SETDirect

SET-BC Direct: May 2003

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.

In this issue:

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

1. SET News - SET-BC has teamed with BC Learning Resources Branch to bring a preferred pricing software offer to school districts. See the Provincial Software Acquisition Plan information on our website.

We hope your District benefited from this offer that included a range of software products that support students with reading and writing challenges.

Camp News - Read all about the @VisionTech and @Virtual Voices camps that will be offered this summer.

Summer Courses - A fourth year education course in Assistive Technology will be offered this summer. Watch for posters and mail outs coming soon to your schools. The course is a 9 day course - 4 days online June 30, July 2, 3, and 4 and one week, July 7-11 in the SET-BC Provincial Lab in Vancouver, B.C. Contact J. Cauthers at the University of Victoria, Continuing Education department for more information.

Student Stories - SET-BC highlights the stories of students who use assistive technology for writing, reading, communication and social skills on our website. We invite you to read Tristan's Story. Tristan is a bubbly, inquisitive grade one student. He was born with Arthrogryposis, a condition that affects the use and range of motion of the limbs.

2. Training Opportunities - The AAC (Augmentative / Alternative Communication) Focus Group has been very busy preparing for the SET-BC AAC Roadshow. The 2003 AAC Roadshow will be presented in 7 locations. It is a one day training event for speech language pathologists, teachers, and teaching assistants. The popular document AAC:A Way of Thinking has been revised. To find the AAC Roadshow coming to a SET-BC Region near you, go to Upcoming Events on the SET-BC website to check the calendar for important dates. You can also find the AAC Interest Group Webpage on the SET-BC Website.  

3. Project Updates - 50 BC students and teams from Lillooet to Campbell River have been accepted for the Variety Accessible Math Project 2003. Teachers attended a full day training event and acquired accessible math software and resources for their students.

Variety Accessible Math kits also went out to three teams from the Kootenays and northern BC. Variety Accessible Math training events were held in Courtenay, Vancouver, and Vernon.

Teachers and teaching assistants enjoyed the opportunities the Variety training days afforded. "Lots of good team building took place!" "I don't know who is more excited, me or my student."

4. Software Kudos - PCS Animations from Mayer Johnson includes over 500 animated verbs. You can use the animations to help your students learn verb meanings or to reinforce basic concepts. A variety of formats are provided so you can use them with your favorite Mac or Win programs.

Coming Soon - My Own Bookshelf by Soft Touch is an authoring program for you to build a library of computer accessible books and stories, The student can then go to their own bookshelf to select a book or story to read. Scheduled to ship in May 2003.  

5. Web Travel - The Oxford ACE Centre's focus is on the use of technology to address the communication and educational needs of young people with physical and communication difficulties. The Oxford ACE Centre offers a variety of resource documents for download. See: How to create Talking Books in PowerPoint, Clicker 4, and HyperStudio 4.

Recently Clicker 4 has received praise for ease of programming content on-the-fly and its versatility in making Accessible Books. Clicker 4 is by Crick Software in the UK.

6. Partners - In partnership with Betacom/Bridges, the VisAble Project, was established to evaluate the VisAble VideoTelescope™ for educational purposes.

The Portable Low Vision Technology Project has been submitted to the Conference Board of Canada for consideration for the National Conference Board awards to be held in Toronto in April 2003.