MAKE INDIVIDUALIZED PROGRAMS USING A SCREEN CAPTURE UTILITY AND INTELLIPICS
JO MEYER
SOFTTOUCH/KIDTECH
4182 PINEWOOD LAKE DRIVE
BAKERSFIELD, CA 93309
Web Posted on: December 12, 1997
Curriculum materials for students with disabilities who are included into regular education classes can be a challenge for the teaching and support staff. Existing software, such as that developed by SoftTouch/kidTECH, can be one part of the curriculum. Additional activities need to be developed that expand the curriculum.
Time for the staff to develop these adapted materials is an issue. Planning the materials that will augment the classroom, and meet the student's goals is essential. Developing those materials in a fast and concise fashion is a must. But teachers and staff are limited in time. Therefore, the easiest and most efficient way is sought after.
The curriculum plan is the first to be developed. Next, the adaptation for the student to access the computer needs to be defined. Single switch, alternative keyboards, and touch screens are the most common types of alternative accesses. An authoring program allows the creator to build for the necessary access devices. There are several options when picking authoring programs. HyperCard, HyperStudio, MacroMedia Director, or IntelliPics are possibilities. The author of this paper has used all of the above authoring programs extensively. Each authoring program has its advantages and disadvantages.
For this paper/lab experience IntelliPics has been chosen as the authoring program of choice for an entry level user. It is easy, yet powerful. Although it is not as powerful as other authoring programs, IntelliPics sports some features that the other programs do not have. A few of these features are:
- easiest authoring program to learn and use
- movement/changing of graphics built in
- questions for quizzing and feedback built in
- single switch, touch screen, and alternative keyboard (IntelliKeys) built in
Now that the plan has been developed around the student's goals and the classroom curriculum, the adaptive access identified, and the authoring program in hand, it is time to continue.
Graphics and sounds are imperative for our students with special needs. Finding age appropriate graphics in pict format is not always easy. An easy way to get the graphics to the authoring program is needed. There is a solution. The use of a screen capture utility is a solution to getting graphics that are portrayed on the computer screen. ScreenShot by Baseline Publishing, Inc. ($49) is one commercial solution to a screen capture utility. Their address is 1770 Moriah Woods Blvd. Suite 14 Memphis, TN 38117-7118 Phone: 901-682-9676 Another screen capture utility is Flash-It, a shareware program ($15) by Nobu Toge 2425 B Channing Way, Suite #314 Berkeley, CA 94704.
A screen capture program can "take a picture" of anything on the computer screen and save it as a pict file. Its advantages over the screen dump utility which comes with the Macintosh are many. First, these utilities can choose which part of the screen is to be captured vs the whole screen. Second, ScreenShot or Flash-It can save the picture to a pict file, the computers' clipboard, or the scrapbook file located under the Apple menu on the Macintosh. This last feature eliminates the step of opening a program which supports pict files (such as SuperPaint or ClarisWorks), saving it to that file, and then retrieving it for the project. If no alteration of the graphic is needed, saving to the scrapbook or clipboard are the most efficient ways of getting your graphic. Using a screen capture program saves much time and is useful when the a graphic is needed which the other students in the room may be using. For example, if the student is using a SoftTouch computer program, making a curriculum activity using SoftTouch graphics is logical. Other possibilities are capturing graphics from clip art, photo CD's, or encyclopedias which are in CD ROM format. Using a scanner or digitized photos from cameras such as Apple's Quick Take are other alternatives to getting graphics to the program. These solutions take longer and more expertise. Since teachers and other educational staff are worked hard and long, we will not consider these alternatives for this paper. Time saving strategies for teachers is of up most importance.
Sound is needed for many children with disabilities. IntelliPics gives you three ways to get sound into your production. Synthesized sound, using a variety of different possibilities for the "voice" is easily done. Writing the words and selecting the "voice" you want is all you need to do. If you use the second method, which is inputting your own voice or sounds, you will find it exceptionally easy as well. The third alternative is importing sounds from another source. This may take more knowledge and other supporting programs.
Movement or animation can be accomplished in two different ways with IntelliPics. The first VERY EASY solution is to pick one of the 58 options that are built into the program. The second way is through building your own animation. Several pict files which have a small variation in the graphics are linked and played together. When completed, it will look like a Walt Disney cartoon. At least, that is the hope.
Other features of the IntelliPics program is the ability to build a 'quiz' and have built in single switch use as well as sending overlay information directly to the IntelliKeys keyboard.
Saving time is important. There are several strategies. Building templates which can be easily altered with appropriate graphics/sounds is imperative for time saving. Each student could have his set of templates depending upon his/her needs. Collecting a library of graphics based on "themes" that are used throughout the school would save much time. Theme graphics such as 'presidents', 'flags', 'rain forest', 'mammals', 'plants' are just a few ideas. Having all of the essentials such as programs/graphics/printers/ etc. located in one spot ready to have the developer built the curriculum is a huge time saver. Samples of alternative curriculum programs could be easily located so teachers/staff could get ideas. Templates could be shared between teachers.
This paper addresses the concepts presented during the lab at CSUN/96. Actual hands on experience making three alternative curriculum programs using Flash-It to capture graphics from SoftTouch software and graphics from a CD ROM encyclopedia was experienced. Templates and adaptations to meet the needs of the students, yet meet the time restrictions of the staff, were shared.