Personnel Development on Assistive Technology and Digital Books

Do you teach future classroom teachers, existing teachers, or other professionals who want to know more about assistive technology and digital books?

Teachers, counselors, and other professionals who work in special education and rehabilitation need to know about all available resources to find the right resource for each student. For example, these specialized teachers and professionals need to know that students with print disabilities benefit when they have access to assistive technology and books in alternate formats. They need to know how to use these resources in the classroom.

To help provide a single source of instructional materials about assistive technology and digital textbooks in the classroom, Bookshare has created an online module of resources for pre-service and in-service teachers of students with print disabilities, for special education teachers, and for other professionals who wish to learn more about Bookshare. Called the Personnel Development module, a guide to its contents and its links can be found on the university community page.

The Personnel Development module organizes a wealth of training resources and videos that walk through the concepts of Bookshare and digital books. The module includes a link to request demonstration accounts. These accounts allow users to search and download freely available books from the Bookshare collection, and then read the books with the two free reading tools that Bookshare provides to its members. All professors and instructors offering personnel development in special education will find this module invaluable.

Want to learn more? Join a free webinar about the module on September 27, 2012, at 12:00 pm Pacific time. Register here.

Questions? Please Contact Us and select University Information in the “My question is about” drop-down box.

This module was developed with funds from an award from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) called Leveraging Impact through Technology (LIT). The goal was to create a module of information about Bookshare that schools of education could use in their curriculum to teach special education teachers. The Personnel Development module is now complete and available on the Bookshare website.