SET-BC Direct: December 2001

Special Education Technology-British Columbia

Welcome to SET-BC Direct, an on-line newsletter for people who are interested in issues and resources regarding the use of assistive technologies in education.

SET-BC Direct is intended to help teachers and other professionals who have questions regarding the implementation of technology for students with special needs. Subscribers may also be interested in the SET-BC program itself; our model for service delivery and the projects we develop to better assist students with disabilities.

Season's Greetings from all the staff at Special Education Technology - BC

In this issue:

1. SET News
2. Training Opportunities
3. Project Updates
4. Software Kudos
5. Web Travel
6. Partners

1. SET News

1. Announcing District Partner Provincial Day 2002 - SET-BC works in partnership with BC school districts to provide assistive technology services for students with special needs. The District Partners program was established to help coordinate our services within each school district. This network of partners is now a province wide forum for sharing information and supporting the implementation of technology for students with disabilities.

On March 13, 2002, SET-BC will host a District Partners Day in Vancouver. The agenda, which will be finalized in late January, includes:

• an exciting look at future directions in technology and education, and how they relate to our own practices in British Columbia
• sessions that feature district solutions and individual student solutions using assistive technology
• a look at an assistive-technology goals databank

2. SET-BC has seven Regional Centres as well as the Provincial Centre. In this edition of SET Direct, we are pleased to highlight Prince George's (R5) new web page as well as showcasing students from northern British Columbia in the Student Stories section of our website.

2. Training Opportunities

Visit Upcoming Events to keep abreast of upcoming training opportunities.

Reminder - Nota Bien:
In January, Gail Van Tatenhove visits BC and presents on the topic: Selecting An Appropriate Communication Device - To Minspeak or Not to Minspeak; Assessment Demonstration & Discussion.

In February, Dr. Karen Erickson and Dr. David Koppenhaver will present a videoconference on the topic of Literacy Strategies for students in early literacy activities, at several sites around the province. David and Karen are leaders in the field of literacy for students with disabilties and students struggling with acquisition of literacy skills. This will be an incredible opportunity for BC teachers and teams to gain insight into the implementation of the "Four Block" literacy approach.

3. Project Updates

The Emerging Braille Literacy Project and the Variety Accessible Math Project both got off to a energetic start. View project information on the Emerging Braille Literacy Project training days and the Variety Accessible Math Project training days.

4. Software Kudos

Presently, Mac computers from SET-BC ship with Appleworks 6 installed. Teams will be impressed by the resources available. When the user goes to the File menu in AppleWorks 6 and chooses "Show Starting Points" and then chooses to navigate through the "Web" tab, a cornucopia of wonderful resources await. A great feature about all the templates is that you can save the template to your desktop (or disk) and then use the template when you are off-line. I wandered through the Just For Kids section of the templates and had a great time using the files. There is also a web search capability available. It is amazingly efficient. I typed "whale" then sat and watched as 29 pictures of whales were found on the web and delivered. Take a moment to open your Appleworks /starting points/web. Merry Christmas!

The winner of last issue's software draw for Word Q is Leesa Esterday, a helping teacher in Smithers, B.C. Merry Christmas Leesa!

Enter the draw to win a copy of Access to Math. Access to Math is the talking math worksheet program that helps foster the development of numbers and operation senses. It provides on-screen worksheets that support individual learning needs with custom capabilities. A product from Don Johnston, Inc.

5. Web Travel

In this edition we highlight www.sitesforteachers.com. Billed as The Net's Best Resource for Teachers, Sites for Teachers rates educational websites by popularity with teachers and maintains the links to the more popular sites.

Under construction at www.setbc.org/resources: We take this oportunity to announce a new section currently under construction on our website. Under Resources, we are adding a new section to Web resources. Watch for Web Connections where we will list websites that contain information on Assistive Technology and/or the Implementation of Technology.

SET-BC enjoys the opportunity to work with BC Vision Teachers. Throughout the years, it has proven to be a mutually beneficial partnership.

In 2001, SET-BC engaged Graham Cook, the teacher of the Visually Impaired for the Peace River South School District #59, to develop lesson modules for the Emerging Braille Literacy Project. The resources were developed to support the implementation of the Mountbatten Pro device in activities for young learners using Braille. Graham Cook's Mountbatten Pro Lesson Modules received many accolades from teams attending the Emerging Braille Project training. Download the Mountbatten Pro Lesson Modules from the SET-BC website. Thank you Graham for these incredible resources.