minutesnovember2001

Region III Assistive technology Committee
November 12, 2001
Minutes

Present: Gayle Underwood, Diane Merkel, Janet Opalewski, Susan Egelkraut, Pam Shehabi, heather Grinage, Kindy Segovia, Rosanne Burden, Sue Nyce, Michele Ripka, Susan Boehme, Patty Mitchell, Jan Garritano, Ruth Pinter, debby kerr, Louise Snyder, Jim Loser, Laura Getty

Sharing
    Sue Shared guidelines she found at Closing the Gap on how to teach auditory scanning to students. Contact Sue if you would like a copy.

     Diane attended "Teaching the Steps in Visual and Auditory Scanning" at Closing the Gap. She will bring materials to the next meeting. She also attended "Consideration 2000" where a panel from four states discussed who receives AT (assistive technology) and how the decision is made. Getting away from the "expert model" was discussed but in order to do so the panel noted that there must be administrative support at ISDs and local schools in order to support training people in learning how to make such decisions.

     Diane sent out a survey to school districts in Kalamazoo county to assess the needs in assistive technology. Software seemed to be a great need so K/RESA will be hosting a Software Fair. She'll keep us posted on where and when.

     Gayle attended a session on training teachers to do professional development. The presetners hwoed how they took one book and adapted it thoughtout the curriculum in areas such as literacy, math, fine motor, science, writing, etc. Participants would leave the workshop with materials already made and ready to use. Gayle is begining to organaze a similar session at Allegan.

     Kindy attended a session at Closing the Gap that emphasized administrators as part of an assistive technology team. They gain perspective in the involvement of determining and supporting assistive technology needs for students. They also tend to realize they need to give their staff release time to support and promote assistive technology.

     Laura reported on the TAM meeting she attended on November 9 in Okemos, Michigan. TAM will have a booth at CEC promoting it's benefits. People from all regions will be asked to help man the booth. Also, Jim Randall, past president of CEC, is trying to locate a list of TAM members. The committee is developing by laws so that everyone understands the purpose and mission of TAM. There will be another conference similar to the one held in Alma last year. TAM is discussing the possibility of having this conference to train the region people how to train the local people in using assistive technology. TAM is looking into bringing in a guest speaker to present the night before the conference.

     Rosanne gave us a word of advice about ordering Alphasmart. Order Co:Writer already on the Alphasmart as it is easier than purchasing it at a later date. Diane added that Alphasmart now has a community web page and that Alphasmart 3000 with the opaque covers, are now being recalled due to visual distraction. Send them back and they will replace them.

     Gayle let everyone know that a federal agency will be checking computers in southwest Michigan for illegal use of software after November 15.

     Diane let everyone know that you can now download software at www.dynavoxsys.com to use with the DynaVox and DynaMyte to teach students how to use their device.

     Pam shared a program she purchased at CLosing the Gap through Don Johnston. It's called BuildAbility, costs $99.00 and is a literacy building program. It helps students create stories to e-mail to friends.

     Rosanne shared a book she found at Closing the Gap available through www.attainment company.com. It costs approximately $40.00 and provides goals and ideas for invorporating assitive technology into the IEP.

New Business

     Gayle Presented "Steps Toward Better Seaching on the Internet." Contact Gayle for her handouts. She showed how to increase and narrow your topic search using symbols. She also noted that if you are interested in something you find on the internet, download it now, as tomorrow it may be gone or you may have to pay for it.

      Gayle went to different websites dealing with cause/effect and e-books that members brought to the meeting. Laura will bring a complete list of those tot he next meeting so members can make copies and share them with people in their local districts. Look for those websites on the Region III websites as Janet will post them there too.

     Rosanne presetned on the new Co:Writer and Write OutLoud for students who need help with alternative writing and/or students who just need help with thier writing skills. Flexible spelling and topic dictionaries are now features on the new version. The cost is $385.00 if purchased together or $325 for Co:Writer and $100 for Write OutLoud.

     Jim reported that MATR will present Assistive Technology for Math and Science on January 15 at K/RESA in the auditorium. Invite people from your local districs and let Janet at K/RESA ( [email protected]) know how many people you are sending.

     Gayle reported that Synnections has not returned her calls and has not followed up on sending the information they have promised. The question was raised, should we come up with alternative plans for the April meeting? Karen Erickson was mentioned as a possibility.

     Gayle suggested that Region III develop wuidelines by the end of the year at the latest. Next meeting we will be looking at the guidelines from other regions and begin to develp our guidelines. We will be dividing into subgroups to work on different sections.

     Janet reported that she is rying to find a host to support our website.

Next meeting: December 13
Diane will be presenting Balanced Literacy. We will begin to work on our guidelines. Remember to bring literacy/sensory integration websites to share. Gayle will bring "incentives" to keep our energy up throughout the day!

Respectfully submitted
Laura A. Getty