Use Join.me for Student with Disabilities

Oftentimes, I encounter situations where a student with a visual impairment has difficulty seeing what a teacher is doing on the board.  Usually this child is seated at the front of the room directly in front of the board, which puts undue attention on the student.  But, there are different options to help ameliorate this situation and allow the student to escape that front row seat.

Since the majority of schools have adopted smart boards, there is a simple technological solution to help solve this visibility issue: screen sharing.  Additionally, this same solution works for students who are in the back of a classroom and unable to see.  The technology is old, but like most things, it has finally become easy to use in the classroom.

For you to share your computer screen, I assume a few things:

1. You are a BYOT district, or at the very least, you allow students with disabilities to bring devices.
2. You have wi-fi access in your building.

Join.me

There are many different screen sharing solutions on the market (I'll list a few at the end of this post), but in education, we tend to need something that is free and simple to use. 

 Join.me is a business product that allows a user to share his screen with an unlimited number of participants.  Included with the product is VoIP and other features, but we are only concerned with the screen sharing ability.  Additionally, it works on Mac or PC and on Android or iOS.

To use Join.me, just follow these steps:

1. On the host device (the one whose screen you wish to share), navigate to join.me and click Start a Meeting to download the software.  Also perform this step on the client device (if it is a mobile device, access the App Store or Google Play).  You are able to join a meeting from just an internet browser, but the app works the best.
2. Launch the software on the host device and create an account and log in.
3. Click the play button and use the personal link option.
4. Choose an easy to remember and type link.
5. Click play button to start the conference.
6. Students will enter your link in the join window and then click the play button.  (Alternately, they can go to join.me and enter the code to join the meeting in their browser).
7. A window will open with a view of your screen.
8. When you are done, exit the meeting and the screen sharing stops.

It is really that simple.  If you knew that it helped students to see your screen up close and personally while you worked as a class, why wouldn't you do it.

Other Options with Drawbacks

gotomeeting.com (limited to 3 participants under the free plan)

hangouts.google.com (more complex set up and limited number of participants)