Technology Tuesday - iPad to iPad

Today was the first day for students and Princess and I are a little wiped.  However we promised ourselves we would be better about posting. (Although why we think it makes more sense now when we are working than the summer when we were not, I have no idea....it is a teacher thing.   We do better with routine.)

Today's technology is one our teachers wrestle with.  Our school district is not one to one yet and our students do not even have emails.  We do have iPads in some classes thanks to the special Ed innovation grant the Princess and I helped write two years ago.  Since it was my brainchild, I have had the task of coordinating them and teaching teachers.  Since last year was the first time I have had a tablet in my hands, the learning curve has been huge.  One of the biggest things is getting things off the iPad so other this could be done with it.  I usually had that cry for help when students and teachers were knee deep in a project.  Other than emailing it I was at a loss.  Our students are too young for Dropbox and our teachers were struggling.  Princess and I have experimented with a couple of apps, but these two are our favorites.

Instashare is great to share photos.  Although you can share files, we liked it best for photos.  Basically it finds other wireless devices within proximity.  Once detected, you can just drag and drop your photos to that device.  So simple.  Last year our fifth graders all took pictures for their graduation slide show and then needed to get them all onto one iPad so the editing group could make a movie.   This would have been so easy!

 

We also used Cloudon.  I created a document in Pages and then used the Share and Print button to open in another app and get it to Princess who changed it and sent it back to me.  Simple, simple, simple.  It accesses my Google drive account which allows access from a PC which is a plus as our school is still PC based.

I am sure there are a thousand other ways to do this, but it has to be simple or our teachers eyes glaze over.  If you are looking for a simple sharing solution, here are two great ones.

Technology Tuesday - Guided Access

Let me start this post out by saying I am amazed how kids take to the iPad like a duck takes to water. My 24 month old granddaughter can turn the thing on, open up a folder and select the app she wants.  She even uses Siri in the YouTube app to find the video she wants.  By the time she gets to kindergarten, she is going to be flying through the technology that the schools have to offer.  We may have been in a technological revolution for a while, but it is this coming generation that is going to challenge us to stay one step ahead.

With the good comes the bad and that wonderful pioneering spirit also is a pain when little fingers decide to switch apps mid stream or play around with settings.  For me, it often happens when I am working with some of my kiddos on their communication apps.  One little guy is continually switching screens, moving things and generally playing around.  We were constantly moving the iPad out of his reach which doesn't exactly lend itself to spontaneous communication.  Now when we are directly working on an app or specific communication topic, we put the iPad into Guided Access.

Guided Access locks the iPad into one app.  It also allows you to disable certain buttons or features within that app.

Here is how you use Guided Access.  First click on your settings and click on General on the left hand side.  Scroll down until you see Accessibility. Click on Accessibility and scroll down to Guided Access.

Click on Guided Access and on the next screen turn it to on.

Click on Set PassCode and select a pass code to turn guided access on and off.

Now you are ready to use Guided Access.  Open up the app you want to use and triple click the home button.  This bring up the Guided Access controls.

Use your finger to draw a circle around any buttons or features you want disabled.

When you are done, click on start and the app will be back in functioning mode.  You can see which controls are inactive.

To take it out off Guided Access, triple click on the home button and the PassCode screen will appear.

Type in your PassCode and the Guided Access control screen will appear.

Click on End in the upper left hand corner and your iPad is fully functional again.  Guided Access is a great feature for those students who tend roam all over the iPad and not stay on task.  You can put it in Guided Access before working one to one with a student, before placing an iPad in a center or really anytime the desire to explore is greater than the desire to stay on task.

Dictation - Part Two (Dictation in the Speech Room)

If you do not know how to use the dictation feature on the iPad, check out part one of this post.  If I could I would shout it from the rooftops.  Every special ed teacher should know and use constantly all the accessibility features, our technological age offers us.

When we got the iPads through the special education grant, I made sure Lady A and I both had an iPad for the speech room (after all what good is writing a grant if you don't get to enjoy the fruits of your labor!)  Like most teachers we first turned to apps specifically designed for speech.  However, we "evolved" as the Princess would say.  Princess believes true technology integration comes when you start using apps and devices in ways that are not part of their original intent.  Since most of my teachers were overwhelmed at the sight of an iPad, I often was the one who taught my speech kiddos how to use the dictation feature.  What Lady A and I learned is that speech errors and dictation result in unusual text.  The dictation feature when faced with an incorrect phoneme tries to process it intelligently.  Therefore it doesn't just write the incorrect phoneme, but often attempts to guess at what the word was supposed to be.  The dictation feature especially has a lot of trouble with r.

The sentences above are supposed to say:  I pulled my red wagon. My alarm rings every morning. Babies suck their thumbs. I like lions.  I dictated with typical speech errors.

Lady A and I have realized that our students at best think we are crazy when we tell them they did not say their sound correctly..at worst they think we are big old nags.  What I have found is the speech game tends to make passive learners out of students.  My constant immediate feedback is a given so they don't even think about their speech until I remind them.  We have started handing them the iPad and tell them to dictate so the iPad gets it right.  They love it. (who doesn't love playing with a piece of technology.)  Now they will try all sorts of things to get the sound right.  Their willingness to say a word over and over again increases tenfold.  Suddenly we are coaches instead of teachers.

We also use dictation with our language kiddos.  We have them dictate and then compare their responses to the correct ones.  We have also had our students videotape themselves and score their productions using a rubric. 

Self monitoring meets the technological age.  I love it!

Technology Tuesday: Dictation on an iPad

Today's technology is not particularly sexy.  However it is a technology I see teachers overlook constantly.  I was sitting in a conference for a student with autism at a school that had gone 1:1 and every student had a 3rd generation iPad.  They were talking about how he cries and melts down when he has to write. (which probably should be a part of the diagnostic criteria for autism because it is a rare ASD student who doesn't)  I asked if they had tried dictation.  They said "Oh you mean use Dragon Dictate?"  In my mind I shouted, "Are you kidding me?  You gave this child an iPad seven months ago and haven't touched any of the accessibility features."  What I said, "Let me show something."  I have learned a little tact over the years.

The Apple folks started including dictation with the 3rd generation of iPads.  It is simple to use.  Start out in the settings to make sure you have it turned on. 

1. Tap Settings on your Home screen.
2. Tap General, then scroll down and tap Keyboard.
3. Tap the Dictation switch to turn it on.

Also, make sure you are connected to the internet.  Open up any app that allows you to write (Evernote, Notability, Notes, Pages)  We use Pages because we are not a Mac school and Pages allows documents to be exported and emailed as Word Documents.   When the keyboard appears, you will see a microphone next to the space bar.

Tap the microphone and start talking.  Tap the microphone again or the space bar to stop recording.  The iPad will start working and you will see purple and pink circles while it processes.  It will then type out what it heard.  You can dictate spaces and punctuation as well, but we find our elementary students are not that good with punctuation with a pencil in had let along telling a machine where it goes.  They go back in and add the punctuation.  Many times they export as a Word document and finish it in the computer lab along side their peers.

Dictation takes work and students are not often successful the first time.  They have to learn to use a slightly slower rate (but not too slow.)  They have to talk clearly, but not exaggerated.  It generally takes a couple of times before they figure it out.  Speech errors also tend to confuse the iPad especially r errors (see Part 2 of this topic to see how Lady A and I used that to our advantage.)

This is why dictation is a must for students with writing deficits. (Bear with me here...it is a length story.) This year I had a fifth grader with autism who has never wanted to write.  In his wonderful tactless way, he would let you know exactly how he felt about writing. Throughout preschool and elementary many a brave soul tried to get over this hurdle with him. (Princess had him when she student taught...but alas she was unsuccessful as well.)  This year he had a wonderful fifth grade teacher.  Princess and I and another teacher wrote an innovation grant and got iPads for our special ed folks.  This fifth grade teacher let no grass grow under her little feet.  She had those iPads smokin' in her classroom.  She taught this student how to dictate which he loved. (although he complained loudly about how he sounded.)  Once she hooked him, she gently let him know that he couldn't always dictate.  He had to write sometimes too.  One day he came to get the iPad and she reminded him he had to do some writing first.  He looked at her and said in a very exasperated voice (which tends to be how he always talks)  "Well I already did that...jeez."  Being the experienced teacher she is, she asked him to show her.  He said, "I did it at home last night."  Then he pulled out ten pages he had written.  She about fell over.  It was a turning point for him.  He started writing and didn't stop.  Sometimes he used the iPad and sometimes he didn't.  He even wrote  puppet shows and performed them for the class.  His classmates were floored they could not believe he had that much inside him.  Lady A and I were on they floor laughing because the theme of the puppet shows was being rude.   We spent the last two years working with him on tone of voice and what you can and can't say to people and he argued with us at every turn.  Then he has an owl saying to a badger "You can't talk that way, it is rude."

We live in a wonderful age when it comes to serving students with special needs.  Technology has given us so many ways to overcome their hurdles.  For some reason are students with special needs are not accessing that technology. (the iPad also has built in text to speech)  It drives me bonkers....I just try to stay calm and say, "Let me show you something!"