Day 3: Webinars, Apps, and Social Stories, Oh My!

Webinars are the latest craze in distance education. Short for Web-based seminars, Webinars are lectures or workshops transmitted via the world wide web.  The great thing about a Webinar is the ability to give, receive, and discuss information in an interactive format.  They allow for communication between the presenter/instructor and the client/student. Webinars also allow for clients/students to interact and communicate with each other.

Other advantages of webinars are:

- reduced time to connect with an audience
- more effective training
- reduced travel expenses
- reach a larger audience
- greater productivity
- re-usability 


This week, we were able to use webinars to explore different applications and assistive technology tools available for learners these days; from mounting systems which help those in wheelchairs to access their communication devices, to device tools you can create on your own, to great applications for helping students engage in learning.  I have included some of my favourites below:

1) Sock Puppets

by Smith Micro Software, Inc.; Consumer Division

This app is great for students who have trouble engaging in conversation. It is also great for teaching social skills and role play situations. It can engage multiple speakers and emphasizes the ability to take turns when speaking. The puppets move when you speak into the iPad! There are a variety of props, characters, and backgrounds to choose from and the option to record your masterpieces. Children and adults alike will love this app!

2) iPad Mounting System


by Enabling Devices


These systems mount securely to a wheelchair or tabletop to allow users easy access to their iPad. These systems were designed with accessibility in mind; created with maximum flexibility and reach to benefit users. 





3) Make your own iPad Stylus

This is just one way to create your own iPad stylus using objects found in your own home.  The stylus can help an iPad user take notes on the device and turn them into computer text. It can also be used to annotate electronic documents and draw pictures and diagrams. Having a stylus will enable students to markup notes and documents with far more precision than with a finger. A stylus also comes in very handy when drawing detailed charts or graphs during class or underlining text in PDFs. 

4) E-Book Creator

by BlueFinger apps

Social stories can be a great tool to help students with an impairment in social understanding (especially those with Autism) to think in ways necessary for social interaction.  Social situations can be unpredictable and confusing for these students. Therefore, social stories allow students to gain perspective on the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours of others. They can also outline what is appropriate behaviour for the student.  With the help of applications like the E-Book Creator, teachers can quickly create social stories which provide the students with images, text, and even speech that outline what people do, why they do it, and what the common or appropriate responses are to the situation. Within minutes, teachers are able to provide a prompt for socially appropriate behaviour using an iPad rather than cutting, cropping, pasting, printing, and laminating which could take hours. This is a must for any Learning Centre teacher!




Stay tuned next week for handcrafted assistive technology on a budget!