General Requirements
Your activities will run better with the right engine. The system requirements for downloaded activities are the same as those for each application. If you can run the application an activity loads into, then it should open and run. The only additional requirement would be more than the absolute minimum RAM, since many activities are fairly large and involve movies. Mac OSX 10.3 or higher is required for Clicker 5® and Cloze Pro®. My Own Bookshelf® actually runs better in Mac OS9. Classroom Suite will run in Mac OS9.2 and OSX 10.2 and higher. All activities should run in Windows 98 or later.
Resources such as JPEG and GIF graphics should load into all these multimedia applications. IntelliTools Classroom Suite®, Clicker 5 Mac,® and My Own Bookshelf® can run QuickTime® movies. Clicker 5 Windows® does not run QuickTime, but will load most AVI movies. Frame animations for Classroom Suite only work in Suite.
Requirements By Application
Adobe Acrobat Reader®: I’ve tested the PDF’s for the Who’s in the Barn? Workshop in v. 5 on Mac 10.2.8, and v. 6 on Windows XP, and they seem to function perfectly. So, Acrobat Reader v. 5 or later for Mac, 6 or later for Windows.
Crick Software Clicker 5®: Activities were built in v.5.25 for Mac and Win. Check the Crick Software web site for free upgrades to this version.
Crick Software Cloze Pro®: Tests were constructed in v.1.0 for both Mac and Win.
IntelliTools Classroom Suite®: Activities were built in v.3.2. I believe they will work in v. 3.0 or later, but you certainly ought to upgrade at least to 3.2. I’m about to upgrade to v. 4.0
Microsoft PowerPoint®: I composed the activities in PowerPoint 2008 on Mac. The posted activities were exported in two formats, one that should be compatible with PowerPoint 2003 (Win) and 2004 (Mac), and a PowerPoint Package that may hold its links better, but I’m not sure it will work unless you have PowerPoint 2007 (Win) or 2008 (Mac). This is an experiment, since I only have PowerPoint 2008 on Mac and cannot test on other versions.
SoftTouch My Own Bookshelf®: Books were exported from v.2.0.4. You should update to this version, which takes care of several glitches. It’s a free upgrade.
SoftTouch Test Me Score Me®: Tests were exported from v.2.1. Definitely upgrade to this version! It’s a free upgrade.
Special Needs Access
Clicker 5 and Cloze Pro activities can be accessed with standard switches and the Crick USB Switch Interface®.
IntelliTools Classroom Suite activities can be accessed with switches, including the IntelliSwitch®, and with IntelliKeys®. Custom IntelliKeys overlays are included with downloaded activities. Dynavox® .pkg versions of the overlays allow students to run these activities from their Dynavox AAC devices.
You can run Classroom Suite activities from the Prentke Romich AAC devices also. Here are links to download the IntelliTools activity row and instructions manual in PDF format for Pathfinder, Vantage/Vanguard, and Springboard from the PRC web site. I’ve been told that currently, new PRC devices ship with this toolbar (for Classroom Suite v. 3) installed.
My Own Bookshelf and Test Me Score Me can be accessed with switches and with IntelliKeys.
PowerPoint is switch-accessible with a mouse adapted to have a switch plugged into it. I believe it also would be accessible with programmable switch interfaces such as IntelliSwitch.
For a PDF guide to switch interfaces and settings for specific software, click this link. This was a handout at CTG 2006 for a presentation by Deanna K. Wagner & Caroline R. Musselwhite.
