New K3000 V12 to Get Canadian Debut at BtL 2010

The new K3000 V12 will get its Canadian debut at Bridges to Learning 2010 just over a week after its public announcement.  This will be a rare pre-release glimpse at one of the most popular integrated software literacy solutions in North America.  Recognizing how Kurzweil 3000 has been embraced by Canadian schools, BtL will be the first and few public showings of a pre-release V12 in the world.

Here’s a quick description from Cambium, the manufacturer of Kurzweil 3000 upon the news of the upcoming V12 release.

Building on our long tradition of developing educational technology solutions that address the critical, day-to-day

needs of the nation’s struggling students, Kurzweil Educational Systems is pleased to announce the release of

Kurzweil 3000 Version 12 for Windows.

Kurzweil 3000 Version 12 for Windows includes the following new features and enhancements:

• Expanded eContent support through Internet Explorer®
• Additional digital file support for PDF, Daisy 2, Daisy 3, and NIMAS
• A Picture Dictionary containing 1,300+ images supporting English and Spanish
• Human Pronunciations for over 64,000 words from American Heritage® Dictionary
• Ability to read MathML through a partnership with Design Science, Inc.
• Comprehensive set of brainstorm and outline writing templates
• Translations on-the-fly with Google® Translate

Writing support has also been expanded with an enhanced writing toolbar that integrates with most process writing models and smoothly transitions learners from pre-writing through their final draft.

Sessions where you can see the new K3000 V12:

Best Practices: Universally Accessible Reading, Writing, and Study Support with Kurzweil 3000

Hands-On Lab

Time: Saturday, May 15^th, 10:00 am

And

A quick preview at the pre-conference session, Using Rti To Synergize Technology And Print Interventions: The Key For Widespread Student Success

Presenter: Dave Bradburn

Time: Thursday May 13^th, 1:00pm – 4pm

New K3000 V12 to Get Canadian Debut at BtL 2010

The new K3000 V12 will get its Canadian debut at Bridges to Learning 2010 just over a week after its public announcement.  This will be a rare pre-release glimpse at one of the most popular integrated software literacy solutions in North America.  Recognizing how Kurzweil 3000 has been embraced by Canadian schools, BtL will be the first and few public showings of a pre-release V12 in the world.

Here’s a quick description from Cambium, the manufacturer of Kurzweil 3000 upon the news of the upcoming V12 release.

Building on our long tradition of developing educational technology solutions that address the critical, day-to-day

needs of the nation’s struggling students, Kurzweil Educational Systems is pleased to announce the release of

Kurzweil 3000 Version 12 for Windows.

Kurzweil 3000 Version 12 for Windows includes the following new features and enhancements:

• Expanded eContent support through Internet Explorer®
• Additional digital file support for PDF, Daisy 2, Daisy 3, and NIMAS
• A Picture Dictionary containing 1,300+ images supporting English and Spanish
• Human Pronunciations for over 64,000 words from American Heritage® Dictionary
• Ability to read MathML through a partnership with Design Science, Inc.
• Comprehensive set of brainstorm and outline writing templates
• Translations on-the-fly with Google® Translate

Writing support has also been expanded with an enhanced writing toolbar that integrates with most process writing models and smoothly transitions learners from pre-writing through their final draft.

Sessions where you can see the new K3000 V12:

Best Practices: Universally Accessible Reading, Writing, and Study Support with Kurzweil 3000

Hands-On Lab

Time: Saturday, May 15^th, 10:00 am

And

A quick preview at the pre-conference session, Using Rti To Synergize Technology And Print Interventions: The Key For Widespread Student Success

Presenter: Dave Bradburn

Time: Thursday May 13^th, 1:00pm – 4pm

Endeavor Desktop Environment – Rethinking Computer and Internet Access

Presenter: Joan Cunningham

Time: Friday, May 14^th, 11am – 12pm

What do you do to adjust your classroom environment to accommodate student diversity? Do you have systematic approach to ensure every student is engaged and learning, regardless of interest, learning style, disability? Do you have the tools you need for continuous assessment and diagnostic feedback? What role can assistive technology play in the overall education e-landscape? Enter Endeavor Desktop Environment – a revolutionary approach to differentiated instruction for every student!

This is the solution for managing response to intervention – technology finally becomes the “Go To tool” because every student desktop is personalized, providing each student with e-content, media, web access and any appropriate supports (i.e., instructional technology and/or assistive technology). Direct and immediate feedback can be directed to students, or to teachers and administrators to confirm or deny curricular or strategy effectiveness. Students who need re-teaching, additional experience or instruction at any point are identified in real-time. Instruction is targeted to the exact skill on which the student is working.

This session will provide the audience with an overview of the possibilities for managing and distributing content across the school environment, fostering professional learning communities, parental involvement, administrative oversight, and most importantly, delivering customized, engaging content to students! Endeavor Desktop Environment changes the e-landscape in education!

Presentation Spotlight — NEW! Powerful, FREE Online Math Tool to Teach Fractions!

Come See the new FREE Fraction Tools by Conceptua Math

Presentation Title: NEW! Powerful, FREE online math tool to teach fractions!

Presenter: Lauri Susi

When: May 14^th, 11am – 12pm

Need a flexible tool to teach fractions concepts on an interactive whiteboard or in a lab? Need built-in accessibility, too? This groundbreaking online tool has the unparalleled ability to link fractions concept models to procedures and back again, helping to build mastery in this “gateway” topic of math. This web-based tool can be used anytime, anywhere to teach kids or provide professional development. Includes the support of an online community of teachers and math experts.  Brought to you by former leaders of IntelliTools®.

Session Outline

• · The Conceptua Math Team and Vision
• · Why fractions are difficulty for students with disabilities
• · Research on teaching fractions to students with disabilities
• · Methods for teaching fractions to students with disabilities
• · Overview of the tools, teacher supports and accessibility
• · Step by step look at tools for developing conceptual understanding of fractions
  • Linking the research to implementation of the tools
• · Step by step look at tools for developing skills in completing operations
  • Linking the research to implementation of the tools
• · Step by step look at tools for developing critical thinking

Presentation Title: Try out a powerful FREE online math tool to teach fractions! (Hands-On Lab)

2:30pm- 4:30pm

Come and learn how to use the new FREE Fraction Tools by Conceptua Math

Lab Presentation Title: Try out a powerful, FREE online math tool to teach fractions!
Join us for a fun, interactive lab where you’ll try out a new, free online tool for teaching fractions concepts. You’ll learn how to use concept models to help students identify fractions, find equivalencies and solve problems in adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.   Ideal  for use on an interactive whiteboard, or from anywhere with an internet connection. The tool includes built-in accessibility features for students with special needs, as well as powerful features for teacher training. Brought to you by former leaders of IntelliTools®.

Sequence of Hands-on Activities:

• · Exploration of Teacher Support Pages:
  • Standards, Video Overview, Samples, IEP goals
• · Overview of Tool Features
  • Accessibility
• · Tools for developing conceptual understanding of fractions
• · Tools for learning operations
• · Working with the Number line Estimation and benchmarks
• · Unitizing with Pattern Blocks
• · Unitizing on a Grid
• · Future development
• · The Conceptua Math Community and AT Forum

Presentation Spotlight — Literacy with Clicker and Beyond

Presenter: Neil Andrew

Time: Saturday, May 15^th, 8:30

In this session, participants will discover meaningful ways to develop reading and writing skills using Clicker, Clicker Paint, and WriteOnline. The presentation will demonstrate how these innovative technologies incorporate Universal Design for Learning principles to target crucial literacy skills and address specific learning objectives across all areas of the curriculum.

Participants will also explore how Clicker, Clicker Paint, and WriteOnline’s highly flexible features provide personalized learning environments in order to engage and support students of all abilities, including learners using switch access.

Crick Software follows the principles of Universal Design for Learning by including learners with special needs from the beginning of the design process. The philosophy of inclusion results in software that helps learners of all abilities to achieve their full literacy potential. This presentation will demonstrate how Clicker,  fully support struggling readers and writers, as well as learners with special educational needs.

Clicker’s http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/clicker/ multimedia features enable teachers and students to create and use interactive teaching and learning materials such as sentence building activities, electronic books, and ‘hot spot’ visual screen displays. These resources can include text, images, sounds, and video, and the use of pop-up grids allows all users to add their own recorded sounds and narrations. Students can build sentences through word sequencing, or use more complex writing frames to scaffold extended writing. At all levels, students are supported by realistic speech, enabling them not only to hear what they have written, but also to listen to words before they select them.

The integration of Clicker Paint provides an additional visually-rich environment for students to develop their writing skills and to express creativity. Clicker Paint http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/clickerpaint/ personalizes the learning experience and engages students fully in writing tasks.

WriteOnline http://www.cricksoft.com/us/products/WriteOnline/default.htm is an online word processor that boasts a range of support features that help struggling readers and writers to achieve rapid and permanent gains in their levels of reading, writing, and comprehension. High quality digital speech enables students to listen to the text on the page, encouraging them to review their own writing. Integrated phonetic word prediction helps students find the right words quickly, allowing them to focus on the writing task rather than which letter comes next. Students can extend their vocabulary through topic-specific Wordbars that are easily created and customized by teachers. Writing frames help students improve the structure and scope of their writing.

Teachers and students also benefit from WriteOnline’s analysis tools, such as Spelling Corrections. By viewing all the words where the spell checker was used, and seeing the student’s original spellings, it is easy to identify possible patterns, informing teaching in order to address specific spelling issues. The analysis tools also provide a complete history of the document and identify pasted text, allowing teachers to gain important insights into their student’s writing process. All of WriteOnline’s features can be customized to match the needs of the wide range of students in the classroom. The settings are saved with the student’s profile and are automatically set each time the student logs in, ensuring personalized learning for all students anywhere, anytime.

Clicker, Clicker Paint, and WriteOnline are all supported by hundreds of free resources from LearningGrids World (www.LearningGrids.com). These ready-made activities, along with your own resources, develop strong literacy skills across the curriculum and support the diverse learners in today’s inclusive classroom.

Bridges to Learning 2010 Live Streaming

Live Streaming of Bridges To Learning Can’t come to the BtL 2010? You can still learn with us. Some of our sessions will be live streamed, including Dr. Kukic’s keynote. This effort is generously supported by a grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. To see which sessions and when will be streamed visit our streaming page for more information

edit: Link now works!

Research Council of Canada Grant to Bring Web Streaming to BTL

Bridges to Learning is excited to announce that we will be providing live streaming of some of the presentation on current research.  This effort is generously supported by a grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.  This grant supports the broad dissemination of information from the Bridges to Learning Conference and to promote networking amongst university and college researchers and those who support the use of Assistive Technology.  Dissemination will be facilitated through live streaming of selected conference sessions, videotaping selected sessions for later posting on the web, French translation of sessions and other broader communication efforts.

Watch this space for more details on live streaming of Bridges’ to Learning sessions or send an email to conference@bridges-canada.com.

Additional Information on BTL2010 Presenters

Stevan Kukic

To learn more about RTI check out these websites

RTI Action Network http://www.rtinetwork.org/Learn

National on Response to Intervention http://www.rti4success.org/Article about RTI and Special Education by Stevan Kukic “Let’s get serious in special education: RtI is here to stay…Deal with it!” http://www.rtinetwork.org/Connect/Blog/lets-get-serious-in-special-education-RtI-is-here-to-stay-Deal-with-it

Karen Erikson

Check out Route 66 Literacy website.  Led by Karen Erikson, this is a web-based service that provides literacy instruction for persons (adolescents and adults) with developmental disabilities and/or those who are learning to speak, read, and write English.

Online bio with a list of some of Karen’s publications can be found here http://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/sphs/faculty/karen-erickson

David Koppenhaver

David’s blog http://reedabooke.wordpress.com/

http://assistivetech.ning.com/profile/DavidKoppenhaver

Children with Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four-Block Way (Karen Erickson & David Koppenhaver) has been published by Carson-Dellosa, 2007 (ISBN 978-1-60022-125-5).

Waves of Words:  Augmented Communicators Read and Write (Erickson, Koppenhaver, & Yoder, eds.), an international collection of case studies, is available from Augmentative Communication, Inc., 1 Surf Way, #237, Monterey, CA 93940 (Tel. 831-649-3050, Fax 831/646-5428) for $US22 + $US3  shipping.

Kelly Fonner

http://www.kellyfonner.com/

Some publications:

Fonner, K., & Marfilius S. (2004). Sorting through scan and read systems for persons with learning disabilities, Closing The Gap (23) 4, 23-24.
Sloand Armstrong, J. & Fonner Jones, K. (1995). Using family dreams to develop meaningful goals involving assistive technology, Closing The Gap (14) 2, 1 & 6.
Sloand Armstrong, J. & Fonner Jones, K. (1994). Assistive technology and young children: Getting off to a great start, Closing the Gap (13) 3, 1 & 31-32.

Karen and David at SET-BC 2002:

This presentation was is from the last palindrome year till 2112.  Back in 2002, Karen and David presented together to Special Education Technology British Columbia (SET-BC) on the 4 Block Literacy Model.  For a summary and a few pictures check out:  http://www.setbc.org/news/events/archive/4block.html

Kelly Fonner at Set BC 2005

Travel back to the year that Youtube was launched.  Find Kelly’s presentation on Building Skills of the Switch User at http://www.setbc.org/setbc/conf/docs/switches.html

Tar Heel Reader

The Tar Heel Reader is a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics.

As of Jan. 28, 2010, The Tar Heel Reader, an on-line resource for reading and writing beginning level digital books for older adolescents, has over 7,700 books in its library and over 885,000 book readings since it went online in May 2008.