part c--organizational, studying, brainstorming
DESCRIPTION
Part 3 of 4 of an Assistive Technology workshop.TRANSCRIPT
PART C: TIPS 6-8Organizational, Brainstorming,
and Studying Assistive
Mel Gollan-WillsAssistive Technology in the Secondary Classroom
TIP #6: Organizational Assistive
What is it? Easy-to-use mind mapping software
Accessible to any student
On many school network images;
Free 30 day trials
Provides students with a digital framework to organize their ideas for virtually any subject area and any type of written or visual assignment; think visually, brainstorm ideas
Benefits all students, particularly those with organizational skills (sequential) and organizational (spatial) areas of need
Unlike paper diagrams, SMART ideas allows students to edit, move ideas around, change connections and colours, and develop any type of map from the brainstorming stage to a published product
What does it look like1?
1 http://downloads01.smarttech.com/media/services/quickreferences/pdf/english/smartideasmenus&toolbarsqr.pdf
Simply drag and drop text boxes
Change connectors, move boxes with ease
What is it? Completely digital binder
Improves organization; no loss of documents or hard copy handouts
User-friendly: Just start typing! Create tabs for units or courses Drag and drop images, charts, videos Can use in conjunction with Kurzweil and dragon (insert with ease) Upload documents right into the note Date feature to keep students organized
There’s an App for ‘dat (available for the iPhone)
What does it look like?
Drag and drop, even Kurzweil files
Date feature; tabs for units
3
4
TIP #7: Brainstorming Assistive
Use wordles for any type of assessment (for, as, of) User-friendly way to get kids brainstorming, as the size of the concept/word
increases with the amount of times one types it in Being a website, students can access from anywhere with Internet access
Get Started:1. Click “Create” 2. Type your words in the text box3. Click “Go”4. Randomize or choose the font, Layout and Colour you like 5. Publish or Print** most effective way is to hit “Prt Sc” (print screen), open Paint, then paste, crop, save as a JPEG
REMEMBER: do your back work on a separate Word document because you cannot go back to edit once you hit “GO”…
TIP: to get phrases together use a tilde (~) i.e. Learning~Strategies, then it will show up on one line rather than multiple places
Using Wordles
What is Stormboard used for?
Stormboard (formally edistorm) is a brainstorming website that incorporates “post-its” for thoughts;
Can create your own document, add users (by email invitation such as a class or group), have all students brainstorm, then collaborate, condense ideas, and come to a consensus; can even comment and change colours based on “big ideas” or themes;
A way to create a collaborative and interactive classroom because students can log into the website (user name, email, password) to move ideas around like a “post-it-pile-it” activity without any printing required
TIP #8: Studying Assistive
Using Headmagnet A quiz-generating study tool; again, as a website it allows for greater
accessibility opposed to licenced software
Students can enter in information for each of their classes (separate tabs created) on a weekly basis to keep it fresh
The website generates quizzes and the student chooses the form, for example: Answer only (like Jeopardy) Question only Short answer/multiple choice
Promotes effective self-regulatory skills by having students track their progress under the “my head” section
Features: My Lists, My Head, Friends (promotes collaboration, share lists, learn together)
Using Headmagnet cont’d
Study Now feature
Choice of study (for example)
Activity Time!Please see the activity handout for
more details.