10-01Minutes

Region III Assistive Technology Committee
October 3, 2001 Minutes

Present: Gayle Underwood, Diane Merkel, Janet Opalewski, Susan Egelkraut, Pam Shehabi, Heather Grinage, Kindy Segovia, Andrea Yeager, Rosanne Burden, Jodie Pihalja, Sue Nyce, Michele Ripka, Susan Kerr, Colleen Shulte, Laura Getty.

Nancy Marshall, OTR from Michigan's Assistive Technology Resource (MATR) presented Tech for Tots druing the morning session. She gave us lots of great ideas to use with young children with impairments.

Sharing
      Diane expressed a concern that her CEC/TAM membership was not being paid for by her district as a benefit to participating in the Region III Committee. Other members voiced similiar concerns. It was the impression of the committee members thatt presented the annual report to the directors of special education in May that the directors would support the CEC/TAM membership of the Region III Assistive Technology Members. Additionally, there continues to be a misunderstanding about the amount of money each ISD will contribute to the technology fair. Finally, since there will not be a technology fair this year, Region III will focus on training ourselves. As such, Region III is looking tot he directors to continue their support of the Region III Assistive Technology committee by helping to bring Synnections to present in April. We are looking at a two day conference, the first day would be at the beginning level for people in the local schools and the second day would be at an advanced level and for Region III members to continue to educate ourselves on current technology. Dane and gayle will look into these matters and report back in November.
       Gayle and Laura reported on the MATR/TAM meeting they attended on September 28 in Okemos, Michigan. One of the main issues of discussion was the need to develp competencies for assistive technology personnel on a statewide basis.

       Rosanne brought her new Alphasmart for anyone who wanted to see it or was thinking about purchasing one.

       Diane and Gayle are presenting adapted literacy inIonia at the end of October.

       Sue and Laura expressed problems with Adamlab. They don't seem to be as consumer freindly as they were before the new company boughtthem out. Other members had simliar reservations.

       Kindy shared flyers of workshops being sponsored by Kent ISD in November and December. November Richard Wanderman in presetning Learning Diablilities and Technology: Tools, Techniques and Ideas. November 27, Gayle Morgan is presenting Using boardmaker Software for Communication Systems and Classroom Use and December 6&7 Mark Moskowitz and Cheri De Waard are presenting Working with Preschoolers with Visual Impairments.

       New Business

       Diane reminded everyone that the MATR access grant is due by Nobember 1. It must meet the criteria of building cpacity ith local districts. See www.match.org/accessgrant/criteria.html for more information.

      Several people are going to Clsing the Gap. AAC int he Mountains and Synnections were also mentioned as national conferences that would be beneficial to attend.

       Diane asked if anyone was interested in presenting at CEC in Febrauary. It appears that there may be four presentations on behalf of Region III.

laura asked people to complete the favorite website page for t his month. Members were to bring their favorite character or holiday website for this month. We briefly reviewed some of these websites. Look for those websites on the Region III website.

Respectfully Submitted,
Laura A. Getty