Assistive technology in Education

EDUCATORS AND ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

CLASSROOM SOLUTIONS

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Managing a classroom whilst providing the appropriate amount of support to each individual student is a challenging day-to-day task for any teaching professional. Spotting potential disabilities can often be a task in itself.

The standard methods of testing for disabilities in the classroom are not always the most appropriate and accurate. Standard group tests are not accurate enough to gauge an individual learners needs. Individual attention and testing is far more conclusive. However, this can be a very inefficient way to run a classroom.

WHAT CAN I DO AS AN EDUCATOR?

Deciding what course of action is the most appropriate, and how best to approach it can be difficult. Some teaching professionals that we have consulted have provided these potential solutions:

INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION AND SUPPORT

Providing more one to one support and development for your students can be a challenge, especially if you have a large classroom.

This is often very difficult to maintain over a long period of time. Other methods of support can become necessary. This may include the long term support and development structures that are possible through the application of Assistive Technology.

PROVIDE PARENTS WITH TOOLS AND ADVICE

Providing parents with simple tools and advice to help them spot their child’s potential learning difficulties can often be the best course of action.

This can help parents identifying that their child may have a learning difficulty, and decide if it would be appropriate for their child to have a formal assessment through the school.

ASSESSMENT THROUGH THE SCHOOL

Supporting the needs of a learner through an assessment is sometimes the most appropriate course of action. Trained assessors can accurately identify learning disabilities and advise on the best solution.

PROVIDE THE APPROPRIATE LEARNING TOOLS

School and college budgets are always a source of debate, on how they can be more cost effective and provide a positive return on investment.

Carrying out numerous assessments and potentially having to provide individuals with Assistive Technology can sometimes be a little expensive. However, there are tools that can be utilised by the entire classroom.

Unique packages such as the Learning Access Suite are used as disability support tools for learners who need it, and productivity support tools for other learners.

This is often seen as the most cost effective solution, as the entire classroom can utilise and benefit from the solution primarily designed to support and develop individuals in need of extra support, without slowing down the classroom.

Georgie Phone comes to South Africa

What is a GeorgiePhone?

GeorgiePhone is an easy to use smartphone with a suite of bespoke tools, utilities and applications that enable people with little or no sight to live, communicate and travel independently.

GeorgiePhone transforms the lives of its users by helping them perform day-to-day tasks independently. There are over 30 easy to use tools and utilities built into every GeorgiePhone.

Here are just five examples of how they can help every single day:

• Find your favourite red t-shirt or pair your socks
  (With Colour Recognition)

• Read the mail or a menu in a café
  (With Document Scanner/Reader)

• Open a tin of tomatoes rather than a can of custard!
  (With Object Recognition)

• Keep in touch with your family and friends
  (Using Voice Text and Simple Dialler)

• Travel in to town to meet friends or to go to the shops
  (Using Talking Directions and Bus Finder with Journey Tracker)

Owning GeorgiePhone is life changing, to find out more about full range of features here>>

You are never alone with a GeorgiePhone!

GeorgiePhone provides peace of mind for carers and family members too. Besides making it easy for users to keep in touch via phone or text and to enjoy a more independent life, it also enables them to quickly contact a loved one or carer if they get lost or need assistance.

At the touch of a button GeorgiePhone will send a message that asks for assistance and that also contains a map of their precise location.

Communication

GeorgiePhone has been designed to put an end to social isolation. The easy to use communication tools make keeping in touch with friends and family simple.

Simple Phone Dialer

With GeorgiePhone you can call anyone you want! It’s spoken interface tells you what number you are pressing.

With GeorgiePhone you can call anyone you want! Numbers speak when you touch the screen and you hear what you have chosen. Don’t worry about putting in the wrong number, touch the x or gently shake the phone to remove it. So go ahead and make that call!

Contacts

GeorgiePhone makes it easy to add and save people’s contact numbers in your address book so when you need to call or text them their name and number is already there.

It is also possible for people to update their contact information if it changes from any computer with web access.

Call Logs

Forget who called you or the last number you called? No problem, just go into your call logs, you will find all calls, how many received and placed and oops, how many missed! Fortunately GeorgiePhone makes it easy to call them back too…

Texts

Georgiephone makes text messaging straightforward. When you receive a text, just listen to GeorgiePhone reading it to you or see it in large print.

It’s quick and easy to send text using voice text. Just dictate your text and GeorgiePhone will type it for you.

If you don’t want to speak then you can use QWERTY or ABC keyboard layouts.

Magnifier adn Colour recognition

Don’t struggle with tiny print, use the GeorgiePhone magnifier to read food labels, price tags and other things that are hard to read.

If you can’t see colours, no need to do complicated labelling for your clothes, just use the colour identifier to pair your socks or help you find the right T-shirt.

Questions and Answers

If you have a question then you can ask GeorgiePhone…

For instance if you need to convert pounds to kilos, pounds to dollars, distances between towns and so on, GeorgiePhone will give you the answer.

Lost track of time and date? GeorgiePhone will tell you.

Check out the weather for the next three days, so you can plan your travels.

Camera

Have fun with the camera: point it and take the picture and surprise your friends! It’s easier than you think!

Document Reader

Now you can go into your favourite restaurant or café and using GeorgiePhone’s document reader function you scan the text on the menu and have Georgie read it back to you. It also works with documents such as mail, bills and bank statements.

Books and Podcasts

Don’t miss your favourite books, just download and have them read to you.

Podcasts

With GeorgiePhone you can catch up on the favourite radio programmes you have missed.

Voicenotes

Now you can record a shopping list, when to pick up the dry cleaning, remind yourself of that important call to make. Just record anything that is important to you.

Travel and Navigation

GeorgiePhone gives users their freedom back. The travel and navigation utilities are designed to give users the confidence to go for a walk or to use public transport.

Places & Near Me

Allows you to record and label your own personal places or hazards or whatever you want on your regular travels. When coming up to your recorded places, it will speak the location, also giving you step by step walking directions or a visual map.

Select a category like food and drink, subcategory restaurant, it will then show a list of matching establishments. Simply select one and you will get step by step spoken walking directions or a visual map.

Walking

Choose your own personal public destinations or preset destination and get turn by turn walking directions. So get moving and start walking!

Buses and Taxis

Locate the nearest bus stops, find the time of buses from them, get walking directions and hear the name of each bus stop when on the bus.

Find a local taxi or one at your destination and just call them through a single button press.

Assistance

No worry of getting lost, send a text message to a family member, friend or carer phones’, which displays as a map pinpointing your current location.

Locate Me

A location map is available so any concerned family member, friend or carer can stay in touch with where you currently are.

Help Me

The help me app can be installed on a family member, friend or carer phone and your location will be displayed as a point on a map and they can call you straight back.

For more info for the African market contact info@microlinkpc.co.za

WHAT IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY?

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Assistive Technology is an umbrella term used to describe technology that is used to empower people with varying abilities to live, work and study on an equal playing field.

INCLUSIVITY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Assistive Technology helps students with a wide spectrum of disabilities and/or learning difficulties including dyslexia, visual impairments, hearing impairments, mobility impairments and learning in a second language. With a significant number of learners with a learning difficulty and/or disability, Assistive Technology delivers greater inclusivity in the education and working environments by empowering individuals to achieve their true potential.

The competitive advantage individuals, schools, colleges, universities and businesses can develop and sustain through the application of Assistive Technology can be significant. There is a vast spectrum of technologies that cater to individuals, specific groups and an entire base regardless of learning difficulties and/or disabilities. These technologies are designed for individuals to access and achieve their true potential.

IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE DISABILITIES?

No. Assistive Technology is used by a spectrum of people. Many AT products are applied in ways that can act as a disability tool and/or as a productivity tool. An example of this would be mind mapping software. This software is often recommended for individuals who have learning difficulties such as dyslexia who could find it difficult to study or work effectively without it.  However, it is also widely used by other individuals as a productivity tool.

ClaroRead Overview Video ClaroRead , reading and writing support Africa

www.clarosoftware.co.za more info

ClaroRead V6 Refreshed For Summer 2013 Claro Software South Africa (Dyslexia software)

ClaroRead V6 Refreshed For Summer 2013

ClaroRead has had a summer refresh! This free update has many small but important improvements to make ClaroRead even better:

• More support for phonetic misspellings. Thousands more words that are phonetically correct but the wrong English spelling, like 'rizen', will be corrected to their 'proper' spelling.
• New subject-specific prediction dictionaries. Art History, Accountancy, Mathematics and Philosophy support learning new vocabulary.
• Thousands of new symbols and pictures in Homophones and Spellcheck. The images help with spelling and reviewing.
• A new toolbar icon theme. ClaroRead has an optional Windows 8 icon set to make it comfortable and unobtrusive to use.
• Perfect text and speech coordination in Save To Video. Reviewing saved text on a phone is now easier and clearer.
• ScreenRuler works across many monitors. This increasingly-common setup is now supported in ScreenRuler.
• Improved webpage capturing in ClaroCapture. Webpage addresses in Chrome and Firefox as well as Internet Explorer from 6 to 10 are now captured along with the page for easy reference. Documents, images and audio can be dragged into ClaroCapture to create complete projects with files all in one place.
• Access electronic dictionary definitions. Double-clicking on words in web pages, Word or PDF documents and email reveals easy explanations.

ClaroRead 6 continues to support Microsoft Office 2013, the latest edition of the productivity suite. ClaroRead V6.2 also has updated support for the latest versions of OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

ClaroRead V6.2 is available as a free update through the built-in ClaroUp update system for existing users and can be purchased through all our usual partners.

If you are an assessor and would like a free evaluation copy of ClaroRead for training, review and demonstration please contact us at sales@clarosoftware.com

Claro Software now in South Africa

www.clarosoftware.co.za