1. Digital Academy Final Project Karen Kropinak and Care Walter H.S. Intervention Specialist

2. Original Project Our original project was to incorporate Read, Write & Gold with our DA technology of a scanner and net book. The intention was to enhance independence of technology accommodation usages. Our project became limited by the technology not being available as planned.

3. Adjusted Project It was decided that we would continue to instruct the students on Read, Write & Gold due to the many valuable tools it can offer students with disabilities. Speech, spelling, dictionary, fact finder, word wizard, pronunciation and more!

4. Content Although this project did not focus on one subject content standards, it did assist the students to meet the content standards of all subjects at the high school level. Read, Write & Gold will allows the students to gain independence in the completion of homework and in the learning process.

5. Content Students will be able to identify what the tool bar icons are and have a general knowledge of the ability of the tools. Students will be able to open one tool and navigate at least one tool for 13/18 accurate opportunities. (see rubric)

6. Pedagogy Students were taken to computer lab. Each logged onto a computer. Project or was used to assist in Navigation. Hand-out of tools was given to assist and shown for overhead. Completed one time per week for the month of April. Completed 3 instructional sessions and 1 assessment session.

7. Technology The students seemed to enjoy the animated characters. Available technology in the computer lab and resource rooms were utilized since new technology was not available.

8. Technology Read & Write (V9) GOLD will read text as you type or from any open document. It will read each word, sentence, paragraph or selected text with highlighting. There is a choice of 31 different voices including British and American accents. The voice can also be adjusted to suit you by altering the pitch, speed, volume and/or word pause. RealSpeak ® provides the most human-sounding voice available today. You can choose the way text is displayed or highlighted during speech: Text can be colored highlighting in the document – either dual color highlighting or block highlighting depending on the application. Text can be brought into the Text Reader window – where the color of highlighting and size of font can be changed to suit your needs. Speech can be shown in Speech Balloons – these can be with or without an animated character. Speak using One Word Display – this will display one word at a time as it is being spoken in a large letterbox display.

9. Assessment Tool Student Name 1 2 3Student could Log onto computer and open program 1 2 3Student chose appropriate program or task 1 2 3Student could open text page in R, W & Gold 1 2 3Student could choose icon for program 1 2 3Student could navigate tool 1 2 3Student could adjust program settings Students were instructed on rubric and given copy during session 3.

10. Overall Success Student 1- Reader 18/18 Student 2- Reader 16/18 Student 3- Word Wizard 17/18 Student 4- Reader 10/18 Student 5- Word Production 16/18

11. Question- Was the Technology you selected a good fit for the intended pedagogy of the lessons. Yes, Read, Write & Gold is a software developed to assist with information management.

12. Question- What adjustments will you make next time to improve the effectiveness of the lessons? I will not rely on technology that I do not have access to already. It was naïve of us to assume that the technology would be available in time for us to manage a project

13. Question-How will we share our project and what have we learned? As the structure of the SPED program changes during the 2011-2012 school year, we will be able to utilize our rubric, assessment tools and lessons to assure that students are educated on technology that will assist them to be independent in learning.