OTMC Tidbits October 26, 2013 In this issue (CTRL + Left Mouse Click) … Welcome Cathy Stine! iPad Training Offered Introducing MakerBot Smart Brailler Update BARD Mobile App is HERE! BARD Tutorial Available BARD App on New iPads BVIS Technical Support FREE Books! Subscribe to Scholastic News Order Window Opens SOON! iPad Update iPad Criteria APH Federal Quota Census Update Book Requests in a Nutshell Learning Ally Membership TBABS & BARD Contact Information OTMC Tidbits – November 2013 Page 1 <HOME> Welcome Cathy Stine! Cathy Stine took over the duties formerly done by Shirley Swalwell on October 1. Cathy has already established herself to be an extremely hard worker and has quickly picked up the numerous duties. One of her main functions is to track book and equipment inventory. Therefore, you are encouraged to phone or write Cathy directly if you have any questions about who has – or should get – a specific barcoded item. Cathy can be reached at 503-540-2941 or via [email protected] Stop by or give her a call and introduce yourself sometime! When she is not at work, Cathy enjoys gardening, crafts, walking her dog, and spending time with family. <HOME> iPad Training Offered Oregon AER and BVIS are jointly sponsoring an iPad Workshop for teachers of the visually impaired and others. This workshop will be from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Friday November 22 at the Red Lion Inn (3301 Market Street NE) in Salem and is free to all participants. The following are the four workshops that will run concurrently throughout the day: Wayne Oshiro (BVIS Tech) Overview & Differences between iOS 6 and 7 BARD Mobile App (from TBABS) VoiceDream App Scott Wall (CRP) iPad Productivity for the teacher and student Ruth McKee & Tyler York (CRP) Apps and switches for multi-handicapped and CVI students Dan Glowicki (Cascade) Scanning apps VoiceOver DropBox download As Scott McCallum of BVIS reports, “I hope to see you all there!” In order to help with that, Scott also states that “BVIS Fund Reimbursement will be available for Regional Programs who send TVIs from Southern, Eastern, or Central Oregon. This may include hotel, mileage and per diem.” Please register here: http://bit.ly/BVIS_iPad_Registration <HOME> Introducting MakerBot Thanks to the recommendation last spring by Mary Fran Anderson, Joyce Lonsford and Jennifer Orton – and the support and funding of Scott McCallum and BVIS – the MakerBot 3-D printer is now available to work for YOU at OTMC. OTMC Tidbits – November 2013 Page 2 The MakerBot heats up plastic filament that is fed from a spool and then lays down molten plastic in thin layers to create a variety of shapes. The object of this “printing” comes from a large online library that the user downloads and then opens in the MakerBot design software. It’s fascinating to watch 3-D printings occur and even more fascinating to see the finished product. Now that we have a MakerBot, OTMC will gladly provide YOU with various manipulatives to help you with teaching Oregon’s students who are blind and visually impaired. As you look through the online library at www.thingiverse.com to select items, please keep in mind that the MakerBot process is time-consuming. We’ve had test pieces that have taken four hours to complete! Therefore we will fill orders as soon as possible and in the order in which they are received. In order to make this process work accurately and efficiently, locate the item(s) you desire on www.thingiverse.com and use the OTMC Online Order System and enter the following information (under “Educational Materials”) for each item you want us to make from that website library. Item Name Creation Date (put under “Comments”) Name of creator (“By ???” – put under “Description”) Since there are numerous versions of the same type of item (for instance, search thingiverse.com for a “chair”), the above information will insure that we will make the item you want. <HOME> SmartBrailler Update The upcoming APH Smart Brailler by Perkins is still in the development process and is, therefore, not available for sale. At this point APH isn’t accepting pre-orders and their plan is to announce the units’ availability through its monthly APH News. At this writing, the price hasn’t been set – nor has a release date been established. While we can’t pre-order from APH, OTMC is keeping a “pre-order” list and we currently have 19 requests for this revolutionary new Brailler. As soon as we can, we will place an order to cover OUR pre-orders as well as a few “extras”. It is hoped that we won’t see the same sort of distribution delays as the VisioBook last year where we had people waiting for 10+ months. Finally, since we don’t anticipate getting all of them in stock right away, OTMC will distribute the Smart Brailler in the order in which the requests/pre-orders were received. This seems to be the most fair approach. As always we appreciate your patience as we work to insure that everyone who wants a Smart Brailler will get one as soon as possible. If you have not yet pre-ordered a SmartBrailler on the OTMC Online Order System, please do so as soon as possible so as to not delay any longer than necessary the time it will take to deliver one to you. <HOME> BARD Mobile App is HERE! The much anticipated BARD Mobile app for iOS devices went live in the Apple App Store on September 20! The BARD Mobile app is available for free download, and can be found by clicking this link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bard-mobile/id705229586?mt=8 OTMC Tidbits – November 2013 Page 3 OR … by searching for BARD Mobile in the App Store. You will need to be a registered BARD user to order to use the BARD Mobile app. There are a couple of key features we’d like to highlight about the BARD Mobile app so you are as well prepared as possible to make great use of it: Once you log into the BARD Mobile app using your BARD login information, you will not need to log in again. The BARD Mobile app will remember your user credentials. Books and magazines are accessed through the BARD Mobile app 2 ways. First, from you’re My Wishlist, and second, from the Recently Added lists. You can search through BARD and find books like on your computer, but instead of the link at the bottom of the record being to download the item it will be to add it to your My Wishlist. Items can be added to your My Wishlist either through the BARD Mobile app or on your computer. You do not need to worry about extracting items you download using the BARD Mobile app. Let me repeat that: you do NOT need to extract items you download using BARD Mobile. The BARD Mobile app does everything for you. Just click the download button and in a few minutes you will be good to go. Hurray! Books and magazines can be quite large to download (50MB - 200MB), so be sure to manage your downloads carefully, especially if you have a limited data plan. You can set BARD Mobile to only download over wi-fi. Your progress through a book will not be updated across iOS devices, meaning if you start listening to a book on your iPhone, your progress through the book will not be updated on your iPad. You can have up to 5 iOS devices registered with the BARD Mobile app. If you want additional information on the new BARD app, please see: http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/TBABS/Pages/bard_info.aspx#BARD_Mobile It’s been a long time coming, and we hope you all enjoy the benefits of the new BARD Moblie app. Happy downloading! Note: If you have any questions about using BARD or the app, please contact Joel Henderson at [email protected] or at 1-800-452-0292. <HOME> BARD Tutorial Available Joel Henderson of Talking Book and Braille Services has produced a handy video tutorial on using BARD. It can be found at http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/TBABS/Pages/Students.aspx#BARD Please note that this link will take your student to the TBABS student page. That way they can learn about all of the services of TBABS and not just about BARD. As I’ve said many times, I strongly urge you to assist students in getting signed up for accounts for reading material such as Talking Book and Braille Services. Please contact Joel directly should you have specific questions about BARD/TBABS or are having difficulty with the service. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 503-378-5391. Regarding the tutorial, Joel further states that: OTMC Tidbits – November 2013 Page 4 “This video takes users through the entire BARD process, from signing up for the service, to searching for books, downloading them, and transferring the book onto their flash drive. I made the video using Camtasia, a screen-recording and tutorial-making program by TechSmith (a much cheaper option than Adobe Captivate). You can also view this tutorial using this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3X1hB4cNd8. The video is listed as private, so you can only view it if you have the direct link (it won’t show up in the results of a search), and comments have been disabled.” <HOME> BARD App on New iPads Now that the BARD Mobile app is now available, BVIS will automatically include it on any new iPads provided to OTMC for distribution.