NEIT+2013+OpenSpace+4V


 * Lower School Meet-up**
 * Let's talk about Programming and Robotics, iPads, and Book Creation**

Judith Seidel (jseidel@friendsseminary.org) LS Tech Integrator Christine Nicolaou, Dwight Englewood Adam Shecter, Allen Stevenson Kristen Paino, Avenues Rebecca Shapiro, Collegiate Stacy Dillon, LREI Francesca Zammarano, UNIS Wendy Semsi, Churchill

Avenues is embarking on a new programming and robotics curriculum.
 * Programming and Robotics**

At UNIS a structured series of making projects occurs in the School new space for exploration, Of note is the fact that Lower School assistants in the early grades must accompany the classes to the tech space and help out.

Rebecca Shapiro of Collegiate

Programming and Robotics - Friends Seminary At Friends, students in third grade use Lego WeDo with Scratch. Students in fourth grade are building windmills and studying sustainable energy resources. The Scratch curriculum includes storytelling (3rd grade) and a structured maze game unit (4th grade)

Allen Stevenson uses MicroWorlds Junior and also Microworlds to construct books and quizzes Classroom teachers are coming to his lessons. It is not a prep.

Realtionship of sheets and handouts vs. Classroom Demonstration Group agreed that it's important to offer both; many students can't attend to a lesson on a screen at the front of the class. Other have trouble with worksheets. It's important to have a range of ways for children to receive the information.

At LREI, children created books and stories with Sonic Pics.
 * Book Creation**

later joined by Wendy Semsei,Churchhill Kira Kingren, Mary McDowell

Wendy is thrilled with the scholastic app, story The questions was asked if there is a book creation tool for the iPad that enables the user to create words that are highlighted as they are heard. This led to a discussion of the the merits of the program clicker.

This group discussed Programming and Robotics Book Creation in the LS Use of tools for investigating Data We also met up with the group that had been disussing technology with children who have learning differences


 * Technology and iPads with Students with Learning Differences**

Attendees: Wendy Semsel (wsemsel@churchillschool.com) Es tech integration Alex Steinberg (asteinberg@churchillschool.com) HS tech integration Sue Tommarello Kira, Mary McDowell Friends School Pam Fortin (p.fortin@eaglehill.org)

Some issues with tools: Training kids to use **dragon speech to text** is not so useful for under 13 due to organizational goals, and also articulation. Boys can have problems due to changing voices. **Popplet and Inspiration** help to organize ideas and chunk ideas so as to make writing easier.

**Kurzweil** is used at Eagle Hill and they can use online books and compression features. It is a reading and writing tool, with the ability to read highlightable and highlightable text aloud, but is somewhat disappointing for Mac users. **Read and Write Gold** is used at Churchill School, with similar features but better Mac compatibility.

There are several different word predictors people use like **Kurzweil, Read and Write Gold, CoWriter, and Clicker**. Cowriter is favored because of the ability to customize the words predicted, but some feel that word predictors can distract students and detract from organizing ideas, whereas it can also be helpful for students struggling to type quickly. Clicker 6 in addition has word bank capability, among other features, but can be pricy (along with Read and Write Gold). You can also use Moodle as a word bank for students to pick and choose words. There are also use **Kidspiration and Inspiration** templates to organize ideas. If you work on an Inspiration web, kids can prompt each other and help each other. Livesscribe pens have been used but students have to be diligent and go back and review work - you can only have one account per pen. Audio note works better because it is a app for the iPad or computer. Smartboard software has a way to record voices, which some have used to post recordings of lessons on the teacher's web page for students to review.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Making a screen cast to preview and later on review can be useful as a memory help. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Students take screen shots or pics of iPads and then import into **Explain Everything**

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Bookshare books that are Daisy files are used with Kurzweil and Read and Write Gold, or downloaded Mp3s can be put onto computers or iPods. **Bookshare.org** has thousands of books available for free for students with a documented learning disability or are blind.

a bookshare file to a Kindle or Kindle app:

Download the Bookshare book file Open the .xml file in text editor At top of file add: At the bottom of the file add: Save file as .txt Email file to your kindle account Voila!!!