Some thoughts and highlights from Adam Wing's session: The Power of Connectivity for Fun and Learning with Easy-Tech Assistive Technology

This presenter (Adam Wing) who is VP of Ablenet Inc (an innovative company in the field of AT/AAC), presented a very entertaining session, as he demonstrated many wonderful applications for Assistive Technology in tasks removed from the classroom. Really, one is only limited by one's imagination. We need to constantly be asking ourselves: "how can this activity be adapted so that this student can participate meaningfully in the task?".

I was reminded throughout this session about a number of websites that are full of information. http://www.aacintervention.com/ is a site that I used to go to, but haven't revisited in a long time - I appreciated being reminded about it's usefulness for ideas about assessing, implementing and supporting AAC use with students.

I had also been told about pogoboards (an online symbol support for creating adaptive learning materials for non-verbal and low-verbal students) about a year ago at a conference. At that time, I had downloaded and played with the 14 day trial version, but didn't subscribe to the full version (which is $70 per year). However, in this session by Adam Wing, he told us how to go through the ablenet website to sign up for pogo boards at no cost (not the full version, but at no cost with no expiration date). I must confess that I 'left' the live streamed session for a little while, as I shifted over to another tab and lined up my free access to pogoboards. I will continue to explore this website and the many communication symbols, displays and boards...

Here is the link, if anyone is interested in exploring this further:

http://www.ablenetinc.com/PogoBoards/PogoBoardsFreeLightVersion/tabid/493/Default.aspx

Adam Wing reminded us that there are four main areas of focus, for switch users, and each of these require consideration. In school (or at least, in my experience) the teams have really not done a good job with considering the 'environmental control' issues. A good reminder though, that the four key areas of focus are:
Access
Communication
Content/Curriculum
Environmental Control