Recently, the 2nd annual “Google Apps for Education Ohio Summit” showcased a number of ways teachers, administrators, and other K-12 personnel can implement Google technologies in their classroom.  (See the full list of sessions with available materials.)

I was privileged to present a workshop on Google Tools to Support Students with Disabilities.  Has your school considered “going Google”?  If so, have you considered the impact on students with special needs, and how some Google technologies can support these students in the general curriculum?

View a short video demonstrating some examples: “Cheryl and Morgan: Learning Independence”

• Voice Search – requires Google Chrome Browser – Click the “microphone” icon in the search box, and you can speak your search term instead of typing it.
• Search-by-Image – requires any current version web browser – Go to images.google.com.  Drag a picture (image file) into the search box.  Google will search for pages with pictures that match yours, and tell you the search terms it used for your results.
• Advanced Search – Advanced Search allows you to separate your boolean search (using “AND”, “OR”, “AND NOT”, “+”, “-”, etc.) into separate text boxes, restrict the reading level of returned results, and more.
• ChromeVox – requires Chrome browser – Provides a simple text-to-speech system for content displayed in the Chrome browser.  Like any screen reader, the interface controls require some getting used to, but the available “Lois” TTS engine is the most natural sounding free TTS voice I’ve ever heard.
• ChromeVis – requires Chrome browser – Provides an alternate version of selected text on your screen in a pre-selected color scheme (e.g., black on white, white on black, yellow on black).  Can enlarge or decrease text size with one key.  One question… why doesn’t it work with text in a Google Doc?
• Optical Character Recognition (text scanning) – requires a Docs account – Upload a scanned image file (perhaps a page from a book) to Google Docs.  Check the box that says “Convert text from PDF and image files to Google documents” and Google will try to “read” any text in the image.  The result is a new Google Document with the image inserted, and the text below.  This text can then be altered as any text in a Google Document, or read aloud with ChromeVox!
  Note: US Copyright Law prohibits making electronic copies available to a broad audience from a single source.  Consult “Fair Use” guidelines on how to make scanned material legally available. 
• Word Prediction – Originally available in Google Labs as the “Scribe” project, word prediction moved to Blogger-in-Draft.  Now that project has ended, and Google’s amazingly helpful, free word prediction software has disappeared.  A note in a Google user forum on March 29, 2012,  indicates that word prediction was removed due to “usability technical issues”, and is expected to return once those issues are fixed.  Keep your fingers crossed.  And keep asking about it!

There are more helpful tools than these, with more going from concept to action all the time.

When you “Go Google”, consider how you will implement the technology for all students, not just those in the typical classroom.

View the presentation slides.

View the conference flyer.

Location: Southern State Community College, 100 Hobart Drive, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133

Please register on STARS!

Here are some sites that help students with demonstrations of math (and other related) concepts with video demos:

1 – Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org/ – Very helpful video demos of math concepts, especially as they relate to science, economics, and other fields.  Khan Academy video files are hosted on YouTube.  If your school or organization blocks YouTube, you won’t be able to use this site.  YouTube gives the added benefit of attempting to add closed captioning to videos that do not already provide it.

2 – Show Me: http://www.showme.com/ – “Crowdsourced” video demos of all sorts of academic subjects.  ShowMe’s are created using the free ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard app for the iPad.  Videos are not captioned unless the producer of the video has supplied captions.

3 – Teachertube: http://www.teachertube.com/ – YouTube-styled video hosting site.  Search for the concept you want to support (e.g., “dividing fractions“) and look through the results, which will range from simple videos of paper-and-pencil demos to professional educators showing off their rapping skills!  Videos are not captioned unless the producer of the video has supplied captions.

4 – Next Vista for Learning: http://www.nextvista.org/ – Created by Rushton Hurley, an educator in California.  NextVista has lots of videos, mostly student-created, on a wide variety of subjects.  Many of the videos have been submitted for contests run by the site, and many of them are excellent quality.  At the time of this writing, there are 186 videos in the Math category.

Use one, use them all!  Any support you can give to your students in having useful demos will help their understanding of important math concepts.  Need some “stretch goals” for your class?  How about challenging them to create a demo video that can be uploaded to one of the sites, or submitted to one of their frequent challenges/contests?

Again this year, we have an online format available for submitting nominations for the Exceptional Achievement Award. These are The Exceptional Achievement Award, Outstanding Educator Award, and Outstanding Student Award to be awarded at the April 26th Recognition Ceremony.

The following is the link to complete an online nomination form: http://www.ohioregion14.org/survey/index.php?sid=66281

If you prefer to download and print the forms and mail/fax them in, here are the individual nomination forms:

• Outstanding Student Nomination Form
• Outstanding Educator Nomination Form
• Exceptional Achievement Award

You may complete either the paper-based forms or the online forms to nominate someone, but DO NOT need to complete both. Please consider nominating someone today!

If you have any questions or concerns, please call Amy Luttrell (937) 393-1904 ext. 142 or Sherry Campton (ext 126).

Simulations generally require students to learn facts for a purpose beyond simply repeating them on a test. Simulations also often require exercises in decision-making and problem-solving that reach into the upper levels of higher-order thinking skills. Some simulations can be very expensive, though. And just because something is a simulation does not guarantee it will be either educational or engaging!

Here are my ten favorite free online educational simulations!

10) Blood Typing
http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/landsteiner/
Why do blood types matter? See what happens when three accident victims come to the emergency room. They all need transfusions, but none of them know their blood type. Can you figure it out in time to save them all?

9) Trade and Economics
http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/economics/trade/
Why do some countries specialize in certain goods? Do imports and exports really matter? How do production decisions in one part of the world affect other countries? Explore these questions in a wonderfully developed simulation of the Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory. Playable in minutes, and great for playing numerous times in one sitting. Allows students to adjust their strategy from one game to the next in order to achieve a higher score.

Zapitalism
http://www.Zapitalism.com/
Nice simulation of starting with a small retail store, and taking it to profitability based on the important decisions you make. What should you sell? How high should your prices be? What are the other stores around you selling?

7) Arm Surgery 2
http://www.learn4good.com/games/simulation/doctor-hospital-games-for-kids.htm
Seriously? Arm surgery? Yep! But don’t worry, the animation is “cartoony” enough that you shouldn’t be causing anyone to faint. And the subject matter is likely to have someone in your class saying “Hey, that happened to me!”

6) Cargo Bridge
http://limexgames.com/studio/games/cargo_bridge
Triangles. Leverage. Force. Momentum. Planning and Architecture. Resource management. It’s all part of “Cargo Bridge” (and its expanding variants, like the Armor Games Edition, and Christmas Levels Pack)! Use your knowledge of structures and

5) The River City Project (No longer free)
(Intro) http://muveb.gse.harvard.edu/~muvers/rivercityvideos/River_City_Fall_Large.mov
I’m breaking my own rule here by including a simulation that USED to be free, but is now licensed. In a sense, it was never free… funding used to be covered by a federal grant, but that grant has expired. The fact that the simulation is still available at all is a good thing, because it’s well constructed, and plays very well. Students who do not just rush through the game will be rewarded for their attention to details and recording of interesting facts gathered from interacting with the virtual world and the people in it.

4) GCF Learn Free – ATM
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/everydaylife/atm
Simulations can be used to place students in situations they never would find themselves in, to give them an idea of what life is like from other perspectives. But sometimes, simulations can be used to give students an idea of what life could be like for them in a year or two, or ten! GCF Learn Free’s ATM Simulation is one of the latter. Using an ATM may be second nature to many people today, but for some students, this is a vital skill they will need in order to function in society. This simulation gives them a safe way to experience using an ATM for themselves. GCF Learn Free simulations include printable worksheets to go along with the online activities.

3) The POD Game
http://www.thepodgame.com/
Do your high school students think they’re good in a crisis? Let them find out with this scary simulation, funded by the Center for Disease Control and developed by the Chicago Department of Public Health and CADE. An airplane has released deadly anthrax virus over the city, and you are working in a drug dispensing center’s Point-Of-Dispensing (POD). Take the training, and then see if you have what it takes to take the role of a Medical Screener, Forms Reviewer, or Dispensing in a tense situation.

2) Mission US – For Crown or Colony?
http://www.Mission-US.org/
Take up the role of Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old boy in Boston. The time is the days leading up to the beginning of the Revolutionary War. As Nat, participants make decisions that impact the progression of the game, while learning important facts. Teachers can register an entire class and keep track of their progress through the well-constructed simulation. Don’t miss the fun mini-game “Pennywhistle Hero”!

1) The Oregon Trail
The grandaddy of educational simulations! The one that basically started it all! New versions exist for mobile devices, but they aren’t nearly as heavy on requiring independent thought and planning.
Start in Independence, Missouri, and plan your trip westward to start a new life for you and your family in 1848.
Original edition FREE online
ActiveGS version
http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html
Java Version
http://www.virtualapple.org/J_oregontraildisk.html

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• iPad Apps for Students with Disabilities
• Some iPad Apps for Students with Disabilities
• Video: Apple in Education: Learning with iPad
• Video: Hands On Music: An iPad Band for Students with Disabilities
• iPad: The Perfect Learning Companion.

There are several free concept mapping tools available for educators (and students!) to use to support learning.  The table below lists some popular choices for various platforms.

Region 14 State Support Team will be offering a workshop at Region 14 – Hopewell Center (5350 W. New Market Road, Hillsboro, Ohio [google maps] [mapquest]) on using Free Google Apps to support learning for Students with Disabilities in the general curriculum.

The workshop will be split into two parts.  Part One will be on Monday, October 24, 2011.  Part Two will be on Monday, November 7, 2011.  Both sessions will be from 4:30 PM – 7:30 PM.

The following topics will be covered:

• Part I
  • Reading text from scanned (printed) pages
  • Creating personal and class calendars
  • Creating a website for your class
  • Maintaining a private class blog
  • Using Word Prediction
  • Electronic Formative Assessments
• Part II
  • Creating digital scrapbooks
  • Using Interactive 3-D Models
  • Engaging in Collaborative Writing
  • Supporting Research Strategies

The goal of these workshops is to give teachers, teacher teams, and administrators some tools they can use right away to improve and support access to the general curriculum for their entire class, especially students with disabilities.

This workshop is open to school staff in Region 14 (Adams, Brown, Clinton, Fayette and Highland Counties), and is free of charge.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Does my school have to already be using Google Apps for Education for me to attend?
A: No, your school does not have to already be using Google Apps for Education for you to use the tools we will be reviewing.  If your school is not using Google Apps for Education, Google’s Terms of Service requires that students be at least 13 years of age to use many of the apps.

Q: Do I need a Google Account to attend?
A: Yes, you will want to already have your own Google account set up and ready to use when you arrive for the first workshop.  This is free, and takes only a few minutes to do.  Get a Google account now if you don’t already have one!

Q: Can I bring my own laptop?
A: Yes, you can bring your own laptop (PC or Mac)!  You will need to be able to connect it to the Internet.  Free wi-fi will be available.  You will need administrator level access to install some of the apps.

Q: Should I bring my iPad?
A: Most of the apps and features we will be using do not work on the iPad or similar devices.

Q: Will food be served?
A: Coffee, tea, and water will be available.  A meal will not be served at this workshop.

Q: How do I register?
A: Registration will be via the STARS system.

Q: What if my question isn’t answered here?
A: Contact Michael Roush (937-393-1904 x136, r14_mroush@mveca.org) regarding your question, and we’ll get you an answer as quickly as possible.

On the web, these became popular as “Tag Clouds” on large blog sites, where the Word Cloud was made of the “tags”, or keywords, that were assigned to the various blog posts.  A “Tag Cloud” would give, at a glance, a sense of what the popular topics in the blog were at any given moment.

The surface of possible uses in classes that depend heavily on literacy skills is just being scratched.

Here are five popular Word Cloud generators.  All of these are freely available online (currently).  The following table compares some of the features of these five utilities.

1) Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) -The Grandaddy of Word Cloud Makers among educators.  Works simply and quickly, but doesn’t have some features some educators would like to see.

2) Tagxedo (http://www.tagxedo.com/) – Requires Microsoft Silverlight to use, which can be a turn-off to some who have avoided the plug-in – or for teachers who do not have access credentials to install software on a school-owned computer. The only word cloud maker in this list that lets you easily export your word cloud into a vast array of image formats. Currently in Beta, some features may eventually become unavailable without a paid subscription. Lets you choose (or upload) a shape for the Word Cloud to conform to.

3) WordSift (http://www.wordsift.com/) – Stanford University ELL Resources product, limited cloud generating ability, but gives access to more tools after creating the word cloud, like the impressive Visual Thesaurus, and the ability to see any word from the cloud in its context in the source text, without leaving the page.

4) TagCrowd (http://www.tagcrowd.com/) – Currently in Beta, some features may eventually become unavailable without a paid subscription. Option to include the frequency of words within the Word Cloud. Allows the user to download the word cloud as a PDF. Can insert the word frequency from the original into the word cloud, so words in the word cloud are followed by the number of times that word appears in the original .

5) WordItOut (http://www.worditout.com/) – Includes an interesting add-on… integrates a feature that lets you submit the image of your word cloud directly to “Zazzle”, an online service that will print your image on shirts, buttons, keychains, etc. Are you proud enough of your word cloud to pay $15 to have it on a coffee mug?

So, which one should you use?

Why choose?  Use them all!  They each do different things well, and some of them support students in ways others don’t.  Do you have a student with a significant motor impairment who cannot use a mouse?  Why make them skip your “Wordle” activity?  Let them use TagCrowd and participate in the exact same activity!  Have an emerging reader?  Let them use WordSift (with a reduced number of words in the generated cloud) and take advantage of the Visual Thesaurus and embedded Google Image search to support their understanding of the words they are working with!