Wild and Free by Dan Herlihy and Mo Buti

Closing The Gap Solutions e-Magazine, August / Sept 2024 Volume 43 - Number 3

Wild Free accessibility & UDL and

Technology is everywhere! What should we use? How should we use it? Where do we find it? And don’t even get us started with AI!!! When Dan and I put together our first“Wild and Free”session there was so much coming out for the first time in the way of innovative apps and programs that specifically addressed many of the needs of the students. Comparing notes, we realized how long the list was, and that we were finding apps that the other hadn’t discovered. It demonstrated how important it is to read from many diverse fields and areas, and in many diverse forums and sites to connect what is out there. Step two is to “see deeper” into what we were finding, as many apps created by developers are presented in the context they originally believed it would be used in, but in reality, can address many other diverse needs and

supports. This is where the creativity comes in. What was our criteria when we presented our findings each year? …The apps and programs needed to be really wild, you’ve got to have this even though it costs something, or really, really good …and free! They needed to be easy to use, relevant to educators or students, and fill a need. After sharing some of these we found that they filled a need some didn’t even know they had until watching them in action. One of the difficulties today is an overabundance of very fine, easy to use apps, that run on a variety of platforms and devices, and the needs and requirements of a school’s tech ecosystem as far as security and ability to operate within that environment, for the program to run on the hardware and operating systems

Advocate and Instructional Expert for People with Autism/ALL. Mo Buti possesses a M.Ed-BD, M.Ed- ADMIN, QIDP certification, Director of Special Education degree/certificate from Illinois and her Type 75 Administrator certification. Mo is a dynamic, international speaker and well-respected authority on autism, intellectual disabilities, adult services, behavioral strategies, educational supports, and more. An active member in the special education community, including the Illinois State Autism Task Force and the Vizzle Advi- sory Board, Mo was the recipient of the 2012 Bobby Reyes Tribute Award from Esperanza for outstanding commitment and dedication to children and adults with developmental disabilities by an individual. mobuti@hotmail.com https://www.aiepautism.com/

DAN HERLIHY , AT Specialist, (B.S., M.A.), has worked in the education field for over 35 years, working in Special Education classrooms, as a Computer Resource Specialist, Network Admin- istrator, Assistive Technology Resource Specialist and more. He has presented nationally and internationally as well as providing professional development for school districts on topics addressing assistive technology and technology integration. He has also written numerous books and articles, produced educational activities for educators and students, as well as online videos for educators showcasing technology integration. His expertise is in taking diverse technologies and connecting them together to provide

MO BUTI , With over 34 years of experience, Mo is a practiced profes- sional in the field of special education providing services and support to those with disabilities and their families. She managed autism programs and services for over 6,000 students as Director of Autism and Intellectual Disabilities at Chicago Public Schools. Mo’s additional experience also includes special educa- tion teacher, autism itinerant and special education administrator. She is now the CEO/owner of her own business AiepA:

solutions for access. dherlihy@juno.com

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being used, as well as being able to easily be manage. As many schools have settled into just a few environments including only Chromebooks and the Chrome OS, only Macbooks and iPads, Windows using Edge or the Chrome Browser, etc. the need is also to demonstrate apps and programs that can play well within them, and are quick and easy to learn and use. An example of a Chrome extension that is easy to use, relevant, and does not require very much in the way of “how do I use this” is Bibcitation Bibliography & Citation Generator. From any webpage click on the extension, choose the citation style, and it auto generates the citation. If items are missing that it hadn’t initially found, such as the date the article was posted or the author(s), you can search the page for that information, click the add button next to the item missing, add it and click update. It regenerates it with the updated information in correct format. Great for teaching students to cite where their information came from when doing research for reports. This is also great to use to teach students how they can check their own work. Searching for and curating the many apps and programs takes time. It would be easy to read a short description and think, “Oh, this sounds great,” and just add it to the list. We have gone through lists and lists of programs, and tested them ourselves to make sure they work - sounds obvious, but you would not believe how many do not work well enough to be counted on working when needed. Why did this app work on my computer but not yours?! What version of the browser are you using? … this would never work on the spot in a classroom. Too many steps for a student to use successfully. All during the year, from a myriad of places, we come across apps that go onto the list. There are many sites and organizations that assist with keeping up with what is new and emerging. Organizations such as CONNSENSE out of the University of Connecticut, which publishes the https://connsensereport.com/ Tech & Learning https://www.techlearning.com/ Top Tech Tidbits https://www.toptechtidbits.com/ AI Weekly https://aiweekly.co/ AI-Weekly https://ai-weekly.ai/ Edutopia https://www.edutopia. org, Richard Byrne’s https://freetech4teach.teachermade.com/ (see the archive posts at the bottom of the page) and ……are just a few that provide weekly or monthly tips on what is coming out. However, another way is to simply spend time searching for a specific topic or category, such as “text to speech Chrome extensions” or “AI tools for leveling text” or “making image pdf files readable to screen readers.” Other sites of interest include: https://edtechteacher.org/ https://www.edtechdigest.com/ https://www.educatorstechnology.com/ A few examples of wild and free apps and programs include QRcode Chimp (https://www.qrcodechimp.com) This is one of those apps that seem, on the surface, straight forward. It creates QR Codes from any URL you enter. However, it also allows you to create “dynamic” codes, meaning, you can save the QR Code, distribute it, (for example printing it) then later change the URL, and now when that original code you printed is scanned, it

automatically goes to the new URL. You could send your student home with the QR Code you created that opens a specific book on the Tar Heel Reader website. They scan it and it opens that book. Tomorrow you open QRcode Chimp and change the URL for that QR Code to the URL for a different book. The student goes home, scans the original code, and today it opens a new book. You could program it each day to open a …new book, audio story, homework assignment, note for parents on how the student’s day was, or …No need to be generating and printing a new QR Code for each day! Have parents tape it to the fridge! No more excused for “I forgot what my homework is.” Many AI programs now will take a reading passage, story, etc. and change the reading level to anything you ask. Programs such as Magicschool.ai, Briskteaching.com as well as the basic AI program ChatGPT all do this. If we were to always level passages for a particular student at the exact same level, it might discourage the student from reading, versus providing them with texts within a range. Think of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development by providing “a range of book levels that are not too challenging and not too easy--depending upon a student's reading level” (Zone of Proximal Development, 2024). However, there are also many reasons for leveling the text where the “focus is on students’ comprehension of the material rather than the development of reading skills” (Center on Inclusive Software for Learning at CAST., 2023, p. 2). Seeing AI is a free app from Microsoft for iPad, iPhone and Android devices. Using this app (it uses your camera) you are able to point to currency and it will read aloud the denominations of both coins and bills, point to printed text and it will automatically start reading the text aloud (can choose from over a dozen languages but does not do translation) - including text on your computer screen. It does more including reading bar codes, reads aloud handwritten text, and it can describe a scene as well as describe colors. It can scan a person that you can then save under their name and they will recognize by name the next time they are in view of what you scan (prior to saving they will describe a little bit about the person- sex, hair color, and an estimated age. This is my favorite part as it thinks I am 28!) The ease of use is its ability to simply begin reading basically any displayed text, without the need of scanning, uploading, processing and saving beforehand makes it a great on the fly solution. Looking to find some good podcasts for kids and adults? Listen Notes https://www.listennotes.com allows you to search for podcasts by topic, age group, name, and more. There are many podcasts for younger students, for example Sleep Tight Stories - Bedtime Stories for Kids, and Story Train: Magical Bedtime Stories for Kids, just to mention a few. Find some good podcasts for classroom/group listening, and work on listening skills with your students! Would you like to get a written summary of a video? Summarize Tech, summarize.tech allows you to type/paste in

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the URL of a YouTube video, and get a written summary, as well as a summary broken down into 5 minute time segments in the video. For long videos this allows you to quickly read through what the main points being presented are, and decide if you want to watch it all, or just the sections of interest. Many AI programs that are currently available, or will be over time, deserve a second look as to “how” you might utilize them. The basic ChatGPT program is an example. My providing the prompt “Create a list of steps and target dates involved, and due dates for completing a book report assignment that begins on September 1, 2024 and is due on September 30, 2024.” Below we displayed just the first few steps rather than the entire sequence. Step 1: Choose a Book (September 1 - September 3) • Target Date: September 1 • Tasks: º Review the list of approved books for the assignment. º Choose a book that interests you and is appropriate for the assignment. º Notify the instructor about your book choice. Step 2: Read the Book (September 4 - September 12 ) • Target Date: September 4 • Tasks: º Begin reading the chosen book. º Divide the book into manageable sections for reading each day. By adjusting the prompt, for example adding how many pages in the book, you can also have it provide the student with how many pages need to be read daily. This example also listed dates the book needed to be finished, dates an outline needed to be finished, when it should be finalized, etc. A great organizational handout for students who, I’m not saying I did this, but who pick up that book on Sunday …when the report is due Monday morning! When you think of ChatGPT as an assistant, it can create support materials like this for your students in seconds! Many students with executive function needs might have to have their teacher break down an assignment like this for them, but with ChatGPT the student can learn to create this on their own. This is a life long skill and can be used in college and beyond as we all know that our special education teachers are not coming with us to college. Another thing we found is that sometimes we love a product, and it goes away and we find ourselves searching high and low for a replacement. A great example is Jamboard. We all thought, how can we live without this?! And then poof gone (last day will be Dec 21, 2024). So should you use Figjam? Ziteboard? Miro? MURAL? Microsoft Whiteboard? There are pros and cons for all. Know what features you liked the best about Jamboard in order to see which one of these might fill your need as a replacement. Or hmmmmmm might you learn about this at the 2024 CTG

Wild and Free? We shall see! Sometimes a product takes a break and comes back. TLDR (Too long Didn’t Read) was a favorite Chrome extension of mine. It can simply summarize a webpage at 3 different amount of words. But then it stopped working. Ugg. So in my mission to replace it I found the extension Summarize the Internet . This was great and simple. Then wa la TLDR came back (with a few more bells and whistles). Finding these programs simply takes following connections, such as reading the mention of a program in an article, then going to the website of the program to read more about it. This is what it does…how might I use it! REFERENCES Zone of Proximal Development. (2024). Accelerated Reader. https://arhelp.renaissance.com/hc/en-us/ articles/12746104128027-Zone-of-Proximal-Development Center on Inclusive Software for Learning at CAST. (2023). Technology Feature Brief: Manual Text Leveling. CAST. https://www.cast.org/products-services/resources/2023/cisl- technology-feature-brief-manual-text-leveling AUTHORS: Mo Buti, M.Ed-BD, M.Ed-ADMIN, QIDP certification, Director of Special Education degree/certificate from Illinois and her Type 75 Administrator certification. mobuti@hotmail.com https:// www.aiepautism.com/ Dan Herlihy, B.S., M.A., AT Specialist, dherlihy@juno.com

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