Friday 26 October 2012


October 24, 2012

REFLECTION

Tonight we presented out proloquo2go case studies to the class.  There were 2 choices of case studies.  The first was a young man in grade 6.  The second was a young girl in grade 3.  Both had a variety of issues that affect their ability to communicate and learn.  Our job was to design a communication tool, using proloquo2go, which would help them communicate with others in a variety of settings that include home, school and the community.

As each of the groups presented it was interesting to see how similar, yet different our designs were.  Our choices of button size, our choice of colors, our choice of layout and our choice of words were all different.  Yet, the end result was the same; these two individuals were now able to communicate, quite effectively with the world around them.

Through our presentation and discussions, it became evident to me that the most difficult portion of the assignment was the pre-planning phase.   There were so many things to consider before you even started to use the application.  Our design required knowledge of the individual’s abilities, the settings that the device would be used in and the anticipation of what may be required in order to converse with family, friends, teachers and the community in general.

As I reflect back on the designing experience and the various presentations it has become clear that the key is to make it easy for the individual to use and to make the language simple, yet clear, for the receiver.   If I were designing a communication board again I would make sure to have input from as many stakeholders as possible, parents, teachers, classmates, and the student themself.  The more “real” input you have the more effective the device will be.

Following our presentation we started to work on a new application called Book Creator, another ingenious program from the creative geniuses at Apple!

Once again, simple to use, but highly effective at providing another means to present information.  The program provides the user with the ability to use text, video, still pictures as well as audio.  It also allows for creative expression through the ability to choose your own layout, font, font size, text color and page color.  The part I enjoyed the most was the ability to publish it to the bookshelf or email it to someone. 

I believe this application can be highly effective in schools.  It gives students the chance to get away from the paper project and brings the learning into the 21st century. 

Possible Uses for Book Creator:

·         Social Stories

·         E journals

·         Science presentations

·         Social Studies presentations

·         Math books

·         Creative writing projects

·         Novel reviews

 
 

2 comments:

  1. Janet,
    I also was interested in the similarities and differences of our classmates boards. It was neat to see everyone's take on communication. If I had to do this again it would be important to speak to the people who will be speaking to the child. Getting thier input would only improve the communication.Stephanie

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  2. Fantastic post! I completely agree that having input from as many stakeholders as possible is instrumental in creating a communication board that best meets the needs of the user.

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