This episode Drs. Becky Hines and Lisa Dieker, UCF Professors answer a question posed by a listener. "What innovative ideas have you both heard are being used to connect kids with disabilities and their families in this change to an online world?" As is the title of our podcast, we don't share answers but practical ideas and structures we have heard from the field in ensuring access as we all this rush into this online learning environment. If you have a question for a future podcast on any topic related to practical ideas for people with disabilities and their families Please send us questions fto our Twitter account @accesspractical.
This episode Drs. Becky Hines and Lisa Dieker, UCF Professors answer a question posed by a listener. "What innovative ideas have you both heard are being used to connect kids with disabilities and their families in this change to an online world?" As is the title of our podcast, we don't share answers but practical ideas and structures we have heard from the field in ensuring access as we all this rush into this online learning environment. If you have a question for a future podcast on any topic related to practical ideas for people with disabilities and their families Please send us questions fto our Twitter account @accesspractical.
spk_0: 0:03
Welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker, and I'm Becky Hines. And today, Becky, we got an interesting question that I'm not sure it's all we want to talk about because there's so much going on. But the question was one innovative ideas. Have you both seen people doing related to connecting kids and families with disabilities in this new, fast paced online world? Got any thoughts there?
spk_1: 0:28
Well, you know, Lisa, I will say I don't know that these are innovative by, everybody else's standards, necessarily. However, you know, a CZ we've been talking about, it's almost this. It's almost an issue of programming right now. Like, how do we use obviously streaming and online meetings, et cetera, to connect people, and how do we do it in a way that it makes it really accessible. So I know you. I know you've seen some good tools for that, and I've had a very recent ride up into this moment experience trying to do some programming in that in that way. But let me hear what tools you're using cause I'm using pretty traditional ones.
spk_0: 1:16
Yeah, so you know, But you have been working with districts and even my own teachers in title one schools that I'm working with across Orange County and in Seminole, and I'm just kind of surprised that, you know, really, there's kind of a plethora of tools being is across the country from Google hangouts, which I sounds of the interesting. People are a little worried that kids will keep hanging out afterwards. I'm like, Well, guess what they're gonna do that whether it's with his cool hang out or their own hangout so again, once you give them until I don't know that you can stop them from hanging out where some people like zoom better. You know, which is what you and I we're using today because we're quarantining ourselves, which is kind of interesting, because again, then one persons in charge and then that person can hang up. I hear a lot of people also talking about Microsoft teams and the big blue button. Yet one district said that they didn't have but 10 licenses for the big blue button, and they don't know how they were gonna use it. And then I know you and I both have been a fan of using aspects of Adobe Connect. But then there's a cost. And then, when I hadn't even thought about with Zoom, is that you're really supposed to be over the age of 18. And then I've also heard about Skype. So it seems like people are really thinking about a lot. But what I keep saying is, whatever your main two lives make it simple, let everybody use it. But do you have a backup tool? Not only in case that one's not working, but maybe if you're using Zoom, Maybe I want to do a breakout Google hangout into a conference with an individual kid, and I think that duality of tools it's gonna be needed to kind of different trade instruction. What are you thinking?
spk_1: 2:42
Well, I I've been working on for the last several days is designing essentially, what is an interactive visual schedule for those types of meetings because I'm really concerned about those kids who either cannot read well or who might be extremely physically impaired and might even use. And a lot of the things that I'm seeing have so many steps to somebody logging in. So in thinking about that, I've had to really think about synchronous versus asynchronous What? What do I think of the safest tools you mentioned? Google hangout? One of the district's that I'm working with, they're using Google classrooms so they're using Google hangouts. A good thing about that is you can moderate it well and let somebody into the discussion, but they're also looking at how can they distribute things through YouTube? And it makes me laugh a little bit because I've had to listen. That's 20 years or so, to everybody talking about how we can't let anybody get connected online because of all the safety issues every place, it feels like that been so. It's really interesting to me that suddenly, like all the walls are down, Go ahead, guys. Log in the neck, some with YouTube. Here's the way we're thinking because we have a pretty large audience that we're trying to reach right now. The teachers are gonna be using breakout rooms for their discussions, but the goal is gonna be to provide pretty much a live stream all day of what I will call entertainment. Of people doing walk around. It might be yoga with Miss Smith, and she may or may not be your teacher, but you know what her goal is to design something interesting enough to engage an audience for those kids who are looking for something to do all day long. So we're kind of putting together this schedule of opportunities for any kid to watch. YouTube. If you don't know this, if you can't go live on YouTube until they have approved it. So you can't just decide today that you're going to start streaming live on YouTube tomorrow morning. Also, if you can remove ads if you say that you're streaming to kids. But that disables the ability to comment. So I'm pretty much telling all of my edge attain Ear's to be sure that they are doing look in the camera types of things, talking as though it's to an audience. I mean a specific kid as your audience, so that it feels like it's very inclusive language. Hey, let's go for a walk. We're doing this. Here's why I'm doing that. And I'm really trying to coach people upon. Think aloud on how we can make something that isn't interactive, feel interactive. I would say right now there's a the biggest picture kinds of things that we've been working on.
spk_0: 5:43
Yes, it's interesting, too, as you mentioned YouTube and other tools. That does seem to be the lowest common denominator for many teachers who have limited tech skills. Limited ability had went to Joe's Really frustrated. I said, Get one of your students to upload it. You make it, uh, your students to do that and it seems like a pattern I'm hearing and maybe you're hearing the same is kind of a two for one, like Thio, you know, asynchronous versus synchronous pieces and especially for kids who might have limited bandwidth might not be able to join in a specific time of day, Maybe our middle schoolers who might have other things going on. So I just seen that it seems like an interesting pattern time, but I think one of the things that I also really value that I heard some teachers talking about is using YouTube to show them together as co teachers. They said, you know, Lee So we built such a great report together. It just seems wrong for us to have separate YouTube channels. But we're really gonna find a way to put ourselves in YouTube together. And so I think they're gonna do, a zoom or something and then upload that to YouTube so I could see that harmony of them still teaching together because they felt like that was something that was equally important to share. So does seem like there's lots of creative ways, but not trying to overwhelm themselves. Is that kind of what you're thinking, too?
spk_1: 6:58
It is, And that's that's, you know, the idea of doing this is a visual schedule on an iPad or something again for a student who who doesn't have a lot of opportunities to engage in many other routes. My last thought. Speaking of that actual connection and feeling connected on my visual scheduled during lunch, I've asked the administrators to consider logging in during lunchtime and just eating their sandwich at lunch time It any kid who feels like you talking to Mr Brown while he eats a sandwich would feel connected to him using Google hangouts, which is their primary tool.
spk_0: 7:37
It's funny cause I've heard a lot of really great kind of spattering of ideas like that. That's the first question I asked. My graduate class was, what are you using? And I heard great things like, I'm gonna have virtual office hours, which we would expect, but I'm in a virtual lunches, virtual circle time, virtual meet and greet time. I even heard one of them say that, she's so worried cause a lot of her kids were filled with trauma she's gonna enjoy and ask the counselor to join her. One said she was gonna do some anxiety and yoga times and then just, let's get on and chat about what your pet can you show your pet? Can you talk about what your favorite cereal is? And I love that factor. I think the two that I found most interesting so far as one in a lot of interesting getting in their cars and drying tunic, driving through neighborhoods and waving it. Kids when they're not just first too far away, that's huge. And you know there's no tech involvement match. I know in our own neighborhood, the police car came driving through and kids have a scheduled time. They could wait but their teachers in their car. But I think the one that touched my heart the most is one of my master's teachers said, I've got such a range of kids. I got a kid who can't speak and she came up with a great idea. Every one of her kids is gonna do a bedtime story, and that young man is gonna do a picture book in his mom and her already worked it out that each picture will say, What do you see in this picture? Please tell that to the screen or a friend in your room so that there's this pattern that every kid is reading, including kids of more severe disabilities, a goodnight story teach. Other than that, that's to me the most powerful thing we could offer. That sounds perfect. Yeah, so in closing in, the only other thing I would just mentioned that lots of teachers keep telling me is helpful is Google Voice. Do you know if anybody else using that of your much about that?
spk_1: 9:22
I haven't heard about Google voice yet, but I'll keep my ears open.
spk_0: 9:26
Yeah, I think what they're saying is they're afraid, not afraid there it's a challenge for their data. Plans to get out their phone numbers. So many talk about setting up Google voice accounts so that they can talk with families through another number so that they can keep their phone available for their parents. You might call. So just one last idea that I kind of thought and Becky, I think we're open to questions, but we're also thinking we might just do some open mic kinds of discussion on topics people connect. Catch us at, on our Twitter @accesspractical. We're seeing lots of people listening to the podcast. You have any last thoughts to wrap us up tonight?
spk_1: 10:05
I would encourage everybody to really think a little differently about what were streaming or talking about or doing. I think we're only learning. I know from 20 years of experience doing this now, Where there's a real value in thinking differently in terms of engagement. So just taking regular education and now lecturing into your webcam, it may not be any more engaging than anything else, and Ensign's kind of you know the doors wide open on what we do right now. Maybe we can hone in on some of those social emotional needs and some of those functional daily living skills some of the problem solving skills by doing things that were just modeling, solving a problem. My daughter just filmed something for our district's channel of current her boyfriend having a painting contest. It's ridiculous, but they were funny, and I think a lot of kids would like to see them and hear what they're talking about, what they're doing so they can feel like they're doing something with them.
spk_0: 11:10
Aah! Holy World of improv and actors and actresses popping up, up absolutely. All right, thanks for joining us. That's practical access.