"Liberate students from the cognitive waste going to mechanical issues which have nothing to do with effective communication. Help them to become communicators and storytellers, and let your teaching focus on construction of effective writing, and what separates "writing" from "talking" in our culture." -Ira David Socal
You don't need to be a student to appreciate this approach to writing and communication!
Ira Socal starts out his thoughtful blog post by mentioning that he dictated it using a Jawbone bluetooth headset and Windows 7 Speech Recognition, which is a free component of the operating system. He's found that this is a great approach to use with students who struggle with the writing process. He points out that there are many barriers that students face when attempting to write, especially for those who have difficulty holding a pen or using a keyboard efficiently. He also points out that "keyboards injure more people each year than any other workplace tool."
Below are two videos Ira Socal shared on his blog:
RELATED/SOMEWHAT RELATED How to set up Windows 7 Speech Recognition MIT Freedom Stick (Michigan Integrated Technologies Supports) Freedom Stick and Firefox Accessibility "The MITS Freedom Stick is designed to provide students with information and communication access on any computer using a Windows or Linux operating system. When you insert the USB Flash Drive into the computer the LearnApps software should load giving you a menu in the toolbar on the lower-right corner of the screen. Please note, however, that when using the software on some computers you may need to open the drive and click directly on the LearnApps icon to open."
In the US, teachers are being laid off or eliminated from their jobs in many communities. The improvements seen in Wall Street haven't been felt on Main Street. Many parents face the fact that their children, teens, and college-age kids will be entering classrooms and lecture halls filled many more students than in the past, come August or early September.
What are the solutions? The popular buzz says that interactive whiteboards, netbooks, SmartPhones, and tablets such as the iPad2 will tranform K-16 education. States and local school districts have created a range of virtual schools, and these are increasing in number. My own state offers a "virtual advantage" in the form of the North Carolina Virtual Public School. There are opportunities for students with special needs to receive instruction on-line, too.
"Mr. Geminoid"
What might be see in the future- Robots for teachers? While the topic might seem a bit amusing, it might not be a joke in the future.
Five years from now, will my grandson go to kindergarten toting a next-gen iPad, (augmented reality-enabled, 3D holographic, telepresent, virtual-school connected) greeted at the classroom door by the next-Gen Mr. Geminoid, his life-like, fully programmable teacher?
At this point, the Geminoid is controlled by a real person. In the school setting, one teacher could control his or her "Geminoid" in multiple classrooms, I suppose....
"A Geminoid or twin-robot is designed to resemble a living person. It is controlled by an operator who through the use of advanced software can transfer facial movements and speech to the robot next door (or where ever...). For many years, robot technology has primarily been associated with factories and warehouses, but the days of thinking about robots as just 'tools' are over, Henrik Scharfe says. The robots have become a media, perhaps one of the more significant media of the future. In that way, robot technology follows the trajectory of computers: from tools to media." -Geminoid DK
I can see that many people might fancy the idea of robots taking over the role of teachers.
Unlike the Geminoid, these robots wouldn't need to be controlled by living, breathing teacher. Anti-teacher union folks would like the fact that there would be fewer wages to pay, no rising health insurance premiums to worry about, no concerns about retirement. No money would need to be set aside for death benefits.
I imagine there would be other costs, and this might be more than what we now pay for live teachers. We'd need to pay for programmers who can handle all aspects of instructional technology. We'd need to pay for robotic maintenance technicians. We'd have to pay for the network that runs the system of robot teachers.
We'd have to figure out how the robots could realistically handle parent-teacher conferences, classroom conflicts, bus duty, coaching, choir practice, club sponsorship, volunteer coordination, science fairs, and so forth.
There is always the chance that robots outfitted with future generation AI capabilities might become sentient, at which point, they might decide to unionize, if they don't happen to "live" in states that don't allow teacher unions, such as N.C. ; )
When I get a bit more time, I'll follow with my comments related to Catalina's column-- I'm a school psychologist and HCI techie, so this one of my interests!
The Reactable featured in the above video is used for DJ-ing in clubs. The one I've played with is at the science museum in my area - I love it. It is fun to improvise on the Reactable with another person. For more information, see my previous blog posts featuring the Reactable.
AUGMENTED REALITY While listening to CNBC on my satellite radio on the way home today, I heard that investing in Qualcomm might be a good idea. I wonder if this means that Wall Street analysts think that AR will become mainstream soon...
The video below shows a variety of creative AR game applications:
Qualcomm has an AR SDK that comes with tutorials, samples, an API reference, and developer forums. The SDK can be downloaded from the Qualcomm AR web-page.
The video provides a recap of the iPad and highlights how it can be used in education, for students with special needs, in aviation, in doctor's offices, in the board room, in an art studio, in the kitchen - just about anywhere.
I wonder how an iPad could transform the work of a school psychologist! I have a plenty of ideas, now that the iPad2 is out. How can it help with RTI? Progress monitoring? Digital social stories? Social skills activities? Counseling? Behavior intervention? Transition planning? Assessment? Communication? Productivity? IEP collaboration and development?
Wouldn't it be nice if there were a few iPad apps that could effectively support the work of school psychologists and those who work in similar fields?
So much of what we use in our productivity work as school psychologists was built upon applications first developed in the mid-to-late 1990's, at best. There must be more efficient and effective solutions out there. What can be done to move us forward?
Psychological and educational test publishers, can you hear me now?
