Technology Tools for Inclusive Instruction in Higher Education –
What are some of the best and most important tech tools available to help in making your instruction and curriculum as accessible and inclusive as possible for students with widely ranging needs, interests and abilities? You will find examples of these tools here, as well as description and links to manufacturers’ information, so that you can pursue exploring and acquiring the tools you need to build fully inclusive courses and other learning experiences online for your students and/or stakeholders.
Click on the images below to link to the relevant resources described below….
AT Hive Resources – AHEAD
The aim of ‘AT Hive’ is to guide you through various technologies that can help people with disabilities in many different ways. If you are a student or employee then you may require a technology to assist you to learn or work effectively. AT (Assistive Technologies) can empower people with disabilities to reach to their fullest potential and give them an opportunity to work and learn on their own terms.
Accessible learning through technology
Principal Lecturer Rebecca Foster MBE from the University of Worcester has used the Microsoft Innovative Educator programme to support students’ knowledge of accessibility tools for PowerPoint, Immersive Reader and Microsoft Translator.
All of the learners in her modules are now familiar with how these tools work. Further, recognising the power of these facilitative tools, Rebecca has run professional development sessions for her peers cascading the knowledge beyond her own programme so that her colleagues can also use the affordances of accessibility tools built into Microsoft Applications. Read more about Rebecca’s approach here:
To learn more about Rebecca’s work click on the following link: https://sway.office.com/T870ADfjtl1n4P8q?ref=Link
AT Resources – National Center for Accessible Educational Materials (AEM)
The National Centre on Accessible Educational Materials provides various resources and enables you to learn the basics of accessible materials and technologies, register for and view webinars and presentations from AEM Events, and discover AEM Publications to dive deeper into AEM.
Google Apps for Education
“A suite of tools designed to empower educators and students as they learn and innovate together.” “G Suite for Education is free for eligible institutions” (K-12 & Higher Education)
Microsoft Special education and accessibility resources for remote learning
“For special educators, diversity demands they provide inclusive, accessible learning environments that inspire confidence and encourage independence differently for each student. Learn about how to create a personalized and engaging remote learning experience for all of your students through the resources provided in these pages.”
Online Learning Ideas – Holly Clark/Matt Miller
Free curated and created online resources.
Online Learning Ideas provides step-by-step tutorials, blog posts, videos, infographics and ideas that will shape how you teach tomorrow.
Ditch That Textbook – Matt Miller
Lots of free resources, plus some for fee. Find what you need through articles, books, videos, in-person presentations and more.
iThrive Games (non-profit 501(c)(3)
“iThrive Games prepares teens to thrive by meeting them where they are, and by working in partnership towards a world where all have the voice, choice and agency to reach their full potential.” “We use games and game design to equip teens with the skills they need to be healthy and resilient, the tools that support and protect their mental health and well-being, and the systems thinking they need to recognize inequity along with meaningful opportunities to imagine and design a better world.”
Evernote
Evernote is considered one of the best note-taking apps available. It has tons of features and is compatible with almost every smartphone and computer. The app allows users to scribble down notes in its paper-like interface or just type in characters. It can also capture photographs and record voice memos stored in its Cloud service. It also allows multi-platform real-time access through all your devices.
Pocket is an interesting application used to save articles, web pages and videos for later reading or viewing. It’s available for major smartphone platforms (iOS and Android) and PCs. Just like the Evernote app, it also syncs files across all your devices at once. It can also save articles and web pages for offline reading
Share Your Board
Share Your Board is very easy to use and it is a free productivity application – just take a picture of your lecture board during class and it will convert the photo to PDF for easier reading. You can also overlay annotations and add notes into the PDF itself.
https://downloads.tomsguide.com/Share-Your-Board,0301-34570.html
myHomework
Just like the iStudiez Pro, myHomework serves as a student planner and can be your ultimate university companion. It gives you a calendar where you can mark your important appointments, upcoming examinations, and deadlines. There is a Homework section for your assignments and projects. You can also encode your class schedules and grades to track your progress. Being a digital organizer, it alerts you of your upcoming class schedules and deadlines.
Zoho
Zoho.com has become a huge part of many students’ lives. It helps them manage academic presentations in an easily-accessible manner and organize large documents without losing their focus along the way. The platform is extremely simple to use and allows a high level of flexibility for the student’s convenience.
It doesn’t matter what type of document you need to import or export; Zoho supports different formats that allow you to focus on your work without any distractions. You can also use the mobile-optimized version to access your documents on your smartphone whenever you need them.
Scientific Research
This website provides open access to great peer-reviewed articles and journals. The project is also available as an Android and Apple app, which provides students and teachers with access to relevant information about their projects at any time. Google does not lead to the most reliable sources of information for the academic papers of students and the teachers’ textbooks, so they are all recommended to use Scientific Research to find verifiable scientific sources.
Zotero
Zotero is the only software that automatically senses research on the web. Need an article from JSTOR or a preprint from arXiv.org? A news story from the New York Times or a book from a library? Zotero has you covered, everywhere.
Zotero helps you organize your research any way you want. You can sort items into collections and tag them with keywords. Or create saved searches that automatically fill with relevant materials as you work.
End Note
As a researcher, you are constantly juggling different roles, dealing with competing demands on your time, and coordinating not only your own activities in publishing research but also those of your collaborators–around the department and around the world.
EndNote X9 is the reference management software that not only frees you from the tedious work of manually collecting and curating your research materials and formatting bibliographies, but also gives you greater ease and control in coordinating with your colleagues.
Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager and PDF reader designed for researchers, students, and academics. Whether you’re writing your dissertation, organising your literature for easy retrieval, or need to read journal articles on the go, Mendeley can help.
Features
• Annotate PDFs with sticky notes and highlights
• Search your library for keywords in the Title, Authors, Publication or Abstract
• Sync annotations & documents across all your devices
• Save PDFs to your Mendeley library from other apps or your web browser
• Use Mendeley offline during your commute, and sync when you have connection
• Download or remove PDFs on demand, to easily manage device storage space
SPSS
The IBM SPSS software platform offers advanced statistical analysis, a vast library of machine learning algorithms, text analysis, open source extensibility, integration with big data and seamless deployment into applications.
Its ease of use, flexibility and scalability make SPSS accessible to users of all skill levels. What’s more, its suitable for projects of all sizes and levels of complexity, and can help you and your organization find new opportunities, improve efficiency and minimize risk.
LaTex
LaTeX is a high-quality typesetting system; it includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and publication of scientific documents. LaTeX is available as free software.
JASP
JASP is an open-source project supported by the University of Amsterdam. JASP has an intuitive interface that was designed with the user in mind. JASP offers standard analysis procedures in both their classical and Bayesian form.