The Benefits of Trial Software

In an effort to gain a basic understanding of the various assistive software available on the market today and to assist me in writing my reviews I have relied on trial software. Many of these 30 day trials, in my opinion, offer the user just enough time to adequately gain a better understanding of the software and assist the user in determining if a specific software is worth purchasing once the trial is expired.

For educators who may have a student with a disability in their classroom I think trial software can be a very effective way of determining what software is going to be most beneficial. I understand that this may mean putting the software on ones own personal device but I feel this minor inconvenience can go a long way. Parents can also trial software on their home computers allowing their child to use the software to do their homework. With trial software the educator and parents can keep track of the students progress, for example taking not of how the student performed the work before the assistive software was introduces, how they are performing in the middle of the trial and then at the end of the trial. These results can be shared then with parents and with member of you special education team as evidence of if the software was beneficial. I feel in many cases having already has a student trial software gives educators a parents a base for having the software purchased for the students continued use. 

Just in the couple of software trials that I have tried I have gained a better understanding of how each software works.  Now when people ask me about different assistive software I can give them my review.

Technology when I was in High School

During the planning stages for transitioning from elementary to high school a number of things had to be taken into consideration. One of the bigger decisions was what writing tools would I be using. I had use a typewriter since I was in third grade but this was no longer going to be beneficial. With moving to a larger school and having rotation it was decided that I should have a laptop computer. It was a Toshiba 1000 and I remember how thrilled I was to be going to high school with my own laptop. In preparation for Grade 9, I took “Introduction to Keyboarding”, not that I needed to learn how to type but more so I could have time to familiarize myself with my new computer. I still did all the assignments required, just instead of using the typewriter I use my laptop. Taking this course allowed me to get out any of the bugs that I may encounter while using the computer. One example of this is due to my lack of fine motor coordination I always hit this one particular button by mistake ALL THE TIME. I do not recall what button it was, but I do remember that in order to fix the problem I had to turn the computer on and off again to get it to work. Because it was the summer there were no technicians around to consult with so the teacher and I had to problem solve for our self. One of the computer teachers did come by once or twice to see how things were going and it was then that we learned the power of the “ESC” button. I no longer needed to turn the computer on and off when I accidently hit wrong buttons.

As I started Grade 9 I now had one of the tools I needed to succeed. The computer had at disk drive and for my class work I would just save my work and then go to the resource room to print off my work. This wasted a great deal of time having to go back and forth from classes to resource to have work printed but that was the way it was. Some teachers allowed me to bring the work the next day which was great as then I could use my resource time to print off the day’s work as others wanted it right after class ended. Today it would be a lot different as a students can just email their work directly to the teacher,

My parents purchased a Toshiba 1000 for use at home which made it easier in that I did not have to carry the laptop back and forth. For most students carrying an extra 5 pounds would not be an issue, but for me the extra weight threw me off balance causing me to fall. Having a laptop both a school and at home meant that I only needed to bring my disks back and forth.

I used the laptop for the five years in high school and only a hand full of times did it break down. Unlike today where a student would hopefully be given a replacement while their computer was being fixed, I was left with nothing. This meant any class work I had to do had to either be handwritten by me (which meant it never got done on time), I would have to go to my resource teacher to have her scribe for me (which meant time away from the classroom) or I was able to take it home to finish, which was always my preference.

Again with another transition (to post-secondary) questions were asked, was the laptop doing what I needed it to or was it time again to look into a new piece of technology. In my next blog I’ll talk about my transition to post-secondary and my first encounter with Dragon.