Technology in Education with DynaVox Systems

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Technology in Education with DynaVox Systems There have always been implications in the way a teacher can teach a student. You have your perfect students who seem to know more than you, the bad student who doesn’t want to learn, and then you have your student with a disability. These students try hard to succeed, but without the proper equipment, are unable to do so. This comes into play especially with students who are unable to speak. There were many ways in the past to help people who couldn’t talk by either writing the words down all the way, to using sign language. Using these methods to convey a message to a person or group of people can take a long time. This could be, and is, very discouraging for someone who just wants to tell you the answer, or ask a question; however there isn’t an easy way to get it out. Luckily a company over in Europe developed a system that enables teaching and learning to come easier to a person with a disability. This system is called DynaVox. DynaVox was an educational computer system that came about in 1983 through Sentient Systems Technology. This system was developed to help children and adults with speech, language, learning, and physical disabilities. This tool can be used in the classroom, workplace, and community to enable people with disabilities to learn and communicate. The company and system have grown dramatically over the past few years, and have improved the lives of many children who didn’t have the means to communicate before. DynaVox System Software, or DSS, is designed to be something that is easy to use, no matter what disability you have. The DynaVox has a rubber edge with a 12 inch color touch screen. On the touch screen and as part of the system, you are able to have seventy-seven buttons that have different fonts and graphics. You press a button and it says to whomever you are talking to, what you want or need. In each system they give you a total of thirty-three hundred different symbols called the DynaSyms. These are pictures of things like humans, animals, nature, food, and everyday lingo. If there isn’t a symbol in the system that you need to use to communicate with, you can connect your DynaVox to Windows or Macintosh.

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