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Technology Tuesday

A group of University of Colorado students in Professor Melinda Piket-May's Spring 2014 Engineering class worked on adaptive equipment projects for individuals served by Imagine!. Check out this video of some students explaining one of the projects, a jelly fish lamp, which is an accessible and fun way to increase mobility and to reinforce cause and effect relationships.

Can’t see the video? Click here. 

SmartHome Softball A Smash!

Saturday’s SmartHome v. SmartHome Softball Game was a huge hit (pun intended). More than 30 spectators showed up to see the “Silly Crazy 8s” (residents of the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome) take on the “Longmont Trouble Makers” (residents of the Charles Family SmartHome). The game was an epic battle which ended in a 4-4 tie. More than a dozen volunteers from CU’s Alpha Kappa Psi, a coed professional business fraternity, helped out with making the game a fun experience for all. The game even included singing of the national anthem at the beginning, and a rousing version of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” between innings.

Anthony at bat 

Silly Crazy 8s (Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome) sign, words by Mandy 

Donna prepares to tag out Anthony 

With volunteer’s help, Gerald gets a hit 

Group action shot from the outfield 

Group photo after game 

Lana hits

 

National anthem 

Rae celebrates getting Stacey out at third base 

Rae hits 

The Mighty Stacey at the bat

Anthony Visits The Pirate's Cove!

Yesterday, Charles Family SmartHome resident Anthony and staff member Colleen Ryan got a chance to play with a fun new piece of technology. Pirates Cove is a computer pirate-themed game derived from Hangman, and can be played by one to eight players. Imagine!'s own tech superstar Chris Baumgart built the game by adapting communication device software. This game teaches players (either players who use a communication device, or those who do not) to practice skills that include, but are not limited to, turn-taking, letter recognition, word composition, and peer socialization. You can see a video of the game in action below.
 
 Can’t see the video? Click here.

Guess Who's Touring The SmartHomes?

Scheduled to tour the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder today: Marilyn Wolf, the Rhesa "Ray" S. Farmer Distinguished Chair of Embedded Computing Systems and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Easter At The SmartHome

Here are a couple of photos from Easter at the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder. Looks like they all had a great time!

Technology Tuesday

Today’s Technology Tuesday comes from Erika Schroeder, a Communications Teacher at Imagine!’s CORE/Labor Source (CLS) department. Erika explains how CLS is using an iPad app to provide customized teaching opportunities for individuals served by Imagine!. 

“GoTalk Now” is a communication iPad app which allows the user to make unlimited customizable communication pages for whoever has the ability to point and learn! Using this low cost app is easy: just take a picture to set a background, which can then be manipulated to produce an response of your voice, or the student’s voice, after a single tap. Then, use the program to teach and test about the picture.

Here at CLS we are using the app to help some of our level one cooking class students. Currently we have pictures taken of “Dining Set-Up,” which is the placement of the fork, spoon, knife, plate, napkin, cup, and bowl when eating or setting the table. We also use an image of “Cooking Utensils,” a picture of actual materials used in our Monday morning cooking class’s kitchen, such as a frying pan, measuring cup, mixing bowl, oven mitt, can opener, peeler, cutting board, and spatula. Staff members utilize this app to test knowledge of students in the class, as well as practicing proper name identification (in some cases item introduction to the utensils), and safety skills.

An example run-through with a client:

Staff member - “Hey Stephanie! Can you find the plate?” 
Staff member gives Stephanie time to use her eyes to look then her finger to find the item. 
Stephanie clicks on the “plate.” After tapping the plate one time the program will say “plate” in the staff member’s voice. 
Staff member - “Way to go Stephanie! You found the plate!”