Global
Technology

Studying for the 21st Century

Have you noticed that “dying” is a part of the word “studying”? Students search for more motivating and independent ways to learn and study. This is particularly true as they increasingly use new technology at home and in school. Yet, rote materials are still used in the classroom that fails to engage students or help them learn critical college-ready and career-ready skills. For many of our students, we often look for ways to help students relate and understand the material more effectively and allow students to not only create their study materials but use them in motivating and engaging ways.

This practical workshop will cover several different platforms, from Chrome to iPad, that you can employ in K-12 settings to help students acquire, record and retain information. These include cloud-based solutions with audio and visual support to help diverse learners better comprehend information and take notes, as well as eTextbook and interactive whiteboard solutions that allow students to share and modify information with educators instantly. The workshop will also highlight effective instructional apps and make-your-own study materials, providing critical training for general and special educators, parents and students. You’ll leave with a firm understanding of how instructional learning must change with today's technology

Virtual Reality: A Whole New World

This workshop will focus on the growing use of Virtual Reality (VR) in classrooms. Terry Heich said in Why Virtual Reality is so Important, “Through the use of digital technology, virtual realities can be designed precisely for human interaction for particular reasons to create experiences not otherwise possible.” Many students, on and off the spectrum, have difficulty relating to content information being presented to them. For struggling readers, it is often hard to have a picture in your head of places and time elements. Students also learn increased empathy or author perspective through visualization strategies such as VR.

This workshop will outline many options for VR that include:

• Regular Seating
• Coffee Break
• Custom Badge

• Exploring another element of the earth (space, underwater)
• Curriculum to address STEM science elements
• Interactive elements for music, art, and design
• Explore potential for literature use.

Augmentative Communication Apps for Autism

Is workshop will focus on a variety of communication AAC apps that have demonstrated an increase in vocabulary and language acquisition for many students who struggle with communicating verbally. We will explore possibilities for three types of communicators: Emergent, Context-Dependent, and Independent. Participants will learn where and when to use each app and have examples. Due to language barriers, we will examine which apps allow bilingual support using recording and translation to other languages.

Reading and Writing – A Whole New World

Current trends in technology allow more options than ever before in the areas of reading and writing. No longer the paper and pencil this workshop will address ways to utilize electronic reading sources and multiple ways to produce written language using standard technology tools.

This workshop will highlight some of the more popular robotics companies that are creating these socially programmable robots. In this hands-on workshop, we will program these elements together to see the life and language strategies that can be targeted. Using this programming as a platform for discussing social scripts and routines will be outlined with examples. Ideas will be shared for how to generalize these ideas into real life situations, including having students program each other in mock situations!

Creating Pathways of Communication through Connection

For children with disabilities, learning how to communicate effectively is the most important childhood needs and right after food, water, shelter and security. When communication skills are developed through individualised play-based learning, the child’s long-term life outcomes and opportunities are exponentially increased. The key takeaways from the talk will be:

• How inclusion includes access to assistive technology.
• The goal of communication is connection. Connection to oneself, friends, family, teachers, therapists, and community….and therefore meaningful connection with their world.
• Light-tech AAC - providing a pathway to high-tech AAC in the classroom, home, and therapy setting.
• Perspectives on disability and the role media can play in shifting culture.
• Gaming and online educational platforms - a new era of possibilities in individualised programming, assessment, reporting and evaluatio
• Multimodal communication - how our children can become flexible, resilient, confident and experience success every day