Day 4: Go Try Proloquo2Go

Every student of every age has the potential - if we assume competence - to be a creative and contributing person in the mobile generation. It's a challenge to shift from learning WHAT to learning HOW, but the fun is there in that leap!

G. Terry Pike

Let me start by sharing a video that challenged me to see that our present or near-future users of AAT such as the iTouch are really the forerunners in a new way of education. The claim is made that the mobile computer is every kid's paper and pencil. (source http://newlearninginstitute.org )



Some really tasty food for thought! And I would welcome your own comments below about the viability and practicality of having laptops in schools or having handheld devices in schools.

I had a browse through the YAACK (Augmentative Communication Resource Guide for Young Kids) website this afternoon. I really liked the straightforward three-level organizational tree:

• How to Get Started
• Choosing an AAC Team
• Teaching
  

This website was clearly a "labour of love". The approach is child-centered with the AT emphasis being helping the child participate meaningfully in their own personal activities and settings. That was also the starting point for today's case study.

We started our first group assignment today, and we are using the iPhone and P2Go. Our half of the group has Sally as our student, and Carolyn and I have the school sub-group. It is a big reality check for me to participate in the very detailed planning that goes into tailoring a tool (iTouch) and an app (P2Go) to the very specific needs of a Grade 3 girl. That role playing of an IPP meeting was new for me because I have not yet had a non-verbal child in my class, so I have never before "attended" such a discussion. Of course, then Carolyn and I then had to "get our hands IN there" and start using the device. The little - but still important - details of working out how we will collaborate and share ideas are coming along. That's part of the learning process, too, learning how to work together as a team, each with our own strengths and contributions to make.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow morning's presentations by the eight sub-groups. It will be enlightening to see how others teachers, other learners with their own learning styles, choose to use this specific AAT.



“Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but children have the equal right to develop their talents, their abilities and their motivation.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy