Day 5

Another webinar day!  Today, I watched 2 more webinars, one for reluctant readers and one about communication disabilities.  Again, it’s amazing to see just how many apps there are out there.  I did find some of the apps to be repetitive in the first webinar, with very few differences between a number of the apps discussed.  Watching the webinars, I am realizing that I am a bit out of my league when it comes to knowing exactly who would benefit from these apps, but I think the webinars (especially the powerpoint that scrolls with the video) does a very good job of explaining it.  I certainly feel as though I’m learning a lot about the matching of apps and certain LD’s. 

Something that struck me watching the reluctant readers webinar is how important it is to make a student feel as though they are having fun while reading.  I suppose the long term hope is that they would come to love reading, but I completely understand the idea of hooking them with something fun.  I thought the food fight app was a great way to get kids to read, it’s interactive, colorful, and engaging.  I have a video showing a young girl playing with it. 

When I searched this app, I found a different food fight app which I downloaded.  It’s a game where you throw pots and pans against evil vegetables…….wrong app, but really addictive – you guys should check it out!

I really liked watching the Pictello app in action, there seems like there are some great uses for it.  Catherine had downloaded it and we made a really quick and basic sample. 

The second webinar was on communication disorders.  More great apps here, although, I did notice some serious price increases in apps!  I do think the text to speech apps are amazing though, especially when you think about people like Amelia, who are now so much more connected in school, in her community, etc.  Very cool.  I thought the speech tutor was an interesting app as well – I’m sure that would be something speech therapists might be interested in. 

I found a short video that outlines the talk assist app.  See below.

I’ve used my ipod today to check out some house prices with the realtor.ca app.  I also looked into a fuel price app as I drove to PEI today, but it cost $2.99 and I didn’t feel like buying it!  I probably should have since gas was over 5 cents cheaper in PEI!