Wikis For the New School Year

Cool Tools for School and U Tech Tips offer places to go when you are looking for the perfect web 2.0 tools or software to use for that project you are planning.

UDL4All and UDL Tech Toolkit offer free universal design for learning tools all in one place.

Educational Technology includes sections on Assisitive Technology, Flypen, Boardmaker, and more.

Intensive Sped Resources is my embryo of a wiki about intensive special needs, it is a work in progress in its beginning phases.

UDL 4 All Wiki

My blogger friend, Paul Hamilton, has created a fantastic new wiki of universal design for learning (UDL) tools. It is called UDL 4 ALL. There are a few things I love about it off the bat 1) he used UDL tools to create his wiki of UDL tools (like webslides) 2) he is welcoming contribution and 3) all of the (free) tools I recommend in workshops and to other teachers all the time are now available in one place. It is definitely worth checking out, bookmarking, sharing and pitching in on.

CEC Live Blogging: Voicethread as UDL in the Classroom

Karen Janowski and Beth Lloyd's High Incident AT workshop at CEC (live blog part on second part of workshop).

Voicethread is digital, story telling media. It is a UDL tool. Digital media is a mistake tolerant media, like clay instead of mistake intolerant like paper. It is a wonderful, free tool where you create content in three steps.

Use your school e-mail account and choose "Go pro" and you get a free pro account for K-12. Which means unlimited Voicethread creation. Once in your account you can browser or go to my voice and see your content and content shared with you. In Voicethread parents, community members and peers can leave voice or text comments. We watched several examples at the workshop, including a Voicethread intervention to assess reading in a selectively mute little girl. Very cool. Another example was a mathcast which used the Voicethread doodler tool as a blackboard with the teacher explaining the lesson. Another example was creation and use of social stories for kids on the spectrum.

A question was asked about privacy. Voicethread has three options public, shared with people you select and private. Another question was about putting things in as opposed to just photographs. You can upload documents (word and PDF), powerpoint slides (if you upload a powerpoint presentation every PPT slide will be a Voicethread slide), and digital and scanned images. Another question was if multiple people can comment on a Voicethread at a time and the answer is yes. Comments can ber moderated or not. You also choose whether or not to list it on the browse. Ideas for use are book reports, country reports, reading assessment and more.

Blogger note: In severe classrooms perhaps as portfolios, social stories, instructions for paras on certain kids re: lifting, feeding, instruction. What else?

Another Great CAST Resource

I blogged about the CAST UDL Book Builder the other day and now I want to share with you there UDL Lesson Builder. This site allows you to create online lesson plans that integrate technology and ensure access for all learners. In addition you can share your lesson plans and see the plans of other teachers. You can see all of CAST's products (free and commercial) here.

Each lesson plan made a Lesson Builder has space for a Lesson Overview, Unit Description, Lesson Description for the Day, State Standards, Unit and Lesson Goals, Methods, Wrap-up, Assessment and Materials. The 'wysiwyg' editing allows you to insure web links, photos and more into the lesson plan. Clicking on "More Information" in each section provides an idea for what information you should be including.

Note: You will need a new log in, your CAST Book Builder one will not work (or at least mine didn't).

(P.S. Thanks to Panera Bread Shop for the internet connection to make this post, as I am still sans internet at home.)