The Assistive
Technology Project is a professional development designed to provide
teams of K-12 educators with the foundation skill necessary to become
assistive technology evaluators. The project is open to all educators and their districts with a priority given to participants identified through the
Massachusetts Department of Education’s Technology Enhancement
Competitive Grant (#170) process.
The Institute
for Community Inclusion at UMass/Boston (ICI) will provide training
and assistive technology to schools in the Eastern region of the state.
The Massachusetts Elementary Principles Association (MESPA) will support
the middle region of the state; and the Hampshire Education Collaborative
(HEC) will support districts from the Western region.
Participating
Schools, Districts, or Partnerships
Grant funded schools will be invited to select 8 out of 15 assistive technology professional
development workshops that offer a range of beginning to advanced skills
(3 of these 8 are mandatory for the entire team and are starred below).
Each team may send up to three participants to workshops that are relevant
to their specific role on the team and their school.
Site
Visits
In addition to these workshops, project staff will support each team
through five site visits. One site visit will occur during the Fall
with specific emphasis on the development of the district’s action
plan; the remaining four site visits will be scheduled from February
through June. These four half day site visits will focus on professional
development and universal curriculum design activities tied to the goals
of the district team.
Assistive
Technology Workshop Strands
Each workshop offering will provide specific training on the integration
and effective uses of a range of assistive technology devices. Professional
development activities will be offered in a variety of formats included
hands-on, small group, and online discussions. All trainings will be
offered in the context of standards-based activities.
Workshops
offered at ICI/UMass Boston will be open to other educators as well
as project teams.
AT
Project at ICI UMass Boston
Sue Cusack, Director
E-mail: susan.cusack@umb.edu
Voice: (617) 355-8457
TTY: (617) 355-6956
FAX: (617) 355-7940
www.ici.umb.edu/AT
AT
Project at MESPA
Bob Tucker, Director
E-mail: Tuckerb@mespa.org
Voice: (508) 624-0303
FAX: (508) 485-9965
www.mespa.org/mtc/assistive/about.html
AT
Project at HEC
Karen Kenny, Director
E-mail: kkenny@collaborative.org
Voice: (413) 586-4900
FAX: (413) 586-0180
www.collaborative.org/ccattcenter.html
Virtual
Education Space (VES) is the Massachusetts Commonwealth's public
set of on-line tools and implementation strategies customized to enable
the successful use of standards-based curriculum to increase student
achievement. The environment will be used in the project to facilitate
on-line discussions and the dissemination of resource materials.
