On November 20th, 2014, I attended the Assistive Technology Conference of New England in Warwick, Rhode Island. The conference was sponsored by ATAP (Assistive Technology Access Partnership), TechACESS of RI, and the Rhode Island Department of Education. The conference brought together professionals and businesses who have an interest in finding and utilizing technology to help those with mental and physical disabilities, including learning disabilities.
At first I wasn't sure what to make of it all- I was flying solo. The wings of the conference area at the Crowne Plaza were lined with vendors representing the public and private sectors. Most people I saw were walking in small packs of two or three. Everyone I spoke with and who spoke to me (perhaps intrigued at seeing someone so young looking?) was extremely friendly. From the attitude of those I spoke with, I feel like this type of professional development gives teachers and school staff an interesting break from their normal schedule and makes them feel like professional and skilled individuals. I felt a general sense that everyone was there to collaborate, share ideas, and find a new way of helping their students; I did not get the sense that people had been dragged there. When I am applying for teaching positions I will definitely be sure to ask about the opportunities the school affords for professional development.
I walked away with two concrete things I can use/do in my classroom. The first is the "guided access" setting on the iPad. In my observations in schools with iPads, it was plain to see that students were adept at switching between applications so that they could appear on task but still manage some goofing off (read: Snapchatting). If/when I have students with iPads I will use the guided access setting when I really need to keep students reigned in on their tablets. What is does is that is sets up a block, essentially, keeping you within the application or set of webpages that you've allowed it to. I would have preset the 4 digit passcode for the iPads so that when it is time to get out of a certain app or site, only I could do so. I could imagine, however, that it would be tedious to do a passcode for each student, so this may be better used as a disciplinary measure for individual students. A presenter talked about guided access as applied to students who either have an e-wandering problem or those who have physical obstacles to using the iPad (for example, if a student's motor skills predisposed her to hitting buttons that would either delete her work or navigate her away from the task at hand).
The second cool thing I'm walking away with is the app 30Hands. 30Hands is a "digital storytelling" application that can be used to create videos with pictures, video clips, drawings, and voice over. I immediately thought of applying this to vocabulary words or identifications. Instead of simply writing out definitions, students could be create and make short videos explaining the word. I think that the process of creating these videos would make the terms and their applications more memorable, and could easily be shared with other students or showcased on a class page.
I really enjoyed going to the conference- it was my first experience of the like. It makes me really wish I had attended the National Council for Social Studies conference in Boston! I learned a lot from this conference about little things a teacher can do to make her classroom easier to access for students with different needs, for example, using the OpenDyslexic font for students who have dyslexia or trouble seeing font. It was an inspiring experience to be in a room with so many people who are doing such hard work to integrate and challenge students who have special needs.
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