Switch Communication
Tool
This
software was written for the students at Abbey Hill School
Technology College during
the early months of 2000. A student from Teesside University’s
Computing and Mathematics department spent a 15-week work placement
at the school as part of his course. Alex Seewald (a French student)
worked on this program. It is written in Visual Basic and can
be uninstalled from your machine if you do not wish to continue
to use it.
PMLD Cause and effect software
(Freeware) Help files and instructions
Download the software from here.
The file is a 2.0Mb zip archive.
The software has also been placed on the Northern Grid for Learning
portal in the SEN section which was produced by Dave Barlow while
on secondment to the Northern Grid for Learning. This software
can also be found at http://www.northerngrid.org/ngflwebsite/sen/comtool.htm
Aim The software is a content free
framework to encourage students to use switches to operate a
computer. It is very simple in operation the only thing that
takes time is building up the picture, sound and possibly movie
files. When you first load up the program after installation
you should see the dialogue box below.
This main control section of the
program and it is from here that you can add users, sounds and
pictures. The first thing to do is to add a child to the list of
users. Click on the Add tab at the top of the page to put in the
name of the student. After you have entered a name another dialogue
box appears, see below.
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You
can see from this dialogue box that there are a number of
buttons that can be activated. I suggest that you leave the
top one set for now; this can be altered at any time. When
you have done this click on OK.
The next thing to do is to
select a game. I suggest that you click on Select-an-item
(1 user) to start things off. |
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After this you need to set-up which of
your the switches is to be to be used, you can use the keyboard
if you don’t have a switch nearby. Click on the Set-up Switches
tap at the bottom of the main control panel. If you have
done this you should see the next dialogue box. As you can
see it is possible to set up a number of possible switches
to access the
software. |
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To start with
click on the Switch A/1 Click On the top tab, which says
Setup. A small dialogue box will be displayed. Press your
space bar (as a switch) to start with. You can alter this
later to any kind of switch. Then click on OK at the bottom
of the box.
The next job is to edit the
Library files. These are your images, sounds, movies etc.
The program needs to be told where these files are situated
on the computer hard drive.
Click on Edit Library
Sets another dialogue box opens see below. |
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Now click on New. Another
box will open and you need to give your files a name I have
entered Sounds.
Then click on OK.
Yet another box opens (sorry
about all the boxes) but you will soon get to know how the
program is laid out. You should now see the box below. |
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This is the main box to allocate your
sound, images and movie files. Click on add a new element.
Type in the name of the individual sound file or picture
you wish to use, press OK and you should then see the word
you have typed into the previous box appear under the word
elements. You can also associate a sound file with a particular
picture to emphasise the effect. Click on OK when you have
built up your library of images and sounds, these can be
any you have available or can find on the
Internet. |
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The last thing
to do is associate the library file you have built up with
the particular student. To do this return
to the main control panel and click on the Edit user button
at the top this will open the Edit Child dialogue box go
down to Library to use and click the down arrow tab on the
right hand side click on the new library you have just made
then click on OK at the bottom. With luck all you need to
do is Click on GO. Remember that everything can be
changed and that to escape from the program press escape.
Have fun with this little
application. It is free to use in schools. |
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