Excellent Tool!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi K.R.,

I am glad that Inspiration is working so well for your students. As an FYI though, as an adult with NLD, I found the program to be too overwhelming visually and I am probably more visually oriented than the average NLDer. I know you can switch to the regular outline but in my opinion, a regular outlining program would work alot better and would be easier to use. Anyway, I thought you might want to know about my experiences in case you have NLD students in your class.

Since we are posting on the “Teaching Reading” board, I thought I would mention that depending on the situation, I find outlining helpful in understanding what I just read. Sometimes, I can’t organize the material in my brain in a manner where I can learn what I need to know. I think that is due to an executive function difficulty although I don’t have any proof of that. But outlining enables me to quickly see the main ideas and the supporting details. Fortunately, I don’t have to do this every time out or I would never read a darned thing.

Hopefully KR, your students will find Inspiration to be as helpful with reading as I have found my regular outlining program to be.

PT

PT, Have you tried Draftbuilder? I downloaded the trial for Inspiration for my ds who has problems organizing his thoughts. He has the opposite problem of an NLD child—he is hypervisial—and he overfocused on the visuals to the detriment of content. Draftbuilder was built as an outliner so I believe it would be more suitable as it is less visually distracting. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a free trial offer so we haven’t tried it out. If you’ve tried it, I’d be interested in your views.

Yes, I agree. I use it now with my Step Up To Writing. I love it too. (Thanks to Shay, my hero on this board who shared the idea w/m)

It is wonderful having technology help fill in some gaps.

Michelle AZ

MariedC,
I have used both Draft:Builder and Inspiration and know that their are advantages and disadvantages to each program. That is why it is so important to know what is available and know what are the strengths and areas of concern for each student that we work with. What works well for one student may be less beneficial for another student depending upon their visual issues, attention, memory skill, organizational abilities, etc, etc.
When I use Inspiration for students, I often rearrange the graphic organizer in a vertical fashion since I find that easier to follow with my students who require a more linear view. Or we work in the Outline view if that will enhance their performance. I love the ability to color code and use the visual features built into Inspiration. You can also add notes and audio notes.
With Draft:Builder, there is less reliance on it as a visual tool and it offers great support for developing written work. There are excellent templates built into the software and it offers text-to-speech support, and models the writing process in a structured manner from outline to notes to draft which can then be imported to a word processing program. It also has an excellent feature which helps you develop the bibliography.
Draft:Builder is especially helpful for middle and high school age students.
Karen Janowski
Assistive Technology Consultant

Hi Marie,

No, I never tried draftbuilder. I use an outliner called Bonsai that has a program for both the desktop and my palm pilot. Even if you don’t own a palm pilot, you could still buy the desktop version if it was suitable.

Of course, I have no idea if this is what you are looking for or not but here is the link and they do offer a thirty day trial period.

http://www.natara.com

PT

My 4th grade daughter is using Draft Builder. We just need some additional training on it to make her more proficient. The real advantage for us with the auditory component.

We have also used Inspiration and it is a great tool as well. We just had to cancel training on that and I am hoping to reschedule.

Thanks, PT. I’ll check it out. Bonsai is much cheaper than Draftbuilder—it’ll be intresting to see what it does.

Leah, How do you see these products as complementing one another? It would seem if one works for you, you wouldn’t really need the other. Or am I off base? Really hard to know without being able to see Draftbuilder in action (and it’s a little pricey to buy on the off-chance it might just be the thing one needs).

is there a web site for draftbuilder and inspiration, both programs seem awesome, just depends on your needs. thanks for letting me know. D

Inspiration.com

.

I’m the type of person who wants her to learn everything she can so that she will know what works best for her. Right now, it’s DraftBuilder. However, Inspiration may be a good choice later on.

Additionally, we get our software from the district so no $$$ are laid out.

I believe draftbuilder is a don Johnson program - or is it Don Johnston a/k/a Alphasmart. I’d check the www on one or both of those addresses.