscotland.org.uk or download a booking form here, so you can get the date in your diary! You can also call 0131 651 6068 for further information.

Competition Time!

Fancy YOURSELF as a bit of a comedian? ContAACt is running a competition (on page 5) to find the best joke from an AAC User and keep Lee on his toes!

Please email your your entries to enquiries@acipscotland.org.uk by 31st July. Lee will judge the competition himself and there are great 'Lost Voice Guy' prizes to be won.

The winner(s) will be announced at the 'Finding Our Voices' event on 19th August, so come on give us your best gags!

We've had reports of Co:Writer 6 not working properly on netbook and laptop computers, particularly those running Windows 7. This seems to be a particular problem with the thousands of Toshiba NB250/300/500 machines bought through the Procurement Scotland arrangement.

Here's how to solve it for a Toshiba NB300 with Windows 7:

1. Start up the computer and run Co:Writer.
2. If you see this message either immediately, or when you try and open your word processor:
3. then hold down the FN key and press and release F10. 
4. Then do it again.
5. Co:writer should now work properly.

In our tests, we found that you only need to do this the first time you run Co:Writer. Once you've got it working the first time it seems to work properly from then on even if you log off and log on, put it to sleep, restart or shut down and start up.

Visit the Don Johnston web site if you want to find out more about this problem.

Back in the days of Windows XP and Word 2003 (possibly not long ago for many!), the Voice Comments / Voice Notes facility in Microsoft Word provided a valuable tool for allowing a pupil with writing difficulties to record answers to questions directly into a Word document and to save the document so that the teacher could listen back to their answer at a convenient time. This was NOT voice recognition, which could be too difficult for many pupils to master, but instead involved making a short voice recording and embedding it in the document. We thought it was a great tool to allow a pupil to quickly record an answer to a question, rather than struggling to type an answer, as a result of a physical disability or a writing difficulty such as dyslexia. It was particularly useful for younger pupils for whom speech recognition was not a realistic option at that stage. (For some pupils, regular use of voice comments could lead on to successful use of speech recognition at a later stage in their development.)

Unfortunately, although later versions of Windows and Word had a Voice Comment / Note facility, it became so complicated to use that it was impossible for pupils to make use of it. Various 'work arounds' were tried, but nothing matched the basic simplicity and effectiveness of the original Voice Comments facility in Word as a means for a pupil to record their answers - until now.

Yesterday TextHelp launched Read and Write Gold Version 11. The very first new feature that they highlight is a new VoiceNote facility. We haven't had an opportunity to try it yet, but from the video introduction it appears to do exactly what we would want, letting a pupil record an answer to a question in a Word document by voice and save the file for the teacher to review later. The pupil can play back the recording and if they want to change something it is easy to re-record their answer.

We were quite excited by this new development and welcomed it on Twitter. Within hours Alasdair King from  Claro Software contacted us to say that he had some time ago developed a free Add-on for Word 2007 and Word 2010, which could be used to record directly into a Word document. We downloaded it from the Claro downloads site and gave it a try. It works very well.

Once Recorder for Word has been installed, open the document you want to use (e.g. an existing worksheet that you want to make more accessible) and add prompts for the pupil to use for adding comments, e.g. saying 'Record your answer to Question 1 here'. Save the document.

If you (or the pupil) open the document and click on the Add-Ins Tab, you'll see a new set of big buttons appear at the top of the screen, marked Record, Pause and Stop. The pupil should place the cursor at the prompt, click on the Record button, dictate their answer and click on Stop. An icon for the recording will appear at the start of the paragraph with the cursor. It would have been better if the icon appeared at the cursor, but this is a minor issue for most pupils as it is easy to move the recording to the end of the question, provided that the pupil can use a mouse or suitable alternative.

It is a good idea for the pupil to listen to the recording, to make sure that it was properly picked up by the microphone - this can be done by double clicking on the recording icon to play it. The pupil can re-record their answer if they want to change it, or if there was some problem with the recording. Unfortunately, they can't record over the top of the existing icon, they have to make a new recording and delete the old one. Once the pupil is happy with the answer they can move on to the next question and when they have completed the task the file can be saved. The recordings will be embedded in the file when it is saved so that the teacher can come along later, open the document and listen to the pupil's answers.

You wait ten years for a bus, then two come at once...

It has been a long wait for a suitable replacement for the Word 2003 Voice Comment feature. but now people have a choice of two very functional options. If a school is already considering investing in Read and Write Gold, then the addition of the Voice Note facility is a definite enhancement to the extensive collection of reading and writing support tools already present. On the other hand, if a school is just looking to add a facility for adding voice recordings to a Word document, then the Claro option would be an excellent choice, particularly if they are looking for a low cost option. We understand that the voice recording facility will be added to some future Claro products.

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) recently hosted a dissemination seminar in Edinburgh, to update and share information about the development of the Right to Speak project, whose aim is to improve AAC services in Scotland.

Two people who use AAC, Rachael Monk and Barry Smith, gave illuminating presentations about what AAC means to them. Video of those presentations should be available in due course.

Also at that seminar, Communication Matters launched the recently published Final Report of the AAC Evidence Base project. The results of this UK-wide research project were discussed with particular reference to Scotland.

The original Right to Speak report, and three key presentations from the recent dissemination seminar, including the one relating to the CM AAC Evidence Base Report (with a Scottish perspective) are available for viewing and printing, on the Communication Matters website.

I was asked recently by a teacher in a primary school about whether a child using an iPad with Proloqu2Go for communication could use the text she created within the app for story writing and recording her written work.

At the time, the only way to do this was by creating a page for 'stories' and saving spoken phrases from the 'Recents' view onto buttons to retell a story later on.

That has now changed with the release of Proloquo2Go version 3.0, which you can update to FREE if you have already bought the app. As well as some new Australian voices, expressive voice capabilities (words like wow, yummy, oh no! said with feeling by the synthetic voices) and scanning for switch users, the new version enables you to copy text from the message window into other apps.

This means you can use your spoken text output in a text message, email, on Facebook or Twitter or within a story writing app (any app that accepts text basically) e.g. Clicker apps, Book Creator, notebook etc

Let me show you how it works.

First the child types in what they want to say in their story using Proloquo2Go e.g. It is a sunny day

Then the child (if possible) or a helper selects the copy button:

They then open the app into which they want to copy the text e.g. My Story (lovely little story app £1.49)

and hold down their finger in the area where the text is to go and then press paste:

et Voila, the text appears!

The child can then either use the app's simple drawing tools to do a picture to go with their text or use photos from the camera roll or take a new photo straight onto the story page:

You can't record the voice output from Proloquo2Go into the app, so if you want the story page spoken out too, someone will need to record it.

However, this is great for AAC users who want to do some creative story writing and record their written work as the story will be saved within the MyStory app and can also be emailed to the teacher to read, save, print out and mark.

Also nice to take home to show parents or carers.

Happy story writing! 

The CALL Scotland CPD Programme for 2013 - 2014 has now been formally launched and is on its way to schools throughout Scotland. We generally send it to Learning Support in the case of secondary schools and to the Head Teacher for primaries and special schools. Let us know if you would like to receive your own paper copy. Details of the courses we are offering are available on the CALL web site. Booking is now open.

Communication and Technology

CALL Scotland courses cover a broad range of topics relating to ICT to support pupils with additional support needs. Courses are aimed mainly at teachers, therapists and other professionals working with these learners, but parents are also welcome to attend if a topic is of particular interest to them. Get in touch with us for information on our ‘Parent-Rate’.

iPads

As a result of high demand for our ‘hands-on’ iPad courses, this year we are running more and have also added an Introduction to iPads course to our programme. If you are new to iPads, we encourage you to attend this course before one of the more advanced ones. Topics for these courses include Picture and Symbol/Text Apps to Support Communication, and the use of iPads to support learners with dyslexia or with a visual impairment. These courses have a limited number of places and fill up fast, so book early!

SQA Digital Exams

Over 1,300 candidates from 173 schools/centres used digital papers for SQA exams in 2012. SQA have announced that from August, using human readers and scribes will not be regarded as 'reasonable adjustments' for National Literacy Units. CALL’s courses on Creating and Implementing Digital Exams will be especially relevant for the coming session as digital papers increasingly become the most appropriate format for many learners with reading and writing difficulties and physical disabilities.

Hands-On

Many of the courses have a significant ‘hands-on’ component, giving an ample opportunity to explore programs and devices with lots of support readily available from CALL staff. We have our own sets of laptops and iPads for training courses.

For Parents

The programme includes two events specifically aimed at parents. The Information Day in November (Date to be confirmed) is a ‘parent/carer-only event, giving a chance to ask questions and to find out more about technology without having to keep an eye on the children. We also have a more child-centred event, The Family Fun Day (Date also to be confirmed), which we organise in conjunction with Augmentative Communication in Practice: Scotland. Here, parents and children can try equipment and take part in various activities together. Further details will be announced in the near future. To be sure of getting information about these, sign up for our regular email newsletter.

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.

Repeated exposure to the same story book is better for child language development than lots of different stories.

Interesting new research findings from the University of Sussex about how children learn and retain new words. I remember researching this and advocating repeated use of the same few stories back in 1994 - in the days of the CALL SAIL Kit (Special Access to Interactive Literacy) project. (Cheering to know that was good advice!) CALL still sells Story Packs - 3 book pack + CD of overlays in symbols

Also reminds me to commend to readers the excellent work of the North Carolina Center for Literacy and Disability Studies

And the great Tarheel Reader site, where you can get access to loads of free switch accessible books (mosty with simple one line per page text), with a speech output option (switch it on via the cogwheel 'Settings' icon)

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.

ConnectABILITY.ca

Have you seen this terrific resource? (I can't believe I didn't know about it before - many thanks to Ian Bean - whose website is ALSO a great resource - for drawing attention to it.)

ConnectABILITY is a virtual community focused on lifelong learning and support for children, youth, adults and seniors with an intellectual disability, their families, caregivers and support networks. Users are able to connect, support each other, share, research and advocate via easy-to-use web tools.

A star attraction of the website - maybe for parents, especially - is the free Visuals Engine software, which provides basic templates for making visual support materials easily (1, 2, 4, 6, 12, or 16 to a page). You can use the photos provided, or upload your own photos and pictures. Or - and here's the thing - you can use the picture bank provided, which contains MJ PCS (Boardmaker) symbols  (not ALL of them, a subset of 400 odd). Having made your page, you can save it as a .pdf and print it, then cut up and use the pictures.

The extensive ConnectABILITY website also provides:

• Pages – A custom group of content all based on a subject (Safety)
• Articles – Stories, tip sheets, fact sheets on a specific subject
• Workshops – Audio/visual presentation on a subject, between 10 and 15 minutes in length
• Interactive – Games and activities to play on the computer 
• Podcasts – Audio recordings of presentations
• Links – Links to other useful resources on the internet

All the written materials and Workshops are highly readable and well illustrated. For example, you could download and read the excellent Tip Sheet Using Visuals and then be offered suggestions of other related Tip Sheets, and guided to a short online Workshop  with key information and further links.