Genevieve Chiaravalle and Erin Burns

What is "Go Talk Now"?

https://www.attainmentcompany.com/gotalk-now

The Go Talk Now Resource is an augmentative and alternative communication (ACC) tool that can be used with students that have difficulty speaking or writing. This app is easy to use and can be downloaded onto the users iPad. How it works is that the user, parent or teacher can make a variety of different pages with up to 25 words on each page. These words can be personalized with the users own photos and paired with a voice recording. This provides both an auditory and visual cue for the user. When communicating, the students just simply clicks on the word or image on the iPad to express their thoughts. This app also provides user friendly tutorials to demonstrate how to properly use the app and show all the features of the app that can be used. This can be a useful resource that can benefit students at school, home or in everyday use.

Who Would Benefit?

The students that would benefit most from using the Go Talk Now app would be students that struggle with communication. This would specifically help students with ASD that are non-verbal or students that may be difficult to understand. Providing this resource to the student is an easy tool that can allow for communication between them and their parents, teachers, peers or members of the community. In addition, this app  will benefit those students who lack motivation to communicate with others because of the difficult barriers they must overcome. This app has the ability to reduce the amount of frustration students may have when it comes to communication.

Benefits

Critical Evaluation

When it comes to the Go Talk Now app there are many benefits to it. First, it is a great communication tool that can be used as an aid for students that have difficulties communicating with others. This can allow for clear, concise communication as well as can reduce the amount of frustration students have when attempting to overcome the challenges of communicating with others. In addition, this resource is appealing to students as it can be personalized for them. For instance, a familiar voice can be recorded to match a photo of a word. An example would be, a photo of a mom and a recording of that student's mom's voice saying the word “mom”. Having the ability to personalize this app for the student can be more motivating for the student to use.  This app also benefits students as it can allow the student to be more independent within the classroom. For example, the student can communicate with their peers through the use of the app, instead of having the teacher or educational assistant mediate conversation between the students. Another huge perk of this app, is that it can be used with students of all ages and can be used at home or at school. Finally, this app is incredibly easy to use. With its simplistic nature, teachers and students can easily upload photos, create their own pages and easily implement it in a classroom setting to help facilitate communication with students.

Usefulness

Critical Evaluation:

Go Talk Now is a great example of transformative technology as it allows for students to achieve something that may have previously been inconceivable. It allows for student to communicate and may aid in the diffusion of frustration. This also allows for students to engage in conversation with peers, fostering a sense of inclusion in the classroom. This app allow for teachers to gain credible material in order to make conclusions for assessment purposes. Students can save work and export work to a drop box. This work can also be shared and sent to parents so they have an understanding of what their child is doing at school. 

 Students have the ability to customize their app to fit their needs in terms of page layouts, navigation and audio recording.

The app claims to support communication through three main features:

1. Standard: This component allows for a student to press a button and a corresponding action will occur. 

2. Express: Students can record videos or use text-to-speech. 

3. Scene: Students can add audio or speech to a photo. Students can create hotspots over objects in a photo so that they can play an audio clip of choice. 

  

Accesibility

Critical Evaluation

• Go Talk Now is programmed to accommodate different languages (English, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian). 

• This app can be used for ages 4+

• This app can only be accessed and utilized from an iPad.

• This app is only accessible to those who can afford to purchase it 

• Go Talk Now requires WIFI in order to use features

Cost

Critical Evaluation

Apple App Store Prices:

Go Talk Now ................. $139.99

Go Talk Now PLUS ....... $229.99

Points for Improvment

Critical Evaluation

Points for Improvement: 

• Reduce cost to make the app more accessible for lower income families
•  GoTalkNow is running with  “Apple's Volume Purchasing Program for Education” in the US but not in Canada. Perhaps Canadian school boards can look into a similar program. 

• Make the app accessible on other devices that have access to audio and visual components built in [i.e. Laptops, computers, tablets, smartphones] 

• Make the app accessible on an off-WIFI setting as students may not have access to wifi at home.