Requesting Services from the AT Center

There are two new forms in the Region 1A Information area, Request for Services and Release forms. Use these forms when requesting a service from the AT Center. We can travel to schools in the Upper Peninsula to provide training on specific products, Universal Design for Learning, or to assist with AAC device evaluations. AAC device evaluations include insurance funding assistance and follow-up device training.

New Resource in Links

Florida Technology Coordinating Unit website has been added to our Links to Resources. Thanks GF for forwarding this! It looks like it's an agency similar to our MITS. A great website full of resources.

December meeting (click here for flier)

Our December 12th meeting will be at the Landmark Inn from 9-3. We will be attending a session on Making Instructional Materials Accessible: Conversion and Creation. This training opportunity is sponsored by MITS. Please register ASAP as seating is limited.

Bookshare.org training

Mark your calendars for a Bookshare.org training scheduled for Friday, November 21st at 12:00 noon Eastern time. The computer lab is reserved but if you can't make it to Marquette we will be on gotomeeting.com. Kristina Cohen, the Education Program Manager with Benetech, has agreed to spend an hour or two with us via gotomeeting. I've given her some background as to who we are and what we do, also our RESCUE project.

Subscribe to this Blog

Now you can get updated posts to this blog by subscribing through google reader (or another feed reader). We can show you how at our meeting on Friday.

Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education Educational and Assistive Technology to support Universal Access and Universal Design for Learnin

This blog has been added to our list. It has an extensive blogroll of other resources too.

Switch mounts with Loc-Line

Linda Burkhart's session yesterday was amazing! Her website has been added to our Links to Resources. Check out the handouts on Key Concepts for Using Augmentative Communication with Children Who Have Complex Communication Needs and Make a Switch Mount with Loc-Line.

Questions for Mark Dennis

Next Friday at our meeting Mark Dennis will be joining us via gotomeeting.com. Be thinking of questions you have about scanning, converting pdf files to mp3, RESCUE, etc. This will also give us an opportunity to get familiar with gotomeeting. We will have it available for the year so we can meet with each other anytime! See you on the 24th.

More on Closing the Gap

Sessions for tomorrow include: Bookshare and Don Johnston's Read:Outloud Bookshare edition offered for free to qualified Bookshare members, Blog Tools, and Switch access for children with complex communication needs with Linda Burkhart. Saturday will be Creating Alternate Assessment Activities with ClozePro by Crick and another IntelliTools Classroom Suite V4 session. It's been very hard to choose sessions and today's were top notch! I also met our Tango! rep and the CEO of Blink-Twice who developed the Tango! for his son that has CP.

Notes from Closing the Gap

New products abound! Check out the Jelly Beamer wireless switch. They were using it at an IntelliTools Classroom Suite workshop from the back of the room and it worked perfectly! Other highlights of the day - WriteOnline, Crick's new online word processor and Tango! has a new product upgrade. I attended a workshop on Acrobat Professional and Acrobat Reader by Judith Sweeney and we are discussing having her present at our January meeting via gotomeeting.com. See Links to Resources for info on the Jelly Beamer and WriteOnline.