Choice, Bro! Making and Using Digital Choiceboards

Last year I began my journey with digital choiceboards. After two years of testing, making many mistakes and having the odd lightbulb moment, I thought I should finally make some time to share the process and products with the world!

What are Choiceboards?

How I’ve used a traditional choiceboard in a classroom.

Physical choiceboards are often used in special education to help kids with speech, language and communication disorders choose activities or request things. In mainstream teaching, the term choiceboard is sometimes applied to activities where students are given a choice from a range of activities that work towards the same outcome. Sometimes this are in the form of a Pirozzo Grid or Tic Tac Toe activity strategy.

A digital choiceboard is essentially a digital variation on these themes. I have been experimenting with digital choiceboards for different purposes – simple cause and effect choiceboards through to student-directed learning choiceboards – but essentially they have the same goal: to provide students with choice, in a digital format.

The Inspiration

Last year I taught a student with Autism who was highly sensory seeking. He started the year with no independent activities, visual discrimination difficulties, and was unable to sit and attend to things for any longer than a few minutes.

I noticed he attended more to computer activities, particularly some flash games we used that he seemed to get a visual and auditory fix from.

While refining the choiceboards for this student, I found other ways that I could use them in my classroom for all students. This included allowing student direction in their literacy and numeracy learning, and making theme-related song choiceboards. I also created a few special interest boards for a student with Autism, to act as a motivator/reward/chill out time.

Uses Beyond Special Education

Since then I’ve been thinking about how I would have used them as a mainstream teacher.

They’re useful for early years tech skills, supporting students with special needs in a mainstream room and extending G&T students. You could also create a digital version of a Pirozzo Grid  or a traditional Tic Tac Toe choiceboard. This idea, developed as a digital choiceboard, would be a great way to integrate ICT into the curriculum and support 21st century learning. Or why not make a digital choiceboard as a way to give students choice in homework tasks?

Regardless of your purpose, a digital choiceboard allows for student direction, and depending on how you design the choiceboard, it has the potential to involve numerous other QTF elements.

How to: SMART Notebook

This was the initial approach I took, as I needed to introduce the concept using modelled and guided instruction on the IWB.

I used Priory Woods flash games as they motivated the student. Basically I took a screen grab, pasted it onto the Notebook page, added a link to the Flash file and locked all the elements in place. My computer at the time didn’t have Snipping Tool on it, which would have made life much easier, but it was still easy enough to do a screen grab using the PrintScreen-Paste-Crop method.

Below is a clip of my student using his SMART Notebook choiceboard. By this point, he was independently locating the file icon on the desktop, choosing a visual on the choiceboard, using the escape key to minimise, click on the red close button on a window and he’d worked out how to switch between windows. It took about 3 weeks of daily teaching (about a 15 minute session a day) to get him to this level of independence and another 3 or so weeks to start teaching him problem-solving strategies beginning with getting a communication partner to ask for help and then explicitly teaching him strategies to solve common problems he was encountering.

 

Pros : Easy to create; doesn’t neccesarily require net connection if you link to files on your computer/server.

Cons : Lots of editing tools on display for kidlets to mess around with once they are able to use it independently; Even when used in full screen mode, kids can figure out how to minimise/muck around with tools; my student somehow kept finding the ‘add text’ tool which stopped him from being able to click on the links, causing frustration; to escape the full screen flash video, the student needed to be explicitly taught a key/click sequence of Esc/close window which he picked up really quickly but would be challenging for other students with motor/coordination difficulties.

How to: Video Lightbox for YouTube Choiceboards

Using a VideoLightbox choiceboard for counting on the IWB.

You can access some examples of these song choiceboards here. Please note: although the link to them is house on a wiki, they are actually housed on my own server space.

Video Lightbox is a free downloadable program that allows you to embed a range of online videos as thumbnails on a webpage. It is particularly good for special interest choiceboards, e.g. the Wiggles. When students click on a thumbnail, it launches a larger window to play the video, and the window closes again when the video has finished. You’ll need to have some server space to upload the files. I tried to embed it on a wiki but it wouldn’t work.

Pros: Customisable number and size of choices; Quick and easy to add videos and upload files to server; Confined choiceboard – rare for students to click beyond page; Excellent for special interest choiceboards.

Cons: Requires net access to use; Requires server space to upload; Passive pedagogy due to video-only content – good for early learners to develop computer skills or special ed kids for choice/reward, but for mainstream students, it’s just babysitting, unless you attached a decent task to it, e.g. providing a range of video texts for students to compare and contrast; Clips can sometimes take a while to download, depending on net connection; If you’re a NSW DEC teacher, your kids won’t be able to access them using their own accounts as YouTube/Vimeo etc is banned and Video Lightbox doesn’t support TeacherTube.

How to: 3×3 Links

The 3×3 Links website allows you to make 3×3 grids with visual links to chosen sites. You simply type in the website address, give the button a name, choose a picture and click OK to add a link. Too easy! I have used these to allow for student direction in literacy and numeracy learning. E.g. I have a phonics board where all the choices are links to simple phonics activities that all students can complete independently, and students are given the freedom to choose the one that appeals the most when it’s their turn on the computer.

Pros: Limited number of choices – great for littlies/special ed; Minimal distractions on page – reduces misclicks/distraction clicks; Large picture links – easy to click for those with poor mouse control.

Cons: Requires net access to use; Clicking takes you to external page – difficult to navigate back to choiceboard for some students; Not able to fully customise visuals used on buttons, so it can be confusing for students.

How to: Symbaloo

Like 3×3 links, Symbaloo provides a visual grid of links, called tiles. Except this time it’s a HUGE grid. It requires a similar process to 3×3 links to add links – paste the website address, give it a title, customise the image. I used to use this more for storing my own links or to share links with colleagues, but this year I tried using it as a quick and easy way of making individualised maths choiceboards for students in my upper primary IO/Autism class. It was pretty successful. As they can be embedded in our wiki, it was easy for the kids to navigate back when the wikispace was added to the Bookmarks Toolbar in the web browser. Many of the kids now request sites that we use as a class be added to their wiki board so they can do them at home. For older, mainstream students these could be easily used as choiceboards relating to a unit of work, or for creating a digital Pirozzo Grid.

Every day it seems like there are new visual bookmarking tools coming out (like Symbaloo). Some of these include Pinterest, Sqworl, Wonderpage, Delicious Stacks or Zootool. You could even use something like LiveBinders. And I am sure that there are others out there that I just haven’t stumbled across yet. They all have their strengths and limitations, though I’ve found Symbaloo at this point to have the most “pros” (though Wonderpage, which is currently in beta form, could potentially be a better option further down the track).

Pros: Lots of choices – great for G&T students and mainstream classes; Able to personalise and colour code the visuals on the tiles – easier identification; Easy to add links.

Cons: Requires net access to use; Lots of choices – not so good for those students who need fewer distractions/choices.

How to: Wikispace Choiceboard

Check out some examples on our class wiki.

1.Create a page using a wiki.
2.Insert a table with the number of rows/columns that relate to your number of choices.
3.Take a screen grab of each activity you want to include in your choiceboard and use an image editor to make them all have the same dimensions.
4.Insert one image into each table cell.
5.Add a link to each image to the matching activity using the external link/open in new window option.

For younger kids, I used these mainly for whole class activities as the sidebar was too distracting and clickable. For my older class this year, however, I’ve been able to set up links relating to their IEPs which gives them more control over their learning. They are mostly pretty good with staying on task, and parents comment about how the kids love accessing the wiki at home.

Pros: Can customise number of choices/size of pictures etc.; Can link videos, online activities, songs etc.; Quick and easy to do once you have wiki and know the process; Being a wiki – many hands make light work! Get lots of people contributing and you’ll have a whole lot of digital choiceboard resources.

Cons: Requires net access to use; The links down the side of the page can be distracting to some kids, or result in accidental clicks; If you’re a NSW DEC teacher you’ll need to check that all the links are accessible to kids using the DEC Web Filter Check (check out my how-to guide here).

Microsoft Word/PowerPoint

Although I haven’t tried it, you could also create simple choiceboards in PowerPoint or Word. You can link flash files or videos, or web sites. May be a good way to begin if you’re familiar with these two pieces of software. If you set your PowerPoint to run in kiosk mode, it will take up the full screen and students won’t be able to click out of it (unless they hit the escape key or click to a weblink). You’ll need to be careful that any files you attach are on the machine you’ve got the choiceboard on. You’ll also need to ensure that your computer has net access if you’re linking any websites.

The Final Word

Ultimately, the format that you choose for your digital choiceboards comes down to your familiarity with technology, your workflow, your student’s needs and skills and environment in which they will be deployed. There is no “best” option, just “best options for a particular set of circumstances”.

But there’s no doubting that digital choiceboards are an effective teaching tool for both school and home. They utilise technology, which is highly engaging for most students, and above all, they allow for student choice. This latter feature is incredibly important, particularly in special education where our students all too often have choices made for them by other people.

So be brave, and give it a go! If you have any questions, you can email me – I’m happy to help out. Or if you are using digital choiceboards and have another way of creating them, I’d love to hear about that, too! (except if you make them with Boardmaker, because everyone knows my opinion of Boardmaker!). But if you ARE a Boardmaker (or Clicker6) fan, you may find Charlene Cullen’s blog post over at Spectronics another option for you. :)

 

Searching for the Perfect Visual Support System

In Special Ed Land, we rely a lot on visuals. We use them in scaffolding tasks, we use them in alternative and augmentative communication systems, we use them as prompts – in short, they are as important as oxygen.

There’s a visual support hierarchy that extends from using physical objects through to the written word, but a large chunk of kids are able to make meaning of, and are well supported by, the use of generic coloured line drawing representations of objects and activities.

At present, the software of choice for creating these visual supports is a product called Boardmaker. Many teachers would have heard of this software as it’s quite often the ‘go to’ software when people are being encouraged to use visuals in their classroom.

Personally, I have a real beef with Boardmaker. The software costs a fair chunk of money (around AU$650+) for ONE license.  That license allows Boardmaker to be installed on ONE computer and it will only work if you have the CD in the machine. Buying licenses to install for 10 users over a network reduces the costs slightly, but it’s still incredibly prohibitive. In addition, the cost factor means that the software is limited to organisations or really rich parents. This means that there’d be no continuity between school and home unless the parents had a spare $650 floating around or their child had a teacher willing to spend even more out of school time making and laminating visuals for home use. And the teachers making them at school will need to go and track down the disc, then wait until the one computer in the school with the software installed is free for them to use (and then there’ll probably be some other hurdle to jump involving colour printing, but that’s another story…).

What’s worse with Boardmaker is that because it’s the visual support software of choice for most special ed settings, there’s almost a kind of peer pressure for schools to use it, in the interests of continuity for kids. Visuals are essentially ‘language’ for some kids, and the argument is that if you change the visual system on them, it’s like you’re changing their language (though I wonder if it’s more a case of just changing the font rather than the whole language?).

As such, Boardmaker has a monopoly on the market. To me, this is like someone ‘owning’ English. And I personally feel that like many retailers in the special education sphere, they are exploiting a group of people who are already financially drained from a myriad of other support systems they require, that aren’t adequately subsidised by society.

So in the interests of breaking this monopoly, I’m thumbing my nose at the ‘oh, but the poor kiddies need continuity!’ argument, and have been on the lookout for visual support software that (a) has a decently sized visuals library (b) is easy to use and practical (c) is more reasonably priced and (d) will be more conducive to home-school links.

I think I’ve found a potential winner.

I downloaded the Custom Boards app onto my iPad and so far I’m more than happy. It has 11000 visuals, and although I’m not a 100% fan of the stick figure characters, they do the job, and have minimal detail to reduce distraction in the visual. The app has 100+ templates that we commonly use in special ed (schedules, now/then boards, PCS card making templates etc.) and you can also just save as a pdf, email it to yourself, and use the Windows snipping tool if you want to use the visuals in a template that’s not supplied (or you can easily email the developers with your suggestions for a new template).

It’s incredibly easy to use. Just search for the picture you’re after (you can modify the accompanying text if you want) and tap it into the cell. If you have unique items that you want to make visuals for, you can take a pic with your iDevice and add the photo from your camera roll into the cell. From there, you can save the board, email it as a PDF or print directly from the iPad (as long as you have an AirPrint setup).

The app was $51.99 when I bought it – much cheaper than Boardmaker. It has the added advantage of being far more accessible to parents, ensuring that home/school connection.

Downsides? I’ve done a few searches that have brought back no results, but I’d get that with Boardmaker anyway. And I’d like the option to be able to merge multiple pictures together, e.g. merge together the ‘maths’ and ‘groups’ symbols to create a unique visual for ‘maths groups’. But it’s early stages, and I’m sure these options will become available in time.

When I have a bit more time I’ll make a little how-to video demonstrating its ease of use. But for now, it’s time to go to work.

So please think twice when your school starts investigating which visual support software to purchase. Boardmaker might be ‘the done thing’, but not necessarily the best option. It’s a good piece of software, but until they start coming to the party with sensible licensing arrangements, I think we need to think twice about whether we support or don’t support their monopoly on the market.