ictsan » Internet

Tar Heel Reader – On Line Talking Books with Switch Access

ictsan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:00:45 +0000

Tar Heel Reader is a really wonderful development. There is a bank of talking books on-line. The ‘pages’ can be turned by pressing a the space bar, or using a switch. You can use pictures from Flikr, the on-line repository of millions of photos, and type in your own sentences. The books are kept on line. This is the best place for them.

You can even download them as Powerpoint presentations, Open Office presentations or Flash files (.swf). The downloaded presentation will not have the text spoken.

I had a few problems with some pictures not loading from Flickr, while using a networked computer in schools. There is an acknowledged problem and this is being addressed by the creation of a new way of storing images on-line.

This development has been brought to us by a collaboration between the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and the department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina. The odd name name is taken from a nickname for the area, apparently

Give it a try; http://gb-cs.cs.unc.edu/TarHeelReader/

The Priory Woods site

ictsan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:58:52 +0000

Priory Woods Software

This school regularly updates its website with new activities which provide a reward for pupils using switches, touch screen or a mouse. The reward is a short burst of video with music.
It’s best to take a look at the Priory Woods School site

Some Free Software

ictsan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:51:46 +0000

Sebran and Sebran-Mini

This software can be downloaded for installation onto your PC.
There are activities for pointing and clicking and pressing individual keys.
Download them from here

Moving Targets

Moving targets is a suite of five activities suitable for
mouse users, users of touch screen or interactive whiteboard.
You can run these straight from the internet.

This is where you find Moving Targets

Some On-Line Activities

ictsan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:27:16 +0000

Here are a few sites where software can be run without downloading it onto your computer. It runs within the browser window on the computer;

Freely usable literacy activities;
www.crick.northants.sch.uk/pageliteracy.html
www.sebastianswan.org.uk/ – some on- screen books
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml
www.candlelightstories.com/
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/adventures/index.shtml

This list taken from a longer document by Jo King – to be found on the Education ICT website
Maths Sites – Take look at the list from the Education ICT Website
Also- some activities from Mape/Naace and Star Tower
Links from Langlee Primary School Site
BBC Skillswise

Commercial Sites – with some access for evaluation purposes
http://www.educationcity.com/
http://www.gridclub.com/ (free to Scottish schools)

Guidelines on Internet Use in Schools
Schools have to have a policy on safe use of the Internet. You’ll find details here