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