EDUC+652+Presentations

Jumpstart Advanced Preschool - Maria did a great job presenting the features of this awesome software. I like how the child could practice many different skills such as letter and sound recognition, colors, size and shape comparison, rhyming, number recognition and counting. I think it's convenient and useful for the parent or teacher to have the option of assessing the student/child once he or she has completed the activities. The feedback is appropriate and the program is motivational and fun! Also, there is a wide variety of levels available for different ages and abilities. Maria also said there is a language skills program available for children to become familiar with a language other than English. I would purchase this for my own kids!

Cloze Pro - a software program used to create and edit activities with missing text in order to encourage the students to use the context of the sentence to understand the meaning. Supports literacy skills such as comprehension and fluency. There is a scanning option and the software is switch accessible. Ideal for students with hearing impairments, physical disabilities, and cognitive deficiencies. Can be used in any content area for individual students, group instruction, and printable tests or worksheets. The website is below:

http://www.cricksoft.com/uk/products/clozepro/

Brodurbund Software for Learning introduces, Living Books - interactive animated stories for your student/child to explore and have fun with while similtaneously increasing vocabulary, reading comprehension, word recognition, and computer literacy. Each book includes a detailed unit with about 15 lesson plans for implementation within the classroom. The units address several age/grade (pre-K through intermediate) and spans across multiple curricular areas. The software is accesible to those with disabilities in several ways. It is compatable with Touch Window/Screen and Intellikeys, including an overlay. It is also availabe in several languages.

Interwrite Pad 400 is a wireless interactive tool which untethers the teacher from the chalk/white board allowing him/her to move about the classroom while remotely writing and interacting with and electronic whiteboard, or some kind of projection sytem channeled through a computer. The interwrite pad can operate through many applications and so can be used along with most educational sofeware that a teacher may want to employ. For the student this opens up a world of creative differential instruction that can only but enhance learning. One example is the use of the interwrite pad in conjunction with the Kurzweil 3000. Kurzweil 3000 is an interactive reading, writing and learning program which allows students to interact with material in multiple modalities at the same time. The teacher also has the opportunity to customize instruction for each student. In the case of whole class instruction when married with the interwrite pad the Kurzweil can take on a whole different flavor since this brings two dynamic pieces of educational software together.