1. Free & Portable Enabling
Technologies
EduApps
http://tiny.cc/eduapps274
My Study Bar
http://tiny.cc/studybar
2. Enabling technologies supporting all learners
How They Learn What They Do How To Help
Alternative Interfaces
Reflect on knowledge or skill
Interact with Reading Tools
resources
Introduce new knowledge or skill
Communication Tools
Record
Exemplify new knowledge or skill information
Visualisation Tools
Test understanding of new Plan responses
knowledge or skill by completing Recording Tools
specific assignments
Write
responses Planning Tools
Reflect on knowledge or skill
Writing Tools
Process, tasks and tools
3. What’s on the USB AccessApps?
Open Office
Planning and Organising Tools
Reading and Writing Support
Visual Support
Accessible Browsers
Keyboard and Mouse Alternatives
Multimedia Resources
Presentation Tools
Learning Games
4. Picture Holder
AccessApps storage
facility. Use these folders
to store the
work you produce with
AccessApps.
AccessApps applications.
whenever you click on a
folder item or a menu item,
the AccessApps start
menu will move to the
background.
5. Open Office - What do Students think
“With my budget computer at home, I found it difficult to do college work because
I did not have MS Word at home so I had to use word pad which I didn't like to
use because it did not offer me the right tools to complete work”
Guy a student at Coatbridge College
10. Dspeech
(video demo)
What do students think?Student Perspectives
Dspeech will hook
into the speech engine
on any windows PC
you use and will
either read out text
or convert to MP3
11. NVDA
NVDA is a screen reading program similar to JAWS,
Windows Eyes etc. It can help individuals who are
blind or visually impaired.
Provides feedback via synthetic speech and Braille, it
enables blind or vision impaired people to access
computers running Windows for no more cost than a
sighted person. Major features include support for
over 20 languages and the ability to run entirely from
a USB drive with no installation.
Watch a demonstration of NVDA with Pac Mate Braille Reader
12. NVDA
• How to use NVDA and Firefox to test your web
pages for accessibility http://tinyurl.com/c2wgw7
• Easy Accessibility Testing with the NVDA Screen
Reader –Guidance by Yahoo guidance by Yahoo
along with a step by step of how to use NVDA at
http://tinyurl.com/yjxbho2
13. Amis DAISY Reader
(Digital Accessible Information Systems or Digital
Digital Talking Book Software Helping Students
- Case Study
14. Click N Type and Mouse Tools may assist
for users with mobility issues or RSI
problems
15. Keyboard and Mouse Alternatives
Dasher (Case Study)
Click on the image below to see a demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d6yIquOKQ0
Dasher is a information-efficient
communication system driven
by continuous pointing gestures.
Instead of using a keyboard,
the user writes by continuous
steering, zooming into a
landscape painted with letters.
Dasher can be driven by a
regular mouse, by touch-screen,
or by gaze-direction.
16. Multimedia and Presentation Tools
Audacity records and editing audio
What do educators think of this:
• Use this all the time for audio, no other tool is as good
• A great free (open source) tool for creating and editing audio files
• A well focused tool that academics and student can pick up easily. It's very
portable
• and this is important for digital audio where many users want to work in private
spaces
• Free and easy to create classroom podcasts and mp3s where the students get to
hear edit and publish themselves. Promotes ownership – extremely motivating.
• ‘back up ‘ for lecture, for listening in ‘dead time’
17. Multimedia and Presentation Tools
• Cam Studio – record all screen and audio
activity to create avi/flash multimedia learning
resources
• VLC Media Player – cross platform media player
• AudioBook Cutter – splits mp3 sound files to
make them easier to listen to in smaller chunks
18. Unfreez to Create Mobile Prompts
Work on most mobile devices
No stigma attached to mobile learning
most people have a mobile device
discreet
current
Portable
• Two pieces of software needed Matt Harrison of Portland College
Microsoft PowerPoint (everyday resource) and
Alistair McNaught of TechDis
to create a series of gifs
unFREEz (on accessapps)
to create the animated gif
http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/
19. Applications
• Timetables
• Travel training
– Landmarks along the way
• Health and Safety
– Manual handling sequences, COSHH etc.
• Sequences
– Daily routines, specific task
And, don’t forget….
• Fun!
20. Download from EduApps Page
From
www.eduapps.org
Once downloaded here is
how you open this
resource
21. What can I do with EduApps?
• Automatic launch - I can launch applications
to start as soon as I put my pen drive in my
machine.
• Multiple launch - I can launch multiple
applications at the same time.
What if I don’t want to use a pen drive?
• I could run it from a word document.
• I could run it from a PowerPoint.
22. Where can I watch other videos
to find out more about AccessApps
and how staff and students use the
applications?
• RSC SW Scotland and Coatbridge College Students
• RSC West Midlands and local FE staff
• RSC Wales & students attending Coleg Gwent
• RSC NE Scotland and Borders, NewBattle Abbey
and Carnegie Colleges
23. Video :
http://tinyurl.com/yb6wfdl
More Info:
http://tinyurl.com/ybk62tu
A floating toolbar with a comprehensive set of
open source and freeware applications to support learners with literacy
difficulties.
The toolbar includes a range of tools to support inclusion such as mind
mapping, screen masking, word prediction (with multiple lexicons), a
text-to-speech dictionary (with word capture/translation), a text-to-
speech, save as MP3 and voice recognition.
24. Keep up to date with
My Study Bar
at
www.scottish-rscs.org.uk/access
26. Resources to Support Inclusion
If not me – who?
If not now – when?
Download this presentation at:
http://tiny.cc/free224
Editor's Notes
Free Portable Enabling Technologies Access Tools http://tiny.cc/accesstools EduApps http://tiny.cc/eduapps274 My Study Bar http://tiny.cc/studybar
20/11/12 There are a number of ways of categorising assistive technologies but the one that has most direct relevance for teaching and learning is that developed by TechDis which maps the process of learning to the tasks needed to engage in the process to the tools needed to complete the tasks. When a student engages in learning a new subject they generally go through a learning process in which they first reflect on their current knowledge or skill, they then introduce and exemplify their new knowledge and skills. Students then test their new understanding by completing specific assignments. In order to go through this process of learning a student would have to interact with resources, record information and plan and write responses. Using this approach to learning we are able to identify seven genres of ‘Assistive Technology’ which may be used by the learner at any stage of the process. These genres include assistive technology ranging from traditional ‘Assistive Technologies’ such as alternative interfaces (tracker balls, adapted keyboards, screen readers) to less widely recognised (but much more widespread) assistive technologies such as visualisation tools – videos and animations. The full list includes reading tools, alternative interfaces, visualisation tools, recording tools, planning tools, communication tools and writing tools. The benefits of this approach are threefold: The focus is on learning not technology, disability or medical condition. A single category (for example read assist tools) may contain a wide range of alternative solutions ranging from high tech to low tech and even pedagogical solutions. A single technology may provide a solution for more than one accessibility need – for example the use of styles and outline in Microsoft Word can provide both a reading tool and a planning tool. Note the distinction between the traditional screen reader which we regard as an alternative interface, and text to speech which we regard as a reading aid. The former makes information on the monitor (including navigation, structural layout and text etc) accessible to a blind user. The latter makes the meaning of text more accessible to a print disabled user who can see the text but not make sense of the meaning. Note also that the same tool (for example alternative interfaces) may be used at more than one stage of the learning cycle.
Open office accessibility http://ui.openoffice.org/accessibility/
Who would benefit? ssOverlay can help individuals who find it easier to read information on a computer with a colour overlay or screen masking. ssOverlay can also help to reduce screen glare on older monitors
Getting started Install NVDA Make yourself comfortable by adjusting rate, pitch, volume, and even the language of the speech by: Control+Insert+Left/Right arrows -- navigate between available parameters (see below). Control+Insert+Up/Down arrows -- change a particular parameter, e.g. make speech faster or slower. You can save your preferences for later by: Pressing Insert+N to open NVDA menu. Choosing "Save Preference" from the menu. Please note: If you are installing the NVDA screen reader inside a virtual machine or your keyboard does not have an INSERT key, consider using software such as "Sharp Keys" to reassign the keys on your keyboard. Start testing web pages I've made a list of most essential NVDA shortcut keys below, which should give you a helpful reference guide. If you know your alphabet, you will have no trouble remembering them! Very important, do not use a mouse and turn off your computer monitor . With a little patience you'll be able to get the hang of it. Follow along with the example below to get started. Important to remember: NVDA uses a view, called "browse mode" to present web pages to the user, where: Screen reader intercepts arrow and some other keys (see below) to offer additional navigation operations for the user. NVDA "browse" cursor tries its best but may not always follow onscreen cursor, so do not trust your eyes -- trust your ears! NVDA uses "focus mode" when interacting with edit fields and ARIA-enabled DHTML widgets. NVDA will try to switch between "browse" and "focus" modes automatically when the user navigates with a tab key. The change between modes will be indicated by two distinct sounds. If NVDA does not change the modes automatically, press SPACE bar on an edit control or an ARIA-enabled widget to force the switch.
Click n Type – Guide to Its potential use with learners at: http://www.bltt/org/software/clickntype/index.htm MouseTool clicks the mouse for you. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Tendonitis. Who'd have thought that those tiny little mouse buttons could ruin your life? MouseTool: Clicks and drags the mouse Sends Left-, Double-, or Right clicks Knows which of these to send into which window Can be controlled by hotkeys you define Versions are available for Windows, and Linux. And, soon, for Mac OS X!
Who would benefit? Audacity can help everyone. Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. This could be useful to learners who record lectures and need to edit them at a later stage. For example, if you record lectures with a digital recorder you can download the recording into Audacity, and select and edit the important parts you want to keep. Audacity is a great tool for saving audio to multiple formats, including MP3 for creating Podcasts Comments from those who selected Audacity as one of their Top 10 Tools in 2008 * "Does everything you need to record and edit audio. Easy to use, another winner!" Karl Goddard * "who needs anything more complex or pricey?" Mary Cooch * "a wonderful user-friendly resource bringing podcasting to the people" Bill Miller * "open source Audio editing in an easy way. Gorgeous tool for all "sound experiments" Andreas Busing * "Audacity is still the best application I have found for simple recording and editing of audio. It just works." Jennifer Maddrell * "Audio is a versatile option for an elearning. With the free Audacity tool it is easy to produce, edit and publish audio as an MP3 or other file formats." Steve Rayson * "Audacity gave the PC community similar capabilities to Mac's GarageBand at no cost. I like having the ability to review and edit audio before I package it for podcasting" Britt Wattwood * "Audacity is easy to use for recording and editing sound files. It is a handy program for creating podcasts, especially for beginners in this area. " Patricia Donaghy * "Free and easy to create classroom podcasts and mp3s where the students get to hear, edit and publish themselves. Promotes ownership – extremely motivating." Kora Stoll * "In the past I used Sonic Foundry’s Sound Forge, but Audacity does everything I need. The large library of plugins add all the functionality I think I might ever need. It’s free and open source too" Charles Jennings * "I found it is very useful for sound editing. It supports variety of features for audio editing at no cost." N B Venkateswarlu Phil Bradley * "Why spend limited funds on a commercial tool that won't do all this free one does?" Ed Lamaster *." Pattie Mascaro * "Although I don’t use it very often, any time it comes to manipulating sound it quickly does the job." Kevin Jones * "Extremely useful and easy-to-use tool for editing audio. I have found it invaluable in the various multimedia projects I've worked on in college this year. I use the noise removal filter for reducing static on voiceovers that were recorded directly using the built in mic on my laptop - handy if you dont have a fancy audio recording booth. Of course using this method, you won't have superb audio quality, but for less formal requirements such as creating audio for college projects, it's ideal." Karen OBrien * "Amazingly powerful for such a small program. I use it almost everyday, even though I have access to much more powerful audio editing software packages." Jason Edwards * "a well focussed tool that academics and student can pick up easily. It's very portable and this is important for digital audio where many users want to work in private spaces" Andrew Middleton * "This easy to use FREE audio editing software is easy to use for podcasting and editing audio files. You will need the LAME Mp3 encoder if you want to export your audio files at MP3 instead of WAV - but it’s easy to download and install" Colette Cassinelli * "I use this tool whenever there is a requirement for audio recording or editing. It is such a useful tool and it's free!" Sathish Narayanan * "I recommend this open source tools to subject matter experts who wish to create podcasts and / or software demos when using a Rapid E-Learning approach. It's easy to install and use and enables SMEs and training professionals to create high quality audio quickly and efficiently." Michael Hanley * "I’m starting to do much more with audio, and Audacity really is a pretty incredible piece of free software." Jeff Cobb * " Free and powerful audio recorder and editor. Works with MP3's though you will need to download a copy the LAME MP3 encoder which will allow Audacity to import and export MP3 files." Rupert Russell
Open cam studio, define recordable area, move cursor add commentary Volunteer required, save avi file, ope file in windows movie maker, add subtitles et voila!
Mobile Prompts Inspired by Alistair McNaught Animated gif Work on most mobile devices No stigma attached to mobile learning most people have a mobile device discreet current portable 20/11/12
Applications Timetables Travel training Landmarks along the way Health and Safety Manual handling sequences, COSHH etc. Sequences Daily routines, specific tasks And, don’t forget…. Fun! 20/11/12