Livescribe Sound Stickers

Livescribe Smartpens are a great note taking tool; recording audio and linking it to your written notes.  There are some strange and confusing add-ons for the pen (see the Geometric Ruler App instructions for instance) so I was a little skeptical when I saw the Livescribe Sound Stickers.  These sticky dots are recognised by the Livescribe pen in the same way as the paper in the Livescribe notebooks.  You tap a sound sticker with the pen and then record a message.  The next time you tap that dot, the message is played back.

My skepticism vanished as I had a great idea: I recommend the Livescribe pen for individuals who struggle with writing and reading large amounts of text.  These are generally the same group of learners who are encouraged to mindmap.  Why not use the Sound Stickers to create an “Audio Mindmap”?  It can be hard to get large amounts of information into a mindmap so put a Sound Sticker next to each key section and record lengthier information to the Livescribe pen, tapping that dot will then replay the key information.  Great for revision or reviewing notes.  I promise to create and video an example of this, once I get my hands on a pack of Sound Stickers.

Onto some software:

Audio Notetaker

Sonocent were announcing the release of Audio Notetaker for Mac.  Audio Notetaker is an invaluable tool for anyone who uses an audio recorder to take notes.  It gives you a visual representation of your recording which you can annotate, organise and link to Powerpoint presentations.  It is great to have this tool available for Mac as well as PC.

Audio Notetaker is also designed to be used for live recordings. This offers the advantage of being able to link the audio and any notes you type to the Powerpoint presentation during the teaching session (providing you have been given the presentation in advance).   I’m hoping that Sonocent will turn Audio Notetaker into an app as this live feature would work extremely well on a tablet.

I also queried the Sonocent staff about whether they would recommend any USB mic for recording direct to a laptop.  They said they ahd great results with the Samson Go Mic.

ClaroRead v6

The new version of the writing and reading tool ClaroRead contains a fair number of new features.  One of the things I like about ClaroRead is the simplicity of its interface.  I am pleased to see this hasn’t changed and that the floating toolbar is identical to v5.

The update includes compatibilty with a wider range of programs – including Pages on the Mac version, new Vocaliser voices, scan from screen (for images with text content), multi language support and enhanced word prediction.

Full details of the features can be seen on the Claro news page, but it is the last one I am most interested in.  To put it bluntly, the word prediction on ClaroRead has never been as good as other programs so I was keen to see how well the update performed.  Predictions are now related to the context of the sentence and you have four options as to the “Prediction Style”: Completion, Phonetic, First and Contains or Contains Anywhere.  You still have a choice of 2000 or 5000 word dictionary, but also a range of subject specific dictionaries e.g. Archeology, Biology, Mathematics.  On first impressions the prediction seems loads better (I’m using it as I type this), but it will require longer use to really judge.  I’m grateful to Claro for letting me have a beta copy of v6 to trial.

Clicker 6

Clicker has always been a great tool for learners with emergent literacy.  It is especially good for creating materials relevant and motivating to specific groups or individuals.  The disadvantage of this of course is that you have to spend time constructing the materials.  Clicker 6 goes a long way to making this an easier task.  For instance creating a sentence building grid used to involve creating a grid and manually populating each cell with a word.  Now you can just type the sentences you want into a wizard and the grid (complete with links) will be created for you.  Another good example is the new Click and Edit books which enable learners to very easily create on-screen talking books.

Clicker 6 (as with previous versions) is switch accessible and now has built-in mouse dwell click for headmouse or joystick users.

Staff working in FE are often put off Clicker probably due to the young-looking interface and references to “children” and “school” in the literature.  However activities can be tailored so they look more suitable for older learners and Widgit symbols can be used instead of the in-built Clicker pictures.  In the past I have used Clicker 5 very successfully with groups of older learners with Profound and Complex Needs for planning, communication and recording.

Fil McIntyre

Assistive Technologist, BRITE

This post will focus on interesting new hardware developments and I’ll write in the near future about software developments.  Click on any images for a larger view.

Accuratus Monster 2 Keyboard

I’ve always been a little dissatisfied with large keyboards and their dismissal of the function keys (F1-F12).  They either do away with them altogether (limiting keyboard shortcut use) or make them tiny (no help to those who benefit from the other large keys).  On the Monster Keyboard they are a decent size and therefore give the user back the full keyboard.

In addition to the black on white model pictured they also do a high visibility black on yellow.  The cheapest place to buy them seems to be Amazon at about £30.

i-Pad Accessories

As you can imagine many companies at BETT were trying to tap into the market for iPads.  Two products stood out, both from LEBA Innovation:

The iShell doesn’t look very stylish but it is a great solution for protecting an ipad and being able to carry a charger with you.   It doubles as a stand and the iPad can be plugged in while still in the case.  There are a range of colours available.  It is a bit of an extreme solution and not one many students would want to take up.  However if students with more complex needs are carrying iPads and are more likely to drop them it is much more sturdy than a leather or rubber case.  You will need to email/ring them for further details as I can’t find any trace of the iShell on their website.

NoteSync enables institutions who are managing many iPads to synchronise and charge up to 16 iPads at once.  It can be connected to a PC or Mac to perform the sync and uses its own power supply to charge the devices.  In fact you can connect two NoteSyncs to one PC or Mac and sync 32 iPads at once.  I realise for many institutions having this many iPads is not a problem they currently face!  However it is likely with time that iPads (and other tablets) will have much more of a role.  For an example see the ongoing iPad pilot BRITE is carrying out with Motherwell College.

Boost Magnifier

There are many personal video magnifiers out there, so you could ask “do we need another one?”.  The big difference with The Boost is that it is only £130.  The image quality and features are not quite up to the standard of a device like the Ruby, but they are still good and the Boost is less than half the price.  It features Colour/Black and White/Reverse image, freeze frame and two levels of magnification.  There is a stand available for £15 which gives a handle to one side and enables the Boost to rest over the desired text/image.  The Boost can be obtained from Sight and Sound Technologies.

Integramouse Plus

The Integramouse Plus enables users to operate a mouse by using their mouth.  The lips are used to direct the pointer and a blow and/or suck are used to click.  Any typing is done with an on-screen keyboard or using voice recognition software.  The Integramouse has been around for a number of years, but this an updated model which is wireless, easier to mount and has increased levels of hygiene.  In the UK the Intergramouse is available from Keytools.  I was talking to the managing director of Lifetool (the Austrian manufacturers) and asked him whether they had lost out to people using eye-gaze systems instead of Integramouse.  He said that on the contrary, once people discovered the cost of an eye-gaze system (£5000 upwards) the Integramouse (£1700) seemed cheap!

SnapScan Ultra Portable Scanner

Fujitsu claim the SnapScan S1100 to be one of the smallest A4 scanners in the world.  It measures 273mm x 47.5mm x 34mm and weighs 350g so would be suitable for anyone who needs their scanner to be portable.  The other advantage is it takes its power from a USB port so there is no need for a seperate power supply.  The  is not the quickest taking 7.5 seconds per A4 page, but for occasional use and considering the size this is not bad.  It is supplied with ABBY Fine Reader OCR Software and is PC and Mac compatible.

Johnny Ball

In other exciting BETT news – I saw Johnny Ball!

For readers under 30 – He’s Zoe Ball’s dad.

For readers under 25 – nevermind.

Fil McIntyre

Assistive Technologist, BRITE

BRITE now offers an accredited in-depth course, specifically tailored to the professional development needs of those working in a support role. This course, Educational Support Worker: Professionalism in Practice, is offered both online and face-to-face. Full details can be found on our website.

For those of you seeking a brief introduction to the key skills involved in educational support work, we are offering two half day seminars on this topic. If after attending one of these seminars you decide to progress onto the formal ESW: Professionalism in Practice course (commencing autumn 2012) you’ll receive a 10% discount on the fee. Full details of these seminars follow…

Educational Support Worker: Key Skills

Thursday 2 February, 1pm – 4pm, Dumfries and Galloway College, or Wednesday 15 February, 10am – 1pm, Stevenson College Edinburgh

This seminar aims to equip educational support workers with a general understanding of student needs.  Topics covered include the conventions of proofreading, note taking, scribing and creating accessible materials whilst adhering to guidelines for assessment. 

This opportunity to consider your responsibilities, skills, values and boundaries will provide you with enhanced clarity about your role and reassurance that your students receive a quality service.

During this seminar you will:

• understand the importance of being aware of student need and learning styles
• develop an understanding of key skills required to support students i.e. note taking, proofreading and scribing
• consider the role of the ESW and discuss boundaries and values
• understand the importance of creating accessible materials for students based on need

Attendees who choose to progress to the full ESW qualification will receive a 10% discount. Normally a place costs £475 per person. The next ESW course intake is in autumn 2012.

Reserving your place

To apply for a place, call us on 01383 749605, or email enquiries@brite.ac.uk.

Places are limited therefore booking is essential. Each Scottish further education institution is entitled to one free place on a seminar up to the point the seminar is full. Additional members of staff may request to be added to a waiting list. If space remains 2 weeks prior to the seminar, places will be allocated to names on the waiting list on a first-come first-served basis.

If you would like to attend, but do not currently work in the Scottish FE sector, the fee to attend is £70.

Photograph Copyright BRITE Initiative 2012

Fil will be documenting the process, his report from the set-up day is below:

I should start by apologising to the Motherwell college staff for my enthusiasm when so many problems arose during this set-up session.  I was eagerly noting down (on my iPad of course) any issues which we came across so that others may not have to experience them.  The Motherwell team were good-natured though and didn’t kick me out the door.  Stephen from IT Support should also be thanked for his willingness to assist.

The goal was to setup six iPads so that staff could spend a few weeks familiarising themselves with the device prior to the student loans starting in 2012.

Tip no.1:  Check you can Install iTunes.

3 of the 6 iPads arrived with iOS5 (the operating system), the others needed updating using iTunes.  One of the chief advantages of iOS5 is that the iPad does not need to be synchronised to iTunes for setup and future iOS updates.  This is a big bonus in a loan situation as you do not then need to sync all your iPads – everything can happen in the iPad.

However, we had 3 to update and the PC we were using did not have iTunes installed so the first call to IT support was needed, Stephen logged on and enabled the download.

Tip no.2:  Logical iPad names and logical email addresses.

The Motherwell staff had set up a hotmail address for each iPad.  An email address is required to register.  The addresses were setup in a logical order with logical (but secure) passwords.  The email addresses were based on the name of the iPad so in future it will be easy to relate the two.  Most institutions will security label their kit so ensure that the name of the iPad relates to the label so you don’t have to go into Settings every time you need to know which iPad you have picked up.

Tip no. 3:  Check you can register with iTunes.

The college’s content filter did not allow staff to create an Apple ID so call number two was put in to IT Support who came down to assist.  We tried setting up an Apple ID online and then logging on through iTunes but the content filter didn’t like that either.  Stephen logged on again to bypass the filter.

Tip no.4: Downloading the update.

iOS5 can take a while to download and thinking all the problems were solved (the download had started) Stephen had gone away.  Shortly afterwards we had to call him for a third time as the content filter caught up with us again.  This time we pulled him up a chair and he agreed he would “just stay until you’re finished”.  Thankfully the download only took about 10-15 minutes for each iPad.

Tip no.5:  You don’t need to register your credit card.

As all this was going on the iPads which already had iOS5 were being set-up.  It had been decided that one account would be registered for app purchases and apps gifted to the other accounts.  It can seem that you need to register a card with the App Store to download anything, even free apps.  However there is a way round this:  Try to download a free app and you will be prompted to register with the App Store.  During this process you will be asked to select a payment method.  In the drop-down you will see an option for “None”.  n.b. you do not get this when doing the standard setup.

Tip no.6: Decide how you’re going to set up the iPads

After some discussion it was felt that if the iPad was too restricted it would be unlikely to prove its worth as a device.  I feel the value of the iPad in a college setting is it can replace a lot of the stuff students have to carry around, but also increase productivity e.g. if a student can check their college emails on it during the day rather than having to find a PC.  We decided to do the following for the pilot and will review how these settings work in practice:

1.  We didn’t sign up for iCloud.  Any backups may involve data private to the student borrowing the iPad which could then be accessed by the next user.  Much simpler to set each student up with a DropBox account.  The DropBox account is unlinked before the iPad is loaned out again.

2.  In Settings> General> Restrictions we set a passcode and turned off iTunes, Installing Apps, Deleting Apps and In-App Purchases.

3.  Students would be encouraged to set up their email on the device which again would be unlinked when it was returned.

4.  Any accessibility options which were required e.g. Large Text/White on Black/Zoom would be discussed with the student at the time of issue of the iPad.

I’ll update here as the pilot progresses into the roll out stage.

Many topics were covered including accessibility, note taking and voice recognition, but what participants said they valued most was getting some hands-on experience with an iPad and discussing how it might support students in their studies.  Ninety percent of participants had not touched an iPad before the seminar so after a short introduction they were encouraged to try the device out for themselves.

With that base of knowledge the participants were taken through a range of apps for note taking, organisation, reading and voice input/output.  Discussions were led around where tablets fit in to education, what situations are suitable for their use and how do we assess student need?

This seminar proved to be very popular and was over-subscribed.  We’ll be running this session again in 2012, so keep an eye on the Seminar page of the BRITE website for further details.  To receive the latest seminar news, sign up to the BRITE eNews via our home page.

BRITE likes to do things differently!

Should you participate in BRITE’s Needs Assessment Practice (NAP) course – sometimes referred to as Module 4 – you’ll enjoy the added value of being assigned an experienced mentor to provide individualised guidance and supervision.

But what does “being mentored” actually involve? BRITE team member, Carol Boyle, talks us through her approach to mentoring, and what makes for a successful mentor/mentee relationship.

As your mentor my role would be to encourage your personal and professional growth by sharing knowledge and experience that is relevant to your needs.

As the mentee, you would decide upon the amount of guidance required. I expect to be asked for help or advice to tackle more challenging work.

We work together to reach a specific goal and we communicate with each other regularly to ensure that goal is reached. Typically, it is the successful completion of the BRITE Professional Development Award, Inclusiveness: Facilitating strategies to Support Learners with Additional Needs*.

With BRITE participants located over an increasingly large geographical area, Carol believes that communication remains key to the relationship.

For convenience, mentors and mentees usually meet online using BRITE’s virtual meeting space, powered by Adobe Connect Pro. Email and phone calls are popular. Where necessary a face-to-face meeting may be arranged.

A typical mentoring relationship for me would be to first meet the mentee to ‘put a face to a name’, answer any questions about the practical and theoretical elements to NAP/Module 4, outline expectations of the relationship and of course make sure that you are comfortable with using the online facility and receiving encouraging feedback and being mentored.

Following this initial stage, it’s down to the important business of assessing students and writing reports!

After our initial meeting, you observe me assessing a student to determine his or her additional support needs. Later, I observe your needs assessment skills and report writing, providing constructive feedback.

Ultimately, says Carol, “success depends on both the mentor and the mentee”.

I am here to motivate and support you in your role, while you should be someone who is eager to learn, to develop existing skills, and wants the recognition you deserve for the work you do.

In addition to guiding the mentee towards successful completion of the course, the benefits of having a mentor include:

• Learning from one another 
• Building confidence levels
• Trying new ideas and challenges
• A good sounding board!
• Smoother transition into a new role
• Reassurance of existing abilities

*NAP/Module 4 offers accredited training for educational practitioners who are actively involved in assessing the support needs of learners. When combined with another BRITE course, Facilitate Inclusive Learning Strategies (FILS) – AKA BRITE Modules 1-3 – it forms a graduate-level PDA in Inclusiveness: Facilitating strategies to Support Learners with Additional Needs.

Visit our website to find out more about Carol and BRITE professional development awards.

Check if the student is right or left handed. This sounds obvious, but many left-handers will use the mouse with their right hand because the mouse is typically placed to the right of the keyboard.

Slow down the mouse pointer speed so that the movement of the pointer is easier to control. This is also an important thing to do when using rollerballs or joysticks.

• In Windows go to Control Panel then Mouse. Click the Pointer Options tab then move the slider left or right to adjust the speed.
• On a Mac go to System Preferences then Keyboard and Mouse. Click the Mouse tab then move the Tracking Speed slider left or right to adjust the speed.

Make the mouse pointer larger or a different colour so it is easier to see. This may be a critical factor for students with a visual impairment.

• In Windows go to Control Panel then Mouse. Click the Pointers tab. Choose a Scheme from the drop down list. Windows Black (extra large) is a good one to try first. If the pointer still isn’t visible enough download larger pointers from http://tinyurl.com/acepointers
• On a Mac go to System Preferences then Universal Access. Click the Mouse tab then move the Cursor Size slider left or right to adjust the size.

There may be restrictions in your institution which means you are unable to adjust these settings. Have a polite discussion with your ICT support to remind them of your institution’s obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to make ‘reasonable adjustments’.

Fil McIntyre, Assistive Technologist, BRITE

Captioning a video can be a long and expensive process, so an automatic method should ensure more videos can be captioned. One of BRITE’s assistive technologists, Fil McIntyre, reports his findings and provides tips to get started with captioning…

I tested a few videos but found the results were far from satisfactory and could not be relied upon for giving an accurate transcript of the speech.  It seems that unless the speaker has very clear and precise speech (Barrack Obama is a good example) the auto captioning is inaccurate.  Any background noise can also affect the accuracy. But all is not lost!  There is a semi-automatic method to caption videos. 

For any video you upload, YouTube also allows you to upload a transcript of that video.  It will then use the in-built speech recognition and match the text of the transcript to the video.  This works very well and means you don’t need to work out all the timings for the transcript, but you still get an accurate and correctly timed representation of what is being said.  It can take some time to produce the transcript but nowhere near the time it would take to also input all the timings yourself.

In short – any video you can upload to YouTube, you can also easily provide captions for.  If using videos in education this is a simple way to provide access for students who are D/deaf or who have a hearing loss.  It also may be of benefit to students who have English as a second language.

When someone views the video they will have the option to click the CC at the bottom of the player and choose to view the captions. 

Some further guidance on the practical aspects of captioning is provided below:

• You must have uploaded the video to your YouTube account.
• Type out the transcription and save as a .txt file.  You can do this in any word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word) but be sure to change the file format to .txt or plain text.
• If there are significant non-verbal sounds then type them amongst the text at the appropriate points.  Non-verbal sounds should be placed in square brackets e.g. [laughter], [crash].
• If there is more than one speaker on (or off) screen you should label who is speaking e.g.  Frank: We think we know how he did it.  Sally: Oh, Howie couldn’t have done it. He hasn’t been in for weeks.
• Standard captioning will use colours to differentiate between speakers.  If there is lots of conversation in your video you may want to think about getting it professionally captioned rather than using this method.
• In your YouTube account, go to your videos then next to your video click edit.  Under the Captions and Subtitles tab click Add New Captions or Transcript.  Browse to your transcription file.  Ensure you select Transcript File from the options.  Once uploaded tick the box next to English under Available Transcription tracks.

Fil McIntyre 

Read Fil’s ICT Tip of the Month in the Equipment Loan Bank area of the BRITE website.

If you support students who have communication difficulties, or you would just like to learn more, some new resources provide background information and examples of support strategies.

The Hello campaign marks 2011 as the national year of communication. Hello is a campaign to increase understanding of how important it is for young people to develop good communication skills.

A number of resources have been made available on the Hello website. While the focus is often on children, many of the resources have relevance to those working with school leavers.

Don’t Get Me Wrong provides some background on a range of difficulties with communication. While including overviews of the potential impact of autism, dyspraxia, physical and learning disabilities, the resource crucially highlights the unreliability of using a diagnosis in predicting language difficulties.

In line with an inclusive approach, the resource highlights the value in investigating the needs of the individual. The third section of the resource contains useful tips for providing practical support. A checklist at the end may be helpful to practitioners in identifying language and communication support needs.

Other Ways of Speaking covers Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) techniques used by people who have difficulty producing speech. The resource explains what is meant by aided, unaided, low tech and high tech AAC. Case studies and tips for supporting and communicating with someone who uses AAC are also included.

Communication and students with complex needs

Students who have difficulty with language and communication sometimes have other needs with which they require a high level of support. When this happens, the person’s needs are often referred to as “profound and complex” (PCN).

The Profound and Complex Needs Team at Scotland’s Colleges produces a newsletter containing lots of practical tips and examples of good practice.

On the PCN news page, as well as back issues of the newsletter, you’ll find information about staff development events. You’ll also see information about the transitions resource, TRiP, on which BRITE collaborated.

The next PCN Team event is Effective Methods of Learner Engagement for Students with Complex Communication Support Needs on Thursday 06 October 2011. 

Those who wish to deepen their knowledge of communication techniques used by people with PCN, might have a look at the Mencap/MMU report Communication and people with the most complex needs: what works and why this is essential.  The report investigates the effectiveness of a range of methods and concludes with recommendations including the need for more training and sharing of good practice.

Interestingly, while we often think of AAC as high tech systems, the report highlights the widespread use of the lower tech options such as communication passports. CALL Scotland is a good source of information about Communication Passports, visit the CALL website for more information.

Attendees, including many colleagues from the further education sector, enjoyed the opportunity to see a large range of resources all in one place. There was also a chance to meet suppliers, ask questions and gain more in-depth information where required.

In addition to a timetable of supplier sessions focusing on key products, members of the BRITE team joined CALL, JISC and local practitioners to deliver presentations looking at ways in which technology may be used to create more inclusive learning environments.

Sessions were very well-attended, in some instances there was standing room only! Read on for summaries of the BRITE workshops, including useful links.

TriP: TRansition Information and Planning

Alison Cox, Director of the BRITE Initiative, led a session introducing the TriP resource (Transition Information and Planing).

This online guide provides a wealth of information useful to families and practitioners supporting young people with profound and complex needs through the transition process.

Attendees identified the usefulness of the resource to a number of professionals. In particular, there was interest from occupational therapists who appreciated the family perspective included in the resource.

Technology and resources for older learners with profound and complex needs

One of BRITE’s Assistive Technologists, Fil McIntyre, led workshops looking at appropriate technology and resources for older learners with profound and complex needs.

The message of Fil’s workshops was to keep in mind age-appropriateness when choosing hardware and software suitable for a student’s level of ability, i.e. looking for alternatives to resources aimed at children featuring dancing animals etc.

Software of interest to people working in further education included MathBase and SwitchIt Maker 2 – Older Learners Edition.

In a slot entitled “Yes/No/Unless” Fil showed attendees a range of hardware and asked whether or not they would give the devices shown to a learner over 14. For example, when shown Big Keys black/white and Big Keys multi-coloured, generally the group responded yes to the b/w version, and no to the multi-coloured keyboard. The importance of acknowledging personal preference was noted, e.g. in the example above, some students with low vision may prefer multicoloured keys.

Future events

ICT and Inclusion is an annual event. We’ll keep you informed about next year’s event via our e-newsletter (sign up on the BRITE home page), here on the blog, and on Twitter (@BRITEinitiative).

Would you like BRITE to provide input to your event, whether on the topic of inclusiveness, assistive technology, needs assessment, or our professional development options? Please contact us to discuss your needs.