I am a technology coordinator for a special education service agency and so have some experience with assistive technology.
Step one is find a local assistive technology (AT) library in your region so you can borrow and try different devices and/or software mentioned here. Most states have these libraries located in various regions.
Next, I suggest trying some free software. If you search, I am sure you can find a freeware screen magnifier (I know I have used one with students before). Another suggestion is to modify the normal.dot template in Word or create a Word Template as a shortcut on the desktop (with large icons of course) to a special use template. Use contrasting background/text colors and a large size font. The best color combination depends on the user, but a classic is blue/black background and yellow text.
If you are looking at screen readers or other text to speech, I suggest first downloading ReadPlease. This is a freeware reader with a pay version and a pay IE addin available. The website is http://www.readplease.com For the free version, you can copy and paste in text and have it read aloud. Not great, but a good place to start.
For a much more expensive investment, though probably worth it if reading is a probblem, is Kurzweil 3000. This program is simply amazing. You use it with a scanner: it can scan in any printed text and then parse out the text to read it aloud. You can zoom in to increase size of images and text. A trial is available on the website at http://www.kurzweil.com
Again, your best bet is to work within your school system to access an AT library or find other solutions. If the child is receiving services as an exceptional child (special needs) then Medicare may cover expense of some devices.
Since you have just about Slashdotted the poor little Glenn Curtiss Museum just down the road from me, let me give you some highlights about this amazing man. More information at the Glenn Curtiss Historical Site.
Glenn Curtiss was not only a true pioneer in the world of aviation, but also in motorcycles. He had the distinction of being the "Fastest Man Alive" for a good period of time after putting his V-8 motorcycle to the speed test. The motorcycle featured at the small museum in Hammondsport, NY - about 1 hour south of Rochester, NY in the heart of New York's Wine Country. The motorcycle, really just a huge engine with a very small seat, is quite an impressive little beast.
Curtiss also developed and implemented seaplanes and aircraft carriers. My wife's grandfather actually saw Glenn Curtiss piloting one of his "Flying Boats". Her grandfather was beaten by his blind father for insisting that there was a boat flying over Keuka Lake!
If you are ever in Upstate NY I highly recommend the Glenn Curtiss Museum. The last time I was there, they even had a great exhibit of classic comic book covers by Dick Ayers.
After much looking, I finally decided on getting a Fujitsu Lifebook P-2000 for my wife. She needed a laptop, but not a serious desktop replacement. This was more of a when we don't feel like sitting at the desk to work type of deal. The 800Mhz Transmetta Crusoe and 256mb of RAM seems to be only slighly slower than my main desktop system (800Mhz AMD with the same RAM). This laptop has the added advantage of having a built-in DVD-CDRW combo drive and a VERY small form factor. The lack of a docking station will pretty much limit the P-2000 to secondary machine staus, but it is a nice travel notebook. Starting at $1500 ($1800 for loaded with built-in wireless), they are pretty reasonably priced for what they can do. The only complaint I have with it is that the right shift key is small and a bit out of position (the other side of pg up), but I have just switched to using the left shift key whenever possible. I am actually considering moving towards one of Fujitsu's P-1000 sub-sub notebooks with a touch screen to serve as both my mobile notebook (I travel a lot in a local area) and my Jornada 720. These are just two other Transmeta products that are widely available in the USA. The P-2000 is even sold by some of the major electronics and computer stores (like Best Buy). As I said, I have been very happy with our Transmeta based Fujitsu and I look forward to buying another! Chris
I had a great time learning introductory use of GIS in a graduate class I took on using GIS in schools. Since the focus was on learning GIS to apply it at the elementary, middle school, and high school level, we didn't go too far into the possibilities. ESRI is indeed the place to start. In addition to one of their big, thick books that was pretty useful as a reference bible for basic commands, we also went through the introductory course on their Virtual Campus. The course was very well constructed (and this is a computer teacher speaking here) and mirrored what the book discussed. The first module of the Introduction to ArcView GIS 3.x is availble free for trial. The nice thing about the courses is that they include a working model version of the program being taught. This means that you can work out exercises in a controlled environment. For this reason, I would recommend the course in addition to the book (for later reference).
Note that the above are for the older, 3.x version of ArcView. Information on the newer ArcView 8 can be found in book and online course formats.
I hope that helps some. What I would ask in return is that when your company gets going with GIS you help promote the use of GIS in Schools (book) by helping any local schools that are interested in getting started with this. School/Business partnerships benefit everybody, especially when it provides the schools with alternatives and additions to the standard Microsoft/Intel curriculum.
Actually, if you do print out the PDF and try to take it to the store with you, please note the fact that A) the levy CANNOT be applied at the retail level so there will be nothing to avoid at the store and B) it doesn't work that way. From the PDF: "(4) The levy is payable on all media that qualify, without regard to end use. No purpose is served by asking that the tariff include a mechanism that would allow those who can prove that they use qualifying media for purposes other than reproducing musical works to be exempted from payment or to receive a refund." To restate, the proposal specifically states that the levy will apply to "all media" "without regard to end use" and already shoots down the possibility of claiming data storage as opposed to musical storage. A good idea, but they already thought that one through and denied the tactic... Lahjik
One company that is doing this right is eFolkMusic, a collective of folk, celtic, bluegrass, and other musicians. They offer free downloads of mp3s in addition to other mp3s that you can buy. All of their free music is 100% legal because they and the artists have realized that giving away a few tracks will get me hooked and cause me to buy more cds or mp3s. I also know that when I buy an mp3 from this site, the artist is getting 50% of the price. They even offer mp3 "multipacks" wherein you prepay for mp3 credits at a price of 20 downloads for $14.97. I would be much more willing to pay $15 for a 20-track album that I create! Granted, this only works if you like more traditional music...but I offer up the site as a great example of a rather large and well-functioning music distribution model.
I am an elementary school Instructional Technology Resource Teacher. I was also director of a technology camp for 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th grade students last summer. Kids are VERY interested in learning about and using computers. It doesn't take much to keep them interested, just hands-on use of skills that you are teaching.
From my teaching experience I can recommend a couple of approaches that I know work for kids!
1) Multimedia Presentations: Kids tend to be expressive. Use PowerPoint, HyperStudio, or KidPix (depending on the level and availability) to create a presentation about their neighborhood, their lives, or whatever. Get a digital camera and document the world around them. This project lets them explore digital cameras, scanners, using audio clips, graphics, and fun fonts.
2) Create a WebPage: Find a local organization or community aspect that you could create a web page for. Teach the kids basic design principles and some HTML code. Have fun laughing at some of the really bad web pages that are out there. Create a virtual zoo, a virtual rock garden, a virtual forest, or anything else.
3) Hack: Get into the nitty-gritty of a low level programming language like (please don't laugh) PASCAL or LOGO. Kids catch on to these languages quickly because they can think through commands in English and then write in PASCAL. (Unlike, for instance, PERL).
4)Explore: Take virtual field trips on the Internet. Go check out the National Archives Exhibit on When Nixon Met Elvis. There are other neat sites that you can preview and then write scavanger hunts about.
Just remember that the kids will need to see what you are doing. Showing them the task is an important step that you cannot skip. Also remember to show them that you love working with computers.
Lahjik
My mother-in-law recently got a $5k+ Singer embroidery machine, and I quite loved playing with it. The Tux image makes a nice embroidered image due to its simple 3 color design and large blocks. It took me about an hour of playing from downloading the.GIF to getting a nice Tux on a $2 hat. Ah, if only my wife had known about this before buying me a Tux tie.
As for the comment about photo-realistic embroidery, there are in fact something like 32 recognized colors of embroidery floss and the computer programs used to create the designs can control the direction, density, and frequency of the stiches. I created quite an impressive Union Jack embroidery for my mother-in-law's MG car club by having the different colored sections of the flag are all stiched in different directions. This causes the stiching to reflect the light quite nicely.
Slashdot Mirror
I am a technology coordinator for a special education service agency and so have some experience with assistive technology. Step one is find a local assistive technology (AT) library in your region so you can borrow and try different devices and/or software mentioned here. Most states have these libraries located in various regions. Next, I suggest trying some free software. If you search, I am sure you can find a freeware screen magnifier (I know I have used one with students before). Another suggestion is to modify the normal.dot template in Word or create a Word Template as a shortcut on the desktop (with large icons of course) to a special use template. Use contrasting background/text colors and a large size font. The best color combination depends on the user, but a classic is blue/black background and yellow text. If you are looking at screen readers or other text to speech, I suggest first downloading ReadPlease. This is a freeware reader with a pay version and a pay IE addin available. The website is http://www.readplease.com For the free version, you can copy and paste in text and have it read aloud. Not great, but a good place to start. For a much more expensive investment, though probably worth it if reading is a probblem, is Kurzweil 3000. This program is simply amazing. You use it with a scanner: it can scan in any printed text and then parse out the text to read it aloud. You can zoom in to increase size of images and text. A trial is available on the website at http://www.kurzweil.com Again, your best bet is to work within your school system to access an AT library or find other solutions. If the child is receiving services as an exceptional child (special needs) then Medicare may cover expense of some devices.
Since you have just about Slashdotted the poor little Glenn Curtiss Museum just down the road from me, let me give you some highlights about this amazing man. More information at the Glenn Curtiss Historical Site.
Glenn Curtiss was not only a true pioneer in the world of aviation, but also in motorcycles. He had the distinction of being the "Fastest Man Alive" for a good period of time after putting his V-8 motorcycle to the speed test. The motorcycle featured at the small museum in Hammondsport, NY - about 1 hour south of Rochester, NY in the heart of New York's Wine Country. The motorcycle, really just a huge engine with a very small seat, is quite an impressive little beast.
Curtiss also developed and implemented seaplanes and aircraft carriers. My wife's grandfather actually saw Glenn Curtiss piloting one of his "Flying Boats". Her grandfather was beaten by his blind father for insisting that there was a boat flying over Keuka Lake!
If you are ever in Upstate NY I highly recommend the Glenn Curtiss Museum. The last time I was there, they even had a great exhibit of classic comic book covers by Dick Ayers.
After much looking, I finally decided on getting a Fujitsu Lifebook P-2000 for my wife. She needed a laptop, but not a serious desktop replacement. This was more of a when we don't feel like sitting at the desk to work type of deal. The 800Mhz Transmetta Crusoe and 256mb of RAM seems to be only slighly slower than my main desktop system (800Mhz AMD with the same RAM). This laptop has the added advantage of having a built-in DVD-CDRW combo drive and a VERY small form factor. The lack of a docking station will pretty much limit the P-2000 to secondary machine staus, but it is a nice travel notebook. Starting at $1500 ($1800 for loaded with built-in wireless), they are pretty reasonably priced for what they can do. The only complaint I have with it is that the right shift key is small and a bit out of position (the other side of pg up), but I have just switched to using the left shift key whenever possible. I am actually considering moving towards one of Fujitsu's P-1000 sub-sub notebooks with a touch screen to serve as both my mobile notebook (I travel a lot in a local area) and my Jornada 720.
These are just two other Transmeta products that are widely available in the USA. The P-2000 is even sold by some of the major electronics and computer stores (like Best Buy). As I said, I have been very happy with our Transmeta based Fujitsu and I look forward to buying another!
Chris
Note that the above are for the older, 3.x version of ArcView. Information on the newer ArcView 8 can be found in book and online course formats.
I hope that helps some. What I would ask in return is that when your company gets going with GIS you help promote the use of GIS in Schools (book) by helping any local schools that are interested in getting started with this. School/Business partnerships benefit everybody, especially when it provides the schools with alternatives and additions to the standard Microsoft/Intel curriculum.
Actually, if you do print out the PDF and try to take it to the store with you, please note the fact that A) the levy CANNOT be applied at the retail level so there will be nothing to avoid at the store and B) it doesn't work that way.
From the PDF:
"(4) The levy is payable on all media that qualify, without regard to end use. No purpose is served by asking that the tariff include a mechanism that would allow those who can prove that they use qualifying media for purposes other than reproducing musical works to be exempted from payment or to receive a refund."
To restate, the proposal specifically states that the levy will apply to "all media" "without regard to end use" and already shoots down the possibility of claiming data storage as opposed to musical storage.
A good idea, but they already thought that one through and denied the tactic...
Lahjik
One company that is doing this right is eFolkMusic, a collective of folk, celtic, bluegrass, and other musicians. They offer free downloads of mp3s in addition to other mp3s that you can buy. All of their free music is 100% legal because they and the artists have realized that giving away a few tracks will get me hooked and cause me to buy more cds or mp3s. I also know that when I buy an mp3 from this site, the artist is getting 50% of the price. They even offer mp3 "multipacks" wherein you prepay for mp3 credits at a price of 20 downloads for $14.97. I would be much more willing to pay $15 for a 20-track album that I create! Granted, this only works if you like more traditional music...but I offer up the site as a great example of a rather large and well-functioning music distribution model.
I am an elementary school Instructional Technology Resource Teacher. I was also director of a technology camp for 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th grade students last summer. Kids are VERY interested in learning about and using computers. It doesn't take much to keep them interested, just hands-on use of skills that you are teaching.
From my teaching experience I can recommend a couple of approaches that I know work for kids!
1) Multimedia Presentations: Kids tend to be expressive. Use PowerPoint, HyperStudio, or KidPix (depending on the level and availability) to create a presentation about their neighborhood, their lives, or whatever. Get a digital camera and document the world around them. This project lets them explore digital cameras, scanners, using audio clips, graphics, and fun fonts.
2) Create a WebPage: Find a local organization or community aspect that you could create a web page for. Teach the kids basic design principles and some HTML code. Have fun laughing at some of the really bad web pages that are out there. Create a virtual zoo, a virtual rock garden, a virtual forest, or anything else.
3) Hack: Get into the nitty-gritty of a low level programming language like (please don't laugh) PASCAL or LOGO. Kids catch on to these languages quickly because they can think through commands in English and then write in PASCAL. (Unlike, for instance, PERL).
4)Explore: Take virtual field trips on the Internet. Go check out the National Archives Exhibit on When Nixon Met Elvis. There are other neat sites that you can preview and then write scavanger hunts about.
Just remember that the kids will need to see what you are doing. Showing them the task is an important step that you cannot skip. Also remember to show them that you love working with computers.
Lahjik
My mother-in-law recently got a $5k+ Singer embroidery machine, and I quite loved playing with it. The Tux image makes a nice embroidered image due to its simple 3 color design and large blocks. It took me about an hour of playing from downloading the .GIF to getting a nice Tux on a $2 hat. Ah, if only my wife had known about this before buying me a Tux tie.
As for the comment about photo-realistic embroidery, there are in fact something like 32 recognized colors of embroidery floss and the computer programs used to create the designs can control the direction, density, and frequency of the stiches. I created quite an impressive Union Jack embroidery for my mother-in-law's MG car club by having the different colored sections of the flag are all stiched in different directions. This causes the stiching to reflect the light quite nicely.