Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode 46: Wordtalk

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #46 features another excerpt from the presentation for the Individual Differences in Learning Association in Howard County, Maryland.  This excerpt describes WordTalk; a free text-to-speech plug-in for Microsoft Word.  

The episode features a bumper from Karen Janowski who is an assistive technology consultant, an assistive technology specialist for a school district in Massachusetts, adjunct faculty member at Simmons College, and school board member in her town.  She is also one of the innovators behind the UDLTechToolKit wiki, which contains a plethora of resources useful for differentiating instruction.

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #72: WordTalk

WordTalk is a free text-to-speech add-in for Microsoft Word. You can find all the details about which versions of Word it works with along with other frequently asked questions, installation instructions and more over at the WordTalk download page.

1. WordTalk SlideShare Tutorial -  This tutorial, created by Paul Hamilton, describes everything you need to know about WordTalk. 

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. www.iste.org/chewat – Select “Notify Me” to sign up to get an e-mail reminder when the book comes out.

2. Eight is Enough Presentation – This is the slideshow I used during the presentation for IDL.

3. 2009 Edublog Award Winners – Congratulations to all of the winners!  Let me recommend you head over there to check out all of the nominations and winners. The A.T.TIPSCAST placed seventh out of 26 in the category of “Best Educational Use of Audio“.  

4. CliCk, Speak – A free, open source text-to-speech extension for the Firefox web browser.

5. Text-to-Speech in OpenOffice – Open Office is a free suite of programs including a word processing program.  OO Text To Speech is a free download for this program.

6. Word Magnets – Type or paste text (words or letters) into a box that then makes each word (or letter) a separate moveable object.  Perfect for word scrambles or sentence generation on an interactive whiteboard. 

Drag words to make sentences

Drag letters to make words

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com/attipscast.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #45: Sequencing with PowerPoint

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #45 features a brief breakdown of the skill of sequencing followed by a recording of a portion of a presentation I did for the Individual Differences in Learning Association in Howard County, Maryland. 

The episode features a bumper from Dr. Katharina Boser who is the president of the Individual Differences in Learning Association. 

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #71: Sequencing with Slide Sorter View in PowerPoint

Step 1. Take pictures of an event or sequential activity. 

Step 2. Place each picture on a slide (using the Photo Album feature of PowerPoint).

Step 3. Select the View tab and choose Slide Sorter.

Step 4. Drag n’ drop the slides into the correct order to practice sequencing.

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. www.iste.org/chewat – Select “Notify Me” to sign up to get an e-mail reminder when the book comes out.

2. Eight is Enough Presentation – This is the slideshow I used during the presentation for IDL.

3. Edublog Award Nomination - Vote for the A.T.TIPSCAST!  The A.T.TIPSCAST was nominated for a 2009 Edublog Award in the category of “Best Educational Use of Audio“.  Voting is open to the public and ends on December 16th, 2009.  Even if you don’t vote, let me recommend you head over there to check out all of the nominations.  The list of all those nominated in all of the different categories is a tremendous resource in itself, so I hope you check it out (and vote for the A.T.TIPSCAST) 

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

 Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com/attipscast.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Hello there everyone,

This is a blog-only post. There isn’t any new audio, or official A.T.TIPSCAST episode, associated with this post but don’t click away yet!  This post outlines my nominations for the 2009 Edublog Awards.  In my experience most educational bloggers, podcasters, and Tweeters do so on their own time, after work hours because it is their passion.  They aren’t asked to do it and they aren’t paid to do it, but we all benefit from the many hours they put into their craft.

The Edublog Awards provide a way to recognize these enormous efforts.  Here are my nominations for the 2009 Edublog Awards:

Best individual blog – Teaching All Students by Patrick Black – (www.teachingall.blogspot.com) – Fresh ideas, multiple resources, and practical solutions for differentiating instruction for EVERY student.

Best individual tweeter – Melissa Techman (www.twitter.com/mtechman) – In my estimation, the most prolific person on Twitter.  Melissa is the first to share valuable resources and insights moving us all forward with her conversations and input.

Best new blog – The Tech Flash by Mark Nichols (www.thetechflash.com) – Although the first post was in October of 09, The Tech Flash is already proving to be one of the most pertinent blogs about technology for all students (with a special focus on students with disabilities) not to mention resources for teachers, administrators, and parents alike.

Best teacher blog – Speech-Language Pathology Sharing by Eric Sailers (www.speechlanguagepathologysharing.blogspot.com) – There aren’t many speech-language pathologists who integrate technology in their practice and share those experiences with the world at large.  Few skills are as important to a student as the ability to communicate, let alone communicate effectively.  This well-planned and thorough blog provides support to every teacher who has a student with communication difficulties.

Best educational use of audio – Teacher 2.0 podcast by Rodd Lucier (www.thecleversheep.com) – I could be wrong about this, but I believe the willingness of teachers to listen to an audio file correlates directly to the length of that file.  The longer the file, the less likely it is that a teacher will listen to it.  The Teacher 2.0 podcast provides succinct yet thought-provoking topics on education technology that make listeners feel like they are part of an active  conversation rather than a passive member of the audience.

Best educational wiki – The UDLTechToolKit by Karen Janowski & Joyce Kazman Valenza (http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/) – Simply the best collection of tools on the web for differentiating instruction.  A teacher could get lost for hours in the possibilities for students.  Any visitor instantly begins to see solutions for students they work with on a daily basis.
Best educational use of a social networking service – The Assistive Technology Ning by Brian Wojcik (http://assistivetech.ning.com/) – The Assistive Technology Ning provides individuals who are interested in the topic of assistive technology with a way of having virtual discussions including the ability to share multimedia (text, video, audio, images, etc.) while also providing a way to have a visual representation of its participants.    

I hope you check out these fabulous resources and, if you agree with my choices, consider voting for these fantastic creations, projects, and initiatives to recognize the dedication of these individuals.  Find out more information about how to participate over at The Edublog Awards.

Enjoy!

Chris

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #44

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #44 is up for your listening pleasure and boy is it a doozy! It clocks in at just under 42 minutes!  Yikes! Episode #44 is kind of a unique episode because it features a recording of a live event. Back on November 14th I was lucky enough to attend the Powering Up with Technology Conference in Prince George’s County Maryland.  At that conference I presented a session called Alternative Professional Development.  I use the term “presented” loosely because, although I was listed as the presenter, the session was more of an integrated brainstorming session.  I was more of the moderator for the discussion than a presenter.  During the session we tried to outline some of the common problems with staff development happening in public schools and then try to come up with some solutions.  During the course of the discussion a bunch of great ideas were mentioned about how to address some of the problems with the typical professional development model.  Furthermore, a number of concrete resources are mentioned that can be used to assist students.  You can access the entire presentation as generated by the audience here:  Alternative Professional Development Presentation from PUWT09.

The episode also features a bumper from Robin Lesht who is a speech-language pathologist from Mount Prospect, Illinois. I met Robin at ATIA 09 where we shared different experiences working in the field of speech-language pathology.

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #67: Document Holder from Inverted CD case and Alligator Clip

Many a student has strained their neck transposing a handwritten assignment onto the computer because the paper was flat on the desk.  To alleviate the neck strain people started to use document holders so that they didn’t have to constantly shift their field of vision from the paper to the screen and back again.  Sure, you could go out and spend money on a fancy, commercial document holder or you could take an unused CD case that you probably have lying around, flip it over so the hinged cover is upright and then fasten the paper to it with an alligator clip.  Done and done, instant document holder.                   

A.T.TIP #68: www.educatus.com

This website provides over 1000 pre-made lessons/presentations on a wide variety of curricular topics.  The media-rich presentations are similar to a PowerPoint presentation and each one is available to be viewed online via your web browser.  Each presentation is useful as a pre-learning activity where students could be asked to independently review content before a class discussion, as an alternative source of content to complement or supplement another lesson, or as a follow-up/review activity at the end of a lesson.

A.T.TIP #69: www.voki.com

This website allows you to create an animated talking head.  Use text-to-speech or record a voice to have the voki speak the message.  Vokis could be used by a teacher to introduce a lesson, give verbal instructions for an assignment, record reminders to students, provide feedback and more!  Vokis could be used by a student as an alternative means of expression for presentations, practicing conversations, or demonstrating knowledge.  Check out these ideas on how to use Voki in your classroom from The Edublogger.

Check out a Voki I created.

A.T.TIP #70: www.blabberize.com

This website allows you to upload a picture, select a portion of that picture that will move (usually a mouth), and then record a message.  When the message is played back, the selected area will move in time with the message.  Blabberize can be used in similar ways as Vokis.  It could be used by a teacher to introduce a lesson, give verbal instructions for an assignment, record reminders to students, provide feedback and more!  It could be used by a student as an alternative means of expression for presentations, practicing conversations, or demonstrating knowledge.   

Check out a video I made in Blabberize

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. Loudoun County Public Schools’ Assistive Technology Video Archive

2. Evidence that high-speed Internet access is not ubiquitous.

3. More evidence that high-speed Internet access is not ubiquitous.

4. www.delicious.com – Social Bookmarking Site.  Note that the A.T.TIPSCAST uses delicious to share resources on the left side of the page.

5. www.Prezi.com – A new and interesting way to create a presentation.  Information is presented on one large canvas and you zoom into different areas of the canvas to view the information.

6. www.tinyurl.com – A useful way of making long URLs shorter.  Shortened URLs are easier for users to remember (like www.tinyurl.com/nlsstories) and easier for people to type in if entering a URL from a piece of paper.

7. Tonyvincent.info – A link library of useful educational resources created by the keynote speaker of the conference, Tony Vincent.  **Corrected from original post- Tony made a comment below sharing that the site he used to present at the conference was http://tonysite.info ***

8. Radio WillowWeb Podcast - Radio WillowWeb is a podcast for kids
and by kids from the students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska.
Each new show is called a Willowcast. Each Willowcast can be heard on WillowWeb
as an mp3 digital audio file.

9. ASHA Podcast - The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s podcast features interviews with different individuals making strides in the field of speech-language pathology and audiology

10. Quick Access Toolbar in Word 07 – Microsoft Word 07 features a quick access toolbar that can be customized, allowing for favorite tools to be shown and less used tools to be hidden.  This feature helps to reduce clutter on the screen while highlighting to students some key/important features they could be using in Word.

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15am-10:15am EST

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #43: Listener Feedback, For Real – Part 2

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #43 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #43 features some more feedback from listeners of the show. There was still too much feedback to fit it all into just this episode so you can expect to hear at least one more Listener Feedback episode in the future.

The episode also features a bumper from Lisa Givens who works as an educational specialist for Fairfax County Public Schools in Assistive Technology Services. I caught up with Lisa at NECC 09 and I’m just now getting to play her bumper. 

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #64: Classroom Acoustic Coalition (via Facebook)

The focus of the Classroom Acoustic Coalition Facebook group is to bring about awareness about acoustics in the classroom.  In the episode Signal-to-Noise ratio is mentioned as something to consider when working with students. The following are some other helpful resources about S/N and classroom acoustics:

1. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Article on 5 Strategies to Promote Good Classroom Acoustics

2. Guidelines for Teachers to Help Minimize Auditory Perceptual Problems

A.T.TIP #65: Onetruemedia.com

This website allows you to quickly upload pictures and videos (.mpegs, .mpgs, .mp4, .mov, .avi, .wmv, .jpg’s and more) and then select from a number of free montage styles and music to create a nicely polished, professional looking, special effect ridden video.  Once finished, the website generates a URL for your video that can be shared.  The website is easy to use and would allow students to be able to create flashy presentations above and beyond just a simple slideshow.  Plus, there is nothing to install.  All of the controls and design occur right there on the website all for free. The only downside is that only some of the montages and music is free.  For access to the complete library you need to become a premium member and pay a fee.  Also, to export the video into another file format you need to be premium member.  The following are some of the videos I’ve made using this website:

1. Professional Development Montage

2. A.T.TIPScast Montage

A.T.TIP #66: Screentoaster.com

This website allows you to capture a video of whatever is happening on your screen.  You can export videos as .swf files (flash) and .mov files, which means you can save the videos right down to your computer.  You can choose to record the entire screen or record a rectangular area of the screen. Screentoaster.com is a great way to capture and share what a student has done on a computer and is also a great way to capture any lesson done on the computer.  Also, a student could capture work they’ve done on a home computer to share back with teacher.  It is also great for making short video tutorials providing directions for how to do something on the computer.  Students could watch these videos over and over again as a way to have instructions repeated as many times as necessary.

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. Loudoun County Public Schools’ Assistive Technology Video Archive

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Powering Up With Technology Conference 09 – Upper Marlboro, Maryland – November 14th- (Time TBD)

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode 42: Count Edula’s Game

Episode Overview:

Hey everyone,

Run! Run! Run for your lives! Episode #42 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #42 features a visit to Count Edula’s mansion where he asks about some tools he can use to help organize his  “hypothetical” zombie army.  Chris’s suggestions just so happen to be useful tools to help students as well. 

A.T.TIPS in this Episode:

A.T.TIP #60: Google Earth

Google Earth lets you to zoom anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean. Google Earth is a free software program you can download and install on your computer.  When you launch the program you see a celestial view of the earth.  On the left hand side you see a search window.  Type in any location, hit the magnifying glass icon, and watch as you zoom to that location.  Also on the left side of the screen you’ll find a section called “layers” click on any of the boxes there to add additional features to what you see in your search.  So, for instance, if you select the “3D Buildings” layer when a 3 dimensional image of a building is available you will see that building in three dimensions.  Try it by searching for any major city, like Chicago, and you’ll see a three-dimensional representation of tons of different buildings or try doing a search for one of the lighthouses along the Outer Banks.  In more remote locations like those you can really see the difference between the 2 dimensional representations and the 3 dimensional representations.   There is a street view layer that is awesome where you can see, where available, a 360 degree digital image as if you were standing at a given location.  Students who have trouble visualizing how tall something is, or what something might look like, or how a structure might appear in real-life, can experience these places in a very tangential way.  Using Google Earth before or after a field trip or community-based instructional trip can bring a totally new dimension to the learning experience.  What’s nice about Google Earth is that it’s totally free.  Students can download it at home to explore on their own. Again, this is just scratching the surface of what it can do as there are all different types of layers, including shipwrecks, weather conditions and forecasts, and global awareness. 

A.T.TIP #61: Google Earth Video Tours

Google Earth 5 allows you to create a tour by creating a movie. One of the icons is a little video camera.  Just click on that video camera icon and then the little red record button that appears.  Teachers can use this with students to give a little video tour of where they are going or where they have been.  Students can also use this feature to demonstrate their knowledge.  A student records themselves traveling from place to place in Google Earth to demonstrate they know how to get to a location from a location, that they know where on the globe an event occurred or where a place is actually located.  You could even use it as an alternative way to tell a story.  Instead of writing that essay on what they did over Winter Break, students can virtually take the teacher and other students to that location by showing it on Google Earth.

A.T.TIP #62: Mystudiyo.com

Mystudiyo.com  is a website that allows you to create assessments using all sorts of different media.  There are different assessment types to choose from, but the one that I think is easiest and most relevant to students is the multiple choice type of assessment.  Once you choose your assessment type the website takes you through a series of questions to set-up your quiz.  It’s like a quiz wizard that walks you through creation, step-by-step.   You can choose from different looks of your quiz and you can add introductory media using text, an image, or video to give directions which is perfect for students who might have trouble reading instructions.  You can also have text, an image or video accompany each question, which means you could read each question aloud and save it as a video to have a much more accessible assessment.  At the end of the assessment a student can be presented with a scoreboard to see how well they did.  Once you’ve finished creating your quiz the website generates a unique URL for your quiz.  Take that URL and distribute it to students  for them to take the quiz on your computers or, if possible,  on their own home computers.  See how well you can do on the quiz created by Count Edula for his zombie horde.

A.T.TIP #63: Shorttext.com

Shorttext.com allows someone to either type or copy/paste text directly into it.  Then, once they are ready, they click on the “Create URL” button to make a URL for that text.  In the future, they just go back to that unique URL to access that text again.  It’s a handy way to save information.  For instance, students who tend to lose things, like thumbdrives or assignments, can post it to Shorttext.com.  Then, all they need is the URL to go get it.  Unlike a thumbdrive, the URLs can be shared with a teacher or in a safe location that doesn’t get transported to and from school.  There are some other tools on the net that might be better for organization of assignments and such, but shorttext.com has a very simple interface without lots of buttons or other functions.  This makes it less intimidating, which is why I like it and which is why it might be perfect for some students and teachers.  Check out a piece of intercepted correspondence from one of Count Edula’s zombie field generals. 

Points of Interest:

Mentioned in the podcast is an article by the New York Times about Wikipedia’s new policy about editing entries about living people.   

Also, if you haven’t seen this Common Craft How-to video, well, it might be worth your time to help you prepare for the impending apocalypse.

Upcoming Presentation Information:

 The Building Blocks of a Successful Assistive Technology Team presented with Sally Norton-Darr – ISTE Webinar – October 21st- 4pm – 5pm EST

Eight is Enough: Ways to Use What You Got – Clarksville, Maryland – November 9th – 7:30pm – 9:00pm EST

Alternative Professional Development – Powering Up With Technology Conference 09 – Upper Marlboro, Maryland – November 14th- (Time TBD)

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

I hope to meet you at any or all of these presentations. But, if you can’t make it to those, and you’re interested in any of this (or other) content for workshops in your district please contact me at attipscast@gmail.com. We can work together to set something up either in person or virtually!

Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com as @attipscast.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Podcast Hosting at CyberEars.com

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #41

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #41 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #41 features some feedback from listeners of the show.  There was too much feedback to fit into one episode so you can expect to hear more in the future. 

The episode also features a bumper from Sally Norton-Darr and Judith Schoonover about the new version of CAST’s BookBuilder.  Judith and Sally will be doing workshops on this at the following professional conferences if you’re interested in attending:

ATIA 09 in Chicago, Illinois on October 28th – 31st 

Techknowledgy 09 in Richmond, Virginia – November 19 & 20

RATE in Fairfax, Virginia on November 7th

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #59: freesound.org

The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs.

Additional Resources Mentioned-

Image of Brian’s Interactive PowerPoint Presentation

Teaching All Students Blog

Upcoming Presentations-

 The Building Blocks of a Successful Assistive Technology Team presented with Sally Norton-Darr - ISTE Webinar – October 21st- 4pm – 5pm EST

Eight is Enough: Ways to Use What You Got - Clarksville, Maryland -                                                                                  November 9th – 7:30pm – 9:00pm EST

Alternative Professional Development - Powering Up With Technology Conference 09 – Upper Marlboro, Maryland -  November 14th- (Time TBD)

Alternative Professional Development - Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss - Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 - Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Invitation to Halloween Party

Hello all,

The next episode should be coming out shortly but, in the meantime, something strange happened.  I received this strange invitation today when I got home from work.  Check it out:

CEInvite

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Special Episode: Big Announcement #2 -The Book

Hey everyone,

Well this was the big secret project I’ve been working on that I had mentioned in previous episodes.  I introduce to you now “The Practical (and Fun) Guide to Assistive Technology in Public Schools: Building or Improving Your District’s AT Team” by Christopher Bugaj and Sally Norton-Darr.  The book is being published by the International Socitey for Technology in Education (better known by the acronym ISTE) and will be available for pre-order in February March of 2010. 

The Content:

As the title suggests the book provides strategies of building an assistive technology program in public schools.  Answers to common questions such as “How do we consider AT for every student?”, “How does assistive technology get documented in an IEP?”, “What are some effective ways of working with Instructional Technology?”, “Who should be on an AT Team?”, “When and how do you write an AT evaluation report?”, “What is the most effect service delivery model?”, “How do you adequately follow-up with teachers and students?”, “How do you collect data and demonstrate progress?”, and “How do you build a comprehensive assistive technology program?” are all found in the book.

The Style:

The book is written in such a way that it is easy to use and fun to read. We wanted to create a book that wouldn’t feel like a chore to read.  Therefore, the book is laced with engaging analogies and humorous stories which emphasize and clarify the points being made.  In the future we hope to have some excerpts for you to sample, both in text and audio formats.  Throughout the book we provide procedures that have not only been relatively easy to implement but also have proven exceptionally effective for us.  In fact, that was kind of our mantra for the book, “If it’s working for us, why wouldn’t it work for you?”

More to Come:

I’ll be sharing more information in the coming weeks and month about purchase information, pricing, and how you can help spread the word about the book if you’re interested in helping out.

Upcoming Presentation Information:

 The Building Blocks of a Successful Assistive Technology Team presented with Sally Norton-Darr - ISTE Webinar – October 21st- 4pm – 5pm EST

Eight is Enough: Ways to Use What You Got - Clarksville, Maryland -                                                                                  November 9th – 7:30pm – 9:00pm EST

Alternative Professional Development - Powering Up With Technology Conference 09 – Upper Marlboro, Maryland -  November 14th- (Time TBD)

Alternative Professional Development - Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss - Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 - Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

I hope to meet you at any or all of these presentations.  But, if you can’t make it to those, and you’re interested in any of this (or other) content for workshops in your district please contact me at attipscast@gmail.com.  We can work together to set something up either in person or virtually!

Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com as @attipscast.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Podcast Hosting at CyberEars.com

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #40

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #40 is up for your listening pleasure! Episode #40 features an interview with Miss Mel, the host of the Night Light Stories podcast which features free original children’s stories!  The episode also features a bumper from Nancy Stewart, the lead special education teacher at Avoca School District 37 in Wilmette, Illinois.  You can check out her blog Mad Math Beyond Numberdome and her school blog.

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #58: Night Light Stories Podcast

Contact Miss Mel via Twitter with @nightlight08 or via e-mail at nightlightstories@gmail.com

Join the Night Light Stories group on Facebook to receive updates when new stories become available.

Upcoming Events-

I’ll be the moderator for the 2009 Online Summer Institute on Assistive and Instructional Technology on the topic of “Use of Social Media Tools” for the Family Center on Technology and Disability.  Registration and participation is totally free.  I hope you can participate in the discussion!

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

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Thanks everyone and happy listening!