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

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