My Assistive Technology Applications

TED

The TED talks application allows educators to access a wide variety of innovative ideas from the nonprofit organization TED. The application would not be useful to most younger students but but it would be a great resource for teachers and other educators. It may help them gain ideas about reforms that they could try to implement in their classrooms and even throughout their entire school. The entire application features videos that are very informative about many issues. One of the videos I viewed focused on possible reforms that need to be made in the area of mathematical education. Many of these suggestions include things like using computers and teaching different areas of mathematics earlier within the curriculum. An example would be presenting calculus to younger students. Overall I feel this is a great resource for educators themselves and as a lecture resource for 9th-12th grade students.

Evernote

Evernote is an excellent notetaking capturing and creating application for teachers and students. The features available through Evernote are extremely fast and there are too many to cover within such a short review but the basic ones include typing basic notes and list saving clips of research capturing photographs and even basic audio clips. Teachers and individual students with each benefit from having their own separate Evernote accounts. The program is available with the basic or free package and a premium package which is $45 a year for each individual account. The premium account allows teachers and students to link their accounts together and collaborate for research. But honestly the number features that are available through the basic free package are so numerous that most people probably would not need more than the basic account. One great feature of Evernote is that you could save all of your research notes photos etc. to one central application which can be linked on multiple Apple or Android devices. Overall I think this is an excellent application for teachers and students to consider using in and outside of the classroom.

BrainPOP

BrainPop is an online educational resource for students with many tools that are also geared specifically towards educators in order to monitor student performance. These include charts and other tools specifically for teachers. BrainPop offers a variety of packages including BrainPop Junior for grades K through three, regular BrainPop for grades three through 12, BrainPop Espanol and BrainPop ESL. BrainPop's packages range in price from $115-$995 for an entire school year classroom set up. All educators will also have 24 hour access to various online features through BrainPop. What is brain pop you may wonder? Well BrainPop is an online resource with various educational videos that cover all seven core areas of learning. These include but are not limited to Math, English, Social Studies, Science, Technology and Health. BrainPop's features are highly interactive including educational videos, online quizzes that students can take before and after viewing the videos and even online science experiments! This is definitely a resource for teachers and schools to consider using in their classrooms.

Mermaid Waters

This is a free mathematics gaming application for very young children. The levels I tested out went through the most basic number recognition, sequencing skills, and some addition with wonderfully colorful and interactive oceanic graphics. I would definitely recommend this as an entertainment application and for educational purposes with very young students. I would personally use this application with preschool to first grade students and to review basic mathematics with students with mathematically based learning disabilities. My only complaint is that this application does not appear to have any sound.

Motion Math Zoom

Motion Math Zoom is another free mathematical gaming application. It covers basic sequencing skills and goes through different numerical bases using bubble numbers and animals. This simple application can easily be used by the youngest of elementary students. I would recommend this application starting in Kindergarten or first grade.

Quizlet

QuizLet is a free flash card application that students can use to study various types of vocabulary and facts that they may need to memorize for their classes. This free application is easy to use and could definitely be applied starting in the upper elementary grade levels including third grade and above. The flash card designs are easy-to-use and students can design them in whatever manner will make studying easiest for them. I would definitely consider quiz list as a free easy to access online flash card application.

CK-12

CK-12 Flexbooks offers schools and educators access to completely free digital textbooks or "flexbooks" for educational purposes. The books are donated by the authors and can be accessed through the application without breaking any copyright laws. I think this is a great resource for exposing students to digital textbooks and finding educational materials for students who live in low economic areas. The textbooks can also be linked to state standards if the teacher goes through the application in order to locate their common core standards and the materials that can be coordinated with them. This application would be best for educators to find materials for their students and for student use at any grade level.

Google Earth

Google earth allows the user to view specific addresses and locations on a 3-D map eat of the earth. This application is very easy-to-use and could be used by almost any age group of Bibry patients students and teachers. This would generally be a very good application for teachers to consider introducing to students so that they can get used to using the Internet and maps. This would also be a very good application in instances when you were dealing with students who have visual spatial problems and issues with map reading. It would provide the students with the more concrete way of learning about how to process were different locations are using a practically 3-D rather than a 2-D map. I would consider using this application with almost any grade level starting with possibly lower elementary to upper elementary and above. If this application was applied to specific subject areas in a school it would probably be most relevant to either a science or social studies class setting. The application is free and it is definitely something that even if teachers don't want to applied into their classrooms it would definitely be an excellent app application for personal use.

Audacity

Audacity is an excellent audio recording application that can be used with Apple windows and Android devices. It is a general audio according device that allows the user to become familiar with their own voice patterns and voice editing. This is definitely a very easy to use application when students need to create audio files for various projects. I personally would consider using this application with the middle the high school levels. The application itself is free and if the school would want to have this program as a package deal on multiple devices they could easily contact audacity to try to arrange a package deal with multiple devices. I personally have only worked with audacity using a Macintosh computer and I would say it is a very easy-to-use application and has definitely helped me when working with various projects. Overall this would be one of my top choices for audio recording devices.

The Elements: A Visual Exploration

This highly interactive digital textbook has been created specifically for the iPad and is intended for middle school grade levels and all levels above it. The textbook covers all of the Elements or building blocks of life and the features allow the reader to look at each element's statistics, charts, etc. and discover many interesting details about all of the elements with ease. After using this application in class I definitely feel that it is an excellent resource for students and anyone with an interest in science. It is definitely worth the investment of $13.99 to has this application placed on an iPad.

Dragon Anywhere

Dragon is an excellent generally easy-to-use speech to text application and it would be a wonderful resource to students with dysgraphia. This application is also good for general use for students and teachers and even library patrons or any person in general to record notes and reminders for themselves. The one thing I found somewhat frustrating Dragon dictation is that saving your recordings can be a little difficult so I would suggest copying and pasting your recordings immediately from the application into whatever files you want to have on hand with your information. Overall it has a very simple format. The only other thing that the user will need to consider is making sure they speak very clearly when using this application. One other great feature of dragon dictation is that it is very easy to edit your recordings. I would definitely recommend having Dragon dictation available to teachers and students.

CamScanner

This application allows the user to scan images directly onto their iPhone! But it is completely reliant on the user having enough storage space on their phone. I would definitely recommend using this free application when you have the need for a scanner unexpectedly.

Lure of the Labyrinth

This a comic book styled, online game that is supposed be easily accessed through most electronic devices. Unfortunately, I was not able to get this game's application to upload onto my iPhone so I cannot confirm its true compatibility with mobile devices. But it should work very well on an iPad, laptop, or desktop computer. In the game the player goes through a comic styled labyrinth solving various logic and math puzzles. It would be an excellent resource for math classes at the middle school level. The creators of this game did collaborate with various school districts in order to make this game as educationally relevant as possible. It is free and if it ca be downloaded onto a stationary or mobile platform I definitely recommend trying this application out.

Molecules

This application allows the user to view 3D models of different chemical compounds and molecules such as DNA, insulin, and caffeine. It also includes statistics that are connected to each of the molecules. The 3D models are incredibly interesting and the colorful sequences the application uses definitely help the viewer gain a clear visual model of different types of molecules. It is available for free and can be used on the iPad, iPhone and the iPod touch. I was able to experiment with the iPhone version and wish that the application included more molecules. I would recommend this for middle and high school science classes.

Google Maps

This application is more useful in a general sense to students, teachers and library patrons instead of having specific assistive technology applications. The maps features and directions are easy to use and this tool is free. It might be a good idea to introduce students to this application is lieu of a GPS.

OverDrive Media Console

This application allows you to directly connect to your public, college or school library if it is in Overdrive's network. The only library that I am affiliated with was able to access the features through is the Reading Public Library. If a school chose to connect itself to Overdrive's network it would allow students to locate and borrow digital titles from home. This would be especially helpful for students who become ill and need to take a long leave of absence.

Teaching Objects

This is a cloud based lesson plan organizer. This free resource allows educators to collect resources from Youtube and Google and associate them with different subject areas and sets of Common Core Standards. The online service or cloud based program that this application is connected to is iCloud. If teachers would like to organize their lessons on a cloud based program I would recommend considering this application.

Inspiration Maps

This application is a specialized diagram creator. Unfortunately, the tutorial video on edshelf was not working and this application is only available for the iPad. As such, I was not able to actually review the features that the application has to offer. This app is available in two different packages; Inspiration Map Lite which is free and regular Inspiration Maps for $9.99. Since I was unable to actually review this app's features, I would recommend only downloading the free application and trying it out before even considering the more advanced package.

TalkTyper

TalkTyper is a very similar application to Dragon Dictation. As it also converts speech-text and is free it really would be a matter of personal preference when it comes to selecting one of these speech-text tools. I personally find the set up of Dragon Dictation to be easier to work with and edit. This tool is so similar to Dragon Dictation that I cannot find any specific positive qualities that this application has to make it distinctive.

iTalk

iTalk is a general text-speech application. It is designed for the Kindle Fire HD and Android formats. This is the only app so far that I have found that is specifically designed for these platforms. It appears to be very easy to operate with clear icons above the area where you actually type text. This is the cheapest text-speech application that I have ever found, it is only $0.99. My main issue with this application is the volume of the actual speaker. The voice is incredibly quiet on top of being monotone. If you need a speech-text application and especially cannot afford an expensive communication device, I would definitely recommend this app.

Mathmateer

Mathmateer is a fun game for students that involves 56 different math-based missions in space! There are two different versions: Mathmateer Lite which is free and regular Mathmateer which costs $.99. The age range is listed as being for children between the ages of 6-12 so I would recommend this for an elementary school setting. I personally think this looks like a fun and very interactive activity for reviewing different math concepts ranging from fractions and division to other various mathematical concepts.

Futaba Classroom Games for Kids

. It is an interactive gaming application that allows for students to compete and work together on activities and games I want some single iPad. It allows teachers to introduce and review topics to do with letter matching mathematics food animals etc. it covers a wide variety of topics and could be easily applied into many classroom scenarios. It is a very fun and interactive activity for students to do what it should easily keep them engaged in the class. The application cost $5.99 but I definitely feel it would be worth it for classroom setting to have this application as an option for reviewing materials in a fun and interactive manner.

iPads In the Classroom

IPads in the Classroom is a digital textbook on how to integrate iPads into the curriculum. I definitely agree with it being recommended two beginning teachers when it comes to integrating technology into their lessons overall this appears to be a very good resource for educators to use. Though this book cannot really be used when it comes to working with the students it is a free resource and educators should take advantage of it.

Air Sketch

Air sketches another whiteboard application that I will be comparing to sketch lot. Air Sketche's price is $9.99 for the entire application and it can only be used on an iPad. It can be hooked up to a SmartBoard and the images can be projected onto the SmartBoard. I personally feel that even with some mild differences in the features that can be offered through Air Sketch such as working more directly to PDF files as well Sketchlot would be the better option to go with for school when it comes to a white board application. I simply do not feel that this application is worth the price.

SoundNote

SoundNote allows you to directly record lectures meetings etc. as they are going on it is basically like having a tape recorder on your phone it is compatible with iPads and iPhones. It is a speech to text conversion application. You can also type notes to go with the recording and send them to yourself or others with the recording in a pdf format. I have honestly been having a difficult time finding a speech to text rather than a text to speech conversion application at a reasonable price or specifically one that is free. SoundNote currently being priced at $4.99. This appears to be a very useful application I was not able to review it or tested more so than is actually being shown on edshelf. But I would recommend getting this application if you have a special needs student. It would help bypass issues with dysgraphia and would be very beneficial for auditory learners.

Storyplanet

StoryPlanet is being created as an online web application in order to create interactive visually pleasing stories. As this particular application is only in beta form I cannot give an opinion on how well it will function in the classroom. I only recommend this is an application to follow not actually use.

The Fed

This is another general application that would be good for library patrons, teachers and older students. The application allows you to view charts and other information to do with the Federal Reserve. This would be a great resource for an Economics class or a public library. Unfortunately, I could not download this onto my iPhone so I was unable to really experiment with this application.

Moody Me

MoodyMe is an absolutely adorable journal for recording moods or emotions. This online daily journal allows you to record you daily mood with simple color coded smiley designs, take pictures of things that make you smile, create a slideshow of images that make you happy, and chart the changes in your mood over time. This application is free and both very simple and convenient to use. I think this would be a great tool for teachers and student to use to become familiar with their emotions and what is affecting their day-to-day moods. This application is intended as a school counseling app and I would definitely recommend it.

iMoodJournal

I reviewed this application after finding MoodyMe and I honestly prefer MoodyMe. This application does come with a small fee and it's charting features feel less interactive. Overall, I feel as though this application is geared more towards older children and adults. But this is still a very nice application that serves its purpose.

Sketchlot

Sketch lot is a simple web white board that is basically the equivalent of having a online SmartBoard. It is very easy-to-use the application is free and the account set up is very simple. Teachers can even add to their students to their account so they can all use the same application at the same time. This application can be added to multiple devices mobile and stationary for free. It is probably one of the easiest applications to set up and because whiteboards have so many uses in schools. I would definitely recommend this application for school setting.

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