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U P D A T E
PHOTO TABLE LITE ALLOWS YOU TO INTERACT WITH PHOTOS ON ANY TOPIC
FIVES-FRIENDLY WEB TOOL DOMO ANIMATE- A SIMPLE WAY TO CREATE LANGUAGE-BASED ANIMATIONS
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CUSTOM BOARDS
At $39.99, this app is a perfect example of a (still small) investment that is fairly priced. Custom Boards provides you with a quick and simple way to make a visual for any context, utilizing its library of 13,000+ symbols or by easily adding images from the web. This app can serve the same functions as software costing over $300.*
The initial trend of free apps has created an expectation about pricing that isnt always reasonable.
The Historical Perspective The web has always been a free treasure for our world; in some cases Internet access has been deemed a human right. When presenting Internet-based resources to educators and SLPs, naturally we expect those to be free. However, there are a number of subscription or membership-based services on the web that SLPs should consider, including Brainpop (though your school might have a subscription, making it free to you) and xtranormal. When mobile apps came along, many of them were initially free too. Apps produced by large companies naturally feed into other aspects of their services, so free is a reasonable price point. Unfortunately, this trend has created an expectation about pricing of apps that isnt always reasonable, especially with regard to dedicated speech-language apps. This is a topic that is frequently discussed in speech-language circles; see this terric post by The Speech Dudes.
KEYNOTE
Keynote is Apples version of PowerPoint. Presentation tools such as these can serve as both productivity and therapy tools. Keynote can be used to create and display visuals during therapy, and as a creative tool, it can assist with helping students convey information and create books. With its powerful features and syncing capability (automatic sync to iCloud for use on Mac, easy export to PPT), Keynote is more than reasonably priced at $9.99.
SKITCH
Skitch allows you to annotate any image or map, providing endless contexts for language therapy. All this for the price of $0! For this useful app, we should be willing to pay a few dollars. However, we shouldnt expect to pay a premium as we are providing the therapy activity through our creative use of the app. Partly because it is distributed by a large company and linked to another service (Evernote), Skitch has a lower price. Bonus for us!
*Author has developed apps for Smarty Ears, publisher of Custom Boards, but does not receive any share in the prots of this app.
Go beyond the iTunes description to decide if an app is worth purchasing for your population.
All4mychilds Bag Game is a great example of expandable content. Not only does it provide a good amount of content for a very cheap $1.99, but it also allows you to add pictures from the camera roll to use in the game. This opens up a door to unlimited vocabulary and content.
S O ME APPS, S UCH AS TACTUS L ANG UAG E THERAPPY L ITE, ERIC S AIL ERS STORYPALS A ND HAMAG UCHI A PPS BETWEEN THE L INES LIT E, ARE AVAIL ABL E F REE O R AT L OWER C O S T IN VER SIO NS WITH L IMITED CO NTENT AND F EATURES F O R YO U TO T R I A L .
T H E S I S F LE X I B LE ( N OT S IL E N T)
Please feel free to spread the word about the FIVES criteria with attribution to me and my blog, as others have done. I have been happy to see educators outside the eld of Speech-Language Pathology modify the framework with respect to the s. I have seen it changed to Special Education, but in my own work have also presented it as Specic (i.e. specic to the goals and objectives you need to address in your interventions). I have also changed it to Social for the themes of the Social Thinking Providers Conferences.
FILTER WITH FIVES APP ADVICES APP LISTS AY MOMS WITH APPS APP FRID SPECIALS APPS GONE FREE IEAR YAPP GURU SEARCH FOR WEBSITES TAGGED INTERACTIVE (WITH AN ADDITIONAL TOPIC TAG) ON DIIGO OR DELICIOUS KINDERTOWN COOL TOOLS FOR SCHOOL WIKI FOR WEB-BASED CREATION TOOLS
Would you buy an analog (real, non-digital) tool that serves a function similar to an app? What would you pay for it?
FIVES is designed as a tool you can use to lter through all that is out there in the world of technology. Many resources list great educational (or re-purposable) apps and websites. Keep your eye on these and decide which are Fairly Priced, Interactive,Visual, Educationally Relevant, or Speechie (or all 5)!
I, V, E , A ND S !
Interactive elements bring a technology resource beyond quiz or drill-style interfaces to tap thinking skills, decision-making, and creativity. Interactivity allows for many stopping points to elicit and scaffold language targets involving vocabulary, sentence structure, and narrative. Creation tools are also interactive, and the process of creating a comic, storybook, or other product is often a language process! Find interactive websites by Googling [Topic] interactive.
Technology allows us to make abstract concepts and vocabulary Visual for our students who struggle with language in the classroom. Google Images and other topic-specic resources put visual supports at our ngertips, where previously we might have had to spend time tracking down paper pictures. Many apps also provide (or let us create) imagery that is specically related to the curriculum.
Why not use classroom topics to make interventions Educationally Relevant, and fun too? Apps and interactive websites can make this a snap! Technology can help us provide a context to use for developing key language underpinnings. See the work of Barbara Ehren on educational relevance.
Apps that are Speechie target or can be used to target clinical objectives. Apps that provide a context to develop auditory comprehension, vocabulary and word retrieval, sentence, narrative and expository formulation, speech production and social interaction are Speechie.
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About the Author: Sean Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP,is a speech-language pathologist and technology consultant working in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, MA. Sean spent over a decade in the public school setting serving in the roles of SLP and instructional technology specialist. His blog was inspired by the combination of those complementary vocations and a desire to empower those in his field to employ technology in their work. Sean currently consults to and presents for local and national organizations on technology integration in speech and language interventions. He is a frequent presenter at ASHA and has participated as a speaker at the regional Social Thinking Providers Conferences. Sean is a regular columnist for The ASHA Leader. His blog, SpeechTechie, won the 2010 Best New Edublog Award and was a finalist in the Best Ed Tech Blog category in 2011 and 2012. Contact him atsean@speechtechie.com.