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Out & About in Region Four
SET-BC Region 4 is located in the southeast corner of the province. It is made up of six school districts: Southeast Kootenay #5, Rocky Mountain #6, Kootenay Lake #8, Arrow Lakes #10, Kootenay-Columbia #20 and Boundary #51. The region is quite large geographically and presents considerable winter travel difficulties for school based teams and SET-BC staff. As a result, one of the largest challenges faced in Region 4 is providing timely and convenient assistive technology training for the educational professionals in the area. Inservice training and technology workshops are provided at three levels: at the schools, with individual school based teams; at the district level, with teams from several schools; and at the regional level, in one or two locations in the region. So far this year, several district and regional events have been held and have been very successful in bringing together regional professionals to not only develop skills around assistive technology, but to make contact with other educators in the region. Here are some highlights of these events.... |
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ASHA Teleseminar - In October, the Region 4 office was a host site for the ASHA Teleseminar on "Reading and Writing: Speech-Language Pathologists Making a Difference". Twelve Speech-Language Pathologists and related professionals attended the two hour teleconference and learned how to support literacy development, gained an understanding of the connection between oral and written language and its impact on educational performance, and examined assessment and treatment strategies for reading and writing disorders in children. The teleseminar participants enjoyed the teleseminar and felt that a great deal of useful information had been presented in a short time. |
| College of the Rockies Student Training Workshop - Over the past several years, the College of the Rockies, located in Cranbrook, has offered a Teaching Assistant training program and SET-BC Region 4 has provided the assistive technology component of that program. Eighteen students attended an evening session in October at the Regional office in Kimberley in which an overview of the SET-BC program and assistive technology in general was presented. Students were also able to try out a number of assistive technology systems including computer systems, alternate keyboards, writing support software, vision support technology, augmentative communication devices and switches. The students were very enthusiastic about assistive technology and the role they may play in implementing technology with their future students. |
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Regional District Partner Meeting - In mid-November, eight of the ten Region 4 District Partners attended a combined meeting and training session in Kimberley. During the morning, many issues concerning SET-BC service delivery, district student selection procedures, and provincial support for District Partners were discussed. In the afternoon, Lorna Klashinsky, the Western Canada representative from Bridges Betacom, presented a variety of new devices and software to the Partners, helping to raise their general awareness of assistive technology. It was a busy, but productive day for all concerned! |
| Intellitools in the Rockies II - In the spring of 2000, the first Intellitools in the Rockies regional workshop was presented. At that time, Karen Traut from Intellitools presented Overlay Maker and Intellitalk. Workshop participants had requested a follow-up workshop on Intellitools. In mid-November, Intellitools in the Rockies II took place in Kimberley. School based teams from around the region came out for a day of training on Intellipics and to see a demonstration of Intellitalk II. Lorna Klashinsky helped facilitate the November training session and participants spent the day creating a safety sign activity and overlay. Through the creation of the activity, participants were able to try new and more advanced techniques to enhance their activities. The workshop was made possible with support from SET-BC in Vancouver - twelve iMacs were shipped to the Region 4 office to establish a temporary lab in which to conduct the workshop. School based teams reported a new feeling of confidence in using Intellitools and creating activities for their students. |
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Augmenting Communication Skills - Two AAC workshops were conducted in January, in Cranbrook and Nelson, providing educational professionals in the region with an opportunity to gain an overview of the field of Alternative and Augmentative Communciation. SET-BC Region 5 Communication Consultant Wendy Young came down to Region 4 to facilitate the workshops. Participants were introduced to a number of user-friendly no-low and high tech strategies and devices. Through examination of case studies, participants were also able to see how various strategies and devices were suitable for different AAC situations. Numerous devices were available to provide hands-on experience. Both workshops were very well attended and enthusiastically received! |
| It has been a busy year in Region 4 and it shows no sign of slowing down! The Region 4 staff has really enjoyed hosting these and other training events in the area and looks forward to providing even more in the coming months. We enjoy terrific support from school based teams, district staff and school and district administration, encouraging us to work hard to meet the technology needs of the educators in the Kootenays. | |