A Note-Taking Conundrum

Researchers and educators have suggested note-taking-by-hand produces greater efficacy for learning than note-taking-by-keyboard. Supporting this notion, Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer*, posit that handwriting may create deeper processing of the content.

Mueller and Oppenheimer conducted three studies, and concluded that subjects who took notes via keyboard were able to generate more written product.

Students who took notes keyboarding were not as capable as their handwriting peers in remembering factual details, demonstrating conceptual comprehension, or synthesizing the material.  

According to Cindi May**, who writes for Scientific American:

"What drives this paradoxical finding?  Mueller and Oppenheimer postulate that taking notes by hand requires different types of cognitive processing than taking notes on a laptop, and these different processes have consequences for learning.  Writing by hand is slower and more cumbersome than typing, and students cannot possibly write down every word in a lecture.  Instead, they listen, digest, and summarize so that they can succinctly capture the essence of the information.  Thus, taking notes by hand forces the brain to engage in some heavy “mental lifting,” and these efforts foster comprehension and retention.  By contrast, when typing students can easily produce a written record of the lecture without processing its meaning, as faster typing speeds allow students to transcribe a lecture word for word without devoting much thought to the content."

For those of us working with students with special needs, who are doubly challenged by handwriting this becomes even more complicated. If the student cannot read his/her writing, what than? If the student's rate of handwriting is half the speed of his/her peers, what than? There are the obvious benefits of being able to quickly reorganize and edit word-processed work.

So, food for thought. No answers here, but when we make recommendations to switch a student to keyboarding, and possibly jettison handwriting, we need to consider the whole impact. Perhaps, we switch students, but ask the team to continue addressing handwriting. It may be that the student benefits from keyboarding notes, and then taking a short-hand set of notes at home.

I'd be curious to hear reader's thoughts on this.

Happy Therapy!


*Pam A., M., & Daniel M., O. (2014, January 16). The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/6/1159

**May, C. (2014, June 3). A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop. Retrieved September 12, 2014.

OT Problems, OT Rap about Occupational Therapy

Too cool for my fellow OT's out there!

Resistance is Futile!

Tek-Ninjas, if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember this article I wrote a few years ago.

In the article I wrote about a conversation I had with a sales rep for a prominent education software company.  I had (and still do have) a lot of respect for the fellow, but I thought he was way off base on his opinion here.

Turns out, I was correct. Yes. this is one of those "I told you so" moments! 

He had posited that his company would NEVER make an app for the iPad, suggesting that the devices were essentially toys, without sufficient computing power to do their programs justice.

Well, several months ago his company released an iPad version of their prize software. I'm not gonna share who and what it is, because I don't want this conversation to reflect poorly on them.  I will say it's a really fine app that achieves everything the desktop version does.  I will add that with increased portability (intrinsic to the iPad of course), a more intuitive interface, and a fraction of the price the iPad version is a superior product.

To be fair, when we first had this debate, the iPads were new, and they did not have the processing power they now offer. It was a different beast. I'm pleased to see they have come around and created such a fine app.

One of his big concerns was that teachers/therapists/and parents would use the iPad much like the t.v. has been used on some occassions, replacing meaningful interaction with a "babysitting" device. This was for me a cautionary notion.

I still maintain, that the efficacy of any software whether on an iPad or laptop/desktop increases significantly with oversight from an educator, or therapist. 

This oversight means someone will apply educational/clinical reasoning to guide the process. Someone who will draw out the teaching moments, highlight successes, illuminate issues in order to correct them, tailoring the experience to the user.

So, my take home notions here? One: as iPads continue to become more powerful devices, expect to see even more powerful software solutions becoming available (COOL!), and two: continue to be vigilant of your practice... be mindful of any intervention you utilize so that the interventions purposfully bring you closer to your client/student's goals.

Happy Therapy!

An Elegant Chrome-based Reading and Writing Solution, part 2

Yesterday I wrote about TextHelp's Read&Write for Google (RWG), which is a great extension for your Chrome browser or operating system.  Mostly I focused on it's applicability as a word prediction tool and study tool. Today, I want to share one other significant function of this extension: screen reading.

Rather than recap the tool, I will share the video made by the TextHelp:

RWG will read PDFs, ePubs, and KES files, as well as any text in your Google Word Processor.  The voice quality is very good. To emphasize this, while reading the sentence being read is highlighted in yellow, and the word in blue. This function allows the reader to follow along with the text. The translation tool is interesting and unique. Also, the tool bar is simple and intuitive.

Toolbar

The combination of word prediction, study tool, screen reader, and translator makes this a very powerful tool, again a possible must have for your EC students.

Happy Therapy!

An Elegant Chrome-based Reading and Writing Solution

My school district is struggling with the question of "how do we afford to replace our teacher laptops"? Every organization struggles with this eventually. Best practice suggests replacement every 3-4 years. That, as you can imagine can get to be very expensive. One option we are considering is the variety of Chrome laptops. As a linux-based operating system which utilizes web applications Chrome products are often relatively inexpensive ($200 to $500), fast, and capable.

The primary concern that I have, is making certain that my staff are able to take advantage of the various special software that we've grown accustomed to using, including read aloud, word prediction, and symbol software. More and more companies are addressing this issue, increasing the functionality of Chrome laptops.  Such products do exist, such as word prediction by Appwriter, and Google's Screen Reader, but these are stand alone extensions. 

TextHelp, veteran software designers for our EC students have developed a terrific app or "extension" for Google Chrome called Read&Write for Google (RWG).  RWG works on PCs, Macs, and Chrome-books. RWG is incredibly robust, rolling together word prediction, read aloud, highlighters, vocabulary list building, dictionary (with picture symbols), annotation tools, translation, and navigational tools into one product.

The RWG tab is built right into your Chrome browser, and you can open or close the app with a click. The word prediction is powerful, with good phonetic spelling. In addition, the user can determine how many word choices are offered. 

Symbol Definition

The dictionary is excellent with the ability to provide symbol based definitions, or make a direct Google search. 

There are 4 different highlighters, and the ability to "collect" highlighted colors in groups. From those collected words, the user can build a vocabulary list with definitions provided. 

The read aloud voice is of good quality, not too robotic sounding, and the pace of reading can be customized. 



Premium subscriptions are available for single users, groups of users, or domains.  Not sure? Well, the good folks at Text help offer a 30 day fully functional trial to see if the product is for you.



I would like to see a tailorable dictionary for the word prediction such as beginner vocab, medium vocab, and advance vocab. Also, a small nitpick detail, is that when I see the numbers next to the word on the word prediction choices, my inclination is to pick the number off the keypad to make my choice. This only types the number. So, I'd like the software writers to either remove the number, or give me the ability to "turn it off".  Those are my only two criticisms of RWG. 

Read&Write for Google is a very powerful addition to the Chrome experience.  It is one of the apps that makes the Chrome-book a viable option for the special educator. Speaking with a representative of the company, they are already anticipating specific improvements to come to this first iteration.  If that is the case, this very capable add-on will be a "must have" for your Chrome browser or Chrome computer. 

Happy Therapy!

Hard Words Made Simpler, Let's Read!

Tek-Ninjas, we like free stuff, right? Especially stuff that can help our students. Check out Rewordify.com if you haven't yet.  Rewordify is an online tool that helps teachers facilitate comprehension and vocabulary development for their students. Rewordify does not require software, or licensing fees. All the user needs is a functioning browser.  Rewordify is an astonishing resource that can make a significant difference in a student's reading experience. 

Rewordi-fied passage

This passage is taken from Stephen Crane's novel, The Red Badge of Courage.  The "rewordified" version is in the picture to the right.

"Previously he had never felt obliged to wrestle too seriously with this question.
In his life he had taken certain things
for granted, never challenging his belief
in ultimate success, and bothering little about means and roads. But here he was confronted with a thing of moment. It had suddenly appeared to him that perhaps in a battle he might run. He was forced to admit that as far as war was concerned he knew nothing of himself."

Reading Resources

As indicated in the video above, Rewordify allows for many different settings options to tailor the site to your reading/learning preference. Also of interest is the available reading resources that are just a click away. 


Check it out, and happy therapy!

Word Prediction with Google

Lingapps apps creates apps for iDevices, Android platforms, and Google Docs. AppWriter provides word prediction and text-to-speech.  For your pc or macbook, the app is sold as a subscription for $12 annually, which is a pittance compared to most of the competitors. This review is based on AppWriter on my iMac.

AppWriter offers high quality synthetic voices for twelve different languages.  All menus and buttons are read aloud. The user can determine which reading strategies benefit them, such as read from cursor position or read words as you type them.  AppWriter offers context based word suggestions AppWriter comes with one free language. Additional language are offered through in-app purchases. Additional languages retail for $7.99.

AppWriter Cloud is offered free for a month trial.

I was especially excited about this app as my school district talks about moving to a Google platform.   I don't know if this will happen, and if it does, will that include our special needs population, but, apps like this and ChromeVox make it seem as though we could make it work.

AppWriter worked seamlessly. Word prediction was solid, and the voice quality was terrific. This is an app that I definitly recommend you take a look at.



Happy therapy!

FREE Screen-Reader!

It appears that Google is ramping up their accessibility features. They may prove to be a serious power house for our special needs users. 

Orange Box Is Reading

I have recently stumbled upon ChromeVox, which is their screen reader that installs into the browser Chrome. Google makes this app available for no cost.  First you would need to install Chrome on your computer, which is also free. Chrome works on PC, Apple, and Linux platforms.  ChromeVox can be downloaded here. 

When in Chrome, anywhere there is text (not a picture of text) the user can click on it. The text will be surrounded by an orange highlight box as shown in the picture.  Chrome will begin reading with a reasonable quality voice.  

Another great feature is the online tutorial which Google makes available. It is designed to be learned through experiential education (which is always better than didactic instruction), and very thorough.

Anyone else using ChromeVox out there? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yes, that is shameless self-promotion in the picture above.

Happy therapy!

Word Prediction in your Pocket...

Hey Tek-Ninjas, I think I have a new favorite app! Again. 

Typ-O HD is delivering what software writers said was impossible just a few years ago. Word prediction, including phonetic spelling for iDevices. 

The interface is elegant and very simple to use. Begin typing and word choices appear in a box. Touch the mega-phone icon and the word is read aloud. Touch the word and it inserts at the cursor. 

Touch the "Settings" icon on the top right of the bar, and tailor your app based on your spelling profile, choose a male or female voice, sync to your Dropbox account, or alter the decor.  

If you need more adaptations, go to Settings for your iPad and make additional changes there.  You can alter the pitch of the voice as well as the reading speed. You can also filter profanity, font size, and choose vocabulary size.  

The folks at SecondGuess apps boast for this app they have collected and analyzed roughly 100,000,00 words of text. That is astonishing, and probably one reasons the app works so well. 

When your done writing you can choose from multiple ways to share your document. Options include Apple's new Airdrop, or sending via a Message or email. In addition, you can post straight to Twitter or Facebook. This last function really demonstrates the app writer's understanding of how to resonate with young writers!  I also found that I could simply copy and paste text into other apps if I wanted, such as Comic Life. 

Another feature that takes advantage of the iPad is the ability to change font size by pinching or "un-pinching" the text. Really neat quick way to adjust sizing. 

In addition to offering really powerful word prediction, the app integrates voice dictation that works as well as anything else out there. 

The app sells for $14.99, which for an app may seem step at first glance. But, consider that most other word prediction software with phonetic spelling rarely sells for less than several hundred dollars, and does not run on iDevices, Typ-O HD is a bargain!

One last thought... The folks at SecondGuess offer a $4.99 version of Typ-O also, and the difference is that the less expensive version has a lower quality voice. This may not seem that significant, but the quality voice is really remarkably good, and as you likely know digital voices can be difficult to listen to, especially for our youngsters on the spectrum. 

Happy therapy!

Did You Know Your iDevice is a Reader?!?!

Hey Tek-Ninjas! I made a discovery last night as I was running updates on my iPad. I may be the only one this was new to, but man it blew me away!

Settings Icon

Did you know that your iPad can read any text you highlight out loud? And with a quality voice? You can even choose various accents! I was stunned, and once again, I think that iDevices may be one of the BEST THINGS TO EVER happen to Assistive Technology!

It is remarkably simple to set up.

To begin with, go to your settings icon


Step 2, click on "General"

Step 2

Step 3, Scroll all the way down to "Accessibility" 

Step 3

Step 4, Click on "Speak Selection" 

Step 4

Step 5, Click on "On"
Note that in this section you can also change dialects, and the speaking rate. 

Step 5

Now, open any text, such as iBooks, or the internet and At this point, Step 6 is to highlight the selection and then press "Speak"

Step 6

 If mid-speech you wish to stop the reading, where it said "Speak" it will offer "Pause".  

Pause

 ...And that's all folks. You now have a great screen reader. It requires students to highlight every section to be read, which is nice... keeps them engaged a bit more.

Happy iDevicing!

Apple Kool-Aide. Yes, I drank it.

Yes, yes, I know, and I've acknowledged this before, I drank the Apple Kool-aide. I am a huge fan of their products and no I don't get any money from them to say so.

But seriously, check out this page from Apple. The page explains the dozens of assistive technology accessibility features which come pre-installed on Macs.  Many of which you won’t find in other operating systems at any price. There is also a good explanation of the universal access features for iPhone, iPad, and iPod, Apple is taking these technologies to a new level.Mac computers and iDevices include quality text-to-speech, word completion, spelling and grammar check.  The built in voice over is a powerful screen reader which can help folks with visual impairment navigate their computer. Also built into the computers is Refreshable Braille Display Support, and Screen Magnification. 

There is more detailed on the link above. These functions are very powerful, and having them pre-engineerred into the operating system really helps them run seamlessly.

Growing Children's Skills for Life...

The focus of Shinobijimbo: TechNinja is often about how technology helps children access their curriculum. But the necessary underpinnings for my interventions to work are that the child understands how to participate in their many varied communities. If you work with or have children ages 3 to 8, Acorn Dreams is a terrific website with quick and easy concepts for raising children. Their agenda is to be "a resource center and store for practical tips and research-based materials that help foster children’s positive behavior and lay the foundation for success in school and in life."  Sounds good to me!

I really like the section "In a Nutshell: Quick tips to help Grow Children's Skills".  With header tabs such as "Healthy Habits", "Self-Control", and "Social Skills", the reader can get quick tips to facilitate such skill growth.  As an Occupational Therapist, I can definitely see sharing these Quick Tips with teachers and parents of the students I work with!

The other segment of interest is the Acorn Dreams blog which is fairly new, but already filled with some interesting topics.  The first few blogs consider the use of praise and also weight issues. These articles are succinct, and evidence based. I'm looking forward to reading the next blog articles.

Acorn Dreams is really designed with the typically developing youngster in mind. However, so many of the ideas are generalizable for our students with special needs.  Take a look at it!

Happy parenting!

A Case Study #2

Some of this is a rehash of recent blog articles. But this time it's in action. I hope to report any stumbling blocks we encounter as well as our success.


We have an eighth grade student who we will refer to as Joe.  Joe was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, and Autism. Both are relatively mild, but still hinder his ability to write quickly and effectively.  He is a fairly bright young man, and wants to do well.  Joe is mainstreamed throughout his day, and receives some resource services, and Occupational Therapy services.

As a middle schooler he is asked to record his homework from the board, as well as take notes of the board.  His mother has expressed frustration that he often comes home and neither he nor she can read his notes. They are non-functional.  Despite this, (and to her credit) she wants him to be responsible for gathering this information, and not to rely on others to do it for him. 

The plan is to set Joe up with a blog, which will serve as the repository for all his notes.  He will use an iTouch to take pictures of his homework, and any board notes. Joe will publish the snapshots onto the blog.  Refer to this blog for a quick look at the app Blogger. 

Lets break this down. 

Week 1: Joe's Occupational Therapist and I introduced the iTouch to him. We taught him how to take snapshots with his iTouch camera. We specifically taught him how to stabilize his elbows on his desk to keep the camera from shaking.  We have asked his classroom teachers to put up a "tape boarder" on their white boards to give Joe a target to aim around.  We also taught him how to email the photos to his personal email address. Refer to this blog for more on this process.  In addition, we taught Joe how to use Dragon Dictate on his iTouch and email that to himself, incase there are any short notes he wants to record.

None of you will be surprised to hear that a middle-schooler was quite comfortable using an iTouch!  Joe will use the camera and Dragon Dictate in this capacity for a week. He will photograph his homework and notes only. We've discussed privacy issues, and he understand that he should not photograph peers.  

Week 2: Assuming that Joe has had success using the camera and emailing photos and dictation to himself, we will teach him how to use the app Blogger.  This involves opening Blogger, clicking on the camera icon in the bottom, taking a picture, and than clicking the "Publish" icon.  Similiarly, we will have him copy from Dragon Dictate and paste into Blogger any dictated content, and then click "Publish".  

I have already setup a Blogger blog. I used this blog service for a number of reasons. 1. I'm already familiar with it... it's what I use for Shinobijimbo, 2. The Blogger app is really simple and free! 3.  Other blogs undoubtedly offer this, but I can lock down who the blog is available to. We wanted only Joe, his family, and select teachers to be able to access the blog.  You may be more comfortable with another program.

Ideally, Joe will be able to publish all his homework for each class. Each will have a date. If you look at my blog, on the right you see hyperlinks for articles by date and name. If Joe titles each entry it can be really easy to reference. He won't have to store dozens of photos on an iTouch, or emails on his account. He will have a running record for the year.  Joe will be able to access this information from any internet-connected computer.

Things to consider:

1. I made an email account and a blog account for Joe. It felt important to get permission from the family to do this. I gave them the passwords, and encourage them to take ownership of both accounts. They can change passwords if they choose. 
2. Students need to know that they cannot photograph other students without written permission from those student's parents.  Best to just avoid.
3. I locked down the blog account. It does not appear in google searches, and the only way someone can access it is with an email invite. 
4. Teachers need to be onboard with Joe taking his iTouch out in the middle of class, and snapping photos. With the knowledge that this is an academic tool for him, all our teachers were supportive. 
5. It helps to have someone who will work with the student periodically to make sure they are learning the necessary skills to make the whole program work. 
6. Don't just dump the whole idea on him/her at once. Build the component skills one at a time: learn to take the photos. Learn to email them, learn to use the Blogger App. 
7. Tweak as necessary.

When it all comes together, the student should have a really elegant and easy to use plan in place to get his home-works assignments home.  I'll report back after we have some experience.

Happy Therapy!

Guided Access! Apple finally delivers!

If you follow my blog, you may remember an article I wrote called "Disable the Home-Button on your iDevice!" 

I was soooo pleased with that bit of code writing (which I had nothing to do with writing) and that I was able to bring it to users.

Well, with the new OS update that code is no longer necessary!

From the "Disabling the Home-Button" article, I wrote:

"Okay, so if you've worked with students using an iDevice, you've had the experience of them hitting the home button to "explore" before you were done with the lesson. Oftentimes undoing whatever progress they were making. Very frustrating, and thus creating our Love/Hate relationship with the "home" button!"

Apple's latest update OS 6 now offers a feature called "Guided Access".  Guided Access addresses the issue more elegantly than I could have hoped for.

Just click on Settings. Then click on "General" Down towards the bottom click on "Accessibility. Then, under the "Learning" category click on "Guided Access". You will be given clear directions on how to use this function. Follow the prompts and you will be delighted by how easy you can use the function.

In addition, when setting up the Guided Access, you can designate aspects of the app which will not function, allowing you to control your instructional session precisely.  Refer to the video below to see this in action.

Teachers, therapists, and parents have been asking for the ability to disable the home button for some time. Apple heard us, and went above and beyond what we wanted.

If your still using an iPad-1, alas, this OS update is not for you. But, you can still use the code from aforementioned article.  

Once again, Happy Therapy!

Read a Book!

Time and again, educators encounter students who struggle with the decoding process of reading. The comprehension is there, they just can't get the words. Historically we've turned to books-on-tape, or more current, books-on-CD. This is a great way to help students hear literature, but it doesn't really support the acquisition of reading skills.

Read2Go

Imagine that you download a book (maybe even a NY Times Bestseller) to your computer or iDevice and the device reads the text aloud to you, while highlighting each word as it reads. This happens using Don Johnston's "Read: Outloud" on your computer (PC or Mac), or if you want portability, you use "Read2Go" for your iDevice.

The folks at Bookshare are determined to bring great e-books paired with read-aloud to people with disabilities.  To date, Bookshare offers 161,310 titles in both fiction and nonfiction works.

Bookshare is a free service if your reader has a qualifying disability. Through the service, Don Johnston's Read: Outloud is also free. Read2Go on you iDevice retails for $19.99. Read2Go on the iPad is bigger obviously, but the iTouch is really portable and discrete, especially with headphones.

Eligibility

WHAT'S A QUALIFYING DISABILITY?

If your student has a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to read a printed book, she most likely will qualify for Bookshare services. To confirm that she qualifies, you, or the organization representing you, will be asked to provide your Proof of Disability (certified by a qualified professional) during the registration process.

The table titled "Eligibility" provides guidelines for determining what qualifies as a print disability. It also lists examples of professionals qualified to make this assessment.

Selection of Stephan King

Information regarding Membership Options can be found here.  If you are a teacher, it may make sense to have one person at your school get a membership and "manage" your readers. It's really pretty simple, and an incredible service.

One last note, the folks at Don Johnston have compiled a body of research that supports the efficacy of pairing reading instruction and technology. Check it out here. Nothing like "evidenced-based teaching"!

Happy reading!

Nuance Impresses. Yet again!

Wow! This is a cool app! PaperPort Notes... maybe one of my new favorites!

Early on in the world of iPads, I was a fan of Notarize. It allowed me to capture PDF's and enter text into the form on my iPad. I could even take a picture from the web, or with the introduction of the iPad-2 take a snapshot of a student's test. Using Notarize we could enter text easily.


Unfortunately, the company that made Notarize quit making it. So, while I still have it, I was unable to provide it for students.

Document in Notes

Well, that's no longer an issue! The smart folks at Nuance, makers of Dragon Dictate and Mac-Speech have acquired Notarize, renaming it PaperPort Notes, and making it even better!

Help Box

All the bells and whistles from the original app are present. Now though, they have included a built in web-browser, with the ability to take "web-shots". Even more impressive though is the ability to insert a text box, and instead of typing your answer, dictate it. It works really well!

Free-hand

There is a nicely designed help feature that pops up whenever your doing something for the first time. Or, if you prefer, you can download the user guide, and read it in the app itself.

Web Browser

Notes can be shared in PDF format, and can be password-protected.  There is also the ability to write free-hand, or add drawings as necessary.

Also nice is the price... Free.

Import Capabilities

So once again, kudos to Nuance!


Happy therapy!

Interesting Site for Parents of Children with Special Needs

Interesting site... Some good writing, and I really like this poster from their site.


CLICK HERE FOR SITE