Clicker Docs for iPad Updated to Version 1.2

For those of you who are using Clicker Docs for the iPad it was just recently updated to version 1.2 and some really nice features which include:

Clicker Docs- Large Size Prediction Bar & Word Count

What's New in Version 1.2

- Option to set a bigger size for the Predictor/Spell Checker suggestions
- Improved predictor performance
- Improved hardware keyboard support – predicted words, spell checker suggestions and SoundShift button can now be accessed while the virtual keyboard is minimized
- Word count added to Document menu
- Thumbnails of Word Banks are shown in Explorer, Favourites and Recents
- When adding a new grid, this is now inserted after the current grid
- New View & Edit option when pasting text in Edit Mode – makes it even easier to create an A-Z Word Bank from any piece of text
- The language (British or American English) is still set automatically when the App is first used, but this setting can now be changed
- More pronunciation improvements

I for one am very happy to see that the you can now change the size of the Predictor/Speller Checker bar which should make it easier for students with visual or fine motor disabilities to select words from the predicted list. Likewise, it is now easier to use the word prediction feature when a student is using a Bluetooth keyboard. i also like that students can now get a word count and some overall stats on what they have written. All in all, this a very nice upgrade and I would suggest that you go to the apps store and upgrade your copy of Clicker Docs.

Read More

Exporting your Clicker 6 Grids to Clicker Docs

If you haven't updated your copy of Clicker 6, I would highly advise it- especially if you are also using Clicker Docs and Clicker Sentences on an iPad. One of the really nice features of the recent update to Clicker 6, is the ability to export your grids to Clicker Sentences and Clicker Docs. The process could not be any easier and it is a great way to re-purpose your grids so that they can be used by students on the iPad.. You can see from the screenshot that under the Clicker Set menu there is now an Export Clicker Set for App option. Once you select either Clicker Sentences or Clicker Docs- the grid is automatically saved in your Apps folder within your Dropbox account. In this example I created a grid with text from the book Call of the Wild in Clicker 6 and then Exported it to Clicker Docs. Now once in Clicker Docs on my iPad, I can click on the Folder icon on the Top Left and Select Dropbox to see the Grids that I have Exported. Now all that is left for me to do is select  "Call of the Wild " and I am ready to use the words. It really is that easy to do. Give it a try you will be glad you did! To update your version of of Clicker 6 click here.

Read More

Clicker Docs for iPad Updated

You can read my original review of Clicker Docs, which adds considerable writing supports for students that need word prediction, text to speech, and talking word wall support. Since my review, Crick Software has released an update to the app which adds some powerful new features. The latest version of Clicker Docs now supports external Bluetooth keyboards, Dropbox, as well as spell checking. While the word prediction feature was well implemented in Clicker Docs- it is now more powerful in that any word that is included in the grid automatically comes to the top of the prediction list when a student is typing. So for example if the student was writing about the rainforest and you had created a grid that included the following words: canopy, orangutan, understory, sloth, opossum, emergent layer, forest floor, etc.- these words would automatically come up to the top of list as the student was typing and could be selected from the prediction bar. You can see from the screen shot above the list of words and in the screen shot to the right-see how the word prediction engine suggested the word "orangutan" in the list. This is a very powerful feature and will allow teachers to build customized grids on specific topics so that students are better supported when they are doing writing a particular topic. Clicker Docs also added a feature called Show Touches which is great for those of us who are doing training, it adds a small yellow highlighted circle whenever you touch the screen at that location. Likewise, Clicker Docs now supports Dropbox which will be fully integrated with the desktop version of Clicker 6. If you have downloaded Clicker Docs to you iPad make sure that you update your version so that you can take advantage of these new features.

Read More

Crick Software Releases Clicker Sentences & Clicker Docs for the iPad

Just today Crick Software released two new apps for the iPad, Clicker Sentences and Clicker Docs. Both apps are are great for supporting writing on the iPad and each one offers a unique set of features to support students in the writing process. Lets start with Clicker Docs, an easy to use writing program for students that need a variety of supports and scaffolding. When you first open up Clicker Docs you will immediately get a sense that Crick Software spent a great deal of time thinking through  the user interface and the user experience. Clicker Docs is very inviting and aesthetically pleasing to the eye and adds some real innovation in terms of the supports it includes.

Clicker Docs adds text to speech as well as word prediction which are just two of the supports which many students with learning disabilities can benefit from. Clicker Docs lets the user adjust the number of words to load into the word prediction tool. Starting out with a base of 250 words and going up to 60,000 gives students a wide array of words to choose from when doing written work. Students can turn on the SoundsLike Prediction feature on so that the predictor will suggest words that might be spelled phonetically. When I typed the sentence "I am using the fone," with the SoundsLike Prediction feature turned on, it did predict the "phone." Students can turn the Predict Next Word feature on and off and control the number of words that are predicted that appear above the keyboard. Students can listen to any of the predicted words by tapping on the Sound Shift Key and then tapping on the word. If you double tap the Sound Shift key-it will lock it, and then you can then tap on each and every word that is predicted to listen to it. The word prediction feature worked really well and is an important feature for lots of students that I work with, with writing disabilities.

Clicker Docs can also provide students with customized Word Banks which can add another level of writing support. Creating Word Banks is rather straight forward and easy to use. It is as simple as naming your grid and typing some words separated by a space. If you need to have two words grouped you can accomplish this by putting the words in brackets. You can also copy and paste text into the Grid Content dialog box which makes it easy to create from text you might have copied from the web. If you want to create a Word Bank with words that placed alphabetically you can do that by clicking on the Paste A-Z button. Creating Word banks is fast and easy and provides students with another level of support especially when they are writing a specific topic. Teachers can also quickly go out to LearningGrids directly from Clicker Docs to download and run new Word Banks that are available. This is a great resource and one that I know both teachers and students will love to use.

To get a feel for the Clicker Docs app I have included a screencast

Read More

Clicker 6 - A Whole New Game!

I have been meaning to write about Clicker 6 for some time now, but it has been an incredibly busy spring and summer and I didn't get a chance to sit down and reflect on the latest release. Truth be told I have been a big fan of Clicker for a long time now and with the current release I am even more excited with the potential of this program with students with a wide range of abilities. Having worked with a lot of assistive technology over the years one of the key criteria for me is that it has got to be easy to use. If it takes me awhile to learn how to use a software program then I know that it is doomed in the classroom. The latest release of Clicker 6 now includes Activity Wizards which make using the program a real dream. Just this morning I had the chance to use Clicker 6 with a student I was working with who had underlying cognitive and language disabilities and within seconds of selecting a Talk About Wizard I had developed a picture based activity that he could use to tell a story about the pictures on the screen. It was incredible just how engaged the student was and how exciting it was to see the expression on his teacher's face as he told his story. Using the Activity Wizard the activity was created within 15 seconds. In today's, fast paced classroom having tools at your disposal that can create rich curriculum based materials is more important than ever.

After I created this Talk About activity, I decided to create a picture to word matching activity to see if the student could match the pictures to the word. To create this activity, I selected the Matching Wizard, followed the on-screen prompts and selected the pictures that I had downloaded to a folder on my desktop. Again within 10 seconds my matching activity was up and running and the student could give it a try. The teachers were very impressed and were able to see just how easy it was to create the activity. Clicker 6 provides students with high quality text to speech supports and with the integration of the webcam, audio and multimedia it is my go to program for students that have a wide range of learning challenges. If you have not looked at Clicker for awhile I would urge you to take a look at the current release which has a lot to offer. I am planning another post to talk about the other supports that are now integrated into Clicker 6 namely, word prediction, switch support, and drawing tools. So watch for another post about Clicker 6 to be coming soon!

Read More

WriteOnline from Crick Software- First Impressions

Several weeks ago I shared with you the impending release of a new assistive technology application called WriteOnline from Crick Software. The release of WriteOnline is a departure from the release of any other software product, that I know, in that the application is delivered through the browser. This is a monumental paradigm shift for the industry and one that I have been talking about for years. WriteOnline raises the bar for other software developers as we move to software as a service model. But more importantly having software tools delivered through the web enables students to have access to their files and the supports that they need wherever and whenever they want to work on it. No longer will students have to give up their software supports when they leave school and go home to work on projects and papers.

Since that post I have the opportunity to use a beta of WriteOnline which will soon be available in the UK. Once I was given a link to the program, WriteOnline installed the the Java application and within seconds I was into the WriteOnline writing environment. For those of you are familiar with Wordbar from Crick Software you will certainly see the similarity. I for one was up and running within seconds and using all of the supports provided in WriteOnline. The screen is divided into three windows: the word processing area, the word prediction pane , and the Wordbar pane at the bottom of the screen. WriteOnline provides powerful text to speech support right within the application and by setting up the user preferences you can set the word prediction and wordbar pane to read the words by right clicking on a word. The text to speech engine produced clear annunciation of what was being read and the user could change the unit of how WriteOnline would read the text. With this release the text to speech engine used British speech engine but an English engine will be used when it is released here in the United States. I did have a chance to show some of my graduate students WriteOnline and many were really excited by all of the features. Most of my students whom are themselves are special education teachers shared that it was a great tool for differentiating the instruction.

Quite frankly when one is using WriteOnline it is hard to discern that the application is working online. For students with writing disabilities WriteOnline provides and incredible level of supports. WriteOnline comes with a host of Wordbars that are ready to be used with a click of the mouse. Additional free Wordbars can be downloaded from Crick's LearningGrids site. I was able to develop my own custom wordbars by simply shift clicking in the cell and typing the word. This worked very similar to Wordbar or Clicker 5. When you right click WriteOnline will read the content of the cell and is an excellent support for students who may also have reading disabilities. Students who need spelling support will find the word prediction tool really handy. I should note that the user has the option of hiding or showing the word prediction and wordbar pane as they see fit. The word prediction dictionary can be adjusted in size (number of words) depending on the age and skills of the student. The word prediction library can be set from anywhere from 250 to 60000 words and can also be set up to predict from the wordbar list as well. The word prediction tool was surprising good and was able to determine the proper ending of words depending on what looks like some grammatical rules. The word prediction tool had more difficulty when I spelled word phonetically. I will have to inquire about this feature. Using both the wordbars and the word prediction tools can provide students with the scaffolding they need to help them complete their writing. More importantly one must remember that since WriteOnline is an online application, students can access their files and continue to use these supports at home or wherever they are as long as they connected to the Internet. Now this is truly a paradigm shift!

Overall I was very impressed with the feature set of WriteOnline and will continue to explore the nooks and crannies and share with you new information as I find out about it. I should note that there are a number of writing analysis tools built into WriteOnline which would be helpful for a teacher as they look at a students written work over time. WriteOnline does support the insertion of comments which would lead me to believe that the student's teacher could access the written work and add comments where appropriate. While I certainly have more to learn about WriteOnline I for one was extremely pleased with the feature set and its capabilities. More importantly this marks a real transition in how assistive technology applications are delivered and I for one am overjoyed by the fact that students will have the writing supports they need wherever and whenever they need it. No longer will they be tied to one computer with their specific tools- this is a very liberating feeling and one that goes a long way for students having real access to what they need.

I should note that I would like to thank John Crick for giving me access to WriteOnline and if anyone is going to NECC 2008, please stop by the Crick Software booth and see for yourself the incredible tool set that can be found in WriteOnline. When you see John Crick, just tell him that Brian sent you:-)

Read More

WriteOnline Demo

I received a comment today from Jim who has been beta testing WriteOnline and he was kind enough to send me a link meets Web 2.0 for to get a better idea of the features and capabilities of WriteOnline. As Tim said- WriteOnlineassistive technology. Crick Software as certainly raised the bar and has found a way to give students access to the tools and supports they need wherever they are as long as they are connected to the web.

Read More

John Crick's Comment about WriteOnline

It was a real surprise this morning to wake up to a comment on my blog from John Crick, the CEO of Crick Software whom I have known for quite sometime who commented on WriteOnline. You can read my original post about WriteOnline by clicking here. I thought that it was important for everyone to see his comment in a post rather than have it buried in a Comment. So here it is. And John thanks for taking the time to write a comment.

"Brian is the first person in the US to write anything about WriteOnline! We are currently in beta with the UK version and we have orders from hundreds of UK schools and a number of whole districts. We've just gone live (late on Thursday) with our new LearningGrids World site in both the UK and US (at the usual LearningGrids.com address). This will be used to deliver WriteOnline. You can view a tour of WriteOnline on this site at http://www.learninggrids.com/WriteOnlinePage.aspx?siteid=2
We are expecting to 'ship' WriteOnline in the US at the end of June (do you 'ship' an online product?)."

Read More