Hello. I'm back for an additional entry this week to talk a little about a book I read this past weekend for the CTEP book club. The book is The Children's Machine, Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer by Seymour Papert. I didn't even realize it until after reading it, but the book was written in 1993. This is interesting because a lot of what he talked about is being used or at least tried in some way today. The book is about how people learn, and how this can change in the age of the computer.

The book was rather interesting because he talked about a variety of situations where computers could change how we learn different thing, and just how people learn differently in general. There were a lot of stories and examples of how computers might help in the classroom.

He also talks about how people learn, and how current standard education might not be the most effective way to teach kids. I can definitely understand this. Sitting in a classroom and listen to someone talk endlessly about something and write things on the board isn't exactly the most interesting way to learn. I always learned the best from hands-on classes, or if the instructor could relate the material to real life, or just make it more interactive and/or fun. Computers and multimedia have really helped classrooms more interesting, but at the same time made students even less interested and willing to sit through a traditional classroom setting.

A couple other ideas I really liked is how he talked about multimedia, virtual reality, and gaming as interactive ways of learning. The virtual reality could be an interesting way to learn about something or somewhere the student might not be able to normally see. Video games are also very interactive, and aren't just a simple kids game. There are lots of complex strategies and techniques students can learn from video games.

One final thing that was interesting and true is how students actually maybe learn more outside of school sometimes. This is also true to a point. People are taught to learn key things like reading, writing, and and other subjects, but students also learn a lot more just by socializing and doing things outside of class.

The book was pretty interesting overall, and maybe a little more so since it was written in 1993. It's interesting to see some of the things he predicted, and think of how they relate to what's actually being used today.

Hello again. Well I'm back for another week, and it's been a busy one.

Before talking about this week, I'll quickly talk about something I forgot to mention last week. Last Wednesday I met with the Media committee to do an interview for the CTEP video. It was actually pretty fun. I talked about the different assistive technology that we have, what I do, and some of the challenges I've faced so far. They then got some footage of me demoing some of the assistive technology like JAWS and Dragon. I can't wait to see the video.

So this week I've been doing a lot of different things. I've been slowing down on the outreach for Lexington Library since we'll be moving soon. We're only open for about another month, and everyone's busy packing. Instead, I've been starting to focus on outreach and planning for my work at Dayton's Bluff Library. I've been making some contacts to various colleges and universities around the area to see what types of assistive technology they commonly offered, and what's worked well for them. I also got some good suggestions for marketing and publicizing the technology.

That isn't to say I've stopped doing stuff for Lexington. I have a couple of people coming in to get a demo of the computer mid next week. I'll also be helping a new customer learn more about JAWS and Kurzweil, and maybe demo some of the other technology too.

Finally I'm working on a sort of quick reference guide/program basics folder for library staff. For each of the different assistive programs, I'm putting together some basic tasks and commands customers almost always want to know when getting started. I've pretty much completed it, and will be showing it to other library staff tomorrow and next week. The nice thing is, pieces of this, or all of it, can be used at Dayton's Bluff too. There are also a couple of sections for basic Windows commands and tips that Riley and I can probably use in our computer trainings this summer. The project started out pretty simple, but kind of turned out to be a kind of quick reference manual for library staff, and will also probably be a really good starting point for the next CTEP member.

I'm also doing more ob searching and applying. I got an e-mail back from one requesting an interview for next Friday, which is a Corps day, so I'm hoping to get it changed because I think the job would be really fun. It's an assistive technology job in California.

I also have to make a decision very quickly about summer grad school. I have to quickly figure out if I can get it paid for, and register if I can because I think the first class is on June 5. In a way, I would rather just have the summer devoted to work, but the class is only offered during the summer, so I should probably find a way to take it. The plus side is, from what my instructor who's also the head of the department told me, the last 2 classes I took were the hardest and took the most effort of all of them. Oh, which reminds me, I got somewhere around a 99% last semester! Woohoo! I rock!

Finally the AU committee is still working on the toolkit and video. We're meeting here at Lexington tomorrow morning to hopefully finalize some more things on the video and toolkit. I really have to get cracking and finish a template tonight to show at the meeting tomorrow. I've started, and know what design I'm going for, but I just have to sit down and finish it.

And with the 3 day weekend, I'll hopefully have some fun. I didn't get to grill out last weekend like I'd hoped, but maybe this weekend. I'll also probably kick back and read some for the CTEP book club just to keep my hours up. Maybe some friends and I will get together to do something outside or play some cards again. And of course there's the DS when it's super hot outside...

I'm also looking for a new LCD monitor for my desktop at home. Right now I have this beastly CRT monitor that puts out tons of heat, and is really dark for some strange reason. I really want to get a Dell 19 or 20 inch widescreen model, so if anyone knows of a good deal, let me know. Anything to lessen the burden of my air conditioner...

That's about all for this week, so have a good long weekend. I'll be back again next week.

Well, this week has been another interesting and busy one. Sadly, no one new has been coming to use the assistive technology. We still do have a couple of regulars that come in at least a couple times a week, which is great. I've really beeing working on outreach again this past week. I've put together a list of organizations that have newsletters that might publish an article on the assistive technology services at the library.

I'm also working on the transition to Dayton's Bluff. I've been contacting various colleges and universities around the area to see what types of assistive technology they offer, what people find most useful, and any suggestions they may have as we're expanding our assistive tech. Since Lexington will be closing in just over a month, I'm starting to think of ways to advertise the services I'll have available at Dayton's Bluff soon. The interesting part is figuring out just what we'll have. I know we have a version of Kurzweil and Dragon there, but I'm not sure if there is any other software that's not installed. I don't want to advertise products or services that aren't there. We're also thinking about adding some additional software to the machine, so a lot of things are up in the air right now.

I'm still working on the various committee projects as well. I've found a few good possibilities for background music for the video. there's one in particular I think might work well, but I also want a variety of music styles to choose from. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to work more on the toolkit layout and some more audio.

I haven't really had much time for anything else this week. I've been trying to catch up and get a little ahead on hours, especially since I was sick for a couple of days last week. It sounds like I may get together with some friends for a couple games of cards and maybe a BBQ if the weather is nice.

Until next time.

I'm back for another week, and it's been an interesting one. I've actually been fighting some nasty cold/flu thing since Saturday afternoon. It was odd too, because I felt great when I got up that morning, but midway through the day, I just started to feel sick. I was rather out of it for the next few days. Yesterday was the first day I actually started feeling human again.

I've still gotten quite a bit of work done this past week. I'm really working on outreach for the library. I just put together a newsletter article/press release about the assistive tech and training we have at the library. My plan is to get it posted in area and disability related publications, as well as a few websites.

I also attended a presentation on Dragon Naturally Speaking at MCIL (Metro Center for Independant Living) last Thursday. It was actually very interesting, and I learned a lot. I'm still new to using Dragon, so I got some good tips, commands, and suggestions to help make Dragon work better. I also met the tech person at MCIL, and he was very cool. We had a good talk about technology in general, assistive technology, and what we had at the library. When I get my article approved, I will be sending it to MCIL so it can be put on their website. I also did a couple minute presentation to everyone at the demonstration on the different technology and services we had at the library for free. I handed out some business cards and fliers, and people seemed pretty interested. I hope something comes from it.

I've also been working a bit more on the whole future job search thing. I've applied for a couple jobs, and posted my resume on some good job websites. I'm still really thinking about doing another year of AmeriCorps, but I'm looking at other options too.

Between all of this, I've been checking in with a couple of websites on a little event going on down in L.A. this week, that I really wish I were at right now. The Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 is going on this week. It's basically a huge press event focused on all the newest and coolest tech toys and video games that will be coming out in the next year or so. There's actually a lot of very cool stuff to look forward to. I'm especially excited about Nintendo's new system that will totally change the way people play video games. The DS was a great start, but their new home console is completely different than anything else. I can't wait!

It's rather hard to explain in words. It's something you just have to see. You basically don't have to worry about complicated controllers with lots of buttons. You have two separate pieces to the controller, one which is like a TV remote, and the other has an analog stick. Both of these pieces have motion sensors, so you just do the actions in a game rather than pressing a button. Swing the controller like a baseball bat or golf club. Flick it forward and pull back to fish. Aim a gun in a shooting game by pointing on the screen, or perform actual slash movements to use a sword in-game. The cool thing is, you can do the actual motions, or simply do small gestures with your wrist. I can't wait to see all the new possibilities of this new controller. So what's the system called? It's actually the Wii, pronounced "we." I know, I was rather confused too. I still don't know if I like the name, but everything else looks extremely cool, so I'm getting it anyway.

That's about all for this week. Next week I'll be working more on library outreach, training, the AU committee video project, and who knows what else. I'ts just great to be feeling well again.

Well, I finally made it. Yes, I have completed my training module and finished the semester. We had our last class last night, where everyone talked about their projects, what they did, what went well, what didn't, and what they learned from the whole processes over the last two semesters. It was quite interesting, and everyone seemed to have some of the same problems. I wasn't the only one who planned big last semester. Pretty much everyone had to focus their project scope a bit this semester. Everyone's projects went through some pretty significant changes from their original plans as well. There were some pretty cool projects too. I'm just really happy this project is now done. I've been putting a lot of work into it the past few weeks, and it's cool to see the final product. My end report for the class was a wapping 140 pages, oh yeah...

This week's good for another reason. I'm finally credit card debt free! I've been working like mad the last few months to get rid of this debt, and I've finally succeeded. Yay! Now on to savings and student loans...

Work has been really busy lately too. I've met with a couple customers again, and things are working out well. They're learning a ot, and I'm learning more about teaching, and what I don't know or remember in certain programs. I use Kurzweil myself, but don't regularly use some of the shortcuts and commands people have asked about, so I'm trying to refresh my memory on some of those things.

I'm also working on some training and reference materials for library staff. We decided it would be a good idea to have some basic documentation for staff on how to get people started with each of the programs. I'm making a few documents with some basic instructions and requirements staff should know to get customers started. Most of the programs aren't too bad. It's pretty simple to learn the basics in Magic and Kurzweil. Jaws might be a little more tricky though. It's easily the most complicated program to learn and use, since most people don't use the keyboard.

I'm also still working on outreach. I'm attending a presentation this afternoon at MCIL on some assistive technology, voice recognician software I think. I want to learn more about this topic, and it will be a great way to let peple know what we have, and start networking with MCIL. I'm also working on an article/press release that we can put in various newsletters advertising our assistive technology.

The AU committee met on Monday to go over all of our raw video footage and see what we had. For a couple minute video, we have a lot of video footage, a little over an hour. Now it's on to writing a script, and figuring out how to piece everything together, the hard part in my opinion. The video is now being used as an intro piece to our toolkit we're developing. We found out that our proposal for the CTCNet Conference was rejected, so we can slow down a bit and refocus our plans a bit. Our current plan is to finish the video and put together the toolkit. This will keep us plenty busy until the end of the year. I'm glad we can slow down some now.

Our committee roles have changed a bit too. One of our committee members has accepted a new job, so will be leaving next week. We also have a new committee head. For the next couple of months I'll be taking over the role of secretary, and the last couple of months I'll be the new committee head. I'm not too excited about being the leader, but I suppose it's good experience.

Aside from all that, I'm starting the job hunt again. August wil be here very soon, so I should start looking now. I haven't yet decided whether I'll stay in CTEP for another year yet or not. Either way, I've learned and done a lot. This weekend I plan to hopefully just relax a bit and enjoy the nice weather.

Hello. I'm back again. I'm doing an extra blog entry this week to write some thoughts on a book I recently read for the CTEP book club, which I found rather interesting. I'll be back again tomorrow for my regular updates, but for now...

The book I recently Read is titled, High Tech heretic, Why Computers Don't Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian written by Clifford Stoll. I was looking for a good book to read for the book club, and after seeing this title, I was really curious. It was a quite interesting read, and kind of goes against a lot of what we're trying to do as CTEP members.

The book covered a variety of topics why the author thought computers didn't belong in the classroom. Many of these I agreed with to some extent, or at least understood his point of view. He provided good examples that backed up his thoughts, and many of them made sense. However I think it was a bit to exadurated. By the time you're done reading the book, you get the feeling computers are the worst thing ever, which he says isn't the case. I think it would have been good to include some counterpoints, and explain how technology and computers can help in a classroom, or at least how we can fix these problems he brings up, rather than simply pointing out the negatives.

There's definitely something to be said for limiting the use of computers in the classroom I think. One example he commonly used was math. It's very important to learn the basics of math, like the multiplication tables, and how to do math by hand if the need arises. Yes, you have to still know a little about the right order to perform calculations in a complex math problem when using a calculator, but it's good to know the mechanics of each step. I can identify with this pretty well. Recently I was doing some quick math for something, and I went stupid for a minute. I forgot how to borrow when subtracting. I quickly figured it out again, but I've gotten so used to just using the calculator.

Another big point was how flashy and interactive computer games and programs aren't as good as people say. You don't need to have a computer to play an interactive game. This kind of thing can be done in the classroom with a teacher and classmates just as easily, with no technical problems. This is true. However I like interactive content on the computer myself because I can study better on my own. I don't feel I'm learning much when I'm just reading a list of terms in order and memorizing them all for the test the next day. When I was in college, we had a cool little Flash game that was something like the Millionaire gameshow. This was both fun, and it made studying easier because I was getting the questions in a different order, and I wanted to see how far I could get in the game.

Another point he made was that laptops aren't as portable as we'd like to think. Books shouldn't go away. Yes you can cary a laptop in a backpack, but there's more to worry about. For instance, you don't have to worry about a book's batteries running out, or your book crashing in the middle of reading a chapter. Also, a book doesn't break if left in the cold or dropped from a couple feet. These are all valid points. I love my laptop, but there are sometimes where it's not as convenient as I'd like. I have to boot the thing, which takes a couple of minutes if I want to open a file or take a quick note. PDA's and cell phones are starting to solve this problem, but still, sometimes paper is just quicker and easier.

The one section I really did like though was on presentations, and using programs like PowerPoint. If used correctly, they can add to a presentation. Most of the time however, they're used entirely the wrong way. I know I've sat through my fair share of super boring presentations where the presenter or instructor just reads the PowerPoint show word for word, or has the bulletpoints there, and reads from a book or paper instead. People even do this without technology. I've also been to many presentations where the presenters read word for word from their written speech. Either way, these presentations are very very painful, and no one learns anything.

I do think PowerPoints have their use though. If the main topics are listed, it gives the audiance a good idea what will be discussed. The presenter should still refer to written notes or the PowerPoint as a reference, and actually give the presentation in his/her own words. Use it as a tool, not a crutch.

This brings me to my last point about the book. The one recurring theme I see with technology is computers, the Internet, and technology in general, is that people see the technology as the solution, not a tool They think the newest computer toys will automatically fix their problems or do the work for them. I look at it like the recent video gaming buzz in the news lately, where parents complain about violent video games because the parents are relying on these games to raise their children instead of the parents themselves. That's a whole other topic/rant though.

I use the computer for many, many things every day, from news, shopping, communication, to entertainment. But I still see it as a helpful tool, and know it's not going to solve my problems just because it's cool technology. Some things are just easier, quicker, and more efficient when done in person.

Overall I still thought the book was quite interesting, especially from the CTEP perspective. It's kind of taking the exact opposite view that we're taking on the Internet and technology. I really wonder how other CTEP members would react to this book, and can't help but think it would make an interesting book discussion.