Mobile Learning for 21st Century: iPods and iPads as Personal Assistive Devices

Mobile Learning for 21^st Century: iPods and iPads as Personal Assistive Devices

As one of the breakout workshops on November 18, 2011, Michael Kerr of the Sagonaska Demonstration School (a provincial school for students for with learning disabilities) presented to a group of RCDSB secondary teachers regarding how his students are using their iPods and iPads as assistive devices. Kerr noted that only five percent of written documents are in braille so students with restricted vision are using such applications as ABC Prizmo or Dragon to flip any written text into an audio version. Kerr demonstrated the use of Dragon Dictation to flip a student’s oral story or essay into text format. Kerr pointed out that teachers can have free websites on google and demonstrated the use of google documents to survey students. Kerr shared a large number of free apps that students can use to assist them in their learning and pointed out that in his experience the iPad is currently the best piece of technology for utilizing the thousands of available apps. He also noted that there is a large collection of audio books available on Apple  iTunes. Teachers in attendance were very excited about the prospect of their students being able to use some of these assistive devices and apps. It was noted that the RCDSB is currently deploying technology to ensure two wifi areas in each of its schools and has several pilot projects running involving the use of iPads.