Free ZAC Browser: A Safe Place for Autistic Children Online

I loaded up a desktop computer yesterday that had been in an elementary special education classroom for use with an autistic child this spring. We had been experimenting with Intellitools Classroom Suite and with a program the speech pathologist had put on.

As I entered the room and saw the student curled up on a bean bag asleep for nap time, I remembered seeing this girl a month and a half ago, watching her clicking anything on the screen and making poor choices on what to do with the computer. I modeled for the assistant how to work with her at the computer and showed some of the activities I had selected for use that would support learning goals. I found a new resource that I wish I would have had this spring that might support this girl and students or children you have that are autistic.

Kate Ahern of Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs Blog, had a post on the ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children) web browser. I was very excited to find it and after looking through the ZAC Browser website and watching the video I thought it would be a good tool to pass on. The browser filters out unsafe sites and content, has a unique icon set of buttons to open bookmarked content under videos, games, music and other activities and sites.

I would love to hear what you have to say about it if you download the free beta application and see how it works. I am going to refer this on to our autism department and spend some time with it. I will let you know more as we explore and use it.

Upcoming Events:

Byron Wilkes of Learning Magic will be my guest on No Limits to Learning Live this morning at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. You can listen live and call in with comments or questions or listen to the archive on the player on my sidebar afterwards. Learning Magic is the sponsor of our blog contest/drawing.

Submit your blog for our random drawing - Deadline June 15th. Drawing is on the 16th.

If you would like a chance to win a free title of your choice from Learning Magic's catalog, then send me your blog link and your email information to be entered in the random drawing at lon.thornburg@nolimits2learning.com Details are on the sidebar.

All the best to you!

Lon

The True Story of Hoover the Disabled Dog will Warm Hearts

If you want a story that will get kid's to understand the will to overcome disability, try the free downloads of "Hoover's New Wheels", and "Hoover's Newest Wheelchair". These links can be found on the Learning Magic home page, under Intellitools-based Goodies.
Hoover was in a freak accident that paralyzed his back legs. The two-part download goes through the story of his adapting to a "wheelchair" for his back legs to ride in. Byron Wilkes, the Learning Magic CEO and a colleague, fitted the chairs and helped Hoover get back to squirrel chasing and be truly mobile again. These downloads play with the ITAN player which is free also. If you want to adapt the pages, use the template for student writing, etc. you need to be able to open it as an activity in Intellitools Classroom Suite. These two stories are a part of a series of activities in the CD "The Writing Bin II" that will be available July 2008, and can be used as writing prompt activities. The stories use still images and video. Just having the free version to play and discuss in class on a SMART board or from a data projector would be great. Having Intellitools Classroom Suite to play this and other free goodies from Learning Magic makes it even better.

Byron Wilkes has been designing educational software activities for a good number of years. After time with Intellitools, Byron left the company to start Learning Magic and collaborate with specialists and academic leaders in special education to develop titles that instruct, develop reading and writing skills, social skills, teach science and ecosystems and math skills. The Learning Magic titles play on software such as Intellitools Classroom Suite, Clicker 5, My Own Bookshelf and Test Me Score Me. Byron has successfully combined his personal passion for nature with his desire to develop a catalog of quality high-interest titles for lower cognitive and academic skill levels.



Byron will be my guest in a 30 minute interview on No Limits to Learning Live, Blog Talk Radio, Wednesday, June 4th at 10:30 Pacific time. Learning Magic is also the sponsor of the free software give-away for our start a blog contest.

Note on the contest - drawing:
I have had folks ask whether someone who just started a blog this year could join in the drawing
even if they didn't start it specifically for this contest and the answer is "YES!" Email me your link to your blog on disability, assistive technology, the classroom, etc and get your name on the list for our Learning Magic free software of choice. The deadline is June 16th.

Touch Web Pages to Search with RedZee and a SmartBoard or Tablet PC

Do you remember Tom Cruise working from a glass screen with fanned out images and how he touched, dragged and moved them around in the movie "Minority Report"?

Well, you can get a sense of that with a SMART Board , Promethean Board or Tablet PC and Tablet Mac and the Internet search engine Red Zee.

Red Zee pulls up search results as a series of full page images of the sites. They are fanned out like a deck of cards. By clicking and dragging the mouse, or your finger, you can scroll through the pages and then double-click on the one that you want and view it full-screen.

When I put in searches, the top ones were different than the ones I got on Google, but the results were interesting. A teacher on my blog list, Annemarie80's classroom blog does posts on how she uses the SMART Board in her classroom and RedZee is one of them.

All the best to you!

Lon