I took the summer off from blogging, and have been a bit slow to get started.
I recently gave the Keynote speech and a breakout session at the “Innovative Professor” conference in Teneessee. Very cool conference with a lot of Web 2.0 technologies and energy. From there, I went to the “Closing the Gap” conferenence in Minneapolis and presented with Steve Kann, VP of Engineering at Wimba. Never been to either before, but like a lot of conferences, it was great for the people you meet and the sharing of resources. Here are my top take aways:
1. Utter Command – Voice Commands for Dragon for better Windows interface use. “UC commands work across all programs. No matter what programs you use, you’ll be able to do everything by speech that you can using the keyboard and mouse, usually faster.” http://www.redstartsystems.com/uctasktours.html#contents
2. Scale Liberated Learning – Chattanooga State is interested in using the ViaScribe Wimba bridge web in their classes – http://www.liberatedlearning.com
3. TobiiATI – has ran technology programs for people with ALS – http://www.tobii.com
4. Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (Learning 2.0) – http://www.c4lpt.co.uk
5. Web 2.0 Directory – http://www.go2web20.net
6. Assistive Technology Social Network – http://assistivetech.ning.com
7. Sign Smith – Takes text and makes sign language with computer avatar (And my mind leaps to taking my speech output-into-text, then into Sign Smith!) http://www.vcom3d.com/index.php?id=signsmith_vault
8. Open Source Assistive Technology – http://www.oatsoft.org
On the flip side, after seeing a half day of Second Life for Education, I am not sold. Seems like a very engaging environment, but there is so much going on and such a steep learning curve, I can’t see it scaling across a lot of users. Plus, the computer and network minimum requirements seem to be very high, as not more than three of us could get in at a time.
Chad's Adventures 
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