SET-BC Direct Mar 03/00

Volume 2, Issue 2

Special Education Technology-British Columbia

http://www.setbc.org

SET-BC Direct is intended to assist teachers and other professionals involved in 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.

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1. SET News - Technology Camps/Summer 2000

SET-BC is pleased to announce an expanded partnership with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind B.C./Yukon Division (CNIB) and a new partnership with Lions Club/Easter Seal regarding camps being offered this summer for students with disabilities.

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@ Virtual Voices 2000

@Virtual Voices 2000 is SET-BCs first camp for students who use Augmentative, or Alternative Communication devices. The camp will be held at Camp Squamish, from August 31st to September 4th, 2000.

@Virtual Voices 2000 is for SET-BC students, ages 7-12, who use voice output communication devices and have an interest in participating in group learning and social activities.

Information on this camp will be sent to BC School Districts in March, 2000. More information on @Virtual Voices 2000 will be available in the March issue of SET-Direct. Please contact Elaine Ferguson at (604) 261-9450, local 308.

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@ VisionTech 2000

Braille Power Camp

Dates: July 2-10, 2000 (ages 14-18)

This program involves secondary students who are blind. These students are familiar with Jaws, PowerPoint, Word, and other standard applications. The focus of this camp is on Microsoft Word, as a web creation program. The students will participate in group-work to design a website, leaving the camp with a greater understanding of Internet tools, teamwork, and the creative process.

Length of camp: 9 days
Technology focus: High
Recreation/Life Skills focus: Low

Braille Literacy Camp

Dates: July 12-18, 2000 (ages 8-12)

This will be the second year this VisionTech camp is offered. The camp includes students in intermediate grades who will participate in activities that will help develop their skills in Braille literacy. A variety of vision technologies will be explored. The program curriculum, recreation, and life skills activities will be well integrated into the technology components of the camp.

Length of camp: 6 days
Technology focus: Medium
Recreation/Life Skills focus: Medium

Teen Tech (Blind/ Low-Vision) Camp

Dates: July 20-27, 2000 (ages 12-17)

This weeklong program will feature the combination of life skills and recreational activities with vision technologies. Technologies like Jaws and Kurzweil, along with productivity software like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, will be the focus of this camp. Introductory skills with hardware/software packages would be useful, but not essential. The camp is geared to intermediate/secondary students.

Length of camp: 8 days
Technology focus: Medium
Recreation/Life Skills focus: Medium

Families will register this year solely through the CNIB. SET-BC will assist in identifying appropriate candidates for the camps; District Partners and Vision Teachers are encouraged to contact regional SET-BC staff regarding the process.

 

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2. Training Partnerships

This month, SET-BC regional centres hosted training sessions by Bob
Keller, of Don Johnston, and Bruce McClanahan, from the Washington State
School for the Blind.

http://www.setbc.org/setevents

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3. Project Updates

Kurzweil Project Update - During the 1999-2000 school year, five SET-BC secondary teams with a Visually Impaired student are participating in on-line lessons, e-mail discussions, and data collection activities as they explore the feature set found in the Kurzweil 3000 software.

The Kurzweil 3000 is a PC based reading, scanning, and study skills environment developed specifically to be used easily by students and teachers. Kurzweils rich feature set includes the capabilities to read, write, and scan in a richly supported study skills environment.

Teams are presently exploring the Kurzweil study skills environment which provides: embedded dictionary support; text highlighting-extracting capabilities in Web, scanned, or word processed documents; attach-a-note; and print-notes capabilities.
A project report will be available in June, 2000.

 

Mountbatten Brailler Research Project - Overview
The Provincial Resource Center for the Visually Impaired (PRCVI), Special Education Technology - British Columbia (SET-BC) and the University of British Columbia (UBC) initiated a research project to review and evaluate the Mountbatten Brailler in December of 1998. The Mountbatten Brailler is an electronic Braille notetaker and embosser with features that include an ergonomic keyboard, memory, speech feedback and forward and backward Braille/print translation. A QWERTY keyboard can be connected to the Mountbatten to produce contracted or uncontracted Braille.

February update

Project participants are looking forward to two Mountbatten Days on March 27th and 28th. The first of these days will bring together the 16 teachers of students with visual impairments and blindness to share their experiences and findings with respect to the projects research questions. We will also have an opportunity to review some Mountbatten how tos and share techniques and strategies to improve braille literacy. On the second day, the Mountbatten Research Project students from the lower mainland will be getting together to participate in some games and special activities as well as share to Mountbatten tips and do some individual and group creating writing.

A few comments from some of our project teachers whose students are beginning to read and write in braille:

My grade two student loves her Mountbatten and works hard to use it well. The other kids think the Mountbatten braille writer is cool, use the QWERTY keyboard to produce braille messages and are very interested.

Compared to the Perkins Brailler the Mountbatten is an inviting piece of equipment. The student is highly motivated to use the equipment.

Some reservations from a teacher who is working with an intermediate age student: ....too noisy in classroom with older students. Navigation for editing is auditory.

The research component of the Mountbatten project will be drawing to a close in May of this year and we will shortly thereafter share a complete report of our findings.

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4. Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention 2000

SET-BC staff and District Partners are looking forward to the CEC Convention to be held in Vancouver on April 5 - 8, 2000. CEC will feature presentations on current strategies and issues in special education and is expected to attract more than 8000 delegates from North America and around the world.

In conjunction with the CEC Convention, SET-BC is hosting a provincial District Partners' Conference on April 5th. On this day, educators from across BC will focus on sharing ideas and resources for the implementation of assistive technology in the classroom.

Both CEC and the District Partners' day promise to be excellent opportunities for SET-BC partners and staff to expand their knowledge and skills. We're pleased that British Columbias success in implementing technology for students with special needs will be highlighted in over fifteen presentations at the convention.

Visit the CEC Convention 2000 web site for current information on registration, presentations, and special events. http://www.cec.sped.org/conv/index.html

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5. PixWriter

PixWriter is a talking word-processing program for beginning readers and writers which combines words, pictures, and speech. By selecting buttons, which hold words and graphics, children can write whole words, sentences and stories. A customized set-up for any student or situation can be made by typing in a list of vocabulary words that fill the buttons at the bottom of the screen. These set-ups can be saved for future use. Auditory feedback and print features are available. For further details go to http://www.slatersoftware.com.

 

 

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Questions or comments can be directed to direct@setbc.org.

SET-BC is a Provincial Resource Program funded by the B.C. Ministry of Education. Its purpose is to assist school districts in British Columbia in meeting the technology needs of students with physical disabilities and visual impairments.

SET-BC Direct is copyright © 1998 by Special Education Technology-British Columbia. Excerpts used for the purposes of quotation must be attributed explicitly to Special Education Technology-British Columbia.

The information contained in this newsletter is drawn from sources believed to be reliable, but the accuracy and completeness of the information is not guaranteed, nor in providing it does Special Education Technology-British Columbia assume any liability. This newsletter is a public commentary for informational purposes only and does not represent an invitation to purchase or endorse products, and is not to be construed as a source of buy or sell recommendations.