The Special Education Technology Centre in British Columbia is a wealth of information for teachers and parents as well. Their website is a treasure of resources just waiting for you to use in your classroom or home.
One fabulous thing I’ve observed about special needs parents is how enthusiastically they tend to take on the roll of providing instruction to their children at home. The biggest limit seems to be availability of expensive resources…but the SET-BC website can help fill that void.
So, roll up your sleeves and let’s take a walk through the website.
The most useful tab to those living outside British Columbia is the Learning Centre. These resources are free to anyone to use. Four main headings under the Learning Centre tab will take you to some incredible gems.
At the Learning Centre home, you will find an extensive collection of articles, webcasts, software trainings, and other resources. The collection is searchable or can be browsed by category through the tabs across the top. Honestly, I could lose myself at the Learning Centre homepage for days on end. There is just so much there!
The Accessible Books page provides you with both premade stories for the computer (circled in red) and instructional handouts and videos (circled in blue) that walk you through the process of creating your own books.
Take a look at the CurriculumSET page for premade activities to support instruction in the classroom. Activities are divided into content areas (science, language arts, health, math, etc.) and age level. There are low-tech handouts for students, as well as onscreen activities for Boardmaker, Clicker 5, Classroom Suite, Kurzweil, Solo, and more.
A great help for families is the PictureSET page. Downloads include both Boardmaker files (which can be customized in Boardmaker for individual users) and .PDF files for families who do not own Boardmaker. There are also some boards for specific communication devices. Symbols are organized by topic...
...and purpose (activities/games/songs; support stories; visual/vocabulary).
Families who want to get started with symbol communication for their non- or minimally-verbal children can find some extremely helpful downloads through PictureSET.
If you are a resident of British Columbia, there are even more fantastic resources available through SET-BC, so keep on exploring after you’ve checked out this section. There are local events you won’t want to miss, training opportunities, technology support, a lending library (much larger and more current than the one available in our state!)…
I hope you will have a bit of free time over the Thanksgiving holiday to browse through the SET-BC website. Even if you have visited it before, check for updated resources. There have been some wonderful additions made in the past few months! Check out the Assistive Technology Considerations for students with a wide variety of disabilities--good stuff!
There is so much to be grateful for this season. Happy Thanksgiving!
Rose-Marie
2 comments:
Now that I have my duct tape (thank you, Rose-Marie!), I can print out more PEC from the SET site. What a treasure trove! Thanks for breaking down the other offerings too.
Peggy, I'm so happy you found the SET-BC site useful. Isn't is wonderful? Glad the duct tape trick is working out for you too!
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