Explore ideas in Edtech blogs

SLPs and special educators may not think to look to the world of general edtech in finding resources in general, or currently for telepractice. However, what edtech or instructional technology has to offer in addition to models and methodology, is spaces or tools and contexts for learning activities.

So check out:

Ditch that Textbook: many ideas here, perhaps start with this repository of editable Google Drawings graphic organizers (you bring the context- a book, movie, website)

Also check out Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day and Free Tech for Teachers, which has tons of resources on using Google Tools e.g. Classroom.

News elsewhere...

Hi Folks,

An update on a few things I have had going on...

I am excited to be a featured speaker at ArSHA in Tucson in a few weeks! Hope to see some of you there.

SpeechTechie was named one of the Top Speech Pathology Blogs of 2018 by the website Speech Pathology Master's Programs. Many great resources are listed there. You can read the interview I provided for the website here.

I have written a number of columns for Mindwing Concepts and ASHA published over the past several months:

Tech Tuesday: La La Land, Part 1 (recapping resources provided at ASHA Convention)

Tech Tuesday: La La Land, Part 2 (recapping resources provided at ASHA Convention)

Tech Tuesday: Plotagon’s Emotions Connect to the 6 Universal Feelings

Apps that Ease Assessment of ASD and Social Learning (ASHA Leader)

Lastly, three courses I created for MedBridge are now available! You can join MedBridge to obtain CEUs through great courses; see my affiliate link for a discounted rate.

The courses are as follows:

Therapeutic Technology Use in Language Intervention For School-Age Clients
Tell Me a Story Part 1 
Tell Me a Story Part 2 

You can even see me in a tie! That is indeed a rare sight.

Disclosure: Author receives a consultation fee for providing blog content to Mindwing Concepts. Author has also contracted with MedBridge to provide three courses and is part of their affiliate partner program. He will receive a royalty when his courses are available and are completed by members. Additionally, he receives a commission for each membership purchased through his affiliate link.

Stick Around: The Spectrum of Repurposing

Much of my efforts in writing and conducting trainings is geared toward helping SLPs and other educators see the potential use of apps and tools they might not have recognized initially as language-based. That has been the focus of this blog since its inception- "looking through a language lens"- even back when we were talking about interactive flash-based websites and webtools, way before apps.

I found great validation of my advocacy for "repurposing" in an article by Jessica Gosnell in the ASHA Leader in 2011, and consistently use this quote in sessions:

“A search focused only on a specific profile of dedicated apps (speech production, targeted language goals, augmentative communication) could miss many well-designed apps that offer motivating and fun learning opportunities. Using creativity, clinicians can reach beyond an app's intended target audience and purpose and adapt it to support interventions.”
-Jessica Gosnell (Children’s Hospital, Boston), “Apps, an Emerging Tool for SLPs,” ASHA Leader Online, October, 2011

I think as we progress in incorporating technology into our work thoughtfully, we are getting better at seeing these connections and potential uses of a wider variety of apps. Recently, I was presenting on apps for pediatric populations at the ASHA Healthcare and Business Institute and included a great recent release called Stick Around. This educational app allows the creation of puzzles featuring "stickers" that can be dragged on top of an image or array in order to develop labeling, sequencing, or describing in just about any context. As I was showing it with other apps that could be repurposed for language therapy, a participant asked, "Is this really even a repurposed app? It seems like language heaven!"

I replied, "Good point!" But the fact is, many in our field might not think to look past the icon and description (or even stumble upon it in the education category of the App Store), and it wasn't designed specifically for speech and language pathologists. So, while on the spectrum of repurposing, it's not such a stretch as using Bobbleshop- Bobble Head Avatar Maker for developing descriptive language, we all could use a push to see what a valuable app Stick Around could be.

Tony Vincent, an amazing resource on technology integration and the author of Stick Around (in partnership with Explain Everything creators Morris Cooke), definitely sees these connections between language and learning, and has presented for our peeps at conferences such as those held by the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities in Florida. He designed Stick Around ($2.99, very Fairly Priced and meeting all other points of the FIVES Criteria) to be a blank slate where educators--and students--could create these self-checking puzzles for learning in all contexts. So let's take a look at it.

Stick Around may first look a bit daunting, but this is just because its interface allows for such a large array of options and customization. I figured the process out in about 10 min, but there are also great video tutorials available should you get stuck. Though it might seem strangely dairy-specific, in the shots below I am showing how to set up a puzzle that could be used for life skills and executive functioning ("feature teaching" ala Sarah Ward). You could think up all sorts of other contexts for puzzles (In Las Vegas, I modeled a puzzle labeling the casinos on the Vegas Strip from a screenshot using Google Earth- you need Stick Around on your iPad to access this file)!

Start with deciding the image you would like to use as a puzzle (the app also has templates such as Venn Diagrams and sequencing frames). In this case, on a community trip to the supermarket, we snapped this image of the dairy section. You can also save an image, but just be aware of copyright should you plan to share your puzzle (see my next post).

Using the Stick Around app (see above the array of sample projects to spur your imagination- try not to be intimidated by how beautiful their graphics look), begin a new project.

I created a blank project so that I could use a photo background. Tap the + to add this from your Photo Library or other source.

Your next step is the stickers. These can take various formats (Text, Image, or Drawing Sticker). Double tap the sticker to write the label, and you can also add a description via text or audio (a great feature for SLPs). Arrows can be added as well.

Create your Answer Key by drawing each of the "regions" where the sticker, if placed or pointed, will result in a correct answer when the puzzle is played. Make sure your regions don't overlap. While creating the Answer Key, you will want to place the sticker or its arrow head in the correct region to link the sticker and its region, as seen above.

Finally, you can tap Play and try out your project in puzzle form. As a great example of continuous improvement in apps, Stick Around recently added the faces indicating correct or incorrect answers when you tap "Check."

When you are done with your project, save it (when navigating back to My Projects, you will be prompted to give it a name and save, or you can give it a name in the Info tab). The Export button (arrow into box) allows you to send the project to the Puzzles section of the app (from Projects) so that it can be played but not edited.

One of the best features of Stick Around is that puzzles you create can be shared with others who have the app. From My Projects I simply exported this one to Dropbox, and if on an iPad with Stick Around installed, you can click this link to add it to your Projects and play it!

So, what are your thoughts? What can you imagine creating with Stick Around?

As always, Happy Repurposing!

SLPs Make Great Showing (AGAIN) among 2013 Edublog Finalists- VOTE!

The finalists for the 2013 Edublog Awards were just announced, and voting is now open. The Edublog Awards is an annual initiative to promote the value of social media in education and share some great resources.  Speech-language-related blogs and resources again are well-represented among this year's finalists, so I would encourage you to go explore and vote. This year the voting is being done through list.ly, which you can sign into with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ accounts. You can vote for more than one favorite in each category (apparently you can only vote once, however) until Wednesday 12/18. The voting is truly live until the ceremony, as you can see where the candidates rank, so don't let your favorites flounder. Vote 'em up!

The Speech-Language (and Related) Folks in each category, go to This Link to vote. I am not going to link each resource as they are linked on the voting site, but these are all great resources to add to Feedly.

Best Individual Blog- Speech Peeps, Chapel Hill Snippets, Speech Adventures, If Only I Had Superpowers, PrAACtical AAC, Playing with Words 365

Best Group Blog- Speechie Freebies, ASHAsphere

Best New Blog- Rock Chalk Speech Talk, SLPs for Change, Speechy Musings

Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog- ahem, SpeechTechie, PrAACtical AAC, Speechy Musings

Most Influential Blog Post- The Speech Dudes' "There's no such thing as a free app, so get over it and pony up!", Busy Bee Speech's "Dear Teacher...Love, your SLP"

Best Twitter Hashtag- #slpeeps, #atchat

Best Podcast- A.T.TIPSCAST, Edceptional, Teach Me To Talk with Laura and Friends

Best Educational Wiki- UDL Tech Toolkit

Best Mobile App- ATEval2Go

Lifetime Achievement- Caroline Bowen, Jenn Alcorn

Vote away- thanks for all your support and I feel so honored to be nominated myself! Please, if I forgot any speech-language people, let me know in a comment, it's all a bit confusing to navigate.

Disclosure: author assisted in development of ATEval2Go app and continues to receive a small royalty related to the app (but support Chris Bugaj and Barbara Fernandes and vote!)

My Noms for the 2013 Edublog Awards

It's Edublog awards time! The 10th Annual Edublog awards are once again a reminder to the districts of the power of the Capitol, and how they must never rebel against their country again. Oh wait, that's The Hunger Games. They are on my mind this weekend for some reason. The Edublog awards are an effort to "promote and demonstrate the educational value of social media," particularly as some school districts block blogs and Twitter. Some dislike the competitive aspect, but personally I value the information shared during this time of year as bloggers share posts about the resources that inspire them, and the nominees list always reveals new educators worth following. It's also great to recognize the efforts of those who participate in social media as a labor of love, looking to share resources and experiences for no other reason than to help other educators and students. So, with only a little commentary, here are my noms.

Best individual blog- Mary Huston's Speech Adventures is an always thoughtful mix of reflections on research, technology and other issues in our field.

Best group blog- ASHAsphere continues to offer a wide variety of POVs related to speech and language and special education.

Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog- Learning in Hand not only offers a guide to implementing mobile technologies in education, but also is a great resource on doing so in a manner that fosters critical thinking.

Best teacher blog- Erin Klein's Kleinspiration provides firsthand experiences of creative applications of technology to classroom curriculum, as well as tutorials.

Most influential blog post of the year- Though always insightful, The Speech Dudes' There’s no such thing as a “free” app, so get over it and pony up! was a great explanation of why apps do and should cost money.

Best individual tweeter- Tara Roehl, last year's winner in this category, is a fantastic resource on social cognition and executive functioning.

Best twitter hashtag- #slpeeps, natch, continues to be a terrific community.

Best educational use of audio/visual/video/podcast- The A.T.TIPSCAST, produced by AT Trainer and author Christopher Bugaj, provides superbly clever takes on professional development and technology helpful for students with special needs. The recent episode on the "PD 2.0 Virus"- comparing the contagious nature of alternative and creative professional development to the zombie apocalypse- was simply brilliant.

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series- Edcamp!

Best mobile app- I love the versatility of Pic Collage- it has so many uses for language, social and executive functioning!

Well, that's it. If you have a blog and would like to add your own noms, here's how!

Update on SLP Blogs Bundle: Now Follow Blogs Using Feedly!

For a few years, I have been a strong advocate of following blogs using an aggregator tool such as Google Reader. I even created a "bundle" of SLP blogs that anyone could subscribe to all at once using Reader. Unfortunately, several months ago, Google announced that it was retiring this product, causing much of the edtech world to spin into a panic (NOTE: If you subscribe to this or other blogs via email, none of this affects you, though I recommend reading on to learn about another way to receive blog content). Though Reader will not be accessible after July 1, 2013, and the SLP Blogs Bundle can therefore have no new subscribers after that time, a substitute has risen to the top: Feedly.

Feedly has been my go-to reading tool since the announcement of the demise of Reader, and I wanted to post about it in conjunction with SLP and fellow SpeechTechie Janelle Albrecht, who had a similar reaction to this bad news. Janelle supported me in those early, dark days after Google broke my heart. This post will give you some information and steps to follow whether or not you currently are a Reader/Feedly user.

Janelle and I conversed over a Google Hangout recently about the advantages of blog aggregators and how Feedly has become our savior:



Sorry that the video is a bit quiet on Janelle's end- you may need headphones to hear her side of the conversation. Key points:
-After July 1, 2013, Google Reader will be no more.
-If you log in to Feedly before July 1 with your Google Account, all your subscriptions and starred items will be migrated to Feedly seamlessly.
-Feedly is a free, clean and efficient tool that you can use to skim all blogs you subscribe to, share posts with others, and curate posts for later reading by "saving for later" or tagging posts in categories for your organization.
-Feedly became our top new tool (after a brief mourning period aligning with the stages of grief outlined by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross) because of its wide array of features, similarity to Reader, clean look and feel, and cross-platform nature (you can use Feedly for free via any web browser, iOS and Android)
-Feedly has developed a critical mass of converts following the Google Reader announcement and has made key steps to ensure users' easy transition to the tool, which bodes longevity.
-Blogs are a GREAT "receptive" way to engage in social media and professional development. No need to interact if you don't want to; just read!
-You can start using Feedly even if you have never used Google Reader, and you should! If you follow more than two or three blogs, it is better to use such a tool than to individually navigate to blogs via bookmarks in your browser, which is inefficient and does not support easy sharing or curation of posts.
-Folks also like Flipboard and Zite, news aggregators that provide different experiences and features.
-You can still give yourself a jumpstart with a collection of blogs by subscribing to the Google Reader SLP Blogs Bundle before July 1 (navigate to Reader while signed into a Google account, then click on this link to add the bundle). Sign into Feedly as well before that date to migrate these subscriptions.
-After July 1, the SLP Blogs bundle will be unavailable for new subscribers, but will stay in your Feedly.
-I will make it a summer project to replace this bundle with a list or resource links of blogs you can add to your Feedly related to speech-language pathology. Heidi Kay of Pediastaff and Jenna Rayburn of Speech Room News have done this here and here very well so I am not sure how much I will reinvent the skillfully constructed wheel. It's very easy to add individual blogs to Feedly, as you can see in the tutorial below.

Overall, Feedly is super easy to use! In addition to the video above, which is more of a discussion, I made a tutorial on using the web or iPad versions of Feedly:



This post may trigger a number of questions. Please feel free to leave any questions in the comments and I will be sure to respond!  Thanks to the nearly 1,000 people who subscribed to the SLP Blogs Bundle over the past several years. I was very happy to promote all the good work of SLP Bloggers. Hopefully Feedly will come up with a similar bundling feature as it evolves.  Thanks also again to Janelle Albrecht for your time, insights, and patience with my "technical difficulties" on the morning of our recording!

Last Tips: Be sure to add something to your Feedly that makes you laugh or think (or both). Lately, I am enjoying the guilty pleasure of BuzzFeed, and Lifehacker always gives me good ideas. Both of these blogs, and some others, can be very prolific. DO NOT feel like you need to read every post of anything. That is sure to short out your brain and make you want to stop following blogs. Liberate thyself whenever the number of unread posts stresses you our- you can remove the subscription or "Mark all as Read." No one will know. Be Zen. Whatever you read is just the right amount for you to read.

Vote for SLPs Shortlisted for 2012 Edublog Awards

A couple weeks ago, you might have seen my post nominating some peers (always hard to make these choices) for the 2012 Edublog Awards, and may have seen many other posts if you hopefully follow some other SLP blogs.  The way this works is that the folks at the "Eddies" need to comb through thousands of nominations made by all the people in the edublogosphere and create a manageable Shortlist.  This is based on some qualifying factors as well as measures of reader engagement such as page rank, use of comments on the blog etc.

I am proud to say that SLPs have again represented in this initiative, underscoring our key role in the educational process and in the spheres of social media and educational technology.  What follows is a list of SLP nominees, so please VOTE early and often.

As the Edublogs People tell us:

Remember that only one vote per day per category will be counted from the same location! 

This means, if your school uses one IP address, you’ll need to ask students and staff to vote from home, or only one vote will count.

The best way to vote is to navigate to Vote Here, select Vote all at Once from the dropdown menu, and be aware of the following SLP nominees in various categories.

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO VOTE or go to this link

CONGRATS to all the nominees!!  Thanks again to those who nominated me!

Best Individual Blog

SpeechTechie

Best Group Blog

ASHAsphere

Best New Blog

Speaking of Apps

Speech Adventures

Speechie Apps

Best Student Blog

HannaB, gradstudentSLP

SLP_Echo

Best Ed Tech Blog

PediaStaff

SpeechTechie

Best Teacher Blog

(I'm in here too somehow, wow, but please vote for..)

speech-language-therapy.com- Caroline Bowen

Most Influential Post

Lexical Linguist – Nomenclature and basic functions of Twitter (AKA Twitter 101 for SLPs and AUDs)

Individual Tweeter

@SpeechyKeenSLP – Tara Roehl

Twitter Hashtag

#slpeeps

Podcast

A.T.TIPSCAST

Edceptional

GeekSLP

Therapy and Learning Services

Social Network

PediaStaff

Mobile Apps

Custom Boards Premium


Vote Away! Remember that this event is also a great way to discover new resources to follow, including those not created by SLPs.

2012 Edublog Award Nominations

Each year I enjoy the Edublog Awards season, which is ostensibly a competition but really a reminder of the importance of social media in education.  For more on the history of the Edublog awards, click here.  In the past few years, quite a few of the SLPs participating in social media have represented in this event, as you can see in last year's ASHAsphere post.  I'd encourage SLPs who blog to nominate others; visibility and awareness of the work that SLPs do in education is very valuable. No matter who "wins," the annual event exposes all educators to a new list of passionate teachers.

Here's how you can nominate others, if you are a blogger and are interested.

Here's a link to Chris Bugaj's nomination post- Chris, thanks again for the nod.

So, short(listed), hopefully, and sweet, here are mine:

Best individual blog 
Speechie Apps by Aubrey Klingensmith is a great spot for app reviews, and kudos to Aubrey for tackling the task of helping SLPs incorporate Android apps as well as iOS, which I honestly have no desire to do! So glad I can send SLPs to her blog to explore this area.

Best group blog
ASHAsphere, the blog of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, features thoughtful blog posts from SLPs with a variety of viewpoints, in a variety of settings, working with a variety of populations. It's great food for thought and skillfully compiled, collected and elicited by Maggie McGary, ASHA's social media director.

Best new blog
Hanna B. gradstudentSLP explores a variety of topics close to my heart (executive function, social cognition, and apps) with humor and the wisdom of a...wait, Hanna's a grad student still??

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog 
all4mychild shares the creative use of a variety of apps, books (particularly with their books4all analyses) and other strategies to make therapy engaging and effective.

Best teacher blog
Speech Adventures-Speech Therapy, Technology and Humor by Mary Huston (not a teacher technically, but as an individual SLP in the school setting) has in a short time adventured into many interesting territories, including app commentary, RTI, and even the connection between Cher's Burlesque and our tendency to get stuck in our own thought patterns. I love me some Cher and flexible thinking.

Most influential blog post 
Appdapted: Halloween-Themed Apps by Jeremy Legaspi is a tour de force of creative re-purposing of apps, which you probably know is my favorite topic. With 21 examples of how to consider apps' features as related to speech and language objectives, readers are sure to be able to generalize these ideas past October 31.

Best twitter hashtag
#slpeeps, of course, is my go-to hashtag when I have a question or just want to engage with other professionals.

Best free web tool
Domo Animate is one of my favorite web tools to tell people about. Animation=Language, and it's pretty easy to use.

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast 
A.T.TIPSCAST by Chris Bugaj continues to infuse an ever-growing list of high- and low-tech tips with humor and production values, and is geared toward every educator (but we SLPs should arm ourselves with a lot of A.T.TIPS, for sure, in our consultation work). Again, podcasts provide an opportunity for re-claimed drive time.  Listen to Chris on your commute through the free Podcast app.

Best educational wiki
Karen Janowski and Joyce Valenza's UDL Tech Toolkit is a one-stop shop for tools to help any learner access the curriculum.

Best open PD/unconference/webinar series
I have been to a number of Edcamps in the past several years, and these free unconferences, crowdsourcing the knowledge of the attendees themselves, still rival any experience I pay $$$ for.

Best educational use of a social network
Monthly #slpchat events continue to be an excellent reason for SLPs to check out twitter, recently covering such topics as AAC, autism and conference attendance strategies.

Best mobile app 
Toontastic, again, cause Animation=Language, and because Launchpad has continued to develop context and allowed school-based SLPs to access them with the All-access Pass.

Always tough to pick.  Good luck, guys!

Google Glitch

Hi Folks-

There is a little glitch on the Google Side if you are looking to subscribe to the SLP Blogs Bundle.  The page doesn't allow you to activate the subscription.  I made this little video for you as there is a workaround if you hadn't already subscribed and were interested in doing so, or if you wanted to resubscribe to catch any new blogs that were added.  Sorry for the trouble- it's an issue that has been reported to Google, so not much I can do about it.  Hopefully it will be fixed soon and I can delete this!

Blog Awareness Month: Zite Personalized Magazine

All month I have been singing the praises of blogs as a route to professional development and therapy planning, and I am ending with a bit of a twist- Zite Personalized Magazine (Free, iPad only for now) an app that allows you to subscribe not to blogs but to topics. Select topics of interest and Zite will pull in posts from various news sources (including blogs) that correspond with your selections.  Here's my Zite home page:

Zite works somewhat like music app Pandora in that you can then further customize your feeds by giving a thumbs-up or -down to articles that appear or request more from the author, source, or subtopic.  It is easy to share articles by email or send to Twitter, Facebook or other services, making Zite a great tool for participating in your Personal Learning and Sharing Network.

Zite is somewhat more of a leisurely experience than using Google Reader as you don't have a number of unread posts to contend with; just read what you want! Because Zite allows you to set up multiple profiles within the app, it could also be a tool for helping older students do research or explore topics of interest and work on comprehension and language strategies.

This will be my last post until 2012- hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!!

Blog Awareness Month: Fed Up With Lunch

I had sort of heard out of the corner of my ear that there was a courageous but anonymous teacher engaged in one of those "do something everyday and blog about it" initiatives, but one that could really make a difference. The author of Fed Up with Lunch (now also a book) committed to eat a usually quite gross school lunch every day and post about it, complete with photos, in order to make a statement about nutrition.  And guess what? It turns out "Mrs. Q" (I just love that pseudonym) is Chicago school-based SLP Sarah Wu. I was really excited when she contacted me and said she is a SpeechTechie reader! Her secret mission has concluded, but you can still read all about it in her archives, and her blog continues to be a resource for advocacy information about this important issue.  The story of "Mrs. Q" just goes to show how SLPs' "way with words" can be applied toward all kinds of good things. Her blog could also serve as a therapy material- think of what you could elicit for description regarding the photo below, to start! Please go and check out her blog; she is also on Twitter as @fedupwithlunch.

Blechy.

Blog Awareness Month: Edublog Awards, YAY SLPs, Thanks!!

The Edublog awards is sometimes the recipient of criticism for being about things educators supposedly shouldn't care about: validation, self-promotion, competition.  Fair enough, sure, there are elements of these things during "awards season." For me, though, it is really about ensuring that all these people who are sharing great ideas are actually READ. It sounds trite and eye-rolling but I definitely enjoyed nominating more than being nominated.

Yet again, timing dictated that I ended up "watching" the awards' live webcast at my patient (good) friends' house during their annual holiday dinner.  Thank God they have good wifi, and a little wine cut the tension ;-)

All in all, SLPs made an amazing showing in this years' event.  Besides being singled out by the organizers as being a great community and having 8 different specific SLP contributors shortlisted (sifted onto the final list of nominees based on some subjective measures of engagement with their blog), 6 different SLP resources were named as finalists (top 5 in their category).  It's a really big WOW.

Best New Blog- Speech Room News and All4MyChild.

Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog- Cindy L Meester's Blog and some other dude.

:-)

Best hashtag- #SLPeeps (the tag we use on twitter to reach other SLPs)

Best Use of Audio/Video/Podcast- A.T.TIPSCAST

A few years ago, there weren't too many of us SLPs in social media. Now people might start actually understanding what we do!

THANKS very much for all your support and votes.  Please be sure to check out all the nomination posts written by SLPs if you missed 'em.

Blog Awareness Month: 3eanuts

As a kid, I really loved Peanuts.  I definitely identified with Linus (and yes, I had a security blanket that I kept around way too long).  As an adult, I guess I wasn't totally surprised to find out that Charles Schulz struggled with depression.  The blog 3eanuts plays with the conventions of the strip by posting truncated versions of the comic without its generally uplifting 4th panel. From its authors:

Charles Schulz's Peanuts comics often conceal the existential despair of their world with a closing joke at the characters' expense. With the last panel omitted, despair pervades all.

The result could be interesting to SLPs not only as a narrative intervention, but also to teach kids about self-talk in a humorous way, perhaps by having them replace the fourth panels with positive outcomes!

Blog Awareness Month: Running to Be Still

As someone who has made social media somewhat of a way of life, it is interesting to see other people I know get involved online for quite different reasons.  I am speaking of my personal friend Kristin McCarthy Macchi and her funny and moving blog Running to be Still, in which she documents the trials and triumphs of her son James, who is on the autism spectrum. As SLPs, it is important for us to see the perspective of the families of the children we work with, and being connected to blogs such as this one is one way to develop that understanding. Also be sure to check out Kristin's Facebook Page for other links and observations.

Blog Awareness Month: The Kid Should See This

The Kid Should See This is a cute curation of videos and other materials from around the internet related to culture and education, kind of like a kids' version of Open Culture.  From the author:

There's just so much science, nature, music, arts, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them... But we don't underestimate kids around here. Off the grid-for-little-kids videos and other smart stuff collected by Rion Nakaya and her three year old co-curator.


The videos could provide a great context for a speech and language session, and included are fun sequences like this one (might be fun before an activity with the Cookie Doodle app):


Stop-Motion Biscuit Cake from Alan Travers on Vimeo.

Blog Awareness Month: Mindpop

I bumped into Mindpop when a friend of mine (a friend of the author) posted it on Facebook. The author, Nina Mitchell, introduces her blog: "I am a quirky young woman whose Mind went Pop. I was 26 when a stroke took away my limbs and speech. This stroke comic book is designed to make you think. Mindpop. Strokes are hell. They have dark comedy too. I live in Boston, just finished grad school, back to work." Mindpop is a good blog for SLPs to follow in order to fully understand the perspective of our patients who have had CVAs, but also possibly to recommend and/or use in counseling these patients.

Blog Awareness Month: Night Light Stories

We often hear the question from parents: What can I do to help my child at home?

I try to keep a list of resources I can tell parents about, and here's one for you: Chris and Melissa Bugaj's Night Light Stories.  Chris, an Assistive Technology Specialist and SLP, and his wife Melissa, a classroom teacher, have created this blog and podcast featuring original stories "that light up the imagination of kids of all ages." Each story is relatable to children's lives and begins with a question that promotes "making connections," a strategy our students often have to employ in the classroom.  In addition to the stories (which can be heard on the blog itself, downloaded for free from iTunes or streamed though Instacast), the blog offers entries related to each story, with a review of Tier 2 (as in Isabel Beck's work, not RTI) vocabulary and fun activities for children and parents to complete together related to the context of the story.  The audio (particularly the shorter "Flashlight Stories"), vocab and activities would also be great for SLPs to use directly during sessions!  Check it out and please recommend it to your families.

Blog Awareness Month: Support SLPs Shortlisted in 2011 Edublog Awards!

The shortlist of nominees for the 2011 Edublog Awards was announced this weekend.  Though I was a little bummed a few deserving nominees didn't make it in, it was excellent that the event actually acknowledged SLPs as a standout and active group in the effort that defines the whole purpose of the awards- to acknowledge educators who are sharing through social media and help educators find and follow this content.  In this vein, I'd encourage you to check out other SLPs' nomination posts and the shortlist as a whole to find lots of great resources and maybe add them to your Google Reader, right? right? :-)

I'm really honored to be nominated in the Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog Category. Thanks a lot to Tanya Coyle of Lexical Linguist and Twitter Dagobah, Heidi Kay of PediaStaff, Chris Bugaj of A.T. Tipscast and the folks at all4mychild for the shout-outs.  Your support means a lot.

Click here to Vote!

So, please vote for all the SLPs and others in the mix!

Best Individual Blog- iLearn Technology (not an SLP but a great source of visual resources for our kids)

Best Group Blog- TherapyApp411 (whoo-hoo!)

Best New Blog- All4mychild and Speech Room News

Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog- Cindy L Meester and I are in there!

Best Twitter Hashtag- #slpeeps

Best Free Webtool- GlogsterEDU, a great tool for SLPs

Best Educational Media/Podcast-The Compendium Blog of The A.T.TIPSCAST

Best Educational Use of a Wiki- UDLTechToolkit

Best Open PD- Edcamps, open PD that is happy to have SLPs in attendance!

Lifetime Achievement- Special Education Teacher and Mac Genius Meg Wilson

Thanks, and be sure to check out as many nominees as you can!

Blog Awareness Month: Another Bundle of Blogs 4 U

In my previous post, I reminded you about the SLP Blogs Bundle, which you will need to re-subscribe to periodically so that you can view any new blogs added to the bundle in Google Reader.  Recently, I put together an additional and different bundle, the SLP Apps Roundup.  This bundle consists of some SLP and education-related blogs that feature iOS Apps, but also some general app review blogs.  These blogs, such as App Advice (also available as an app on your iOS Device and highlighting the blog's great App Guides and Lists), present many apps, some of which can be "repurposed" for therapy.  You'll need to use your critical thinking to decide if you want all of these blogs, and even more so when downloading apps, but I thought you might find the "Roundup" helpful.  You can subscribe to the Apps Roundup here.

GiggleApps is a great example of a blog that is worth following in this bundle or on its own.  The blog features in-depth reviews of apps for kids and will help you tease out those that might be applicable in therapy.  The mission statement of the blog: "Written by an iPhone loving mom, our goal is to find great apps for kids from toddler to teen. Apps that make you giggle and hopefully teach you something too."

Blog Awareness Month: The New Google Reader and SLP Blogs Bundle, Revisited

I have long been a proponent of using Google Reader to view blogs.  In fact, I will go further than just suggesting it and say that if you are looking at a lot of blogs and not using Google Reader (or an alternative), you probably shouldn't bother since you will be wasting so much time.  If you have a list of blogs you like to visit, it really does not make much sense to bookmark them and visit them individually.  You have no way of knowing whether the blog has posted anything recently, or alternately you will end up missing new posts.  Using the free and easy Google Reader service solves this problem by letting you view all your blogs in one place, and indicating which blogs have new posts. You have access to Google Reader if you have any kind of Google account, such as Gmail or Docs.  To add a blog to Reader, just click Subscribe and paste the URL of the blog, or type the name of the blog to search for its "feed."

Some time ago, I began building a "Bundle" of blogs written by SLPs in order to encourage others in our field to read these folks' contributions to the blogosphere.  There are many great SLPs currently blogging in order to discuss professional issues, resource reviews such as apps, books or websites, session plans, or just their take on life as an SLP.  The SLP Blogs Bundle allows you to subscribe to all these blogs (currently over 40) at once, and you may have already.  However, the Bundle does not refresh in your Reader when I have added new blogs to it. You have to go back and resubscribe, and you are of course welcome to unsubscribe from anyone in the Bundle whose writings you don't find as valuable as others.  They won't know you did it, I swear!

In the last months, a number of new resources have been added to the bundle, so don't miss 'em! Just a few highlights:
Jill Kuzma's Social and Emotional Skills Sharing Site- great ideas and visuals, many pages of resources and links to Pinterest Boards.
The Speech Dudes- really intelligent and funny analyses of topics related to Speech Language Pathology.
The Learning Curve- creative ideas and organizational tips for SLPs.
so to Speak- a very well-written and fun chronicle of SLP grad school.
Activity Tailor- more creative activity ideas for SLPs.
ProjectSLP- reflections on SLP practice.
Megan Panatier Bratti's great resources via her Avocado Tech Facebook Feed.

Again, just a few! There are many more great ones in the bundle...

Below is a video I made that goes through the recent changes to Google Reader, how to use it, and how to access the SLP Blogs Bundle.  Hope you enjoy!