2010 Calendars from Mayer-Johnson

Calendars for 2010 are now available for use with the Boardmaker family of software from Adapted Learning.  Log in and click here.  (Adapted Learning is the sharing community for the Boardmaker software series.)

Pogo Boards

Update: September 25th, 2009
Pogo Boards now offers a 7 day FULL feature free trial.


Pogo Boards is a new online communication board making resource in the same line of thinking as Mrs. Riley It's In the Cards, which was actually the first, full featured online board making and sharing program.

Pogo Boards was developed by Talk to Me Technologies and had 800+ beta testers (I assume in private beta). They have had 12,000+ people sign-up for the limited use version of the online program since debut a few days ago.

First off Pogo Boards has some quirky, and in what may have been an isolated case for me, very annoying, software and hardware requirements. You must have Adobe Reader (or another Adobe Reading software) installed as well as Microsoft Silverlight (which is not a program most of us have installed, like Adobe Flash or Java). Thus if you are at work, work in a school and do not have administrative privileges you might as well stop trying right here. (That's probably 75% or more of us.)

(The advantage of Silverlight is if you are using Microsoft Office 2007 the interface will feel very familiar, but we are working in education, so chances are you are using Office 2003 or earlier, or you have switched to an online word processing program.)

The next issue would seem that the "basic account" which is advertised as "free" is pretty worthless because you cannot print boards without a watermark across them and it is very limited. They should call it a "limited feature trial membership". Nor is there a 30, 14 day, 7 day or 1 day free trial in which to see all of the site features. Trainers and district purchasers who have asked for full access to show Pogo Boards or determine if the product is appropriate have been told this is not an option. If you do want to take advantage of the "basic account" the registration form is lengthy, which is unusual as most web 2.0 applications have learned that folks do not generally want to fill out long forms just to try things out.

Also the "basic account" is in many ways "nagware" because whenever you try to do anything such as save, print, or even delete or replace symbols you get an error message that you need to upgrade to a paid account to enjoy that feature. I used to have a student who would say, "Nag, nag, nag!", whenever he knew he was being a little annoying about asking for something over and over and all I could think was, "Nag, nag, nag!", while I was using my "basic account".

The boardmaking interface itself is a bit clumsy. You search for your image and then "check" the one you want and mouse click on the square where you want it. Not exactly the drag and drop beauty that is Mrs. Riley It's In the Cards. Nor does it have the features we all know and love from Boardmaker... or maybe it does, who knows with the limited trial.

Another bug is that it took a very long time for each of the computers I tried the program on to open up the Silverlight based boardmaking window. Which is usually fine with me, school computers and special needs software running computers are notoriously slow, however Pogo Boards won't let you do anything else when you have the Silverlight/Pogo Board application open (or trying to open). Thus I couldn't just click to another tab on my browser and read e-mail or my RSS reader. This alone would make me never use the website, so I hope they fix that bug.

Support wise there are online videos for training and place to submit forms with questions.

Finally there is the issue of combined symbol sets, Pogo Boards offers a new symbol set called PiCS, the SymbolStix set by the News-2-You people, images from Google Images and clip art images. Many users may not understand the importance of a cohesive set of symbols (not mixing symbol sets), using the same symbol to mean the same thing across multiple boards and the heirarchy of using photos to picture symbols. This means that shared boards, which is one of the lures to entice subscription, may be of little value and may actually be confusing and cause problems with some learners who have communication and intellectual disabilities.

The cost for Pogo Boards is (buried deep in the FAQ and is) tiered based on the number of subscriptions. One year, for one user, is $69.99. This compares to Mrs. Riley It's In the Cards at $45 for one year. It also compares to $79.99 for one year's access to Adapted Learning's Print Editor (which allows you to change and print boards on the Adapted Learning website if you have a valid license number for a Boardmaker disc).

For my money, were I not already totally satisfied with just using my trusty Boardmaker SDP and Adapted Learning (without Print Editor), I would subscribe to Mrs. Riley It's In the Cards. (Read my original review of Mrs. Riley It's In the Cards, from when it was in public beta trial, here.)

(The only appeal of Pogo Boards to me is the ability to make boards that have Symbol Stix to match my Unique Curriculm, but that is not enough of an appeal to make me join and pay that price.)

Updated Princess Bride VoiceThread

Our unit is nearly over and here is the complete VoiceThread showing what we did. Now you can see and hear about our Princess Bride board game and out cooking class's fun making shrieking eel appetizers and Miracle Max Revival Pills. Enjoy!



P.S. Much of my Princess Bride curriculum unit are available for download on the Boardmaker sharing site, Adapted Learning - search for Princess Bride.

Adapted Learning Print Editor Beta

Beta

Adapted Learning has a new feature in open public beta. Print Editor allows you to do basic editing and print any non-interactive, non-zipped board in your "my files" section of Adapted Learning.

In my school the internet connected computers do not print, so I have had some luck using Print Editor to print to CutePDF and then bring that file to the computer with a printer on a flashdrive.

Be aware that when the beta is over the Print Editor will be available only on a fee based subscription basis to owners of Boardmaker v. 6 (or Boardmaker Plus or SDP v. 6)

What I Now See at Work When I Try to Go to Adapted Learning

We are just renters at our school, we can't complain or ask for a change (we literally aren't allowed). The district's special needs teacher has called, but... well... we'll see.

1,000th Upload at Adapted Learning

Last week Mayer-Johnson's new sharing site hit Adapted Learning hit it's 1,000th upload of a file (or set of files) and low and behold I uploaded it (it was my Letter to President Obama Cut and Paste Activity)! Bob G. at Mayer-Johnson contacted me today and offered me a tee shirt for being their 1,000th upload! I plan to use the tee-shirt as reward for the student in my class with the most stars on our star board which was filled up today! (Big news in our world! In the event of a tie we will have a raffle.)

It does strike me as odd that it A) took my class this long to fill the star board (every inch of the black background was covered, but still it took a long time, we need to reward more I say!) and B) took so long to get 1000 uploads on the Adapted Learning site. Come on folks! I know you have dozens and dozens of boards on your hard drives, upload them already! Even if you think they aren't good enough, even if you think you are just a beginner, you never know what your board will inspire in someone else. Let's see if we can hit 2,000 boards sooner rather than later! Perhaps you may win a tee shirt! (I uploaded about 90 some odd boards I think, maybe more, that's just under 10% of the total boards. I had a decent chance at that tee shirt - you could have a decent chance at the next one. If tee shirts don't motivate you let the good will of sharing motivate you.)

News-2-You on Adapted Learning

Today another teacher and I discussed how there must be a large number of people on Adapted
Learning (the Mayer-Johnson Sharing Community) who use News-2-You.

To this end I have started a new Adapted Learning Group called News-2-You, my hope is folks will use it to share News-2-You adaptations and extension activities. Please join us.

Vote for Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs in the 2008 Weblog Awards. You can vote once a day, every day! (Until January 13th.)

Official Adapted Learning Press Release

This just in from Mayer-Johnson. The new site opens in about an hour!

Mayer-Johnson Announces AdaptedLearning.com
A New Resource for Educators and Parents of Students with Special Needs

Pittsburgh, PA – November 18, 2008 – Mayer-Johnson, developer of innovative software products and symbols designed to help special needs students learn, announces the launch of AdaptedLearning.com (www.adaptedlearning.com). This free resource provides a place to find and share adapted curriculum created with the company’s popular Boardmaker Software Family products. It also provides online community functions as well as feature articles and expert tips that meet the needs of the spectrum of Boardmaker users. Developed to provide better symbol-enhanced learning tools and make it easier for special educators and parents to adapt curriculum to ensure accessibility for all students, the website provides resources and tools that allow students with special needs to learn more effectively and succeed academically.
Over 100,000 special education professionals and parents have come to rely upon the Boardmaker Software Family of products to help children challenged by significant speech, language and learning disabilities achieve academically and socially. AdaptedLearning.com stretches the reach of the products by creating an international community of Boardmaker enthusiasts.

The keystone of the free website is the searchable database of communication boards and other educational assets created using Boardmaker products and shared by therapists, teachers, and parents of students with special needs. Additional resources include:

• An online community that allows educators and clinicians to connect and share ideas and information with other Boardmaker users, as well as create public and private areas for groups of colleagues and parents,
• Feature articles highlighting implementation ideas and other resources, and
• Training videos featuring application strategies to enhance student learning and communication, and show how to create tools that make it easier for children with special needs to succeed.
  

Information organized by subject area in the News & Views section of the site ensures that members quickly locate the resources they are seeking. New Boardmaker users will find the Getting Started articles helpful as they experience all that the software has to offer. The Classroom Implementation area provides application ideas so that members can apply newly acquired skills and discover new ways to use previously learned skills. A resource for parents, the Home Connection provides information to help families support the child’s education and communication journeys in the home and in community settings. Find success stories and case studies that provide information and inspiration in the Results area.

“AdaptedLearning.com comes in response to the requests of the many loyal Boardmaker users who were looking for a place to share their work and access new content,” said Jim Mills, DynaVox/Mayer-Johnson’s vice president of education products. “We’re please to be able to offer them a place to share that work and their great passion for the Boardmaker Software Family of products.”

To register for this new web resource, visit www.AdaptedLearning.com.

About Mayer-Johnson
Mayer-Johnson is the developer of the innovative software products and symbols designed to enhance the learning process for special needs students allowing them to achieve their full academic potential. In addition to the company’s flagship products, Picture Communication Symbols (PCS), a comprehensive symbol set used for communication displays and instructional purposes, the Boardmaker Software Family, which provides a flexible platform on which to create interactive lessons and learning tools, and Speaking Dynamically Pro, a dynamic communication and instructional software program, the Mayer-Johnson product portfolio includes a wide range of materials for professionals working with people with disabilities. For more information about Mayer-Johnson, visit www.mayer-johnson.com.

Adapted Learning Opens Tuesday

Adapted Learning, the new Boardmaker sharing website from Mayer-Johnson comes out of beta testing and into general use Tuesday (but you can sign up now).

As a community of people who support learners with special needs we should be very excited. A lot of time and effort went into this site and the designers really listened to the beta testers to make it everything it could possibly be. Beta testers were encouraged to upload as many boards and activities as possible (I have put up 66 and plan to add more tonight) so there are already lots of boards and activities to download and use. I am pretty excited that one of my board sets, a Now/Next schedule flip book, was chosen as an Editor's Highlight (that link probably won't work unless you are logged into Adapted Learning).

Feel free to use the "friends" feature to add me as a friend once you get online, my user name is teechkidz. I already sent out friend requests to some other bloggers and work colleagues.

P.S. Sorry about any confusion I caused when I originally posted this saying beta ended tomorrow. Opps. I am just very excited.