Android Tablets in the Learning Support Classroom. Presentation at ILSA, September 2013

Transcription

1 Android Tablets in the Learning Support Classroom Presentation at ILSA, September 2013 Context Tablet Formats: 67% Android, 28.3% Apple, 4.7% Windows (Sunday Business Post, Computers in Business, September 2013, p. 7) SEN access on the Android Tablet s Desktop, go to Settings Display Font Size = Huge Press and Hold on Desktop to set a Wallpaper (for ease of reading and/or school crest) Apps can be dragged onto accessible positions (and/or into Folders and/or any of the desktops ) In Settings Accessibility, Talkback may be enabled (it provides spoken feedback for those with a vision impairment) Note: the majority of the Apps listed below are free to use and download from the Google Play Store General Literacy App: Kingsoft Office Primary e.g. Each Peach; Post Primary e.g. Bogland Fonts either Droid Serif (a serif Font like TNR) or Roboto (not quite Comic Sans but the g looks better) Background: Reading Settings OR Page Settings Pinch to Zoom or Font Increase/Reduce Paragraph Spacing Colour coding important words Another free office type app is Polaris: this come with a Text to Speech (TTS) feature. This underlines line by line as read, with a human voice. Punctuation is good although there are pauses at the end of line of text, and some contractions are unexpected: haven t comes out as haven t. Line spacing can also be adjusted in Polaris but, while I can change foreground text colour, I have not been able to change background paper colour.

2 App (from Google Play Store) Painting App Primary and Post Primary: PaintJoy SEN Replays painting (use Direction keys to change speed) Set the Background Colour or Image Runs in ; Ad. supported Literacy App Primary and Post Primary: S Pen (App on Samsung Note tablet). Can Playback on screen pen work ( Record Sketching ) Can Record and Playback Voice Memo Can change page background Text Entry can be via on screen keyboard or stylus (handwriting recognition) when this latter is enabled Note that other Samsungs such as the Tab 2 also provide handwriting recognition outside of the S Pen environment in, e.g., an Office application The Note Tablet also allows split screen (e.g. read ebook on one half, write up notes on the other) Literacy App Primary: Goldilocks Highlights sentence as read.. Lots of Activities on each page Literacy App Primary: istorybooks Sea Animals Text and (Human) Speech text not highlighted as it is spoken. Large Font Literacy App Primary: Wordbot Use own Word List for, e.g., Post Primary; can create Phonetic spelling e.g. simmultane eeus (and also for My Name ) Reasonable font size

3 Literacy App Primary: Brilliant Spelling From the same author as Wordbot Literacy App Primary: ABC Handwriting as well as Human voice Large letter shapes Comic Sans type font Literacy App Primary: Sight Words Can record student or teacher voice; Upper or Lower case Clean interface, large font Literacy App Primary: Mee Genius Individual words highlighted as read. Small font Literacy App Primary: Clothes Words needs Voice Recognizer and Wifi to be prerunning 45 items of clothing are presented (picture and sound) in a clean interface. User can then test via picture, speech or spelling. Literacy App SEN: AAC Speech Try: I want apple banana bread Literacy App Primary and Post Primary: Dictionary (based on wiktionary.org) Can adjust Font Size, Spacing; TTS Color and Colour ; Extra: Export as Txt file Literacy App Primary and Post Primary: Talk Text To Voice TTS: robotic for English but Human for French! Typos are underlined and can be added to dictionary Student can Type or Paste

4 Large Font used Needs Internet connection for non English languages Literacy App Primary and Post Primary: ListNote Voice to Text (i.e. Speech Recognition) Can change theme (dark/bright foreground/background). Can line the paper. Clean interface Needs to be online Numeracy App Primary: Calculator Large, clear display Try 1+2x3; cos(45xpi/180) Numeracy App Post Primary: CalPad Small font size but has lined paper. Student can save and worksheet Numeracy App Primary and Post Primary: MyScript Handwriting Recognition Large interface Try 1+2x3, atan(1) Numeracy App Primary: Interactive Telling Time Attractive interface Numeracy App Primary: AB Math Lite Sequencing, Addition and Multiplication. Exercises are timed with intermediate rewards provided. Attractive interface. Numeracy App Primary: Math Workout Drill and Practice! Also, has Auditory test Clean interface. Numeracy App Primary: Math Edwin Math Multiplication Numeracy App Primary: Tangram Multi choice, timed assessment Large icons Virtual Manipulative Large, draggable pieces

5 Numeracy App Post Primary: GeoGebra Clean interface Virtual manipulative Hasn t yet got all of the features of its Desktop version and, of course, all of your favourite interactive websites (many of which use FLASH) run directly in the Browser: scoilnet, starfall, woodlands, mathplayground, spellingcity etc. Downloaded Flash files (such as Interactive Teaching Programs ITPs) can also run directly from within the filemanagement system. Also, it should be considered that the definition of Literacy could expand to include the student as a Producer and not just a Consumer of text/media. There are apps available to create flipbook animations, mind mapping, shared text/media creation via Skype, Edmodo, online whiteboards, cartoons etc. Textbooks: most of the main school book Publishers provide Android Apps which provide access to their range of books. These books ( ebooks ) are downloaded to your tablet and the content can then be accessed offline. A number of these apps support such features as Pinch to Zoom, inserting notes/bookmarks, highlighting. Background colour cannot be changed, nor is there access to individual words/phrases (this may be to protect copyright). TTS would not function as the text is within an image, rather than being directly available to a screen reader. Specialist schools for the vision impaired may have more information on this aspect! Readers: All of the main Reading Apps are available (notably Kindle and Adobe). Text can be Pinched to Zoom (to quite a large font size). Long Click on a word to see its definition (via the free Downloaded Dictionary). Stroke sideways to turn pages (or tap bottom corner). User Notes can be inserted. Background Colour can be set, as can Line Spacing, Number of Columns and Margin Size. Note that most of the Classics can be freely downloaded from Project Gutenberg while examination/curriculum material is often provided in.pdf format (e.g. from Additional Supports: Website: The Android Tablets in the Classroom website provides additional supports for schools. Sample Pages may be viewed by all but most pages are password protected (access via Sales below). We trawl through the hundreds of apps available on your behalf, so that you will have a subject by subject directory Training: davidk@ict4schools.ie David Kearney provides Presentations and Support independently or via Sales (below) Sales: barry@uptowncomputers.net For all technical matters, quotations, app installation, aftersales, networking setup and configuration David Kearney, 2013