technology in special education

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Cheri Harsh
Heather Kellstrom
Saline Area Schools

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3. Saline Area Schools – BYOD Program
• acquire, share, evaluate and create
digital information/content
• achieve media and technology literacy
• maintain a safe and ethical online
environment
SAS BYOD Program Policy & SAS Technology AUPs
http://goo.gl/9ohCS

5. To be effective, technology should be
based on IEP goals that can be directly
supported by technology.
For example: A student who has a learning disability in basic
reading may require audio text to access grade level material
in the general education setting.
Including “use of a digital device” on the IEP
accommodations page helps assure that the student will be
allowed to use their device in all classrooms.

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1. Identify
the Need
2. Find or
Create
Materials
3. Share
and
collect
Materials
4. Teach
the skills
and
monitor
use

7. Photo by `James Wheeler - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/24128704@N08 Created with Haiku Deck
So, now what? I have identified the need,
and the road is clear, but I only have 5 aging
laptops and twenty five learners.
How do we get where we need to go?

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Sally, put that
phone away or
I am going to
take it………..

9. Results of a Google Forms Survey at the
beginning of 2013-2014 school year, indicated
83% of my students were using a mobile device.
100% of my students have mobile devices!

10. How To INCREASE
Parent & Student “Buy In”?
Summer BYOD Workshop - Students with IEPs &
Interested Parents
The Speech Language Pathologist and I teamed up to offer
three, two hour workshops. We brought along some iPads so
parents could see how they could be used as learning tools.
Evening Workshop for Parents
In the fall, we offered a parent workshop to show parents how
to operate and add features/Apps to their teens devices.

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1.
Identify
the Need
2. Find or
Create
Materials
3. Share
and
collect
Materials
4. Teach
the skills
and
monitor
use

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13. All students with disabilities who need accessible
instructional materials have a right to receive these
materials in a timely manner regardless of whether
they qualify to receive materials developed from
Nation Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
(NIMAS) files through the instructional material Access
Center (NIMAC).
http://aim.cast.org/learn/policy/federal/right_to_receive_aim#
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14. Public Sources for all Students:
http://app.overdrive.com/
Books are checked out from an online library and can be read using
voice over on iPad.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/
Books that are in the public domain can be read using, built in speech,
voice over, or Apps like Voice Dream Reader.
http://www.feedbooks.com/ integrated into the Go Read Android App.
Source for Students with Print or Physical Disability:
https://www.bookshare.org/cms
Students with a certified print disability can choose from thousands of
current titles and texts using Go Read or Voice Dream Reader.

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Ways to Open Accessible Books
Many devices have built in text to speech features. Some are
easy to use, some are not. Chromebooks do not have built in text
to speech, so you will have to help readers work around this.

16. Voice Dream Reader ($9.99) iPad and iPhone
Super powerful App that reads just about everything Reads saved text when offline.
ClaroPDF($2.99) iPad and iPhone
Reads and allows students to annotate and save annotations directly to Google Drive. Good for files with images. Reads saved text when offline.
ClaroSpeak Plus (6.99) iPad and iPhone
Very simple to use. Changes uploaded PDF files to text pages that you can listen to and edit. Can capture text from photos and can convert text to
save as an audio file.
Go Read (free) for Android Phones and Tablets
Reads Bookshare books, as well as books in the Feedbooks OPDS Catalog.
Read&Write for Google (free version for Google Docs. Is useful but very limited. The full premium includes an app for tablets but
costs $10/student with a 150 student minimum)
Very Powerful in its premium form. Word prediction for Docs, Reads Docs and PDFs, includes features for annotating text, note taking and
research. Adds super accessibility to Chromebooks, but requires a robust internet connection for all the features to work reliably. On tablets, the
features are enabled within other Apps. For example, the TTS works in the web browser and the keyboard will work in any writing App.
Adobe Reader (free) Reads PDF files.
This works even on older desktops and laptops. The quality of the voice depends on the computer.
Chrome Speak Browser app/extension for laptops/Chrome Books
(free) works off line, but doesn’t always work well.
Built-in text to Speech (free) availability and quality varies with the device

17. We are required to provide accessible
materials to students who need them.
This not only includes texts, but also
teacher made materials.
Including teacher made tests and
worksheets.

18. K e e p I t S i m p l e
Useful when creating original materials. Google Docs
are simple for both teachers and students to create,
modify, access and share.
Useful when creating accessible files from inaccessible
text or picture files using Optical Character Recognition
Software (OCR), works with apps for annotating text.
All my students use their school sponsored Gmail account,
Google Drive, Google Docs and associated apps and
extensions in the Google Chrome Browser.
There are many types of accessible text. We primarily use
two: Docs and PDFs.

19. Can’t I just use the PDF feature on the
copy machine?.
Probably not.
Most copy machines create pictures not
accessible text. For that you need OCR!

20. A flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder is fast,
and it makes high quality documents. It’s not portable, so it
must be used with advance planning. It’s great for converting
long documents, but it’s expensive and takes practice.
We use ABBYY FineReader OCR software:
http://finereader.abbyy.com/express_for_mac/
Adobe Acrobat is also popular:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/convert-jpeg-scan-ocr-to-pdf.html
Flatbed
Scanner with
OCR
Software

21. http://www.getdoxie.com/product/one/scanner.html
Portable Scanner
We just started using the Doxie One.
It’s super simple, portable, inexpensive ($129 without teacher
discount) and includes accurate OCR software. Perfect for use in
the Gen. Ed. classroom.
You do have to feed one page at a time, so it’s slower than using
a flatbed with auto document feed. It includes a USB cable to
connect to a computer and can be connected to an iPad using an
iPad lightning to SD card reader ($29).

22. Apps on the iPhone or iPad
These are good solutions for the individual BYOD iOS user:
• They Enable the student to take a picture of a document, run OCR and listen
to it within minutes, all within the same App.
• The Apps also export to other Apps including Google Drive while connected
to WiFi. So the material can be opened in another app for annotation or
saved for later use on a different device.
• While these apps can work with longer documents. They are best at
converting short documents for immediate reading.
Prizmo ($9.99) This App has many of the features included in the much more
expensive software used with stand alone scanners, it can be used to scan and read
material, but you can also edit and save the document as an Image+searchable text
and send it to other Apps such as Claropdf or Voicedream. Video Link
Clarospeak Plus ($6.99) This App includes a scanner and OCR along with many
other features. Super easy to use. This could be a students entry into creating their
own accessible materials.

23. 8th Grade
Co-taught
Language Arts
Class using
personal
devices to
provide input
during a
lesson
Using Pear
Deck.
Phones
Tablets
Chrome Books
iPod touches
in action!!

24. Fleksy Keyboard ($.99) Qwerty Keyboard that adjusts for inaccurate typing.
Read&Write for Google Keyboard(comes with premium) Word prediction and text to speech.
ClaroSpeak - iPad/iPhone (2.99) Nice inexpensive App that supports both reading and
writing. Simple format will work for all writers.
Voice Dream Writer - iPhone/iPad ($9.99) Is a new App with great features. This App has
features that older students may appreciate such as dictionary, phonetic and meaning
searches, editing and proofreading features, as well as text formatting. (There are issues with
8.2 update).
Read&Write for Google - Chromebooks/Laptops. Super nice Extension for Chrome. The
premium has all kinds of writing and research features. The premium version is free for
teachers. $10/student with 150 student minimum.
iPhones and iPads now have word prediction built into iOS 8. Androids have
had this for a long time. This is all that many of my 8th graders need. The
Fleksy Keyboard is a very inexpensive addition that will add auditory feedback
and typing support in most writing apps.

25. What About Dictation?
All of the Apps we have looked at today allow dictation from the
keyboard, but Dragon Dictate (free) is still available in the App Store for
students with older devices. It is simple to use, just push the button and
speak, then cut and paste.
For students who use Chromebooks or computers, the Dictation App is
free. Text is dictated into the App window and then can be sent to
Google Drive, or you can cut and paste. Get it in the Chrome Store.
Read&Write for Google Premium includes dictation as well.

26. Student-Owned Devices/Apps in K-8
Intervention/Support Programs:
• Lexia Reading Core5
• Reading Plus
• Raz-Kids
• BookFlix
• MobyMax
• LAZ Books
• Audible.com
Classroom Supports:
• Scan/QR Reader
• Notes/Evernote
• Sticky Desk
• Skitch
• Comic Book
• 30 Hands
• Explain Everything/Show Me
• Recorder Pro
• Gen. Ed./Special Ed. Teacher
Recommended Apps
And More…
• Xtra Math
• Newsela.com
• Chrome Extension:
Clearly, Speak It,
Google Dictionary,
Grammarly, etc.
• http://assistechknow.org/down
loads/

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1.
Identify
the Need
2. Find or
Create
Materials
3. Share
and
collect
Materials
4. Teach
the skills
and
monitor
use

28. Why Put EVERYTHING in Google Drive?
•Only one system to learn
•Teachers share out and control access to material
•Students turn in assignments by sharing
•No papers left at home, or lost
Streamlined
Use
•Available at home and school
•Available offline
•Students and teachers can communicate in the evening or on weekends
Convenience
•Teachers can monitor students progress on writing assignments in real-time during class
•Teachers can monitor writing revisions using revision history
•Teachers can monitor digital student planners using revision history
•Teachers can monitor group work and determine who is doing the work
Transparency
•Students can collaborate in real-time with teachers and peers through suggestions and
comments even when they are not in the same room
•Students can work together and support each other while creating group assignments
Collaboration

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Give them space, but also give
them limits. Using a device
should not be an excuse to play
or disrupt others.

31. You have to teach…
…your students how & when to
use their technology! You just
can’t assume they know…

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33. Favorite Chrome Apps…

34. Cheri Harsh
Special Education
Teacher
Saline Area Schools
harshc@salineschools.org
Heather
Kellstrom
Director of
Instructional
Technology
Saline Area Schools
kellstrh@salineschools.org