EDPS 459/571 Technology Application in Special Education, Spring 2004 Presented 1/13/03

1. EDPS 459/571 Technology Application in Special Education, Spring 2004 Presented 1/13/03 By Dave Schleppenbach

2. Contact information January 2002 • Instructor: Dave Schleppenbach • Phone: 775-4534 • E-mail: engage@ghbraille.com • WWW: www.ghbraille.com • 3000 Kent Ave. West Lafayette, IN (Purdue Technology Center)

3. About gh January 2002 • gh was founded with the goal of providing accessible textbooks to all students • gh specializes in information access solutions • gh has been producing accessible media for Federal and State Government for 3 years • gh has produced millions of pages of Braille, thousands of READ™ Files and tactile graphics, DTB’s and more

4. Papers January 2002 • How to craft individual papers that appear to be directly inspired by God himself (or at least by Bill Gates, whichever is greater) • Writing a paper is a process that takes a little bit of time each week for several weeks. Cramming just does not work. • The paper is your main chance to prove that you deserve an "A". Take your time and work at your own pace so that you do a good job. • Be specific. Choose a topic that is narrow enough that you can provide some details.

5. Papers, cont. January 2002 • Example of bad topics: • Hearing Impaired People • Computers • Wheelchairs • Voice Output • Example of making these topics better: • Electronic hearing aids for the partially deaf • Internet access for the disabled: resources on the WWW • Posture aids for quadriplegics • Artificial speech production on a Windows Computer

6. Papers, cont. January 2002 • 3 double spaced pages is about 6 good paragraphs. A good approach is as follows: • Introduction (Tell 'em what you're gonna' tell 'em) • Body (Tell 'em) • Conclusion (Tell 'em what you told 'em)

7. Example Paper January 2002 • Artificial Speech production on a Windows Computer • Introduction: • Broad opening statement ("Speech output is vital for computer access for many types of disabled people") • Filler sentences ("Also, Windows 95 is a must for anyone wanting a real job and the love and adoration of the almighty Bill Gates") • Goal of paper ("This paper will explain how anyone, not just McGuyver, can make a speech output system") • THESIS ("Modern Windows computers can provide high-quality, customizable speech output for a reasonable cost")

8. Example Paper, cont. January 2002 Body: Paragrpah 1: High-quality speech THESIS: modern speech output is high quality facts, facts, blah blah blah Conclusion: Finally, the speech is really good because¼ Paragraph 2: Customizable THESIS: Windows 95 speech output is very customizable facts and more (you can change the rate, pitch, speed, gender, laryngelization, coarseness, or make it sound like Bill Gates) Conclusion: Darn it, it's just so customizable Paragraph 3: Reasonable cost THESIS: speech output is for the unwashed masses facts (you gotta buy a SoundBlaster, you gotta buy this, you gotta have that) Conclusion: Anyone can afford this. Why don't you have it already?

9. Example Paper, cont. January 2002 • Conclusion: • Restate Thesis: ("In sum, Modern Windows computers can provide high-quality, customizable speech output for a reasonable cost") • Gradually broaden the scope: ("This is really good for the disabled. You know, it's also good for the abled. Come to think of it, its good for everybody!") • Wrap it up with a bang: ("Speech Production on Modern Windows Computers will revolutionize human-computer interfacing for the disabled and non-disabled computer user alike in the near future. Oh yeah, and it will save the world, prevent global warming, and delay the eventual heat-death of the universe too.)

10. Papers, cont. January 2002 Manage your time and resources when researching and writing the paper. Do the research over a period of about 2 weeks, spending maybe an hour a day. Then, write a first draft, go away for a couple days, and polish it up.

11. Example Timescale January 2002 • Example timescale: Oh my god, the paper is due in 4 weeks. Okay, no panicking: • Week 1: Pick a topic and get it approved. Check to make sure that all the books about it have NOT been captured by hordes of angry underclassmen burning them as some sort of bizarre hazing ritual. This takes about 2 hours (1.5 to think of the topic) • Week 2: Spend 3 different days in the library copying a couple of articles each time and maybe checking out a book. Spend a fourth day surfing the WWW for info. One hour each session. • Week 3: Organize the resources and pick the best three or four for citation in the paper. Eat the rest. Go back to the library or WWW for more info or clarification (assume that I WILL know if you state something incorrectly - if you're not sure, check!) Spend one hour each of three days on this. • Week 4. Write the rough draft. Go away. Polish (not an ethnic slur). Have your roommate look at it. Polish again. This takes 3 days, using about 2-3 hours the first day, 1 hour the second, and about 0.5 hours the third. • TOTAL TIME INVESTED: worst case, 14 hours over 4 weeks - just 7/2 hours per week! (That's 3.5 in case you're wondering - less time than it takes Michael Jordan to score 60 points)

12. WWW January 2002 • All I Really Needed to Know About Surfing the WWW I Learned in EDPS 459 • Use Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) • Start with the top-down approach (go by categories from the least specific to the most specific) • Bookmark the URL's that actually exist. • Then, try the bottom-up approach (type in the search string and hit enter). Do the search across all categories, but try to focus your search string on 2-3 words. Quotes can help. Try 3-4 different strings. This picks up all of the improperly registered sites and the lateral sites. • Bookmark the good ones again.

13. WWW, cont. January 2002 • Visit each bookmark in turn. If the info looks relevant, bookmark it and go on - you want to do most of the reading off-line. When you are on line, your goal is lateral thinking and data collection - the analysis comes much later. • Follow the links from the best sites to other links. Especially go after sites that are referenced by multiple sites that you have bookmarked. • Start with the sites that I give you. • As an extra bonus, be sure to think about the accessibility of the sites that you are visiting as you view them.

14. Assistive Technology -Taxonomy January 2002 • Let's break it down: • Assistive - hmm. To assist? But what does that really mean? How is it different from augmentative? My definition: something that helps a person to do something that they could not easily or efficiently do otherwise. Examples? Canes, wheelchairs, speech output. Augmentative means enhancing a person's natural ability in addition to that which is already there, such as hearing aides and virtual reality. Check out Lloyd's book. • Technology - a device or aid. Can be low tech (containing a microchip) or high tech (not containing a microchip). What about Aided or unaided? Lloyd et. al. use the shower test - if you can shower with it, it's definitely unaided. Assistive technology is almost always aided.

15. Assistive Technology Examples January 2002 • a cane - aided low tech • a power wheelchair - aided low tech • a plastic foot - unaided low tech • a nerve-amplifying robotic arm - unaided high tech • a talking watch - aided high tech • a talking computer - aided high tech • a talking seeing-eye dog - sounds like the "Jetsons"

16. Assistive Technology, cont. January 2002 • The important thing to remember are my three main rules of assistive technology (we'll see these over and over): • Occam's Razor: The best solution is the simplest one. Sometimes the best solution is free and doesn't use electricity. • Occam's Toothbrush: Everyone engages in technology-aided activities constantly; disabled people just do it more often and more obviously. • Occam's Comb: Very few disabled people reach their maximum potential. Often the cause of this is a barrier that could be removed with the proper use of technology coupled with training.

17. Assistive Technology, cont. January 2002 Noto Bene: The most important part of implementation of assistive technology is the training. You must provide the user with the skills needed to use the device to it's fullest potential (given the constraints of he user's disability, education, learning rate, cognitive skills, physical skills, needs, etc.). Sometimes this process is called feature matching - picking the right features of a rehabilitation or education program to bring a user up to the maximal potential. These features, which are often technological interventions, must be carefully chosen based on data collected about the user.

18. Assistive Technology, cont. January 2002 • Examples: • Donny Don't gives a $10,000 computer to a 3-year old. • Donny Don't unloads $5,000 of equipment on the front steps of the school and then leaves. • Donny Don't fails to teach a blind person how to activate the screen reader when the computer boots up, etc. • DON'T DO WHAT DONNY DON'T DOES!