Happy Ending?

Friday my principal showed up at my door in the middle of class.

"You're going to meet the AT guy. I'm arranging for someone to cover your class so you can go talk to him about your students."

I almost jumped out of my skin. I've been asking for this since September. "When!?!"

"Now."

Aaaaackkkk, I thought. I'm not prepared. I need time! I've got to sell this guy! I need writing samples! I need reading samples! I need anecdotal records! I need OT reports! Ack!

But there was no time for that, so I grabbed some class assignments off my desk and ran down to the conference room.

Why was I was anxious about this meeting? Well, my very-challenged students were at least three years overdue for assistive technology. They're in Gr. 5! That remediation to compensation line should have been long crossed. They can't write their own thoughts, spell their own words or read their own writing. But they can think and learn, and they need access to that text!!! They've already increased skills and confidence with Open Office on notebooks. Imagine if they had real software!

So why haven't they had it? Well, I don't know, I just got here. But I assumed that someone needed to be convinced, or it would have happened.

So I fly into that room selling, I sit down selling and I chatter away selling. I attempt to channel Barb, selling it.

The guy is saying "Yep," and taking notes. Is he even listening??? I'm just about to make the case for Co-Writer when he says, "So we'll put on Co-Writer." Hunh?

I stop talking. I look at the guy. I don't need to sell him. He's sold. He's agreeing with me! He's agreeing with everything I say! He's going to install new software by the END OF THE WEEK.

I think bigger. "You know I only have three student computers . . . " He looks up. I'm pushing it.

"February," he says. "Let's get these programs up and running first. Are you coming to the training?"

WHAT TRAINING?

"If there's training, I'm there."

"I've registered her for the training," says my principal. She's new in the school, too.

"I'm going to the training."

So why has it taken so long for this meeting to happen? No one requested it. Apparently, he wasn't in the building once last year, and obviously not many times before. So one new principal and three new staff who are MEd students later, he's never been so popular. (Can you believe that one still hears in staff rooms that further education for teachers benefits neither teachers or students?)

Hop, skip and jump! My kids are getting Co-Writer! They're getting Solo!!! And more! And I'm getting training!!! Merry Christmas!!!

'Bout time.

Me. I need Co:Writer. Can't wait!

Reflection on December 3th class

Today's class was very moving.

Most course-end presentations are characterized by watching adult students consolidate their knowledge and present syntheses of their learning that they will carry forward into their professional life. Very inspiring.

But not necessarily moving. Today we were introduced to children whose lives have been transformed by those adult students. Children who were unhappy, struggling and down-on-themselves were given an opportunity to unwrap the greatest gift a child can receive--themselves. The assistive technology which they were invited to use penetrated the barriers that prevented them from sharing the best of themselves with the world.

What a wonderful thing! What lucky kids! But, really, folks--why should a child have to have a friend, parent, teacher or neighbour in an MEd grad course in order to be that lucky? They should ALL be that lucky! Our students have work to do--they should have access to the tools they need to do that work. Just like office staff, construction workers, health care professionals and other workers have access to the tools that they need to do their jobs. It's a no-brainer! Let's just get on with it!

There will always be obstacles, but wouldn't it be nice if the obstacles came mostly from the kids and the parents. After all, we're trained to deal with those. Imagine if we could eliminate the obstacles that come from our boards, administration and other teachers. Oh, and the department.

So we are now on a mission! It's time to convince the powers-that-be that assistive technology is not:

• cheating
• reward for good behaviour
• the last resort once bottom has been hit
• just computers
• interchangeable with people (if we had enough staff, we wouldn't need computers)
• eliminating jobs (kids won't need any help with technology)
• easy (kids can figure computers out themselves)
• so intuitive that no training is necessary
• the icing on the cake (they can use the computers once they've finished their revising)
• optional
• too expensive

Time to get going!

Braille Scrabble

Vibrating Alarm Clock

Etch-a-Sketch with switches

Perfect Paul - still alive and kicking

Not much room there! But not to worry.
Research shows that airbags are safe for most outcomes!

The other day I heard something on the radio about word recognition software. Apparently, the original programs that provided this feature were normed on adult men. The devices couldn't hear women. That was the main concern of the interviewee, who also pointed out that the original air bags killed women and children because they weren't tested on them. Since I'm one of those people (short legs) who would have been killed by those air bags--I drove my second last car for seventeen years while waiting for the manufacturers to fix the problem--I'm very interested in inclusiveness in research and development. If those voice recognition programs couldn't hear women, well, they weren't going to listen to children, either, were they?

DECtalk DTC01, home of Perfect Paul

Which reminded me of Perfect Paul, the universal voice of text-to-speech in the good old days, when we were amazed that such things existed. Good old dependable, monotonous guy, the spokesman of DECtalk. We loved him.

But why not let the poor guy retire? Surely he's earned it. Why do I still hear him around? Okay, so he's only working part-time now, but technology has marched on, and inclusiveness has become ever more. Here's to equal opportunity for automated voices! Women, children, accents! I'll know we've arrived when the voices on the computers in museums, tourist bureaus, etc back home, have Newfoundland accents. As dey shood.