Using Technology to Write

I, too, teach high school-age LD students, and I have found good writing programs for that age to be few and far between. Keeping these students interested is a full time job! Perhaps you could interest them in an electronic journal?

There are indeed few programs for teaching writing. I have produced from experience a structured writing program that provides words on a page with little effort. I suggest that you look at the Dale Carnegie Sales Course book (not written by Carnegie) and reduce its level to your students. I have also found that compputer journal advertising provides fantastic prompts. Also children get into wired writing like upside doun books and such.

This is not high tech, but you may want to check out the program offered by the Institute for Excellence in Writing. You can get videotapes of an intensive student workshop (about ten hours running time altogether, as I recall). The students can do work along with the videotape, which will need to be stopped at certain points so they can complete a writing task. It contains an interesting approach to teaching writing. Take a look at the website—can’t remember URL, but you will find it by searching for Institute for Excellence—on which you can view a video of the first fifteen minutes or so of the workshop. Also worth looking at under the articles section of the site, “Writing Without Tears.” Good luck.

I like to use Wack Web Tales with my Elementary students (www.eduplace.com/tales) which provides the shell of a story and allows them to put the parts of speech. At the end, their words are submitted to create a story. The kids really love it!

New Ways to Take the Struggle Out of the Writing Process

THIS PRODUCT HAS BEEN LONG IN COMING, BUT WELL WORTH THE WAIT! THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT AND NOTHING BETTER! ALL STUDENTS WITH LD/DYSLEXIA/ADHD THAT HAVE ANY KIND OF WRITING, ORGANIZATION, BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC. , NEED THIS PRODUCT!
April 3, 2002 Volo, Illinois – Don Johnston Incorporated announces an exciting new way for educators to help struggling students and students with disabilities with the writing process.

Draft:Builder™, the organizational tool that gets to the core of the writing process, helps students organize notes for writing, learn the writing process and create high-quality first drafts.

To produce a first draft when writing, students need to gather, organize and synthesize information. This complex, multi-level process causes struggling students and students with disabilities to become disorganized and frustrated. Draft:Builder gives students a framework for organizing thoughts and information so they can more easily develop detailed first drafts that are ready for editing and revising. Developed in partnership with Education Development Center, Inc., a leading educational research and development organization, Draft:Builder helps students learn and practice the writing process.

Draft:Builder gets writers off to a successful start because it has built-in speech and a talking spell checker that help students write with correct conventions. Teacher-made and standard templates help students write in different genres, and the bibliographer features helps students use standard research formats when working on research papers.

Draft:Builder is the organizational tool for students who write with a switch, on-screen keyboard or alternate keyboard; require assistance to manipulate reference materials and take notes; are frustrated, reluctant writers; struggle with handwriting, spelling, comprehension and abstract thinking; need to write within the curriculum and work independently; and need to pass writing standards.

© Don Johnston Incorporated 800.999.4660
http://www.donjohnston.com/about/draftbuilderreleasefrm.htm

FOR STUDENTS NOT READY FOR ANY KIND OF WRITTEN EXPRESSION, USE MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS! STUDY AFTER STUDY HAVE SHOWN THAT STUDENTS FIND THESE ENGAGING, LEARN THE CURRICULLUM CONTENT, SPEND FAR MORE TIME THAN WOULD OTHERWISE, AND LEARN NEW SKILLS!
Seymour Papert called the computer the “children’s machine”. Multimedia has been one of those “we will rock you” tools that has not yet delivered on its early promise in education. Teachers are about good pedagogy, looking for ideas and tools that will facilitate learning. The coupling of constructivism with an easy-to-use, powerful and inexpensive digital media tool is about to challenge what we believe children can do with technology.

PRODUCTS TO CHECK OUT INCLUDE:

BuildAbility™
The authoring tool that makes learning a moving experience
BuildAbility is the learning tool for students who:
are visual communicators
have difficulty expressing ideas in writing alone
are motivated by creating multi-media presentations
Easy to Use — Click-to-Create toolbar lets students build a page without using menus, create the story in the exact sequence desired, preview and edit at any time with a click of the mouse
Students who struggle with writing can’t always find inspiring ways to express themselves. They may struggle with finding the right word, penmanship and sentence structure. With BuildAbility, students express themselves with more than just words—they combine animated drawings, graphics, text, speech and sounds to create original multi-media stories. BuildAbility’s exclusive Drawmation™ let students create engaing images that are built in front of their eyes. Students create class presentations, electronic books to share or great stories to self-select and read over and over again! The FREE BuildAbility Player lets students show their work to parents and lets teachers share successful activities with each other.
Demonstrate comprehension better through multi-media presentations
Students increase oral presentations supported by technology
Students increase their motivation to respond in writing
Students present stories for themselves and others
Students design, develop and present reports that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts
Creative Expression
The flexible, multi-sensory elements in BuildAbility give students a variety of ways to present their ideas, and match their learning style. Reading Out Loud. Highlighted spoken text builds reading skills
Voice and Sound Effects. Choose between recording voice and using synthesized speech tools. Insert a sound to support an image or an idea. Even play background music.
Mix Media Easily. Combine photos, clip art, movies, text, sound and voice in any sequence for unlimited expression and communication.
Everything is included for instant success
FREE BuildAbility Player to publish work and add to student portfolios
100+ photos, sounds and movies to incorporate into presentations
8 templates for teachers to explore and modify for use with your students
FREE Library Sampler CD with 20 literacy activities created by literacy experts to get students using BuildAbility right away
FREE access to teacher-built activities at www.donjohnston.com that you can use and share with others anytime
BuildAbility’s Drawmation™
1. The motion and drama of BuildAbility’s exclusive Drawmation engages teachers and students alike
2. Drawmation captures each brush stroke as a drawing is created

When the story is played as an animated movie, the drawing is revealed stroke- by-stroke until it is a whole image becoming a part of the whole presentation
“BuildAbility is a creative authoring tool for teachers and students that fosters reading and writing across many subjects. At a time when software is increasingly complex to master, the beauty of BuildAbility is in its simplicity.”
Denise DeCoste, Ed.D., OTR
Explode BuildAbility achievement and learning with photos, sounds and libraries
Music Tracks
By BeachWare
Music engages students. Use BuildAbility’s Sound tool to add fanfares, background music and more. Offers 100 license-free music clips stored in .WAV (Win) and .AIF (Mac) formats.
Photo Textures
By BeachWare
Real photos make great background pages in BuildAbility presentations. This collection has 100 license-free digital photographs in both .BMP (Win) and .PICT (Mac) formats. Categories include City, Earth, Plants, Seashore, Sky and Underwater.
A Zillion Sounds 2.0
By BeachWare
Add interest and reinforce concepts. Choose from 5,000 royalty-free sound effects, separated and organized into 70 categories. Each sound is stored in .WAV (Win) or .AIF (Mac) formats, making them easy to use in BuildAbility, Discover and other programs. All sounds are license, and royalty-free.
MultiWare
By BeachWare
This incredible collection of license-free media clips is perfect for BuildAbility presentations. It is bursting with 240+ color pictures and backdrops, 200+ sound & music clips, 140+ Quicktime and .AVI movies.
http://www.donjohnston.com/catalog/topfrm2.htm

eZedia Products
http://ezedia.com/products/eZediaMX/

eZediaMX revolutionizes multimedia authoring and editing with a unique visual linking environment and intuitive interface. It combines superior media handling with innovative interactivity tools and easy-to-use logic elements that will unleash one’s imagination and enhance their digital lifestyle. eZediaMX can be used to quickly and easily create digital portfolios, multimedia presentations and slide shows, web videos, animations and interactive CD-Rom projects.
http://ezedia.com/education/

eZediaMX Licenses Price (USD)
eZediaMX 30-day Demo FREE

Zoom-ed™ Education Pricing
See how affordable it can be for teachers and students to use eZediaMX.
eZediaMX for Education
eZediaMX is the world’s most useful multimedia authoring software which gives you a new way to easily combine and edit digital media, including video, graphics, animation, sound, MP3s, VRs and text.
http://ezedia.com/education/products/

Utilizing the latest technologies from QuickTime, Java and OpenGL, eZediaMX provides advanced features such as movie and media masking, non-destructive video editing, animation, text to speech, sound mixing and fading and full control of VRs all without any programming or scripting. It has never been easier to combine and edit all media formats including video, graphics, animation, sound, MP3s, VRs and text.

Partners in Learning
By Drs. Jane & Michael Madden
Francis Marion University
April 2002

In recent months, there has been increasing discussion at the U.S. Department of Education web site (http://www.ed.gov) on the issues of literacy and student achievement. There is no question that the challenges facing educators are significant and that somehow we must have the students as partners in this enterprise if we are to succeed. A critical factor in that process is student engagement. Let’s face it. The longer a student’s attention is focused on a task in an active, engaged manner, the greater the likelihood for the comprehension and the retention of concepts. At the same time, the more energy that emanates from the student to maintain their own attention, the less enervating it is for the teacher in that classroom.
http://ezedia.com/education/curriculum_connections/Partners_in_Learning.html

Twelve Reasons to Use Multimedia Projects in the Classroom
by Dr. Suzanne Cherry
Assistant Professor, School of Education
Francis Marion University
February 2002

1. Multimedia projects motivate students to participate.
2. Multimedia projects integrate all the language arts — reading, writing, listening, and speaking across curricular areas.
3. Multimedia projects build collaboration skills for students.
4. Multimedia projects create real reasons for reading, writing, and revising communication.
5. Multimedia projects give students a larger audience than the teacher and the classroom.
6. Multimedia projects require students to analyze sources and think about evidence in new ways.
7. Multimedia projects lead teachers to think about their students, classes, and lessons in new ways. Reflection and revision of teaching strategies naturally evolve with the projects.
8. Multimedia projects require higher order thinking and problem-solving skills. These projects promote non-linear thinking and give divergent learners a chance to shine in the classroom.
9. Multimedia projects move teachers from the role of lecturer and classroom authority and into the role of learning coach or facilitator. They create student-centered classrooms.
10. Multimedia projects increase students’ literacy and prepares them for the technology-based communication skills required in the workplace today and tomorrow.
11. Multimedia projects let teachers address multiple intelligences and learning styles in the classroom.
12. Multimedia projects naturally employ the range of resources and approaches by which most students learn best.

About the Author
Dr. Suzanne Cherry is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Francis Marion University. She is also the Director of the Swamp Fox Writing Project, a National Writing Project site (http://www.writingproject.org/). Dr. Cherry is an accomplished presenter and incorporates technology in a variety of ways in the instructional process. The author has not received any financial remuneration for the article.
eZedia and Project-based Learning
By Drs. Jane & Michael Madden
Francis Marion University
December 2001

No educator needs to be told about the challenges facing today’s classrooms. Children from widely differing backgrounds, learning styles, problems, skills, and talents enter our schools every day. The challenge for teachers is to make ideas come alive for all their students. Multimedia and project-based learning offer a rich environment for nurturing the kind of learning that can engage the greatest variety of students in the classroom.

Project-based learning is not intended to replace traditional teaching. In fact, it is an ideal partner rather than a replacement. Students need the opportunity to apply what they have learned previously in formal instructional processes. The best opportunities occur when there is genuine problem-solving and learning in a real-world context.

Project-based learning can become even more exciting and dynamic with the incorporation of multimedia. Until recently, that would have been a daunting task for any educator. However, eZedia puts powerful tools into the hands of some of our youngest constituents. Now, the focus for students is on communicating - where they’ve come from; what they’ve experienced; how they express their knowledge; and, what new questions they have. The incorporation of multimedia allows them to put their ideas in motion. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences has helped teachers to be sensitive to the fact that students learn differently and eZedia opens the door to self-expression for this broad range of learners.

One of the best resources we’ve come across to help teachers organize successful project-based learning experiences, especially at the K-6 levels, is the work of Dr. Sylvia Chard, Director of the Child Study Center, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Her web site, http://www.project-approach.com, is a marvelous resource, providing step-by-step structure for understanding, planning, implementing, and evaluating project-based activities.

Dr. Chard organizes a project-based approach into three broad stages - beginning, developing, and concluding a project, with specific types of activities associated with each. This same structure provides a natural framework for developing an overall eZedia project to communicate classroom happenings. Incorporated into that could be the individual and group projects.

At each stage, the classroom teacher and the students can capture images and artwork via cameras, digital and 35 mm, scanners, digital camcorders or regular camcorders, music, and voices telling the tale of their learning adventure. Not only do these elements serve to enhance the project, but also to aid students in recalling the various activities and experiences. For some students, these shared multimedia events, combined with direct experience, may be the anchor they need to develop more sophisticated concepts.

For teachers in the United States for whom grant-funding is a perennial issue, Dr. Chard’s site also provides a strong theoretical foundation tied to applied situations that would be eminently fundable. As more and more schools face the challenge of increasing numbers of at-risk students, the combination of multimedia and flexible opportunities for learning can become core components in writing winning proposals.

About the Authors
Dr. Jane Madden is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Francis Marion University and is the Director of the Grants Development Program on campus. Dr. Michael Madden is a Professor in the School of Education. Both are the co-authors of two successful Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grants. eZedia has been a research partner in both federal grants. No remuneration was received for the writing of this article.

We would like to thank Dr. Sylvia Chard for her kind permission to include information on her site in this article.

E-Writing: The Transformation of Concept Maps into Lively Multimedia Documents
by Drs. Jane & Michael Madden
Now is an exciting time to be in education, for there is a convergence between possibilities suggested by theories and the tools needed to realize those possibilities in practice. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences provides teachers with ways to recognize and acknowledge diverse student talents, while the Habits of Mind focus attention on what it takes to live and work intelligently, to be excited about the possibilities offered by new challenges and opportunities, and to contribute effectively in real-world environments. Conventional presentation tools designed for business were not well suited to empower a broad range of learners to represent and refine their understandings, to show what they know, and in the process, become more effective communicators. In making powerful communication tools easy to use, eZediaMX is an excellent example of how authoring software can become a means of supporting and enhancing learning. Using eZediaMX in conjunction with complementary tools, such as Inspiration, and good teaching strategies, as suggested in the Structured Writing approach, for example, builds a strong foundation for students. In combination with frameworks like Multiple Intelligences and Habits of Mind, it provides a point of convergence for opportunities to transform learning environments.
http://ezedia.com/education/curriculum_connections/index.html

I have had 8th grade students do an AH-HA using Inspiration. It is software that has premade templates for orgaization as well as the ability to link ideas in ways that make sense to students. The coolest feature is that what information goes into the “web” or diagram created by students, can also be seen as a formal outline with the click of a button. Students who hate to write and hate to pre-write even more, have actually had fun! Mary

I heard an idea but have not tried it yet. Teach outlining. Word does it nearly automatically. Once the kids have the ideas down, then they add the “filler” words to make the outline into sentences. They stay organized on the subject, and 1/2 the problem is coming up with the ideas. I teach 9-12th grade LD RSP students. If you try this, let me know how it goes.

For students who are challenged with the many aspects of writing, in particular, with the overall structure, the development, organization, research, bibliography, etc., there is NO BETTER PROGRAM THAN THE RECENTLY RELEASED:
Draft:Builder

from Don Johnston Incorporated, specifically developed for educators who work with LD students and all students that could benefit from an “organizational tool that gets to the core of the writing process.”

“Writing is a complex, multi-level process requiring the gathering, organization and synthesizing of information. Draft:Builder gives struggling students, who would otherwise become disorganized and frustrated, a framework for organizing thoughts and information, development of a detailed first draft, which can then be edited and revised.

Draft:Builder gets writers off to a successful start because it has built-in speech and a talking spell checker that help students write with correct conventions. Teacher-made and standard templates help students write in different genres, and the bibliographer features helps students use standard research formats when working on research papers.

Draft:Builder is the organizational tool for students who write with a switch, on-screen keyboard or alternate keyboard; require assistance to manipulate reference materials and take notes; are frustrated, reluctant writers; struggle with handwriting, spelling, comprehension and abstract thinking; need to write within the curriculum and work independently; and need to pass writing standards..”

I highly recommend this product to ALL educators!
Look at the web site—
http://www.donjohnston.com/about/topfrm.htm

Lori,

Saw the e-mail re: Draft Builder. We just got a copy from our AT specialist. It’s much better than inspiration because of the auditory spellcheck and reading ability. My daughter already likes it better. She wrote her story on it the other day. It’s definitely a keeper!

Lori-
have you used draftbuilder or any of the other products mentioned in your post? If so, can you give me info on ease of use?

Draft Builder is the program that was recommended during an assistive tech eval for my NLD son heading into middle school as well.

Karen