"Perfect Pairings of Assistive Technology Tools" February 2009 Edition of AT Blog Carnival

Welcome to The AT Blog Carnival for February is "Perfect Pairings", highlighting combinations of assistive technology that work together. There are some great tools shared this month that blend to do some great things. I hope you enjoy them!

Ricky Buchanan of ATMac shares:

"Two things that go together well are laptops and beds! If you need or want to use your computer in bed, using a laptop is often the easiest way to do it. I have a brand new website Bedbound/Unlimited which I'll be developing over the coming months, and one of the first articles is "Using a Laptop in Bed"http://bedbound.org/using-a-laptop-in-bed/ , talking about some technology that can make this easier for you. I hope you all come and say hello to the new blog, too!

Back on"ATMAC, I've written about two things which often don't go together but should: You Must Have Backups. It was prompted by the main hard drive in my computer failing completely and needing replacement - luckily in this case I did have a backup so disaster was averted. Please make sure all your computers are backed up, especially if they're used with assistive technology - for those of us that can't use just any computer this is twice as important."

Thanks Ricky!

Patrick Black of Teaching All Students shares some reasons why you should look at Special Education and SMART Boards. He shares some great ideas too.

Ron Graham of Access Ability shares about his cool HP Netbook and some great software for working with the visually impaired/blind.

Tim O'Brien, a blind photographer, shares from his blog, tim o'brien photos, "Access the Web!" with a trio of tools for web access for the visually impaired.

I (Lon Thornburg) share from my blog No Limits to Learning about a free AAC tool that can be created using 2 free software downloads on Windows.

Here are a few other links this edition to explore for some other great reading:

Accessible Twitter: Why Twitter can and should be accessible: http://doteduguru.com/id2215-accessible-twitter.html

Handwriting Fonts:

An interesting way to capture handwriting: http://www.yourfonts.com/

Wii Remote Whiteboard:

Build Your Own Interactive Whiteboard with a Wii Remote?

http://www.alltogetherwecan.com/2009/01/31/wiimote-whiteboard-in-education-a-tutorial/

More Explorations this month...

http://lifekludger.net/2009/02/10/clarifi-iphone-case-with-macro-lens-for-low-vision/

http://athenpro.blogspot.com/2009/02/apps4android-releases-smspeaker-for.html

http://www.itanalysis.com/blogs/Abrahams_Accessibility/2009/2/wcag_2_0_rap_and_easy_youtube.html

http://www.lioncourt.com/2009/02/11/authors-guild-opposes-tts-for-reading-electronic-materials/

http://www.assistivegaming.com/spip.php?article58

Thank you to all that submitted...and all that read.

All the best to you!

Lon

Call for Submissions, February AT Blog Carnival: "Perfect Pairings"

The AT Blog Carnival theme for February is "Perfect Pairings", highlighting combinations of assistive technology that work together. Do you have a software switch combo? How about a device and switch you have used together, a website that provides resources or software you have used with a piece of equipment or strategies for using various keyboards or scanners with text to speech?

We have lots of AT we pair with things and find useful but don't think about sharing. What we take for granted and use all the time might be the solution that someone else has been looking for and hasn't found.

There are all kinds of Readers for ebooks and files, all kinds of sites to find e-texts, free music and clip art sites that can be integrated with AAC buttons, communication softwares, etc. Share what you use or experiment with a new combo and see what you come up with. We want to hear from you!

Deadline: Friday, February 20.

We will post the carnival on Monday, February 23.

Write up your post and send in the link via email: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

All the best to you!
Lon

Holiday Gift Edition of AT Blog Carnival

Welcome to the Holiday Edition of the AT Blog Carnival: "My Favorite Things"

This month blog authors are sharing their favorite AT tools and holiday gift giving ideas for assistive technology.

I am proud to present to you some wonderful posts by some wonderful bloggers in the AT world. I would encourage you to not only look through the great ideas they have presented for holiday gift ideas, but to mark their blogs on your favorites or subscribe to their feeds. You will get great ideas from them all year long.

I have put a little comment on each submission so you get a little taste of what they are about. We have all kinds of cool gadgets and ideas for you so if you are still looking for that special gift, maybe this will give you some ideas. When it comes to foks with special needs - it is nice to be able to give them something that they can use and that will really be a blessing and a support for them through coming year .

Sometimes we forget about what toys are appropriate for orthopedically impaired children. I have worked with many small preschool children who couldn't hold a doll or a car. My post at the bottom shares some fun switch access toys for them.

So read on and enjoy the creative ideas below, and...

Happy Holdays!

Brian Friedlander Ph.D. of Assitivetek contributes the Livescribe Pulse Pen. Here is a link on how to use it from his blog:

http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-livescribe-sharing-your-paper-replay.html

Ira Socol of SpeEd Change contributes some gift ideas in price ranges:

Free - http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/11/christmas-shopping.html

Under $100 -http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/11/christmas-shopping-part-2-under-100.html

Patrick Black of Teaching All Students:

Patrick shares his wish list in his post: "All I Want For Christmas"

http://teachingall.blogspot.com/2008/11/all-i-want-for-christmas.html

Alicia Odom of SMD Teacher:

Alicia has a great wish list with some fun items - I want them for my equipment center! The Swifty is especially cool...

http://smdteacher.blogspot.com/2008/12/some-of-my-favorite-things.html

Ricky Buchanan of ATMac:

Ricky sends us her post, "All I Want for Christmas is Power!" to share some great tools and benefits to the Mac.

http://atmac.org/2008/12/13/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-power/

Kate Ahern of Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs:

Kate submits her list of favorite tools that are some of the mainstays of AT. Any of these would make great gifts:

http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/2008/11/few-of-my-favorite-things.html

Lon Thornburg of No Limits to Learning:

Electric trains, slot car race tracks, Lite Brites and other electrical toys can be switch operated with a Powerlink 3 from Ablenet. Learn about the Powerlink and explore some links to fun electric toys in this post with holiday gift ideas.

http://nolimitstolearning.blogspot.com/2008/12/assistive-technology-holiday-gift-idea.html

Merry Christmas!

Call for Submissions: Christmas Edition of AT Blog Carnival

"My Favorite Things" Christmas Edition of AT Blog Carnival

Send in a review, list or story relating to your favorite AT gadgets, gizmos, software, etc. Whether you are a teacher, user of AT , family member supporting someone that uses AT, a designer, etc. you are welcome to share your faves. I want the carnival to be up by the 15th so folks have time to read and enjoy it before Christmas rolls around - it might also give some shopping ideas.

I shared on my blog that I don't usually stand in the checkout at the grocery store and see magazines that say, "Top Ten Gifts for the Special Needs and Disabled on Your List This Year." For some reason, media doesn't think there are that many people that could use that information - or maybe they think it isn't big enough of a money maker.

I would like to get us thinking about what are really helpful and fun things that make life easier, make learning fun and entertaining and help us do things like access reading, writing, video gaming, even environmental access, cool remotes, etc. Also, because the economy has been slipping further down and the message is that folks are tightening belts for Christmas this year, maybe you have a cool inexpensive adaptation or low cost item that has a really great use that could be a low cost Christmas gift and yet very useful. Any submissions like that would be welcome too.

Deadline for submissions: Friday, December 12.

Post date: Monday, December 15.

Send submissions to: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

All the best to you!

Lon

Assistive Technology Blog Carnival "Mad Scientist" Edition

Happy Halloween! I hope your day is creepy and wonderful! I have been busy collecting submissions from other mad scientists out there as well as collecting some fun Halloween links for your browsing and surfing enjoyment - all on the mad scientist theme. So kick back with a witches brew and enjoy!

Kate Ahern M.S. Ed. of Teaching Learners With Multiple Needs has sent us 3 posts for our October edition below:

All for automaticity - which shares some valuable tips on multiple AAC boards, also, How you know and Low tech Eye gaze. Kate always has posts full of information and I am so pleased to have her share with us.

Alicia Odom of SMDTeacher has shared a couple of posts where she took the mad scientist theme and ran with it this month. She shares ideas on a Mad Scientist Halloween party which I posted this past Monday to give folks a chance to take some ideas and plan if they wanted the week to set up some of the activities. The second post contains a powerpoint activity and more to check out...You can read all about them below:

Mad Science and More Mad Science

Ricky Buchanan of ATMac has sent us 3 posts on AT using the Mac. She shared:

"None are really specifically about creating stuff, except creating accessibility! But that's what all the other creating can flow from, ultimately." I would say creating accessibility is huge, you are exactly right and we thank you Ricky for your contribution!

Video iPods In Special Education

http://atmac.org/2008/10/01/video-ipods-in-special-education/

Speech-to-Text: Dictation software for OS X

http://atmac.org/2008/09/22/speech-to-text-dictation-software-for-os-x-2/

iPod Touch Ideas For Stylus And Mouth Stick Users

http://atmac.org/2008/10/08/ipod-touch-ideas-for-stylus-and-mouth-stick-users/

Patrick Black of Teaching All Students has given us a couple of great posts from his blog:

Making Talking PowerPoint Books and Boardmaker Activity Pad

Lon Thornburg, No Limits to Learning: I am sharing a post I did last week leading up to Halloween on Creating Switch Adapted Halloween Toys.

Thanks everyone for your contributions this month!

Lon

Some Halloween Links for fun...

I spent some time just searching for links that might give us some mad scientist ideas. Here's what I came up with:

Mad Scientist Network: MadSci Network represents a collective cranium of scientists providing answers to your questions. For good measure they provide a variety of oddities as well. They have a search engine that allows you to seek out information. I prefer Wikipedia myself, but I thought this was fun and kind of interesting!
http://www.madsci.org/

Evil Mad Scientist: This blog/site is an incredible do-it-yourself site with all kinds of projects and photos. Check out the Halloween pages with mutant cyborg pumpkins :o)
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/index.php?msg=27

Their project - Make a Cylon Jack o'Lantern:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/CylonOLantern#comments
A Video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f2dgROVUg

Mad Science Kids Club: This site opens up some fun projects for kids.
http://www.madsciencekids.com/

For Nostalgia - Scary Battery Operated Toys Archive form the 1960's
http://www.ozziesrobots.com/id50.htm

Some Fun Videos:

A Real Mad Scientist: Tesla Documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSR__YWOnRA

Superman (The Mad Scientist) Cartoon, 1941:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJfb-Jcx06I

French Illusionist Mad Scientist Act
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isOEPpOIHlo

Education:
Halloween Activities for School
http://www.educationworld.com/holidays/archives/halloween.shtml

Mad Scientist Game

And Finally, a mad scientist free download trial video game. I downloaded it and played some of it. I was sliding circuit boards across the floor to interconnect and turn on a large robot. It is a strategy game - fun to entertain you when you don't have anything else to do - anyone out there have time with nothing to do?!!

I hope you have a great Halloween and a great remainder of the fall. See you again in November.

All the best to you!

Lon

Call For Presenters: October Edition is a "Mad Scientist" Issue for AT Blog Carnival

Frankenstein made his monster, the farmer on the right grew his human-faced pumpkins... What do you "grow" with AT?
Our October edition of the Assistive Technology Blog Carnival is on what you create using AT or maybe a "how to" to use AT.
Maybe you use AT to support you in your vocation, to write, to do art, create music, produce video, maybe something surprising we wouldn't ever think of.
If you are an educator, maybe you would be able to share a link to a post on what you or others are creating with technology or something that has a use for AT.
Artwork, music, poetry, video created with AT would be fun too. Adults or children's projects made using AT would be very cool...
I have 2 submissions/tutorials already from a teacher who shows us how to create some things that are useful and fun. Let the "Mad scientist" come out in you and share something with us.
If none of that sparks an idea, I thought about this...
"What is your most "Scary" story concerning AT. A time it didn't work right, a time someone totally didn't get it and you thought, "That's scary"... I can think of me when I first was introduced to AT and I look back on what I didn't know and I think..."That's SCARY". It is amazing how much I have grown - but I still have a long way to go.
And of course, if nothing fits for you, you are welcome to share whatever you like.

Send links to me by Monday, October 27 and I will post them for a fun issue posted on October 31, Halloween Day! Pass the word around and I hope to hear from you. I will also include some fun Halloween links for your enjoyment! You could include one of those too...
lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com
All the best to you!
Lon

AT Blog Carnival Edition #6: Back to School Issue

Welcome to Edition #6, Back to School Edition of the Assistive Technology Blog Carnival.

Those of us that use AT for education have been back at it now for about a month and there are some great ideas and posts that have come out of this time.
We get to visit a classroom, share some parent's views about their children, discover some great support tools for the Mac and how to build free audio books for students that need modified curriculum.
Enjoy!

Alicia Odem gives us some photos and a descriptions of her classroom at her SMD Teacher Blog.

Penny Richards has had permission to submit a friend's blog, "I Am Micro-Managing". It shares the struggles of being a parent with a child who was home from school for the summer, developing communication and a new AAC device possibility - the Tango from Blink Twice.

Penny also sent 2 more blogs our way , "Maggie World". Listen as a mom shares how her child communicates. I had a tear there somewhere while I read...wish all my SLP's would read this one! It's wonderful when kids can communicate - I think my tear was for the joy of that - but also for all the ones I know could if we can get the device in their laps and hands.
Autism Schmatism! shares a wonderful blog on a family who have a boy with autism and this post shares on him working on AAC with "Leo".

Ricky Buchanan of ATMac has been working on sharing print disability tools for the Mac with us. She gives us her take on the use of AT tools for accommodation for all students...the Mac way.

Lon Thornburg from No Limits to Learning is sharing How to Create Free and Low Cost Audio Books.

All the best to you!

Lon