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

Back to School Edition Set for September

Back to School theme for September Edition

Since the end of August is one of the craziest times of the year for educators, we will wait and post a new edition of AT Blog Carnival in September. I know there are bloggers that are not in education, but in order for me to put it together, it would be easier to wait. We had a smaller number of submissions in July and I don't anticipate August being any better - so we will take a break and come back fresh in September.

The September Edition will appear Monday, September 29 and the last day for submissions will be Friday, September 26,

Back to School Topic:

Share a post on reflections on learning and AT, teaching with technology for disabilities, learning in any form even if you are not in education. How does AT support what you do as far as learning and increasing knowledge and personal improvement. If you are a teacher, maybe you have a great story to share on a new student, an experience, a new tool, etc.

I will look forward to hearing from you and you can send me a post any time between now and the end of September. I will keep reminders on my blogs.

Have a great August!

All the best to you!

Lon

Assistive Technology Blog Carnival: Edition 5

Assistive Technology Blog Carnival for July '08 brings a review on the iphone and it's touch screen, a picture address book, a fascinating new technology for the blind and an amazing searchable data-base program for you to enter any info you want at a very affordable price for anyone.

Our July Edition finds many of us out and about enjoying the summer weather unless you are "down under", which I know some of our readers are (and one of our authors). I have been enjoying camping, visiting relatives, having relatives visit and getting some work projects done. If many of the folks that usually submit are anything like me, getting something ready to submit, or even remembering to submit is the farthest thing from the mind. I actually must admit that it was about 11:00 PM Sunday night when I remembered, "Oops, I forgot. I need to get the AT Blog Carnival up for tomorrow morning!" I probably should have just taken the summer off on this project and picked it up again after school starts. I get comments that people appreciate this project, so I just need to figure out how to get submitters. Anyone with ideas can let me know...If you are a reader who has submitted in the past, please submit again. We all love hearing from you! Here are the submissions for July:

I want to thank Ron Graham and Ricky Buchanan for their submissions this month. We will be the "Three A.T. Musketeers" for Edition 5 I guess!

1. Ron Graham of Access Ability has submitted a post on a new technology that is bringing real hope to the blind.
http://accessability.blogspot.com/2008/07/blind-climber-sees-with-his-tongue.html

2. Ricky Buchanan of ATMac has a whole new look to her blog and it looks terrific. Check her work in two posts she submitted, one on the iphone:
http://atmac.org/2008/07/25/iphone-assistive-technology-round-up/

and one on Espy, the picture address book for Mac:
http://atmac.org/2008/05/28/espy-a-picture-address-book-for-mac-os-x/


3. Lon Thornburg from No Limits to Learning: I would like to share this post on a program Notescribe. They are coming out with a premium version in August that is a must-have for me. They are working on getting it to compliment a text to speech tool as well which will make it incredibly resourceful for people. I interviewed the CEO/developer on my No Limits 2 Learning Live radio talk show this month as well. (The live stream dropped out for half a minute or so right in the middle but we come back so keep listening!) I hope you enjoy and explore these tools.

Blog Post: http://nolimitstolearning.blogspot.com/2008/07/notescribe-ceo-on-no-limits-2-learning.html


Interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nolimits2learninglive/2008/07/23/Organizing-Your-Written-World-with-NoteScribe

All the best to you!
Lon

Assistive Technology Blog Carnival Edition 5: Call for Submissions

The July Assistive Technology Blog Carnival, Edition 5, is now taking submissions.

Our July Edition will again be open for any topic you would like to choose to submit. Having a "grab bag" approach leaves it open for folks to share something that is unique and interesting to them. We had some great submissions for the June go-round and I am looking forward to what shows up for July. Please spread the word and this link to those that you know of who might be interested in submitting.

The due date: Friday, July 25.

The posting date: Monday, July 28.

Submit to: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

All the best to you!

Lon

Edition #4 of the Assistive Technology Blog Carnival

The Assistive Technology Blog Carnival, Edition #4: Grab Bag Edition

This month we have 10 great submissions from some wonderful writers and providers of AT resources and information. There are posts on new updates of software and tools for AT, a UDL Wiki, some insights into the Kindle and AT equipment, adapting a keyboard for braille, using the SMART Board for special education, and a look at the MS Word add-in that saves documents as a DAISY file. The last submission is a great list of resources for Special Education. I hope you get some time to sit back, relax and explore!


Assistive Tek, Brian Friedlander:

I am excited to share a post from one of my mentors, Brian Friedlander. Dr. Friedlander was my AT professor through Lesley University in Cambridge. I was an instructional resources trainer at the time finishing my masters. He "warned" me that as soon as people found out I knew about AT, they would put me in charge of it! Well, his words came true, and now I have found my niche and my passion. Thanks Brian! Brian has submitted a review from his blog. Find out his perspectives on Write Online by Crick: http://assistivetek.blogspot.com/2008/06/writeonline-from-crick-software-first.html

Free Resources on the Net, Paul Hamilton:

Paul has started a project that is a wiki on Universal design. You can read about his project -UDL4All: http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/06/11/udl4all-online-resource/


Disability Studies, Temple U, Penny L. Richards:

I missed getting Penny's submission in past month from Wheelie Catholic and so promised it would be in now. Thanks Penny! Here is her submission from Wheelie Catholic, Ruth - on the Kindle and Assistive equipment: http://wheeliecatholic.blogspot.com/2008/05/does-it-matter.html
I am throwing in Penny's Blog on Disability Studies from Temple U that fits with our topics.
Thanks Penny - (and sorry I got you a little mixed up with Ruth!)


AnneMarie 80, Anne Marie Corrieri:

Anne Marie was our winner in the new blog contest drawing. She writes on uses for the SMART Board and adapting activities in the special ed classroom. She has submitted her post on SMART Boards and learning to write: http://annemarie80.edublogs.org/2008/03/25/writing-his-name/

ATMac, Ricky Buchanan:

Ricky is on hiatus from her blog due to some health issues of late, but she gave me permission to sift through her blog and select a permalink of my choice to add to our collection this month. Because of the DAISY work I have been doing lately, I have been more and more interested in tools and supports for visual impairment and this post stood out as an interesting one on adapting a regular keyboard to become a braille keyboard:

http://atmac.org/2008/03/31/use-your-regular-keyboard-as-a-perkins-braille-keyboard/#more-321



The Talking Book Librarian:

The Talking Book Librarian sent me 2 posts to choose from and I am including both. She shared that this first one on updates to the Victor Reader stream Version 2.0 was her most popular this month so check it out:
http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/06/victor-reader-stream-version-20-is.html

Her other post is on the new version of the popular Window Eyes screen reader:

http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/06/window-eyes-70-beta-1-released.html

No Limits to Learning, Lon Thornburg:
Since text to speech tools and print disability text files from DAISY seem to be popular, I am enclosing my own post from this past month that has hit my most popular post list at #1. It is on my adventures learning about the MS Word add-in and how to convert text to play in a free reader. The post caused a lot of email and some comments. I began to do follow-up posts and I am including the initial post and last follow-up for June which had a wonderful contributing comment/post from Romain Deltour of the DAISY Pipeline Team (which is a converting tool for text files to digital talking book files).

Initial post:
http://nolimitstolearning.blogspot.com/2008/06/adventures-in-using-free-tools-to.html
Follow-up post:
http://nolimitstolearning.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-use-ms-word-to-daisy-add-in-more.html

Teaching Tips.com Article on 100+ Resources and Links for Special Education (They are all under some helpful categories):
http://www.teachingtips.com/blog/2008/06/25/the-ultimate-guide-to-special-needs-teaching-100-resources-and-links/

I hope you enjoy spending some time reading what folks have worked hard to write and submit. Add their blogs to your feed lists and check in regularly!

All the best to you!
Lon