Week One: April 27th

Week one in Assistive Technology: Access to Literacy.

Three things that stood out to me this week were:

1. Technology has the power to continually surprise me. This week I was introduced to a number of new applications and what they could do was incredible. I'll touch on a few notable ones here.

• My assignment was to work with the PicCollage EDU app which allows you to create collages of images and text. It provides frameworks and also lets you try your own. It's a great way to get students thinking more abstractly and using forms of representation other than just the written word. It got me thinking about communication and how that is a fundamental human need, desire and ability (provided people have access to the right means of communication). Maybe expressing themselves through images would be a good way to start conversation about different forms of communication.

• The Clips app which automatically close captions videos would be a fantastic way to ensure that students with hearing impairment and EAL students could comprehend student video presentations. This is a beautiful example of how easy technology support UDL in the classroom!

• TeleStory just looks like a lot of fun to play with and I am certain it would keep my students engaged. Anything remotely theatrical has their attention!

• Snapverter allows teachers to go from paper to PDF in an instant, which in turn allows students to "hear text read aloud with highlighting, see words and passages explained, translated and more with Read&Write for Google Chrome". This one really amazed me. I know so many teachers exchange photocopies and keep everything in hard copy. Often that makes it feel onerous to digitize. Snapverter makes that literally a snap. I can't wait to try it out on my iPad at school. Why must Android be so slow to keep up?

• TouchChat is a communication app which uses head and eye control. I am just amazed that this is able to run on an iPhone!

Keeping on top of these new technologies seems like a challenging job in itself! Wouldn't it be amazing to have some kind of "Technology in Review" newsletter for teachers? I would love to hear what's out there to keep the average classroom teacher up to date.

2. The power of being understood. It's so hard to walk in someone else's shoes. It's even harder to think with someone else's brain! Understood.org is a rich resource for teachers and parents to explore learning and attention issues and even experience them for themselves. I actually first visited this website in my Bachelor of Education and my understanding of attention issues was really informed by it. I worked briefly with a school psychologist last year who described ADHD as actually having an abundance of attention for all sorts of things, but a difficulty filtering out the important from the less important stimuli. That really stuck with me because it was what I experienced in the simulation -- I heard the teacher's voice telling me how to complete the task, but I also heard lots of other voices and outside noise and many other things happening. It was very stressful, trying my hardest and not feeling able to complete the task. These sorts of resources are so helpful to parents and teachers to really understand what children are feeling when they experience these issues and they help build empathy.

Similarly, I got to understand more about the reading process. I enjoyed deconstructing the reading process and it's incredible how many different things we need to know and be able to do in order to read and comprehend. If any one thing breaks down in the process, it can be difficult or impossible to read. I think learning to speak and read French and Korean have given me a greater understanding of the challenges and complexity of reading as well. I certainly gained a greater appreciation for the many things I know about and can do without thinking while reading in English!

3. The importance of independent access through assistive technology. In my notes, I wrote that "Assistive technology enhances performance of individuals with disabilities and provides independent access to a task." It's so important that independent access be at the centre of assistive technology. Everyone wants independence! I think a fear teachers often have about using technology is that it will be more work for them and will require continuous or in depth technical support (that they sometimes feel unable to provide). With training and scaffolding, the goal is that students be able to access tasks independently and learn better with less support. It's freeing for the teacher and empowering to the student. With that said, the idea that time changes everything (student, task, environment, & technology), means that teachers always have to be prepared to adapt!

I also liked this image I found around assistive technology which explains that we are moving toward 'Integrated Differentiation', which I take to mean differentiation built into everything -- AKA a self-adjustable seat!

Accessibility Settings in my phone: Samsung Galaxy S7

My phone has quite a variety of setting which allow me to alter its configuration under the categories of Vision, Hearing and Dexterity and interaction. Overall, I would say it's quite adjustable to users with impairments in those areas. I am actually quite impressed by the number and diversity of adjustments I can make! I found it quite interesting that my phone can detect a baby crying or a doorbell ringing and alert a user with hearing impairment. It's neat to see how devices can improve accessibility outside of the school environment as well as within. There is even a "universal switch" which allows you to create custom switches to be controlled by tapping the screen, moving your head, opening your mouth, blinking, or using external accessories.

I was able to find a bit on Samsung's philosophy of accessible design. Their website said "All of Samsung’s products, content, and services are built around a ‘human centered philosophy that recognizes diversity and embraces difference’. Samsung pursues technological innovation that is available to all users." Sounds a bit like universal design! If you're interested in Samsung's accessibility design, you can find more information here.

Looking forward to week two!