Into the Future....

Science fiction comes to life. Have you heard of augmented reality? That’s the software that lets you view computer images on top of what you are seeing in the real world. You could use an iPhone or iPad, for example, when you are looking at a place in a city and get information on places to tour as well.  The augmented reality software, Autonomy, has now added what’s called Aurasma, which lets you use hand gestures to use the virtual content. You don’t have to touch the screen. According to MIT Technology Review (9/15/11),“You reach out your hand and the content responds.” Can you imagine how schools or special needs kids might put this type of software to use?

Digital Books Get a Boost from Bookshare

Bookshare provides ‘books without barriers” to all students in the United States with qualifying disabilities. Inspired by Napster, the music-sharing service, Bookshare turns books into a format that can be read aloud by computers, magnified, and spaced differently so that students with vision problems or learning disabilities can read them. They’re even available at the same time new releases reach bookstore shelves, unlike typical audiobooks. Its services are an example of how e-book technology, taking off with consumers, has powerful potential for students who previously relied on more cumbersome and more difficult-to-obtain alternatives to the traditional book. It also means that kids who were anxious about advertising their disability can now cope with devices like computers, iPods, and tablets like iPads rather than dragging around larger more cumbersome and costly devices. If you know of someone who might qualify take a look – it is a whole new, and welcome, world for those with vision issues and learning disabilities.

iPads and Special Needs Kids

The Law of Unintended Consequences is at it again and this time it has to do with the use of the iPad to communicate with special needs kids. While Apple didn’t really have this audience in mind, with apps like Proloquo2Go by a company called AssistiveWare BV, many parents and therapists are finding the tablets extremely useful in giving a voice to many youngsters for whom the cost of a more specialized device was prohibitive.

Universal SmartPens

Livescribe's Pulse SmartPen is finding its way into the college and pre-college classrooms of all kinds of students, but it can give special needs kids a leg up on taking and organizing notes. That’s because this digital scribe can record and playback what you write and hear because it features an infrared camera that tracks what you write or draw and a stereo microphone that records what is being said as you write or draw. Instead of taking a computer to use to take notes during a lecture, the SmartPen can make remembering what is said a breeze, Students can transfer what they record to their PC or Mac where they can store and organize the information they collect. When they need the information, they can search for what they want. Replay what is saved, and the written notes are synced to the recorded audio. Special paper is needed for the pen, but it can be downloaded online. The pens come in 1G and 2G versions with pricing ranging from approximately $150-$199. Check out the Livescribe blog to see how teachers and students of all kinds are putting this new technology to use.

Access Still Difficult for Blind and Deaf Technology Users

Your would think that technology would only make the lives of people with various physical disabilities easier and easier, but it seems that many companies don't take into account the needs of these users even though the cost can sometimes be negligible. A recent article in the Washington Post called Access Denied points out just how hit or miss digital assistance for the blind and deaf is by pointing out that something as simple as those emergency ticker-style messages that scroll across the bottom of your television screen are not narrated for those who can't see and rarely do local stations break into transmissions to warm viewers verbally. Take a look at the article to understand more about what it is like to be a disabled person in the digital age. (This entry is linked to the Washington Post and can be accessed for free but you need to register.)

Web Tools for Different Types of Learners

If you are the parent of a child with a learning difference you know how hard it is to find just the right technology resource for your struggling student. One place you might want to bookmark is Christina Laun's 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner. Laun's excellent list provides links to sites that include mind-mapping, photos, video, charts and diagrams for visual learning; podcasts, presentation tools, auditory tools, text readers, and audio books for auditory learners; and note-taking tools, interaction, bookmarking, and collaboration for kinesthetic learners. Think links like Flash Card Machine, del.icio.us, Audible, Project Gutenburg, PhotoStory, and Audacity, but keep in mind that this list was created for college students, so you'll want to be sure to check the sites before recommending them to your kids. Social networking sites are included.