Sign up today! Edcamp Access NJ

When: Saturday, March 8, 2014

Where: The College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown NJ

Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm

Cost: FREE!

Carrying on the tradition started by edcamp Access in Boston, EdCampAccess NJ is an unconference devoted to K -12 special education issues and ideas with a focus on reaching all struggling learners. It is not limited to special educators.

Follow on Twitter @EdcampAccessNJ 

or visit the edcamp wiki 

What is an Edcamp?

Do you want to take control of your own learning? Why not try an Edcamp? Started by the Edcamp Foundation with the vision of “ Promoting organic, participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators worldwide.” To achieve that vision, Edcamps follow these basic principles.

According to the Edcamp foundation website, an Edcamp is:

·         free

·         non-commercial and conducted with a vendor-free presence

·         hosted by any organization interested in furthering the edcamp mission

·         made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event

·         events where anyone who attends can be a presenter

·         reliant on the “law of two feet” that encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs

Want to learn more about the Edcamp experience? Check out this video:

http://youtu.be/gr7teMAk-hA

Visit our WIKI page to learn more about the day, our sponsors and add your session ideas onto the Idea Board!

Edcamp Access NJ WIKI

NJCART ( The New Jersey Coalition for the Advancement of Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology) is sponsoring Edcamp Access NJ to promote learning and sharing about Assistive Technology supports for students with disabilities!

We hope you will join us for the day. Better yet – why not share your expertise with everyone else!

Sincerely,

Mike

NJCART Immediate Past President

Beyond ARRA: Don't Buy Technology - TRAIN STAFF!

This month, Fred Tchang (Director, Assistive Technology Services @ Advancing Opportunities) was interviewed for The Family Center on Technology and Disability newsletter - Technology Voices.


Fred's interview is titled "Beyond ARRA: Put AT Purchases on Hold; Ramp Up Training and Implementation Plans". The discussion focuses on the use of AARA for assistive technology. Typically, districts have purchased technology tools but haven't thought all the way through to implementation.

According to the article:

To put it bluntly, in the words of Fred Tchang, ATP: “Please, please, please do not buy any more equipment between now and August 30!”

Instead, Mr. Tchang advises districts that have purchased technology under ARRA to quickly incorporate plans for training and implementation. “For those districts, now is the time to initiate a major effort to determine how training and implementation will be instituted so that optimum use can be made of their current technology.” Using remaining ARRA funds, he emphasizes, is the best way to underwrite those plans.

Read the whole article here.

Are you interested in assistive technology services? Visit our website at www.assistivetechnologycenter.org and learn about the services ATS can provide to districts.

Click on the Link - AT for Schools and Learning - to learn how the ATS staff can support the staff and students at your school.

FREE Clicker Presentation! November 16, 2010

FREE Training session – Clicker from Crick Software


When: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Where: Advancing Opportunities, 1005 Whitehead Rd Ext, Ewing, NJ 08638 (For directions, visit our website)
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Presenter: Deborah Yergeau

SPACE IS LIMITED – email today to reserve your spot.
mmarotta@advopps.org


The use of technology can encourage even the most reluctant readers and writers in your classroom, but some students need more than encouragement to achieve literacy success. This session will focus on how Clicker creates more independent and engaged readers and writers.

Participants will explore Clicker’s multimedia features, which enable teachers and students to create and use interactive teaching and learning materials such as animated sentence building activities, electronic books, and ‘hot spot’ environments. These resources can include text, images, sounds, and video, and the use of pop-up grids allows all users to add their own recorded sounds and narrations. Students can build sentences through word sequencing, or use more complex writing frames to scaffold extended writing. At all levels, students are supported by realistic speech, enabling them not only to hear what they have written, but also to listen to words before they select them.

As well as the highly detailed educational picture collection that comes with Clicker, teachers and students can use their own pictures or other ready-made picture libraries. Words can also be brought to life with the Clicker Animations library. The animated pictures greatly enhance reading comprehension activities for struggling students and English language learners.

From basic word order and sentence structure to extended writing, session participants will discover how Clicker addresses Universal Design for Learning principles to provide reading and writing support for all students. Clicker activities support a variety of learning styles, particularly benefiting audio/visual learners, and are also highly motivating for students with a range of differing educational needs. This session will demonstrate how easy it is to create activities that develop strong literacy skills across the curriculum for the diverse learners in today’s inclusive classrooms.

How to project to an external monitor from your iPad

The iPad is a powerful device that is virtually unlimited in its application. There's an APP for that - never has a statement been so true!

But what about the other aspect of this tool for presenters - using this tool for professional development activities. Out of the box, the iPad does not connect to an external monitor and project all APPS. There are some APPS that can be sent through the Dock Connector to VGA Adapter (available separately for $29.00) to project onto an external projector - such as Keynote.

That's fine if you want to show a presentation. But what if you want to display your iPad's screen to show the steps of using an APP. Out of the box - there is not way to do that. The only solution for this is to jailbreak your iPad.

Now I know some of you started to panic at the mention of Jailbreaking your device! Don't panic - it is an easy process that does not negatively impact your iPad. Even better - one of the first steps of the process is to back up all your data to iTunes. That way if it all goes wrong - or you need to restore your device to the factory settings - you can simply connect it to iTunes and select Restore.

Check out this video from C/NET which does a great job of walking you through the steps of this process. The external monitor APP isn't free (it costs $2.99) but very reasonably priced.




Pretty straightforward - right? I followed this process with our iPad and it worked perfectly. Now I am able to incorporate my iPad into my presentations and show my screen to an audience.

Have you Jail-broken your iPad? Do you have another strategy for using your iPad for professional development? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Become an AT Leader!

Class is filling up - sign up today!

Are you looking to increase your knowledge of Assistive Technology? Do you want more training than a full day workshop can provide? If so, join us for an in-depth training institute and discover the range of assistive technology solutions possible in the education field.

This four-day institute, one day a month for four months, will provide a deeper understanding of the assistive technology process -- from the initial assessment to the implementation phase.

Participants will learn about the areas of technology used most in the education setting. In addition, there will be opportunities for participants to select half-day, hands-on sessions focused on specific areas (such as AT for reading and writing, computer access, etc.)

For more information, click here.

FREE Webinars!

There is still time to participate in our FREE webinar series.

From Low Tech to High Tech: Computer Access
Date/Time: September 14, 2009; 3PM-4PM
Click HERE for additional details.

From Low Tech to High Tech: Communication Aids
Date/Time: September 21, 2009; 3PM - 4PM
Click HERE for additional details.

From Low Tech to High Tech: Environmental Accessibiblity
Date/Time: September 28, 2009; 3PM - 4PM
Click HERE for additional details.

Sign up today!