by Samuel Sennott
So your summer camp is winding down, or maybe you are stuck inside in an extended year program. Maybe your home with your children during a few weeks they have off from camp. Why not take a golf break? Make a day of it: Do guided reading with the book about Tiger Woods. Check out the videos from YouTube. Talk about it. Write about it. Spell some words at the level the student is at. Then break out the Nintendo Wii if you can get one and play 3 or 9 holes. Take some pictures while your doing it and do some more writing later that day or another. Enjoy! http://otot.wikispaces.com/Tiger+Woods
Books
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| Tiger Woods Cover From Book, Tiger Head shot, looking, and swinging |
Transitional Text
Readings
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Tiger Woods: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Tiger Woods Timeline for Enrichment
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Sports Illustrated Kids Tiger Woods Interview (2008)
Videos
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Tiger Woods Age 2
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Tiger Woods and some of his great golf shots pgatour
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Tiger Woods – Bay Hill 2008 18th Hole
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Tiger Woods’ Perfect Swing (SWING VISION)
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Tiger Woods Amazing Golf Shot
- Download the above videos in .mpg, converted from the original .flv with www.zamar.com http://drop.io/tigerwoodsvideos
Writing
Golf Chart.zip Intellitalk Chart Writing (I can…)
- Use a graphic organizer to brainstorm what you want to write about.
http://aex.intellitools.com/searchdetails.php?act_key=basicwebgraphicorganizer
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| Screenshot of Basic Web Graphic Organizer |
Working With Words
- Idea: Do a simple spelling activity creating the words I, can, win, the, like. Then practice finding those with the AAC system. Link to Printable Letter Cards and more formal and systematic phonics ideas: http://alltogether.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/printable-making-words-cards/
Motivation Connection
- Play Nintendo Wii Sports Golf.
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kara/1859304076/
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by Samuel Sennott
Check out the excellent offerings of AAC-RERC Webcasts, which can be found here and navigating to webcasts: http://www.aac-rerc.com Some of the pictures have been deleted, due a server move by the AAC-RERC. I am going to consider how to feature the webcasts better, and in an automated format in the future.
by Samuel Sennott
Russel Cross recently posted a great list of accessible books on the ACOLUG (Augmentative Communication Online Users Group) Listserv. Check it out:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ – project gutenburg – html, text (FREE)
http://www.ebooks.com/ – ebooks – Microsoft reader, Mobipocket, Adobe
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/ – University of Adelaide – html, txt (FREE)
http://www.ereader.com/ – ereader – ereader format (use with Palm, Mob, Mac, PC) – has best DRM I have seen IMHO – can copy as much as you like but must enter name and credit card number every time.
http://www.fictionwise.com/ – Microsoft reader, Mobipocket, Adobe, Palm reader, fiction wise reader?
http://www.amazon.com – Adobe, Microsoft reader
http://etext.virginia.edu/ebooks/ – Microsoft, Palm – (FREE)
http://manybooks.net/ – eReader, PDF, Plucker, iSilo, Doc, or zTXT (FREE)
http://www.memoware.com/ – Formats, so many it insane (FREE) http://www.memoware.com/mw.cgi/?screen=help_format
http://www.pdabookstore.com/ – Memoware bookstore – many formats
http://www.pdabookstore.com/servlet/mw?t=help_help&si=4
http://www.buddhanet.net/ebooks.htm – Adobe (FREE)
http://www.adobe.com/epaper/ebooks/ebookmall/index.html – huge list of pay sites using Adobe
http://www.awe-struck.net/ – romance & sci-fi – HTML, PDF,Rocket, REB, Microsoft Reader,Pocket PC PDA, Mobipocket, EBookman, Hiebook
http://www.planetpdf.com/free_pdf_e…p?CurrentPage=1 – PDFs (FREE)
http://www.powells.com/ebookstore/ebooks.html – Microsoft, Adobe, Palm
http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/ – Rocket-eBook, Hiebook, Adobe PDF, MS-Reader, Mobipocket, iSilo, Franklin eBookMan, and Palm Doc.
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/ – Microsoft, Adobe, Palm
http://www.bob-e-books.com/ – Microsoft, Rocket, Softbook
http://esspc-ebooks.com/default.htm – Microsoft PC Reader, Mobipocket
http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/ – PDF, RTF, HTML (Free?)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/clas…oks/index.shtml – HTML (FREE but only Dr Who books?)
http://ebooks.whsmith.co.uk/151ABB2…/en/Default.htm – Adobe, Microsoft, Mobipocket
http://www.ebooks3.com/ – html (FREE)
by Samuel Sennott
Things are surely getting interesting with the release of WebAnywhere, the screen reader on the go. This just may be a sign of things shifting to the power of open source/ freeware and the University connection aspect of the AT work. I look forward to speaking with some friends who are blind about this. I was on and using this screen reader in less than one minute. Check it out.
Pulled from various parts of their website, found at: http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/
WebAnywhere: A Screen reader on the go
Launch it: Try the WebAnywhere Alpha Release
Please read our WebAnywhere Paper for more information about the system.
A 2008 presentation by a team member on the project:
WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader On-the-Go, 2008
Presented by Jeffrey P. Bigham on 10/15/2007. Link: WebAnywhere PPT.
The cheat sheet:
You interact with WebAnywhere using the keyboard. A selection of keyboard commands that are currently supported is listed below. Pressing SHIFT in combination with them reverses the direction of the search, searching backward from the current cursor position instead of forward from it.
- CTRL-L – move the cursor to the location box where you can type a URL to visit.
- Arrow Down – read the next element on the page.
- Arrow Up – read the previous element on the page.
- CTRL-H – skip to the next heading.
- CTRL-I – skip to the next input element.
- CTRL-R – skip to the next row by cell when in a table.
- CTRL-D – skip to the next column by cell when in a table.
- Page Down – read continuously from the current position.
- Home – read continuously, starting over from the beginning of the page.
- CTRL – silence WebAnywhere and pause the system.
by Samuel Sennott
I envision a bookshelf/ launcher that is powerful, flexible, open and user friendly across multiple platforms. It is so needed right now, but as we explode into the Bookshare age it will become vital. I have some pretty cool workups to share over the coming weeks, but see the one created for the Accessible Book Collection for a proof of concept: http://alltogether.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/a-bookshelf-for-the-accessibile-book-collections-ics-formatted-books/
by Samuel Sennott
Check out the videos we have collected during our AAC writers camp. Below is pulled from the wikispace demo created as a part of the framework being developed. http://otot.wikispaces.com/Writing+Setups
To reiterate:
- You can so powerfully build background knowledge in the Guided Reading and Self Selected Reading Domains.
- Videos are a powerful motivator in the writing process, especially for beginning writers
Writing Setups
Under Construction, Check Back Frequently for Updates: 5.29.08
More Videos and Directions Have Been Added (Thanks Team) 6.4.08
You are at Writing Setups—————– Alternative Pencil Directions ————–Get Lesson Directions
Animals
- Dancing Dogs
- Talking Dogs
- Wild Horses
- Animal planet-pig performance
- Einstein the bird
- Very Smart Animals
- Penguin in Japan
- Big Spider
- Giant Tarantula
- A Bee Keeper’s Video
- Bee Brood
- Eating Insects
- Labrador Retriever Puppies-Siesta
- Chloe Licks a Popsicle (Chocolate Lab)
Art
- Sand art
- Animal Planet Sand Art
- Julian Beever Chalk Drawings
- Music Flipbook
- Sand Sculpture 2006 Austrailia
Books
Music
- Blue Man Group
- High School Musical Bloopers
- High School Musical- Something New
- Beat Boxing Flute
- Chris Brown & Elmo
- Double Dutch Bus
Sports
- Awesome Cheerleading Stunts
- World Figure Skating 2008
- Awesome Gymnastics
- Tennis Fashion
- Slow Motion Tennis
- Wii Tennis
- Manhattan Beach Surfing
- How to play dodge ball
- Play dodge ball
- Wii Golf
Cooking
- Amazing Cooking!
- Disney’s Pass The Plate
- Pass The Plate- Spinach
- Pass The Plate- Mango
- LazyTown – Cooking by the Book
- The Wiggles – Fruit Salad
Nature
Other
by Samuel Sennott
One to One Thousand is a concept that I believe will powerfully help the field of special education. The basic premise is that if a thousand people each work for an hour on a project with agreed upon standards, then they can create something that one person working for a thousand hours, could never create. It gets pretty in-depth from there, but I am excited to share how the theory is shaping up in some upcoming presentations, papers, and webcasts.
That being said, it is fun watching the theory unfold over on the terrific collaboration between UNC’s Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and the Computer Science Department, the Tar Heel Reader. Look at how quickly an open source library of books is growing, by checking out a snip from a post on the site’s homepage:
“The graph below shows the amazing growth of the collection thanks to the contributions of many authors.
| Total | 4 | 14 | 20 | 66 | 164 | 180 |
| Week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
We’ve had 66111 page views from 1470 different computers worldwide.”
by Samuel Sennott
This talk by Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, is part of the terrific Google Tech Talks Series. Check it out.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlFesxnQ0nU]
by Samuel Sennott
Connecting video to reading and writing is powerful. Last summer, I saw that power so clearly in the camp program I led. The camp was your basic extended year program revamped into a fun literacy based camp. One of the classrooms had mainly children with autism spectrum disorders. When we completed the pre-assessments, the students nearly threw the books back into our faces. There was at least a few tears during the developmental spelling test administered. Based on this initial assessment, I knew it was key to focus on the appreciation/enjoyment of literacy, so I turned to the self selected reading block. I brought in Apple laptops to each student and fired up the now classic Otis Goes to the Beach story. We showed it as a whole group to kick off the lesson. As you read, Otis comes to life with real videos of him getting ready for his walk, crying because he is so excited, swimming, and chewing. The children were transfixed. Every day, one particular student asked me why Otis is crying. Then he would say, “because he’s happy?” Within a few weeks, the students were reading PowerPoint based books on a daily basis and greatly enjoying it. One student who did not want to have anything to do with writing, started using PowerPoint to author because we could import pictures relevant to him. The rationale behind transitional texts is to draw the reader to attend to the text. I believe that connecting video can do this as well.
Yet, videos are not just for getting attention. They can be powerful for building background knowledge in both the reading and writing process. See a previous post that was regarding a guided reading lesson for Leo the Late Bloomer. Using YouTube can bring concepts to life. What a great way to do the activation of knowledge section of your guided reading lesson. Also the extensive Discovery Education/United Streaming site is rich with content.
Videos can motivate writing. The students in the AAC writers camp I am leading this summer are going wild for journaling about the videos they connect to. I believe that for my students, this is a perfect lead in to the SRSD strategy POW and TREE. Writing a persuasive essay about the video including a topic sentence, reasons, and an ending is potentially a way to tip the motivational scale during this process.
Check out the set of videos we are using this summer to motivate and fuel our journaling process:
http://otot.wikispaces.com/Writing+Setups
In summary, video can be powerful to draw attention, build background knowledge, and build motivation in reading and writing. There is so much more to be studied, researched, implemented, and written about regarding this topic. I look forward to engaging in the process.
by Samuel Sennott
Children, teenagers, and adults need books to be able to learn to read and getting accessible books to them is the goal of the Tar Heel Reader. This open source library of books that are switch accessible, talking, internet accessible, and downloadable will grow exponentially due to the terrific job Gary Bishop, a computer scientist from UNC Chapel Hill, has done designing the Worpress powered interface. This combination of efforts between computer science and education is phenomenal. He presently teaches a course in Computer Science focused on accessible software and hardware. Karen Erickson, Gretchen Hanser and Gary Bishop have been meeting and collaborating for quite some time. It is inspiring to me to see as an example as I emerge into the research phase of my teaching practice. From earlier efforts from this team of computer scientists, The Tar Heel Typer and Dance Dance Revolution mods, to the present and into the future, they surely serve as a powerful example of what we can do as educators to team up with computer science programs. Karen Erickson and David Koppenhaver have worked tirelessly on the concept of creating accessible texts that are age appropriate, rich in quality, and powerful in the literacy instructional process. See the Beginning Literacy Framework by Karen Erickson, Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite, and Ruth Ziolkowski to understand types of texts helpful to early readers. This project has the potential to make texts available to people in a way only possible with the advent of the internet and the concepts behind the Read/Write web and Web 2.0.
I believe in this project and concept with all my heart and am more than happy to be now seeing it come into the world. As I step forward from teacher to both teacher and researcher, I have seen a very powerful lesson: combine your dreams, visions, gifts and technical skills with others who have other dreams, visions, gifts, and technical skills and you can create and help more than ever imagined.
So start getting these books to your students and start authoring. Remember if one thousand people each work for one hour on a project with agreed upon standards you can create…
Go to the Tar Heel Reader
Let’s See the Books and How it Works!
Here is how you choose a book.
Here is a page from a book:
You have multiple options for accessing the books:
- on the web
- download the PowerPoint File
- Open Office Impress File
- Flash File
Speech can be enabled or disabled.
Switch Scanning
Switch Scanners can access the books with various keystrokes, including most of they keys on the keyboard. (soon to be optimized to go forward and back)
The power of this project is in the exponential amount of material to be available for all types of individuals learning to read. I have been working on this concept quite a bit and I believe that this is a One to One Thousand scenario. One key concept is the availability of age appropriate texts on an unprecedented level.
Here is how the book building process works:
- You use images from the Creative Commons section of Yahoo’s Flickr.
- The images are automatically cited. See how it works here.
- You add your text to each page you create.
- Add some keyword tags, such as words about the content, if it is an enrichment, transitional, or conventional text, or anything else you would like.
- Click to post your book. A talking book that is switch accessible and and able to be downloaded offline is created.
- It is that simple. No more PP notes citations, large file problems, conversion nightmares! Hallelujah.
Let us rally behind this amazing project in a way never before seen! Let’s go! We can do it all together!
