Ever since I've been involved in the field of assistive technology there's always been the hope that speech recognition could assist students with the writing process. While speech recognition has been effective for some of the students we work with, it hasn't always worked out for the majority of the students that we work with. In the last six months there's been some new developments that make speech recognition a reality for many students. For many of us that are using smart phones we find ourselves using speech recognition more and more on daily basis for text messaging and for writing emails. Now students can take advantage of speech recognition on mobile devices such as iPhone's, iPad, Android phones, Windows tablets as well with as within Google Docs. With the advent of machine learning the speech recognition engines keep getting better and better and do not require initial training. This has made it a very easy entry for students to trial speech recognition. Prior to this time, students would have to spend a considerable amount of time training and creating a profile. With the advent of mobile devices this is a thing of the past. Over the last six months I've been using a number of different speech workflows that I wanted to share with you.Google recently added Voice Typing to Google Docs which really has taken speech recognition to the next level. By simply plugging in a microphone to a desktop computer students can start to use speech recognition immediately. I have found that the speech recognition that's built into Google Docs to be very accurate and allows students to quickly get their ideas down. Voice Typing opens up all kinds of opportunities for students to quickly get their ideas down on the page. With the advent of this API other companies have been using and integrating the Voice Typing into their apps. You will now find Voice Typing integrated into Co:Writer Universal, WordQ, as well as Read and Write for Google Chrome. Having Voice Yyping integrated into these applications give students a new way to get their ideas down on the page. It's really exciting to work with students and watch them as the words fly onto the computer screen. With the advent of so many stews students using iPads and the new system IOS 9, SIRI has become a better contender in the area of speech recognition. Anytime student see the microphone at the bottom of the keyboard they can click and speak and the text gets immediately transcribed. Although it's not perfect it certainly is a very fast way to input text on the iPhone or  iPad. SIRI is wonderful in that it works throughout the operating system giving students access to it from wherever application they are using. I am working with many students that are currently using SIRI instead of writing which has worked out really well.Another interesting application that I came across is called myEcho and it's an app that you can install on your iPhone and takes advantage of the SIRI technology. This workflow is great if a student has an iPhone and is working on the Windows platform. The student can first purchase myEcho aoo for IOS for a $1.99 and then install the companion app on their Windows desktop, laptop or tablet. Once the iPhone and the computer had been paired up, the students simply brings up the myEcho app- clicks on the microphone and begins to dictate. When when you click on the done button the text automatically gets sent to whatever application is open. This would allow a student to use speech recognition using their iPhone as the input mechanism and would allow them to type text directly into an application like Microsoft Word or any application that can accept text. Just like SIRI there is about a 15 second limit but you can continue to add text to your document by clicking on the microphone button. This application is not limited to one computer which would enable a student to  have the myEcho companion installed on his many computers as they have access to. This is a great solution for students that have an iPhone but are still using a Windows computer at school or at home for productivityThis past week Nuance the developers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking released a new app for Android and IOS called Dragon Anywhere. Dragon Anywhere is a mobile solution with hands-free use while doing speech recognition. Dragon Anywhere allows the student to dictate for as long as they need without having to tap on the microphone button on the keyboard. Dragon Anywhere allows the students to use voice commands to select text, export text and to move the cursor around the document totally hands-free. This power it has been unprecedented until the release of Dragon Anywhere. Once the student has done the dictation it's easy to export the text via email it or even place it in Drop Box.The one downside to Dragon Anywhere is that there is a monthly subscription fee of $15 to use the app. It really would be great if  Nuance had an educational pricing schedule for students to that schools could begin to pay for this service.Certainly you can see a lot has changed over the last couple of years with regards to speech recognition- making it a much more viable alternative for students that have difficulty in the area of written language. With a little practice these tools can become an invaluable part of their assistive technology toolkit.

One of the really important skills that students need to develop is their ability to take notes in class. While many students have access to digital devices many still rely on traditional pen and paper for note taking. While the research would support (The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking, Psychological Science,  Pam A. Mueller &  Daniel M. Oppenheimer first published on April 23, 2014) the use of pen and paper- wouldn’t it be great to be able to marry both the ink with digital technology to take advantage of the best of both worlds. In this post I'll share with you a couple of different strategies that students might find helpful to marry ink with their digital world.One of my favorite note taking tools is Evernote which I have been using for some time now. Evernote is a great way to capture ideas, notes, images, audio and store it on the web for easy access. Not too long ago, Evernote in collaboration with Moleskine came out with journals that allow students to quickly move their handwritten notes to the cloud with full searching capabilities. The system is very easy to use and would give students the ability to continue to take notes as they always have using pen and paper. When they are done they can use Smart Stickers that come with the Evernote writing journals to quickly file their notes using the camera on any tablet or smart phone. The Smart Stickers are quite ingenious. Using the camera on a tablet or smartphone you can associate a sticker with a particular notebook. For example, if you associate the sticker that has a House icon on it with your Science notebook, then when you take a picture of that page that has the house sticker affixed, it automatically will file the note in your Science notebook. The Evernote system works great and one of the big advantages of this system is that you can easily search all your handwritten notes. Evernote will OCR all of your handwritten notes and make searching very easy.For the students that want to add more functionality to their hand written notes they should take a look at the Livescribe smartpens. Livescribe has been developing this technology for the last seven years and allows students not only to record ink, but also the associated audio. For students that have difficulty taking notes and listening at the same time the Livescribe pen can be a great note taking strategy for them. Livescribe not too long ago came out with the Livescribe 3 pen which pairs to an iPhone or Android phone and uses the microphone and speaker on the phones for recording and playing back note-using Low-Energy Bluetooth to save their work. All of the students notes automatically get sent to the Livescribe + app on the student's device which can then be shared with Onenote or Evernote. This combination of services gives students access to their Livescribe notes in the cloud for easy access. Using the Livescribe 3 pen makes it easy to take notes and gives students that extra safety net-in that their notes also now can include audio. Students will find both solutions easy to implement and depending on their learning profile will find value in each of the approaches. That being said, both solutions allow student to marry ink and paper with the digital world making their notes searchable and accessible which after all is the whole idea.

As more schools jump on the Chromebook wagon it is is exciting to see companies like Dell step up to the plate and deliver high quality devices for schools. For many of us who have been using Chromebooks for some time now- I always found the first generation devices were rather under-powered and lagged in performance. But this is changing rapidly with new Chromebooks that are sporting Intel processors. With Dell's release of the Dell Chromebook 13 the tides are changing and now educators and students can have access to devices that house much faster silicone. The Dell Chromebook that was provided for me for this review, the Dell Chromebook 13 sported an Intel i3 processor with 4 GB or RAM and 16 GB Solid State Drive with a 13.3 inch FHD Display and is priced at $529 on the Dell website. The Dell Chromebook 13 is made of carbon fiber finish with magnesium alloy that is easy to grip and gives the computer good protection from dings and bangs.  The Dell Chromebook 13 comes standard with 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0, HDMI 1.4, MicroSD slot Noble lock slot and a Stereo headphone and microphone combo jack and weighs in at 3.2 pounds. The keys are Chiclet style with back lighting and feel really good when typing. Most users will find the precision Touchpad with built-in glass integrated button extremely easy to use and will not find a need to carry a mouse. The Dell Chromebook 13 supports Bluetooth 4.0 LE, making easy to connect your computer to external devices that support the latest Bluetooth standard for Low Energy. Pairing one of my Logitech Bluetooth mice took just seconds and was very easy to accomplish. The Dell Chromebook 13 comes with Dell's 720p webcam which is pretty standard across most of the Chromebooks which should work well with Google Hangouts or Skype.Using the Dell Chromebook 13 you will find that its boot time is extremely fast and in a matter of a few seconds you will be logged in and ready to go. One of the really great features of the Dell Chromebook 13 is its battery life. With a 67Whr - 6 cell battery you should easily get 10-11 hours of battery life to keep you going all day long. The LCD screen provides you with a crisp view of your text documents and HD videos look great on the screen. One of my favorite features of the Dell Chromebook 13 is having an Intel i3 processor inside. You definitely feel the difference when working on this computer and having the processing speed of this mainstream chip really makes this a pleasurable experience. Whether you are just using Google Docs or opening up an app you will find the experience to quick and very smooth. Having worked on less powerful Chromebooks,  the experience of using the Dell Chromebook 13  was very positive and a device I would highly recommend to educators to look at. If you are looking for a top of the line Chromebook, then you need to take a look at the Dell Chromebook 13, it has a lot to offer in its quality built, design and horsepower. While the Dell Chromebook 13 may come in a little more in terms of its price ($529),  if this is your go to everyday computer it is worth the extra dollars to have such a high quality computer that you can count on to give you a great user experience! For educators who may be working with students who need to use a touch enabled screen, Dell does make a make a Dell Chromebook 13 model with with a touch screen.

For sometime now I've been looking for a lightweight but stylish bag to carry my Surface 3 and iPad Air when I'm traveling. When I came across the Waterfield Field Muzetto bag I had to take a look at it and see how it could meet my needs. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the Waterfield bag company they're located in San Francisco and all their bags are made here in United States. Before I ordered my bag I went to the Waterfield website, took a look at their products and found the website easy to navigate and filled with some great looking products. When I finally ordered the Field Muzetto bag the process was easy andWaterfield Field Muzettostreamlined. The Waterfield  company gives you that special attention and within seconds of ordering the bag I received several emails updating me on the status of the bag. Because each of these bags is handmade I was given a date as to when it would be completed and shipped out. Even though I ordered the bag around the holiday season the bag was delivered prior to the holidays which was really fantastic!Un-boxing the Waterfield Field Muzetto bag one can get a sense of the high quality craftsmanship that goes into everyone of their bags. The bag is extremely lightweight and made of a beautiful light brown waxed cotton canvas with is accentuated with a chocolate brown leather panel in the front of the bag. The light brown cotton canvas has a distressed look which really adds to the beauty of this bag. Once you pick up the bag you realize how lightweight it is, which is great since I intended to use it to carry a Surface 3 and iPad Air. There are two main compartments in the bag with the divider between the two that is padded. The inside cloth is a beautifully textured zig-zag rust colored material that gives the bag a really nice look when it's opened.The inside compartment is padded with a nice brown felt material. Using the bag I can fit my Surface 3 as well as my iPad Air into each of the compartments, very comfortably. In the second compartment there is a zipper that allows me to securely store some pens and a notebook which comes in really handy and is ideal for storing cables and a power supply. The Field Muzetto bag comes with a full-size adjustable strap with a padded sleeve that is ideal for carrying the bag comfortably across your body. There is an outside pocket that can come in handy for storing your phone, notebooks, or magazines or other incidentals. I am extremely happy with my purchase and the high quality of craftsmanship that went into the Waterfield Field Muzetto bag. If you are looking for a high quality and light weight bag to hold you tablets - I would highly recommend the bag. And by the way the company is great to deal with - a real plus!

As much as I enjoy using my digital devices, there are times when I am going into meetings that I want to be able travel light and have that experience of putting pen to paper. However at the same time I know I am going to want to share that note or idea and bring it back into my digital work flow. I have been using various digital pen technologies for the past decade and when I saw that Wacom had released the Bamboo Spark I had to give it a test drive. Wacom was good enough to provide me with the Bamboo Spark Smart folio with gadget pocket to review. The Bamboo Spark Smart folio has a nice grey finish that should hold up well to wear and tear. The premise of the Bamboo Spark Smart folio is quite simple-write with the provided pen on the paper-then press the button to send all of your ideas and notes-which are automatically synced with the Bamboo Spark app on your IOS or Android device. The Bamboo Spark Smart folio uses ordinary A5 paper pads (ie. Bloc Rhodia N 16) which can be purchased from any stationery store. The paper pad must sit in the folio since the digitizer is found beneath it. While you can use just about any A5 paper paper you will need to use the Wacom refills that come with the pen in order for the device to work. In the Bamboo Spark Smart box you will find the folio, digital pen, a blank paper pad, USB to Micro USB cable, two extra ink refills and refill extractor. To get started you simply have to charge the Bamboo Spark with the supplied USB cable. Once the Bamboo Spark is charged you can pair the folio with your device by going through the setup which is well implemented. Once you have paired your Bamboo Spark Smart folio you are ready to give it a try. Simply take the cap off of the pen and draw or write some notes on the pad. When you are ready to sync your notes simply press the round button in the middle of the folio and within seconds your notes will be transferred to the Bamboo Spark app. Once your notes, sketches, or ideas are transferred to the Bamboo Spark app you can export it as text, images, PDF or WILL format which gives you lots of ways to bring it into your digital workflow. Wacom provides each user with 5 MB of cloud storage on their Inkspace web site which keeps all your notes synced across all of your devices. You can open and annotate your notes and sketches with any program that supports the WILL format (ie. Bamboo Paper). Applying Handwriting RecogntionHandwritten Bamboo Spark NoteHaving been a Evernote and OneNote user for some time it is now possible for me to easily share my ideas and then transfer them to these services. The Bamboo Spark just recently added handwriting recognition into the equation which gives this tool a wider audience. Now I can hand write my notes and when I am done export them and send them to my word processor of choice to edit and share. Having the hand writing recognition feature is a welcome edition and while it is still considered to be in BETA it has worked well for me. The simplicity of this device should be a big selling point, in that it will store up to 100 pages of text and images and so it is not mandatory that you have your device with you when using the Bamboo Spark Smart folio. When I wanted to annotate my images on my iPad I was able to transfer my notes and sketches to Bamboo Paper which is a nice plus. In this day and age of high tech solutions it is nice to see a device which has been designed for ease of use where the technology fades into the background and allows you to focus on the task at hand.As I use the Bamboo Spark I see lots of applications for this device in the work that I do in the schools. In the schools there has been a movement towards supporting students with disabilities in the mainstream with the support of the co-teaching model. With that in mind, I can see see co-teachers using the Bamboo Spark to record notes and share them out at the end of the period. Notes can be shared as text using the handwriting recognition or as an image or PDF file format. As I work on a new laminated guide on Co-Teaching & Technology: Enhancing Communication and Collaboration I have found lots of ways for both teachers and students to take advantage of this simple and easy to use technology. As much as I enjoyed using the Bamboo Spark Smart folio there were several times that I had to re-pair the Bamboo Spark Smart folio with the Bluetooth which was a little annoying. I would also like to see some changes to the Bamboo Spark app for IOS which would allow me more control to move notes into designated folders. While not imperative, it would be great to be able to attach an audio file to my notes page which could work well when using it with students. Using the Bamboo Spark Smart was a very great experience and will be a tool I will continue to use. As we live more and more in the digital arena it is nice to be able to put pen to paper and have the tactile experience, knowing full well that it can be easily integrated into your digital workflow- that is in the end the best of both worlds!Unboxing Wacom Bamboo Spark

One of the most natural ways to interact with our devices is with our voice. With the advent of smartphones many of us are beginning to rely on voice as our means for interacting with our devices. Whether you are using Cortana, SIRI, or Google Now, you know how rewarding it is to be able to text a message or set up a reminder with your voice. Using your voice to interact with your handheld device feels so natural and empowering. Within this context I ordered an Amazon Echo Dot which I received a couple of weeks ago and am really excited with its potential in being able to understand your voice and in its ability to connect other devices for environmental control. Setting up the Amazon Echo Dot was straight forward -I plugged it in connected it my WiFi network and within seconds I was asking Alexa questions. If you have used speech to interact with your devices you will be struck by just how fast Alexa responds once you ask it a question. The latency is really incredible. Ask Alexa what the weather forecast is in your hometown and in a nano-second, Alexa will respond with the answer. As I began to use the Amazon Echo Dot my thoughts took me to just how this could be used in the classroom. Given that all you need is a WiFi connection I thought about different ways it could be used an put together a short video to demonstrate. After watching the video, please share ideas and how you might use the Amazon Echo Dot in your classroom? 

I have been using MindView for years and is one of my favorite mind mapping applications. I use it to brainstorm ideas, plan workshops and for writing structured proposals and documents. For some time now Matchware has been working on an assistive technology edition that has lots of great features. These include: text-to speech, high contrast, integration with TextHelp Read & Write 9 Gold and Dragon Naturally Speaking. If you are interesting in learning more about Mindview AT they are holding a FREE webinar on May 12, 2016 at 11:30 am - 12:00 pm EDT which you can register for by clicking on this LINK. MIndView is an exceptionally designed mind mapping application that has lots of great features to meet the needs of students who need the built-in supports. 

Recently I was asked to showcase at the eACH Conference 2012,  some free elearning tools that can be used for deigning/developing elearning.  I presented just a few of my favourites out of the hundreds that are available within this 20 minute session. With some incredible inspiration from Jane Hart’s Top 100 Tools for Learning (2011) resources, my personal PLN, including ...

This afternoon I started out on my production of creating a new course about Skin Wounds. I’m sure you’re thinking "How Exciting!".  Exciting? Perhaps not.  Interesting and slightly gross.  Definitely. Anyway, my client sent me their material and initially their first slide had a suit of armor on it.  They liked the idea of trying to protect the patient’s skin. ...

I’ve become increasing interested in the idea of learning how or practicing how to take sketchnotes.  Initially for me I just thought it seemed like an interesting idea and some skill set that may be useful when designing and developing elearning.  I was curious if it could help me to get better at storyboarding, which is a skill I know ...