Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy (c) May 2012
Using iPads & Other Devices for Executive Functioning
For some students, learning to organise themselves can be a struggle. Students with ASD,
ADHD, Acquired Brain Injury and other learning disabilities often discover that secondary
school can be daunting and challenging with so many classes, teachers, rooms and spaces.
They have to juggle lessons, homework, specific tasks, collaborative projects, appointments,
sports and cultural events. Remembering people’s names, the roles they play and their significance can create tension and anxiety.
Forgetting important times, days, appointments and sessions can result in embarrassment and frustration.
How can we promote devices to be used for students so that they can be productive and not forget what
they need to do at school and at home or in other situations and environments?
The iPad offers a growing number of tools to help students plan and organise their day. They can then
stay on task and remember what they need to do and therefore accomplish more with confidence. This
helps to alleviate stress and decrease anxiety.
There are numerous Apps that can be customized to meet specific needs. This may include Apps to set alarms, timetable lessons,
schedule appointments, set reminders, organise homework, create agendas, set up folders, color code events and tag items. Note
taking is made less burdensome using handwriting and/or voice recognition. By using the camera and a microphone built into the
device, students can gainfully employ various powerful features in an ever expanding range of Apps. From simple notes to audio
visual notes used by individual students or streamed so that many students can participate in a class, lesson, lecture or tutorial are
all possible.
All of the following Apps are available on the iPad. Some are also available on iPhones and iPod Touch models. Others are
available for Android devices, Windows 7 as well as on Mac OS, MS Windows and Linux operating system based computers and
tablets. Either search the App name and proceed to the developer’s web site or go straight to the Apple store, Android marketplace
or OS for the desired device.
Note Taking and Sharing
Evernote is free. It syncs with a Mac computer, iPhone and iPad as well as other popular hand held devices and
tablets. Students can use their iPhone or iPad to take a picture, record a note, send a PDF, or just store notes
and documents on a device. All notes and items are immediately available to them on any other computer/device
with Evernote installed. Cost: Free
OneNote does not use all of the functions and features of the iPad very well, but is another free App that can be
gainfully used by educators and students. It does not have an extensive list of features (yet). Cost: Free
Other similar Apps for taking and storing/sharing notes:
Outline - OneNote Notebook Reader; Organize for iPad; Dropkick for iPad
Write Pad provides hand writing recognition. It provides a number of options including handwriting recognition by writing notes with
a user’s finger or a stylus, spell checking, executive shorthand and change of character recognition. It is $9.99 and worth the
expenditure for students who are not familiar with keyboarding, the QWERTY layout or find typing arduous or difficult.
Noteability is a note-taking app that provides a number of different options. Students can type (using the virtual keyboard or
external wireless/Bluetooth keyboard), insert a figure or insert a web clip or a photograph or picture. Lectures and classes can be
recorded as well.
Other useful Note Taking Apps that all have different features and functionality may include:
Jotter (Handwriting Notepad) ; PhotoNote Lite; Jot! Whiteboard Free; Note Hub; Sundry Notes; Skitch; TagPad ;
FieldNotesLT ; Notes Plus; MindMash or WebNotes – ideal for social network linking.
Author: Gerry Kennedy (c) May 2012 - Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy E: specmelb@bigpond.net.au M: 0411 569 840 P: 03 9894 4826
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Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy (c) May 2012
Data Storage
DropBox is a free service that lets users store and retrieve all of their photos, docs, and videos from anywhere they
have a computer or device. After Dropbox is installed onto users’ computers or iPads, any file they save to their
Dropbox will automatically save to all of their computer accounts in Dropbox including iPhone and iPad as well as
the central Dropbox website. With the Dropbox app, students can take everything that matters to them on the go
knowing that data is safely stored and available in multiple environments. Students as well as educators and parents can read their
documents or flip through their albums at any time in any space. They can choose to save photos or videos to their Dropbox and
share them with friends. Even if devices are misplaced, lost or stolen stuff is always safe on Dropbox.
Cost: Free
Other storage Apps or remote access Apps to stored data:
SpiderOak; FileApp; LogMeIn (all free); Elements for Dropbox;
To-Do and Reminder Apps
Nudge is a quick note to remember something for tomorrow. Mundane yet important items might include
remembering to bring biros or pens to school, sports clothes or bathers or to return a permission note.
Once set up, it reminds the user by and until you Nudging the student. It persists until it is turned off.
Other To-Dos and Reminders:
(Do It) Tomorrow; To Do’s; SpringPad; Check Off; PaperDesk; ToodleDo;
Planning and Organisation
CourseNotes Students can easily color codes their notebooks and add their teachers. CourseNotes lets them take notes during
classes and helps keep them organised by subject and class meeting. They are able to review their notes later and search through
multiple class meetings and notes simultaneously. They can keep a To-Do list by marking notes as To-Do items, or track them as
assignments by providing due dates. It is available for iPads and MAC OS computers. Cost: Currently $7.99.
Other useful Apps:
Idea Sketch; A-Lists; School App; myHomework; Awesome Lists; aNote Lite;
PDF Readers and Web Resource Readers
IAnnotate allows students to receive PDF files, potentially from an article they are
reading and take notes or highlight an important fact and of course assist a student in
corrections. It is a very practical and universally useful App to keep a user’s notes
organized, with the ability to make corrections or add notes.
Readability turns any web page into a clean view for reading now or later on a computer, Smartphone, or tablet. One of the most
functional and useful tools for saving web content with ideal universal design features.
Doceri is a very useful tool for presentations and lessons. Through the Doceri Remote iPad app and Doceri Desktop software,
educators and students can control a computer (Mac OS or MS Windows), easily launch any document or application, and
annotate them at any time. Users can save drawings and play them back in the future allowing even better presentations to be
created from existing MS PowerPoint or Keynote slideshows. If required as a whiteboard, you can create any handwritten/drawn
content on any background of your choice. And with additional room control hardware, Doceri can even be used as the remote
control for projectors, DVD players, and all other audiovisual devices in your room.
Other Apps to work remotely and assist in accessing and recoding data:
Pocket; Instapaper; Instapaper Pro; Clearly (an online resource); iReader extension; Paperspan.com (Android)
Alarms
Author: Gerry Kennedy (c) May 2012 - Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy E: specmelb@bigpond.net.au M: 0411 569 840 P: 03 9894 4826
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Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy (c) May 2012
Setting an alarm or multiple alarms is so simple yet it can prove to be very effective for students who are stressed or forgetful or
who tend to panic. Often students with ASD are easily distracted or dwell on certain events or objects and become disoriented
during the day. To avoid compromising the student in missing classes or appointments, they can set 3 or 5
minute warnings to alert themselves to critical times and events in the day. Some more sophisticated
alarms can be programmed across days or weeks and allow for repeated schedules. The Calendar App
(packaged with an iOS device and MAC OS computers) can also be used very effectively as well as other
scheduling programs.
Some Apps will also provide additional important information such as displaying live, local weather
conditions and temperature that alerts students when they wake up so that they can dress appropriately.
Alarm Clock;; Timer+ ; Giant Timer; KitchenPad Timer; Bug Me – Stickers Pro; Nightstand Central for iPad; Alarmed ~ Reminders,
Timers, Alarm Clock; Sir Alarm Clock and Alert!
Note Taking Apps using Voice
Instead of having to write or make a note, students can use of the many voice based Apps. They
allow the user to record information by simply speaking and then recording it. Different Apps
provide greater scope by allowing the user to save voice recordings in folders, tag them, share and
store them online. Others can add notes (Audio Note) and or handwriting recognition as well.
Students are able to quickly record ideas, voice memos, voice email, dictation, lists, meetings,
classes, or entire lectures. These Apps cater to professional, educational, and personal use and
are very hand in class situations, presentations, tutorials and lectures. Educators can use them in
meetings to record agenda items and discussions. Students can use them to develop and record
ideas, essay and project ideas, comments and information. It saves typing, writing and avoids the
production of text with spelling and grammar errors and checking. Students can simply talk and
write more explicit notes later – editing and embellishing them if they desire.
On an iPhone 4s Siri can be used very effectively as well. An interesting article has been written about the 20 ways that students
can gainfully employ and exploit the many benefits of SIRI.
AudioNote; SoundNote; Dragon Dictation; HT Recorder; QuickVoice; Evernote Peek; Pearson eText;;
MobileNoter; Voice Recorder for iPad; iTalk; Scribble Pro; Audio Memos Free; Omni Focus for iPad;
Text to Speech Apps (TTS)
Although there is text to speech now built in to the latter iOS on Apple devices (i.e. iPod Touch, iPhone and iPads), there are some
specific Apps that will voice text on an iPad. Some Apps offer superior voices yet others provide extra functionality. These may
cater to students who require or desire text to be voiced back to them from Apps, notes, web sites and documents.
Some options include: iSpeech TTS; SpeakText Free
Reference Apps
These Apps provide opportunities for referencing information on the go. They cater to students who enjoy conducting research with
more portable devices as they move from one environment or space to another. They can cut and paste their data into other note
taking Apps or store in Evernote or Dropbox Apps.
Dictionary! For iPad; Dictionary.Com (a dictionary and thesaurus), Wikipanion; Wikipedia Mobile; Dragon Search; Barefoot Atlas;
Merriam Webster Dictionary; World Book – This Day in History; Science Glossary; ExoPlanet; My World Atlas - Lite
Author: Gerry Kennedy (c) May 2012 - Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy E: specmelb@bigpond.net.au M: 0411 569 840 P: 03 9894 4826
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Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy (c) May 2012
OCR Apps (Optical Character Recognition)
These are very useful Apps that will translate printed text (from signs, posters, books, magazines,
journals, novels, exam questions, instruction, printed FAQS etc) into text that can be voiced (using
TTS), saved, stored, shared, copied and pasted into any other App. Some have greater accuracy with
some requiring Internet access in order to operate. My current favourite is Perfect OCR.
Options include: Perfect OCR; Mobile OCR; OCR Pro; CamScanner; Image
to Text; Genius Scan – PDF Scanner; JotNot; TextGrabber; Prizmo ;
PDF Apps
As PDF is a common and almost ubiquitous standard on computers and devices and universally used in
education. It is necessary to have a useful and applicable PDF reader App as well as the iBook App to
access documents with speech output (TTS), annotating tools and other editing features.
Options include:
Adobe Reader; PDF Reader Pro Edition for iPad; PDF Notes; iPDF Reader; iPDFs; iPDF Viewer; iPDF Editor; iAnnotate PDF;
QR Codes
QR Codes are used significantly in advertising and marketing. The QR code (Quick Response Code) consists of black modules or
square dots that are arranged in a square pattern, usually on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of four
standardized kinds ("modes") of data (numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary, Kanji), or through supported extensions, virtually any
kind of data. They can be generated to link to critical data on a server, (i.e. MS Word file, PDF, resource) or to web links on
Intranets or web sites. Students simply scan the QR code and they are directed to that specific resource. It saves typing, spelling
and entering strings of complicated text that can be misinterpreted, recorded or entered.
Options include: QR Scanner; QR Coder; QR Reader for iPhone; ScanMyDoc; Qrafter - QR Code Reader and Generator; Scan;
SemaCode
Social Networking
Skype; Twitter; TextPlus 4; TextPro Lite;
Creativity
iStopMotion for iPad; GarageBand; Songsterr Plus; Explain Everything;
Well Being
Ambience; Over Come Exam Nerves; Meditation 4 Inner Wisdom; Relax and Sleep Well
Assessing and Choosing Apps
It is in identifying and choosing the features and functions that will accommodate each student.
Just finding an App and providing it is not a one size fits all solution. Taking the time and effort to
locate and trial Apps is always necessary.
There is an educational rubric available for evaluating and documenting useful Apps. From this site educators can freely download
a PDF file. It is an ideal resource for educators and parents.
Author: Gerry Kennedy (c) May 2012 - Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy E: specmelb@bigpond.net.au M: 0411 569 840 P: 03 9894 4826
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Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy (c) May 2012
Summary
The executive system is a theorized cognitive system in psychology that controls and manages other cognitive processes. It is
responsible for processes that are sometimes referred to as the executive function, executive functions, executive skills,
supervisory attentional system, or cognitive control. These functions are largely carried out by prefrontal areas of the frontal lobe.
Executive function is an umbrella term for cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving,
verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, multi-tasking, initiation and monitoring of actions.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_functions ]
In education, when applied to students who exhibit or have been tested, it is important to consider and use the UDL framework
checkpoints that guide appropriate goal-setting, support planning and strategy development, facilitate managing information and
resources, and enhance the capacity for monitoring progress with students.
It is critical to scaffold organising and planning for each individual student so that he or she can become more proficient. The
challenges often related to poor executive functioning may include one or more of the following:
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poor memory
thought organization
time management
task initiation and completion
inability to follow or remember timetables and schedules
poor note taking skills
Apps on the iPad (and some starting to appear on Android and other devices) assist
students, educators, therapists and parents in accommodating needs of students in their
daily planning and organisation.
Apps for mind-mapping with strong visual supports and help with thought organization cater directly to some students. Applications
for iPod and iPads can apply to any setting or environment, by using recording systems for note taking. Apps exist that help
facilitate the management of information and resources, together with calendar & file organisation Apps to offer support for overall
organisation with To-Dos and reminder alerts. By cleverly introducing Apps that offer hand writing recognition, voice recording and
voice recognition, educators can engage and assist students who are reluctant participants.
These may be due to a number of reasons. Some students suffer from poor or underdeveloped
audio or visual processing. Others are just forgetful or are stressed and anxious. Some
students with ASD live in their own world and are unbothered by mainstream rules and
expectations. They often respond to technology and great gains have been made by
introducing iPads and tablets as many respond favourably. In other instances, these devices
do not engage some students who are reluctant to appear different, if their peers are not using
them in class.
Every school and environment has different characteristics and properties. Every student is
different. Every student is unique. But - every person deserves to be provided opportunities so as to maximise his or her talents,
skills and potential. Equity and inclusion are the keys and independence and empowerment are the goals.
Technology is rapidly developing, changing and new tools, systems and devices are emerging. Obsolescence is ever present and
keeping up with trends can disappoint and frustrate educators. The iPad has excited educators of all ages and has made
incremental steps into encroaching upon traditional computing. Allow time to experiment and explore Apps, trial them and see how
your students respond. They can really surprise you at times! Give them a chance. You’ll learn with them.
Other Web Links and Useful References:
ADDucation and Adducation videos
Autism Spectrum Australia
Apps and Autism
Weally Wonderful Apps V3
Autism Apps (from the Apple Store)
Author: Gerry Kennedy (c) May 2012 - Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy E: specmelb@bigpond.net.au M: 0411 569 840 P: 03 9894 4826
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