BASIC Cell Phones Can Be Assistive Technologies

While we are starting to see cell phones and software being developed specially for the blind and deaf, I wanted to take a few minutes and explore how BASIC cell phones (without the costly software) can be assistive devices for hearing impaired and visually impaired students. I am NOT an expert on assistive technologies, but I have been hearing from more teachers on how their special needs students are benefiting from cell phone technology, so I wanted to share what I have learned.

For the Visually Impaired
A VI teacher in one of my courses (Julie Burger) shared with me that her VI students often are the last to get to experience new technologies because the technologies need to be modified for the visually impaired. For example digital resources often need to be modified for screen readers. However, Julie became very excited about the possibilities of cell phones in learning because she realized that this would be one time that her VI students could be on the forefront of technologies (possibly even being able to introduce their new mobile tool discoveries with their classmates without disabilities). A basic cell phone offers the ability for visually impaired to do the following;

1. Listen to any webpage
2. Listen to newscasts and podcasts
3. Send Speech to Text emails
4. Send Speech to Text Blog posts
5. Send Speech to Text Group posts (to places like Yahoo Groups)
6. Send Speech to Text Calendar appointments and meetings
7. Receive Voicemail reminders
8. Listen to text messages

Hearing Impaired Students
While VI students can take advantage of speech to text, and text to speech options in cell phones, HI students can take advantage of these same options on a basic cell phone but in the opposite directions. For examples, HI students can type in text and it can be sent to other students/teachers cell phones as a audio message. A basic cell phone offers the following options for hearing impaired students to better participate in their everyday class activities:

1. Send text messages that can become audio web-based posts (such as podcasts)
2. Send text messages that can become audio Voicemail
3. Receive an audio Voicemail message that can be transcribed into a text message
4. Read podcasts/audio broadcasts on their cell phone
   

The following are some free applications that couple with basic cell phones for students with assistive needs. The best part of these resources is that they can be used by any student (Univerisal Design), and they are a great way for teachers to be inclusive when developing assignments, group projects, or even basic class activities.

Free Mobile Resources for VI and HI Learners
Jott (Speech to Text Translation, emails, appointments)
Jott Feeds (Listen to text-based webpages)
Rocketron (Listen to news feeds)
Rminder (Text to Speech reminders)
PingMe (Text Message Reminders for groups and individuals)
Text4deaf (2-way text messaging, keeps tracks of texts, sends to individuals/groups) (Thanks to
Karen Montgomery for showing me this resource!)
ChaCha or Mymiamia for Google Searches (Text Message for HI students)
Dial2do (Speech to Text)
YouMail & GrandCentral (Transcriptions of VoiceMail)
Sendible (Text-Based Evites)
Voki (Text to Speech Avatars)
Hey Cosmos (Text Message to Speech Surveys and Quizzes)
Google Voice (Voicemail with Speech to Text Transcription)
Phonevite (Voice Message surveys, quizzes, and feedback)

I know a few others also are researching and using cell phones as assitive tools, please share your ideas and resources.

Web2.0 Voicemail: A Teacher's Uber-Management tool!

While we are familiar with the basic voicemail systems on cell phones and landlines, they are often limited. In the web2.0 world there has emerged new and FREE uber-voicemail systems. Some examples include Grand Central, YouMail, and Amphibian. These mail systems allow for the following;
1) By passing the caller and going right to voicemail.
2) Creating custom greetings for individual callers or groups of callers
3) Being able to send text message feedback directly to the caller
4) Documenting all voicemails as an MP3 file
5) Transcription of voicemails right to your cell phone as a text message file minutes after the voicemail is left.
6) Searchable voicemail messages
7) Caller ID (even from cell phones!)...
8) The ability to reply in text or audio to voicemail messages on the web directly to cell phones and/or email account of the caller.
9) A private phone number (so you don't have to give out your real cell phone number)
10) A private phone number that will ring as many phones as you wish (cell, landline...)
11) Call Recording on the Fly

So how does web2.0 voicemail help teachers?
Here are just a few ways (at least these are ways that my YouMail and Grand Central accounts have helped me with my own students)

Transcription of VoiceMail
Since YouMail and Grand Central both send me a transcribed text message of every voicemail left on my account, I no longer need to call my voicemail to find out who called and the message that they left. I also have a transciption of numbers left in my voicemail (instead of having to remember them as I listen to the message). This can also be a very nice feature for hearing impaired students to be able to participate in voicemail services.

MP3 files of every voicemail, the "by pass" feature right to voicemail (so my phone does not ring), & custom greetings.
Every message left in my voicemail is automatically stored on my YouMail account online as an MP3 file. While this is helpful for documentating phone calls (espeically from students and parents), but it is a great feature for oral quizzes. Students can call in to the YouMail account, listen to the unique custom greeting that I set up, and they can "speak" their quiz. The quiz is then stored in my YouMail account (I can listen through my mobile phone and send a text message or voicemail evaluation back the student OR I can listen online at my YouMail.com account and send the text message or voicemail feedback to the student through this account). Since these are private calls, the quizzes are kept private...but I get to keep the MP3 files as a record of the student's progress over the school year. I can even sort my YouMail account so that I can look at all of one individual studnet's oral quizzes at one time.

Group Messaging
I can send out messages to groups of my students or parents at anytime. In my Youmail.com account I can send out reminders about upcoming assignments or ask them to call in an oral quiz.

Private Phone Numbers
Grand Central gives out a private phone number, so teachers do not have to give out their real cell phone number to their students. Instead they hand out the private number. This is a nice feature because you can set the number to go directly to voicemail (great for oral quizzes...no ringing or buzzing on your cell phone while student's are taking their quizzes). In addition, you can set the number to ring on any phone you wish, so you could set up a student helpline which rotates each week between the students (just change the phone that rings with the private number each week to a different student's phone).

Call Recording On the Fly
Grand Central also has a call recording feature (is this legal???). This is great when you have a difficult conversation with a parent, studnet, or community member and want to make sure that it is documented. You can even start the recording in the middle of the conversation. It becomes an MP3 file in your private Grand Central account!


Something Similar: Slydial
Slydial allows for by passing the caller and going straight to voicemail. It can work with any mobile phone or landline. This is helpful for students who are taking oral quizzes where teachers have YouMail accounts and they want to go right to the voicemail to speak their quiz. Here is how it works...

1) Dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425) from any landline or mobile phone.
2) At the voice prompt, enter the U.S. mobile phone number of the person you want to slydial.
3) You will be directly connected to their voicemail. Leave them a voicemail.

Museum Mobile Tours and Cell Phones

Visiting local museums has traditionally been a part of K-12 education. Museums have started to take advantage of the growing number of people with cell phones, by providing self-paced tours on cell phones. Museum patrons can dial a number and instantly get an audio tour (some even have image and video options for cell phones that can handle those types of media). A few resources online that provide this service (for a fee) include Museum411, Guide by Cell, and Spatial Adventures (free 30 day trial). Additionally, schools can access information or tours from a specific museum by going to MuseumPods to download free podcasts for cell phones and iPhones.

I have written in the past about MyArtSpace, where schools can post mobile images from their art museum field trips and develop lessons around their postings. As I was listening to some of these cell phone tours, I realized that creating a museum mobile tour would be another great museum project for students. Teachers could contact a local museum and ask if their students could research and then develop various cell phone audio tours. Or, teachers could have their students develop mobile walking tours of the city (historical, geographical, scientific tours). Student's in a foreign language class could offer to turn the audio English tours into bilingual tours. Instead of using one of the pay services mentioned above, students could use
YouMail or Podlinez to create the dial-in tour.

These tours could be enhanced by developing a tour that includes images and/or large text on the mobile phone. This could be done with PowerPoint on a MAC. I wrote a tutorial on how to develop enhanced PowerPoint podcasts for cell phones and how to upload them a while back. These are just a few suggestions on how students cell phones can become museum enhancing tools.

YouMail is MyMail for Cell phones...

I have become a big fan of a free resource called YouMail. YouMail is basically voicemail for cell phones. But it is so much better than my generic voicemail that I received with my Verizon phone. YouMail allows you to create unique greetings for each person calling you (or a group of people). This is wonderful for my students, because I often have them leave messages on my cell phone pertaining to specific assignments, now I can create a specific greeting that only my students will hear when they call (so people not in my student list will hear my default generic greeting) which will includes the details on their assignment. Additionally YouMail will notify me by email when a voicemail has been left on my phone, and allow me to play the message in my email. I really like this feature because I am always on email and but I do not always have my cell phone on. So I know and can immediately hear my students posting their audio assignments. The audio file also turns into a downloadable MP3 file so I can download all the assignments if I would like to. For example if I were asking students to leave an audio voicemail of their reaction to the latest presidential debate while the debate was occurring, I could download each audio piece and put them into an audio editor (iMovie or Audacity) and put the audio files together into a nice discussion piece for class the next day. Finally I can immediately send a text message back to the students (through YouMail or my cell phone) to give them feedback on their assignments.

Finally I can also send FREE group text messages! This is fantastic for parents and students on getting updates on school information (such as being late coming back from a field trip) or homework assignments.

I'll post more about YouMail as I further explore!