Turning the Page Understanding what “reading” means to students who were born Digital Presented by : Michael Ferguson

Students live in a Digital World. Are schools ready to join them?

Is this a Book?

Or is this a Book?

How do your students read now ? How will they read in the future?

When the Book vs. the Content becomes the Barrier To gain meaningful access to the curriculum, students with reading challenges must overcome substantial barriers imposed by the printed materials they are asked to read.

Social & Digital Media A broad spectrum technologies that will allow students with disabilities access to the innovative technologies that they will need for progressing in the general education curriculum, social networking & successful post HS careers.

Digital & Social Media Tools Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Second Life,& JING thousands of blogs, wikis, and related social media tools are growing exponentially. Social media tools have changed the way today’s students read, meet, communicate and collaborate. When well used they connect, inform, entertain, and educate.

What does this stuff look like? Smart Boards Intel readers Smart phones E-Books iPad WiFI iTouch Smart Pens Flip Camera X-Box Digital Video Flat Screens

Today’s students… K through college – represent the first generation to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.

Our students today are all “native speakers”… …of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet. Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to the native speakers. We are “Digital Immigrants.” Marc Prensky Digital Natives Digital Immigrants ©2001 Marc Prensky

The single biggest problem facing education today is… School based personnel that are not at the level of Digital Immigrant consciousness and speak an outdated language (that of the pre- digital age), and are struggling to teach a population of digital natives that speaks this entirely new language.

Are you a digital native or immigrant??

Digital Media Features The key feature of digital media & technology is FLEXIBILITY. Digital Media surpasses traditional media because of the ability to meet diverse students learning profiles using a variety of instructional approaches. With digital content, the right software and online tools, students have options for how they (read/listen) to obtain information and how they (speak/write) demonstrate their understanding.

Digital content includes text, images, sounds, and video that have been digitized by a computer. Digital media tools offer a wide array of features. They can save text, speech, and images with integrity and consistency. These features offer great flexibility in how and where that text, speech, and images can be re-used and displayed.

Digital Text Digital text is all around us, and enriches our abilities to access information (e.g., Web site resources and library databases) and communicate with one another (e.g., e- mail and word processing). Digital text is "malleable," and can be transformed into other types of media. (Rose & Meyer, 1996).

Shifting your thinking from a “book” to digital device to hold text Offers immediate advantages to readers because a computer can be used to … modify the way text is viewed and read: font face, size, and color can be changed; text can be read out loud; concepts can be defined and explained;

More shift happens multiple illustrations can appear simultaneously links can lead to enhanced information; and documents can be accessed from different computers in different physical locations

Non- traditional instructional approaches that incorporate technology applications work to engage each learner by providing the right level of challenge for each student. The same content that is forever “locked” into a traditional medium can be flexibly accessed in a digital medium and changed or adapted. This is very useful to a teacher with a diverse classroom and benefits all learners. (

Technology offers a potential medium through which RtI implementation could be made easier and more likely to occur The use of technology makes ongoing data collection, data consumption, and data-based decision making a more plausible proposition, and it can keep these important aspects of RtI from monopolizing teacher time. (Ysseldyke & McLeod, 2007).

Text to Speech Applications Text Outloud READtheWords Read Please Read/Write Gold Classmate Reader Speech to Text Applications Dragon Naturally Speaking v.10 Preferred

Auditory Output – Pod Casting Audacity I-Tunes Jott LiveScribe Pen (smart pen) Digital Microphone

IDEA… states that all students must have access to… “ high quality, print-based educational materials, within the same timeframe as their non-disabled peers.” Students with sensory, physical and other print disabilities must be provided with high quality specialized formats of instructional materials in a timely manner.

Which Students Qualify for AIM ? The IDEA requires SEAs & LEAs to provide accessible instructional materials (AIM) to all students with print disabilities – whether or not they qualify for these materials in the NIMAS/NIMAC. (Section (b)(3))

Digital Text Resource Bookshare.org Funded by OSEP to provided free, accessible materials for all students with “Chafee” qualifying print disabilities. The goal is to provide downloadable textbooks and other materials, in digital formats that can easily be turned into audio, large print and Braille so that students can have prompt and equal access to educational content

Listen Up! Vermont Welcome to Listen Up! Vermont, the downloadable audio book program provided by the member libraries of the Green Mountain Library Consortium.... With OverDrive Media Console v3.2,... Listen Up! Vermont

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