Have you been looking for a way to display and model AAC communication boards with your students? Do you have a themed communication board that relates to a book or activity and you want your students to be able to see you model with it? Well, now you can with our new online tool BYO Communication Board.
DISPLAY AND MODEL YOUR OWN COMMUNICATION BOARDS ON YOUR SCREEN
- Upload an image version of the communication board then click the ‘use board’ button to begin modeling.
- For more information on how to generate an image version of your communication board, see the instructions below under the ‘how to use this tool’ heading.
- Your uploaded image should be the same proportions as a letter-size page for best results.
- Once uploaded you will be able to display the communication board and there will be a red circle that follows your mouse to make modeling much more visual. This visual indicator will help in teletherapy and also in person to show what you are ‘pointing’ to.
- If you don’t have a communication board to use and want to display a basic core board, there are many available free online. For example, if you follow this link it will open an image of a core board that you can save to your device (right-click and choose save image) and then upload below. This is a free core board provided by Smarty Symbols on their website.
- To use the digital tool below you will need to enter the game access password.
- Open a digital file showing your communication board. Often this is in PDF form and often it already is letter page size. You will need to generate an image file version of the board (.PNGor .JPEG). For best results, the image file should be the same proportion as a letter-size piece of paper. Here are a few ways you could do that:
- Option 1: You could open the communication board file and use your computer’s screenshot tool or snipping tool to take a screen grab. You can then save the image file and upload it.
- Option 2: You could use a tool to convert the PDF to an image file. I like to use Canva for this. You will find this tool here.
- Click the ‘choose file’ button and upload your communication board image file. Once you have uploaded the image it will show int he preview box.
- Now click the pink ‘use board’ button. You will then see your communication board fill the window and there will be a red circle that follows your mouse to make modeling much more visual. This visual indicator will help in teletherapy and also in person to show what you are ‘pointing’ to.
