Boardmaker

As this graphic from Boardmaker indicates a range of emotions, I too have been going through the range since we began working on our Boardmaker assignments.  I have been working frantically in class on creating an interactive book in class as this is our assignment.  Not being familiar with Boardmaker at all, I was excited (can you find that emotion above!!!) knowing that I would now have the opportunity and time needed to explore this program.  The program is widely used by Resource and Learning Centre teachers and I was curious to find out more about how the program is used to support curriculum for students with unique needs and abilities.

However, after our professor walking us through the first portion of our trial run at Boardmaker, I began to feel a little uneasy.  We had created a board with four quadrants and then had to link and create additional boards with text and voice speech to match all the original four quadrants.  As an example, we had a quadrant titled "I want" and then we had to link this to another board and list 4 wants that a child might need to communicate.  We created these and then matched this with visual images, text and voice.  This was a great experience, but didn't last nearly long enough and soon we were on our own!  I was a little intimidated, but knowing in my mind that I would not hurt the operation of the program, I forged ahead....undaunted!!!!

Eventually, the practice Boardmaker project was completed and I was happy with the result. 

Our next assignment was a little more challenging, which automatically created more stress....unnecessary as I soon discovered!  The more you use this program, the easier it becomes.  This is like anything associated with technology.  I have learned that I was at first intimidated a little by all that technology has to offer from the simplest of technology to more complex.  However, like most things that I do, I learn best when doing things on my own and learning from my mistakes.  This held true for my work with Boardmaker.

Although the Book Project in Boardmaker on Egypt is by no means a work of Michelangelo, it certainly is a work of art for us!  We are very proud that when we designed this book, we created it for a student in Grade 7 who is an emergent reader.  He is interested in Social Studies and enjoys working on various countries and learning about different parts of the world.  Part of his IPP states that he is to become more proficient with expressive language skills and to improve his abilities in Social Studies.  This, we decided, can be combined in our book.  We can increase his ability in Social Studies by providing a book about Egypt made with Boardmaker.  We can also improve his expressive language skills by having text printed in Boardmaker to match the pictures that we imported from the Internet as well as our own voices recorded to match the text.  This is something I investigated a bit with the Boardmaker program and we are excited that we were able to record our own voices on the book.  This would be a great tool for a teacher or Educational Program Assistant to use with the child.  They could record their own voice to match the text and this would be a voice that is familiar to the child.

In reference to the MPTTT framework, the considerations for this project were as follows:

• 
  
  M - Milieu - this would be in the classroom for Social Studies and the child would be working with Boardmaker software and access the book with the simple button switch which is mounted on the arm of his wheelchair.  He has cerebral palsy and has some controlled movement of his right elbow.
• 
  
  Personality - personality considerations for this child are that he is very social and therefore needs to attend to task - this can be accomplished in having the book created with pictures from the Internet which are more appropriate to his age and appealing; having the text so he can follow along as it is scanned as well as having the text read by a familiar voice; he has many head movements due to his cerebral palsy, but he does have controlled movement of his right elbow, therefore a simple switch which can be activated by his right elbow will be mounted on the right arm of his wheelchair for access
• 
  
  T - Task - the task we would want this child to accomplish is to hit the elbow button switch when he wants to turn the pages of the book as well as in response to answers to questions at the end of the book (this will provide information on his expressive language skills even though he is nonverbal)
• 
  
  Time - the time consideration for this task is that we will expect the child to have a 3 second delay between each block on the Boardmaker program as well as 3 second delay between the questions and answers; this will allow him to review the board with his EPA or teacher and provide time for the visual scanner to scan the boards so that he can answer or review as required
• 
  
  Technology - the technology used for this design is a simple, one step button switch which will be mounted on the right arm of the child's wheelchair so he can access is effectively and accurately; we will also be using Boardmaker software to create the book for this child for his Social Studies unit - country will be Egypt.

In addition to the anxiety I suffered for this project, the one proactive thing I did do was research Boardmaker on YouTube.  I found some very interesting tutorials in case you all want to have a look.  As well, I found a few lessons on how to create books with Boardmaker to meet some specific curriculum needs.  Have a look....I hope you enjoy them as well and can find a use for them or variation of uses!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrcTjP2YXR8  This is an overall use tutorial for Boardmaker V. 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suYrwoHXOF8  This is a book tutorial for Boardmaker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu5PCBidBZk  This is one specific for Autism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNP5tUXE5w  This is a sample book on how our body works and how we can use our hands, feet, legs, eyes, etc.  It is FANTASTIC!!!!  I love it!!!