Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog

I think I mentioned VoiceThread before - the marvelous web site that lets you present a slide show and record comments, captions & doodles. The other innovation of VoiceThread is you can invite others to comment as well, creating a visually guided dialog about… well, anything.

One of my favorites:

See also Kenya Escape, the incredibly powerful story of one family’s experience in Kenya, during the election upsets of December 2007.

Sometimes, I want something because it just looks like so much fun… Wacom clearly wants us to think that about their new graphics tablet, so they’ve put fun in the name: the Bamboo Fun, a spiffy little (or medium) USB graphics tablet that has a “pen and paper feel,” a patented “touch ring” (think iPod) for zooming and scrolling, and 4 customizable buttons to free you from your keyboard.
The Bamboo is particularly appealing to me right now, as I’ve been reviewing graphics programs for my student publishing program and a graphics tablet would add some punch to our drawing strategies.
So, if you know my personal elf, and you think I’ve been nice, please let him know that I’ve got a little (Bamboo) Fun on my list…

Flocabulary “…uses the educational power of hip-hop music to foster literacy and promote academic success in the classroom and beyond.” In other words, get your kids to study by delivering content to a hip hop beat. You can listen to tracks online or purchase books and CD’s.

The Learning Toolbox, from James Madison University’s special education program, provides tools, strategies and resources to help students with learning difficulties become better learners.
When you arrive on the site, you can choose “I am a Student,” “I am a Teacher,” or “I am a Parent,” which takes you to an appropriate page for getting around the site. For example, the student page starts with an overview of how to use the site. Then students choose an area they need help in - organization, test taking, studying, note taking, etc. From there, students choose a statement that reflects their needs, e.g. “I have difficulty understanding the main idea when I read,” or “I read slowly.” At that point, the site suggests specific strategies to try.

The site does require some significant reading to understand the strategies, and therefore parent or teacher support may help. Also students (and often their parents and teachers as well) may need help specifying what their specific challenges are. This is a good resource to add.

ATMac is a blog that offers news, reviews and opinions on assistive technology for Mac OS X, by Ricky Buchanan who is himself an avid Mac and AT user.  Organized by type of user, for example “text-to-speech users,” or “deaf users,” or “primary switch users,” and by audience (”content producers,” “developers,” “edcuators,” “users”), you can quickly find relevant entries.

Bottom line - direct, honest info and reviews about state-of-the-art assistive tech for the Mac.