7 Apps for Special Ed Communication

The elementary school at which I teach houses the CD program for our district.  We have incredible special education teachers and aides.  And one of the most important skills to teach any student is how to communicate.

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is meant for students who are non-verbal, but whose cognitive and physical abilities abilities are strong enough to use assistive technologies such as choice boards and visual schedules.  (Forgive me if I did not state that correctly - I am not a special ed teacher.)

For many reasons, communication apps often go unused in favor of (very) low-tech solutions.  Some of the reasons for this include:
• Visual schedules and choice boards get a good workout every day.  They get folded and stuffed in pockets, dropped, lost, and all sorts of things you wouldn't do with your iDevice.
• Visual schedules and choice boards sometimes have to be changed in an instant.  Clicking through technology can take up precious seconds if you are not comfortable with it.
• Creating schedules from scratch using an app you are unfamiliar with has a learning curve.
• Schedules are custom made for individual students, therefore sharing an iDevice among several students does not work well.  You would need several devices.
• You want a fairly consistent program of AAC assistive technology in your school, unless the educational needs of the student call for it.
• Special ed communication apps can be incredibly expensive.
• A very common special education assistive technology, PECS by Pyramid Educational Consultants, does have a few apps out, but none of them are meant as choice boards or visual schedules.  If they do in the future, it would be a game-changer.

So, perhaps this list can give us some insight into what educators might appreciate in special education communication apps.  A special ed communication app needs to be easy to create on the go, easy to change on the go, shareable with other teachers, and inexpensive.  In the end, they all have the same goal - enabling expressive communication.  These apps could be used in addition to other existing systems.  With that in mind, let's look at some budget-friendly special ed communication apps and see how they compare.

Scene Speak (Good Karma Applications, Inc)  $9.99
Speak All (Purdue University)  Free
First Then Visual Schedule (Good Karma Applications, Inc) $9.99
Choice Board Creator (Techno Chipmunk)  Free
Talk'n Photos (Intermediate District 287)  $2.99
Click n'Talk (Intermediate District 287)  $2.99
Sounding Board (AbleNet)  Free

Scene Speak by Good Karma Applications allows you to add audio "hot spots" to an image.  You can also type in text and choose from a selection of voices for your hot spots.  Your image can come from the in-app camera, your camera roll, or a Google image search.  You can export/import your entire library, meaning not only can you backup, but also share your library with other Scene Speak users.  Works in portrait or landscape mode.
My own kids love playing with this app - it really works well.
Possible uses - Getting used to a new space, safe/not safe, a real life choice board with all the choices in one image.  Elementary social studies could use it for maps that speak, and science could use it for environments or animal studies - anything that would benefit from multiple audio hotspots in one image.
Drawbacks - Takes a little bit of time to set up the hot spots, so this is not something you can easily use "on the fly".  Little on the pricy side at $9.99, but watch for discounts.

Speak All comes with about 20 images.  You can import more images, but only from your photo library camera roll.  Stores your photos and audio in a kind of "in-app library", meaning it is easy to load up choices in a flash IF you already have them imported from your camera roll.  But there is no way to organize the library, so I could not imagine scrolling through 100's of choices to find the correct one.
Possible uses - The purpose of the app is to create sentence strips that will say a sentence when put together (such as "I want ______.")  Images can set to either drag into position or be set to drop with a single touch.  Works only in landscape mode.
Drawbacks -  no in-app camera, meaning there are several steps to get custom images into the app, and then the library is not organized.

First Then is a visual schedule that does exactly what it says - puts your images in order to tell a student that "First you do X, then you get/do Y."  You can have multiple steps in each schedule, not just two steps, meaning it can also be a visual schedule.  There are three ways to view schedules:
• Full view (1 picture at a time)
• Split view (First, Then)
• List (all steps)
You can export your schedule to PDF, which would make it possible to print.  You create a library of schedules or common routines, and it is easy to create or edit these schedules on the fly.  There is a built in library of over 100 images, and you can add to that library by using the in-app camera, photo library, or google image search (First Then is by the same maker as Scene Speak, so there are many similarities).  Other nice features:
• can add a checkmark when a task is completed
• can set a password to protect
• can back up to iCloud and file share through iTunes to another device
• Appears that Android version has a LOT more features (for now?)  The iOS app needs an update.  The current version is for iPhone which means the graphics suffer when enlarged for iPad.  The android versions looks really great.
I have used First Then with my 2 year old at home.  In fact, if I say something like "First eat strawberries, then pudding", she'll respond "like on iPad!"

Choice Board Creator does what it says - it creates choice boards.  There is a box at the top to type in your question.  Then, you can have 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 boxes for choices (not sure 1 is a choice, but ok).  Each box can have an image and a sound.  You can set any or all of the images to be the "correct" choice and add applause.  You can make the boxes bigger and smaller and add multiple pages of choices.  And the app automatically mixes up the order of the choices each time.

Images come from the in-app camera and your photo library, but this app adds two other interesting features:
• the ability to use text in a choice box instead of a picture
• the option of using audio from your iTunes library.
The audio feature is both good and bad - since the only way to add audio to an image is through your iTunes library, it is great if your audio is a song.  But if you want to record a voice, you would need to record in another app (such as Garageband) and then place your recording in iTunes.  Not likely to happen if you need a lot of short recordings.  But if you were going to record your kids singing and make a choice board of their own songs, this would be a great feature.  There is also no backup feature or sharing with this app.

The next two apps, Talk'n Photos and Click 'N Talk, are very similar and both created by teachers in Intermediate District 287 in Minnesota.  I love the idea that teachers had an idea and made an app to help students.
Talk'n Photos is simple and straightforward to use.  You create an album of photos using your photo library or the in-app camera.  Attach a caption and record a sound for each image.  Your iPad will show a 3x4 grid of photos before you have to start scrolling down.  You can password protect.  Best uses would be a choice board or simple schedule.
Click 'N Talk is essentially the same as Talk'n Photos, but the difference is that this app allows the photos to be full screen.  Therefore, this app might be easier to use for students with vision or motor difficulties.  It also would be a great app to create social stories on the go.  You could easily have a student record the social story using Click 'N Talk.

Finally, Sounding Board by Ablenet used to be $49.99 but has recently become free.  It does have in-app purchases for more boards, but you wouldn't need them if you are creating custom boards.  It comes with approximately 200 preloaded images, and you can also choose images from your photo library or use the in-app camera.  You can record sounds for each image and also record prompts for Makes boards with 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, or 9 images.  The neat feature here is that you can link each image to another board (kind of like a choose your own adventure book) so you can create sub-schedules or routines for each part of a master schedule.  It is an iPhone app, which means the graphics don't display as well on the iPad.  Perhaps the recent price drop means an update is coming?

One I have not purchased yet is Visual Schedule Planner by Good Karma Applications.  Judging by its sibling apps (Scene Speak and First Then), I would imagine it to be another good app, but I will wait for a price drop from the current $14.99.  I did get many of these apps at discounted prices on my own - no promo codes provided.

So that is a list of seven budget-friendly, fairly simple to use AAC apps that I have found.  This is certainly a great use for the iPad and I am sure there will be many more apps like this in the future.

New Reflections on Reflection

I know I'm going against the stream here, but I have fallen out of love with the Reflection App.  The problem is that it just has too many hiccups, especially when compared to Apple TV.

My middle school choir room has a new Apple TV set up.  I have not a single issue with it in a month of use.  When I am working in my elementary school's computer lab, I plug in my personal Apple TV.  I never have a problem.  But in my elementary classroom - the room where I spent about 75% of my time, I do not have an HDMI projector.  So thus far, I have been using Reflection in this classroom.  I have many problems.

First, Airplay through Reflection cannot be launched as quickly as with Apple TV.  In my situation, I need to first set up an ad hoc network, have the iPad connect to that network, launch Reflection on the laptop, and then set Airplay to mirror to the laptop.  Now you have a window that I usually move from my laptop screen to the Smartboard (I choose not to mirror my laptop so I can have two monitors at once), maximize the Reflection window, and hope that I don't accidentally turn the iPad to portrait orientation because then the window reverts back to a smaller size.  I can do this all pretty fast, but do you know what kids will start to do by this time?

To make matters more difficult, you can get through all of these steps and it freezes or doesn't work.  Some apps crash Reflection completely (I have a recorder playing app that does this).  Displaying photos last week caused Reflection to freeze up many times, leading to several force-quits.  If I did not have the photo on the iPad before launching AirPlay, it would freeze.

I realize there is a very good possibility that the problem is with my ad hoc network, or some other issue.  But the fact remains - Apple TV never gives me a problem (I do not need to create an ad hoc network for Apple TV).  As Steve Jobs would say "It just works".  Apple TV does not require me to change networks mid-class, freeze, or revert to a smaller size just because I change orientations.

So, I have ordered the Kanex ATV-Pro Apple TV adapter for my elementary classroom so I can hook up my Apple TV to a VGA projector.  When it arrives, I'll let you know how it works.

First Uses of Apple TV in Choir

I am very excited to have the new equipment installed and running in the Middle School choir room, the centerpiece of which is Apple TV.  Due to a few issues, I couldn't really try it out until mid-week.  But on Thursday, I just let the Apple TV run for the length of 2 classes while I taught.  The first class was 7th grade general music, and the second class was 7th grade choir.

My 7th grade general music students are recording music history podcasts.  It is a music history project we have been working on for a long time, modeled after the great Classics for Kids music history podcasts.  My students thoroughly enjoyed the Classics for Kids programs.  Instead of just listening to the Classics for Kids shows, I embedded the youtube videos of the musical performances featured in the shows in a separate website.   We only did the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras.  We will save Modern era for 8th grade.  

How did Apple TV help in this class?  Simply as a monitor.  I gave one group of students my iPad and had them record their podcast in Garageband in a practice room.  Since the Apple TV was projecting in the main room, I could see everything they were doing.  No worries about going on different apps or getting off task.  Not the greatest use of the Apple TV, but it is important in the life of a teacher.  After the group was finished recording, we were able to teach the other groups the differences between iPad version of Garageband and the laptop version using the Apple TV.  

But in our 2nd hour choir rehearsal, the real benefits of Apple TV came out.  

I remember when I first got a Smartboard in my music classroom five or six years ago.  I felt like the world walked into my classroom.  For a music teacher who had no student computers in the classroom or any access to the computer lab, the Smartboard completely changed my approach.  This is how I felt about using the Apple TV in choir this week.  The combination of the Apple TV, the iPad right in front of me, and the projector made for seamless learning.  I only used my laptop for submitting attendance.

All from the iPad right in front of me on the piano:
• Music playing through Apple TV while students are walking in
• SmartSeat app open and on screen for attendance taker (don't have it yet?  read this)
• Solfege Scale practice app - first time we used it as a class and kids did better than I expected

• In the rehearsal process itself, I opened Evernote, created a new notebook, and made a new note for that day's rehearsal.  We recorded small bits of rehearsal (either a short piece such as the Star Spangled Banner or about 30 seconds of a longer piece) in Evernote.  Then, students would offer feedback on what needed to be improved.  I would quickly type the feedback into Evernote with the audio clip.  Then we would practice those things and record again.  I repeated this process for several songs throughout class.  I did  this on Friday with my opposite day choir, and will continue this as we move into our Spring concert in May.  Although I am not an avid Evernote user, the fact that it can quickly and easily record and then add text to create a digital portfolio is what I was seeking.  (In the past, we've recorded with Garageband, but there was no way to annotate feedback and save it easily like a digital portfolio.)

Two things amazed me during class:
1.  We must not forget that students are innate musicians.  They know what needs to be worked on and improved.  It may not be in the order that we teachers might do it, but make them part of a constant feedback loop and they take ownership of the rehearsal process.  Phrasing, diction, and dynamics are usually are tops on their list because they know how to fix them easier.
2.  Sometimes students know what needs to be improved, but don't have the words for it and don't know how to fix it.  This is what music teachers live for - the nitty gritty of the rehearsal process.  One student, after listening to the beginning of a piece, said "We sound like children in that part".  What the student really meant was "We need to use a vowel shape and better breath support to create a more mature tone quality."  This was a teachable moment, leading to some work on vowels, another recording, and -voila -we have a more beautiful sound.  I wanted that fixed, but I didn't need to ask for it - they recognized it and asked for it to be improved, and with help from the teacher, they fixed it.  And if they don't do it next week, all I have to do is replay the recording in Evernote and ask for it again.

And two observations about audio:
1.  I need to get a decent recording microphone.  It doesn't do the students justice to use the built-in iPad microphone, and the students deserve a clearer picture of how they sound if we are going to continue this process.
2.  The Apple TV sends audio out through the HDMI and the optical audio (Toslink) ports simultaneously.  If your HDMI cable goes to a projector, you will want to turn off the volume on the projector so that you are only getting high-quality audio through your stereo system.

This was a day where technology:
• Changed my teaching
• Increased student achievement

I look forward to more use of Apple TV with apps such as ForScore (Used it in Fall, but directly wired to iPad, which never works well since the 30-pin connector always comes out.  I really like it and use it often with elementary students learning recorders) and SmartMusic.  If you are looking for excellent discussion about these two apps and more in choral music, check out Dr. Russell's blog TechinMusicEd.

Apple TV Comes to the Choir Room

It finally happened.  It started at Christmas, and finished at Easter.  The middle school choir room has received some much needed tech upgrades, including (drum roll, please) Apple TV!

The middle school choir room has been neglected for a long time.  Since the former high school was converted into the current middle school eight years ago, there has been a succession of middle school choir teachers and administration.  The room never got the treatment that so many other rooms in the building received.  Over the years, it did have 2 good speakers, a good amplifier, and a 5-disc CD changer.  This year, for the first time, I am teaching 7th grade choir in addition to my K-5 duties.  To my good fortune, there was a rotating music account fund and this year was the choir's turn to spend it.

I had two ideas for the funds:
Option A - some combination of laptops and mobile devices
Option B - projector, Apple TV, network, screen, rack, and other hardware

I decided to go with Option B.  I have been doing this long enough to know that if you don't have the infrastructure in place to start with, the rest of it will not be successful.  There will be options in the future for mobile devices - I can get some out of future budget monies, BYOD, etc.  I already have a few laptops and mobile devices.  What we needed a strong foundation for future growth.

So, back in December, I started putting together a list of items and talked to the person in our district who orders technology for teachers.  The first thing that was not going to be on this list was an interactive whiteboard.  We were going to go a different direction - Apple TV.  We were both excited for the possibilities, since no other room in the district (that I am aware of) has a permanent Apple TV installation.

Don't get me wrong - I was an early adopter of interactive whiteboards in our district.  I still use the one in my elementary classroom regularly and have plenty of colleagues who couldn't imagine life without it.  But it has its limitations, the first of which is cost.  Meanwhile, I have had Apple TV in my own house since Fall, and often bring it to use in our elementary computer lab and church, both of which have HDMI projectors.

But the choir room needed a few things in addition to the Apple TV:
• an HDMI projector - the most expensive part of this project.  Yes, you can get converter boxes, but we didn't have a projector in the choir room yet, so might as well just get an HDMI projector right away.
• a mount for the projector.
• a screen - in my case, big enough for 60 kids to see clearly at once.  We purchased an 8' wide screen to replace the tiny screen that used to be in the room.
• Cables galore, and cable conduit to make things look nice.  50' HDMI, 50' RCA cable, 50' SVGA cable, 50' internet cable, new speaker wire, and more.
• A rack to put all of the equipment in, including an existing amplifier, CD changer, and VCR/DVD.  Since the manufacturer calls it a "Command Center", I think the tech staff pictured something like NASA used to launch the shuttle.  It is a perfect size for a classroom and can handle rack-mountable components.
• An audio converter for the Apple TV that allows us to run audio into the existing stereo amplifier.  This is a Toslink to RCA audio converter.  Well worth the $30 for converter and a few cables to get great sound instead of the tinny sound from the projector.  (The DVD/VCR player just uses RCA cables directly into the amplifier for audio).
• A router as a workaround for Apple TV on a secure, enterprise network.

With this new system, you can use any nearly any media you want at the push of a button and have fabulous audio and video.  But best of all, the Apple TV will allow me - or anyone else with an iPad or new iPhone on the same network - to mirror directly to the screen.  Yes, I also own the Reflection App and it is good, but it's a gamble - Apple could shut it off with a simple update.  And the room still needed these upgrades - the projector, the screen, the rack to pull it all together, etc.  Now the choir room went from being the least tech capable room in the district to one of the most forward-leaning spaces for learning.  I think when other people see it in action, they will want it, too - just like interactive whiteboards were.  Apple TV is one of those things you have to see to understand.

Total cost is still being determined, but I purchased ALL of the above for approximately the same price as a single interactive white board.  Remember - we were starting from scratch here - most classrooms already have a lot of this equipment or wouldn't need all of it.  Plus I think I might have enough leftover in the account to purchase one of the newly-reduced price iPad2 for student use.

Once Spring Break is over, I'll post about how I am actually getting to use the new equipment to help improve student achievement in choir.

My Three Favorite Teacher Apps This Year

One of the reasons I love my iPad is how it makes my work in front of the kids easier.  It has become something like a universal remote control that replaces the other 5 remote controls you used to fumble between.  For example, as a music teacher, I always had these things close by:

• a stack of seating charts (22 sections per week)

• boxes of CD's that matched our textbook series (about 60 CDs)

• my lesson plan book

My lesson plan book was filled with little codes to let me know which CD to use.  You might have 3 hours of classes without a break, and I would pre-load the 6-CD changer and mark down the disc number and track number in my lesson plan book.  (In the "good old days," I even had a code system for - gasp - records!)  And changing a seating chart eats ups valuable class time when you only get 60 minutes a week with students.  

All through the 2011-12 school year, my three most valuable teacher apps have been:

• SmartSeat (by Cornsoft)

• PlanBook (by Hellmansoft)

• Remote (by Apple)

The combination of these three apps have made my life easier, and have had an impact on student learning.  I can only give anecdotal evidence for that claim - less time spent on seating charts, websites that launch automatically from my lesson book, no fumbling through CD's, more prep time available to do these tasks.  These take precious minutes.  Here's a look at each of them and how they have helped me.

Smart Seat
Smart Seat is a seating chart on steroids.  Smart Seat allows you to copy and paste a list of names into a class, customize seating arrangements, scramble students, randomly choose students, take pictures of students in the app, email seating charts, track attendance, and more.  I will often put other information in the chart such as folder number or instrument number.  I never print seating charts unless I have a sub - and then it is easy enough to just email the seating chart to myself or a printer.  Have to move a student?  Just slide his/her name to a new seat.  Students can be added and deleted easily throughout the year.  At the time of this post, Smart Seat is $3.99 and has been well worth it.

PlanBook
PlanBook is more than a lesson book.  As a music teacher, I have a very complicated schedule.  I am at two schools:  a middle school which runs an A/B schedule and an elementary school on a 5-day rotation.  Plan book can handle complicated schedules, but it also lets you adjust your schedule easily for those special days that pop up.  My favorite features of PlanBook include:
• allows you to put URL's into your lesson plans and launch website directly from your lesson book.
• allows you to upload other files (such as Smart Notebook files) and launch from lesson book.
• Dropbox integration allows me to work on lesson plans anywhere, even if I don't have internet access
• Allows user to color-code individual classes
• Drag and drop to copy lessons from one section to another
PlanBook is not cheap ($35 for laptop or desktop through App Store plus $9.99 for iPad version through iTunes store), but I may never buy another lesson book.

Remote
Remote is Apple's own app to control iTunes and Apple TV ... well ... remotely.  Instead of loading all those CD's into the stereo (and even some records that I've transferred), I just launch Remote and I can control my iTunes library from anywhere in the room.  This is great as an elementary music teacher who is moving around the room or often sitting on the floor with kids.  I do have issues with it on a secure , enterprise network, but I set up a computer-to-computer network when needed.  Remote is free from the iTunes store.

So those are my top 3 this year.  I paid full price for all of them.  And not only have they made my life easier - I am sure they have an effect on student learning because I can get more done every class.