Recognizing Differences

Last week I attended one of my favorite national conferences, the annual National Technology Innovators Conference in Washington, DC. Many wonderful presentations, national speakers, and thought provoking discussions. The opening drew from a recent NCTI Issue brief that was shared in draft format and just released, http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2009/11/16/rpt-innovation-for-assistive-technology/. Exciting to see that universal design for learning is one of the five top trends noted in this report!

I always look forward to this conference and know that I will leave with information about future trends and emerging innovations. This was certainly no different than previous years. I was excited to hear that social media continues to be a force we must contend with and find ways to use for leveraging information.  As a tool used often by students, social media offers freely available tools that can be used to collect and share best practices in learning technologies.

The promise of technology for the future in education was also underscored in the messages delivered by newly appointed national education technology director, Karen Cator. Her mention of the importance of access and reaching all students were especially important to this attendee. I’m  excited that Dr. David Rose will be offering wisdom to the shaping of the Education Technology Plan and the importance of considering evidence based practices such as universal design for learning. Ms. Cator closed with a request asking for stories and examples that they can review as they draft this future plan. Consider sharing at https://edtechfuture.org/ Share your story!

It is always a good thing when a senior IT staff member sends one an email to share cutting edge technology developments that address assistive technology. That was how my day evolved yesterday. Then, as I reviewed my Wall Street Journal, I found yet another article addressing these evolving new features in the new iPhone/ iTouch release this week. Bravo!

As this review notes, the new 3Gs offers a number of tools such as voice over tools that can be controlled through the touch display. So, for someone who may be blind, they can touch the screen and “hear” the functionality and navigate their way around the tool features. Their access and use of many of the same tools a sighted user accesses on the iPhone/ iTouch can now be available. What an important universal design feature! To hear more about that broadcast, listen at http://media.macworld.com/media/podcast/mwpodcast163.mp3

I’m presenting on the Assistive and Instructional Technology Features of the Apple iTouch next week at the Virginia Educational Technology Leadership Conference. As I beef up my skills with this tool, I am increasingly impressed with the wide array of features available. The newest iTouch design includes an embedded speaker which makes playing video, audio, taped conversation, and interactive apps more appealing. An accessory headphone/ microphone allows me to listen to all of this privately and have a microphone available for any important recordings…an interview, lecture, presentation.

Most importantly though, I like the apps that are available and growing. Last count, over 5000. For those who need some assistive technology in their lives, I’m impressed with such Apps as Sticky Notes, Notes, iRecorder, Night Stand, Talking Clock, and White Noise. For those of us who’ve worked in the career prepartion fields, the iTouch functionality as a tape measure, level or flashlight are also appealing. The list goes on and on.

I’m encouraged by this tool and hope that increasingly, many of the popular assistive reading and writing tool companies will develop apps as well that can be used by students — the current market for this technology. However, I suspect if many an aging boomer or older individual realized what 229 – 299.00 bought them in this device…they’d also be persuaded.

Word prediction is an assistive technology technique that’s been around for over fifteen or more years. It provides users with instant word selections as they type a first letter. An example can be observed with the new Firefox search feature that occurs when a user begins typing a web address in the search window. After a few keystrokes, Firefox “anticipates” what the user is writing and begins to offer choices.

This technique can be maximized in tandem with word processing programs such as using Co-Writer with Microsoft Word. Full functionality comes from this marriage of products enabling a struggling writer to have multiple word choice selections as they write, speech aloud pronunciation, and automatic typing within the Word program.

However, increasingly this type of technology is showing up in contemporary tools. Portable digital assistants have been using this technique for calendar entries, search engines employ this functionality, and now cell phone text messaging. This handy feature provides great writing assistance for a struggling writer and offers quick access to repeated words and phrases for the writer on the go. Universal functionality for all!