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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Flattered

I woke up this morning thinking of how much I had to do today. It was one of those days of lots of meetings followed by class. Except this class was different, this class I was actually conducting a 30 min lesson. To be honest the only difference that made was more work in between meetings to get my handouts ready. I have done so many presentation so far in my career and especially on this particular topic (Text-to-
Speech technology) that it really didn’t faze me. Hardly even worth mentioning except that it was part of my day. But I will get back to class later

I started the day doing some research for my mini lesson tonight, finishing up my outline and hand outs. I have a tendency to wait until the last minute on things. My fist meeting of the day was to go and observe the Dissertation Defense of one of my colleges. I am really glad I went! It was an enlightening experience. For one I had always envisioned a defense, and I’m probably not alone in this, to be like those old spy movies where they interrogate the prisoner. I, the doc student, sit in a dark room with a light shining in my face, while five faceless figures bombard me with questions, relentlessly drilling me. But that is not what happened at all. My college presented her research and her committee asked a few questions. But mostly words of support were said to her. It was a friendly calm experience. Well that’s how I perceived it anyway.

My next meeting in the day was great! For my job as a graduate assistant for the Technology and Distance programs at the COE, I am the administrator of a couple of databases and online systems. As part of my responsibilities I occasionally present to faculty both individually and in groups. Today I had the opportunity to present to the faculty of my department, something I enjoy doing. Well except the fist time, which is a story for another time? Today I presented on one of the systems I work with, while my boss and supervisor (I technically have 2 supervisors at work) presented on other aspects of the office. Well while my supervisor was presenting on the other system I work with, he asked for those of the faculty who have used it to talk about their experiences. One of my professors, and mentors stood up and talked about the system. He then closed his comments praising me for my efforts, really praising me. Then another professor I work with added a few accolades, followed by another faculty. I was a bit embarrassed and well very flattered. I thought to myself “wow this praise in front of my bosses and my entire department. It couldn’t be a better place and time for it.” My boss even commented to me after we left the meeting about getting complimented. I have never taken to compliments well. As a matter of fact I am more prone to come up with excuses as a response to being complimented then to just accept it. And more prone to just accept being criticized the come up with excuses for it. I know this may seem the opposite of how it should be, but I think it all has to do with my LD and lack of self confidence. It is pretty common for students with LD to have low self confidence. And I am sure I will talk more about this in later postings.

My next meeting of the day was pretty routine, just a meeting about a new online interface I am going to probably end up being some what involved with. Looks like a cool program though.

And finally was my class. I am doing my internship this semester co-teaching a class with that same professor who started the praise during the faculty meeting. I did think him for it by the way when we were setting up for class. I had 30 min to present the first of 2 parts on Text-to-Speech software today. I ran out of time of course, but in a good way. The students were asking questions and we were starting a discussion. But the class had to move on to other things. I am glad I set it up as a 2 parter. I felt good about my presentation and my professor also said it went well. As a whole I think the overall class went well. I am looking forward to finishing my lesson. One of the things I am working on under the guidance of my professor is to make my lessons more personal and more story like. I tend to be very didactic when I tech, and I agree that more personal and story like instructors are better instructors. I also feel I can be a good role model for other with LD so I am trying to bring my lessons home, so to say.

I am still on a high from that faculty meeting!

I woke up this morning thinking of how much I had to do today. It was one of those days of lots of meetings followed by class. Except this class was different, this class I was actually conducting a 30 min lesson. To be honest the only difference that made was more work in between meetings to get my handouts ready. I have done so many presentation so far in my career and especially on this particular topic (Text-to-
Speech technology) that it really didn’t faze me. Hardly even worth mentioning except that it was part of my day. But I will get back to class later

I started the day doing some research for my mini lesson tonight, finishing up my outline and hand outs. I have a tendency to wait until the last minute on things. My fist meeting of the day was to go and observe the Dissertation Defense of one of my colleges. I am really glad I went! It was an enlightening experience. For one I had always envisioned a defense, and I’m probably not alone in this, to be like those old spy movies where they interrogate the prisoner. I, the doc student, sit in a dark room with a light shining in my face, while five faceless figures bombard me with questions, relentlessly drilling me. But that is not what happened at all. My college presented her research and her committee asked a few questions. But mostly words of support were said to her. It was a friendly calm experience. Well that’s how I perceived it anyway.

My next meeting in the day was great! For my job as a graduate assistant for the Technology and Distance programs at the COE, I am the administrator of a couple of databases and online systems. As part of my responsibilities I occasionally present to faculty both individually and in groups. Today I had the opportunity to present to the faculty of my department, something I enjoy doing. Well except the fist time, which is a story for another time? Today I presented on one of the systems I work with, while my boss and supervisor (I technically have 2 supervisors at work) presented on other aspects of the office. Well while my supervisor was presenting on the other system I work with, he asked for those of the faculty who have used it to talk about their experiences. One of my professors, and mentors stood up and talked about the system. He then closed his comments praising me for my efforts, really praising me. Then another professor I work with added a few accolades, followed by another faculty. I was a bit embarrassed and well very flattered. I thought to myself “wow this praise in front of my bosses and my entire department. It couldn’t be a better place and time for it.” My boss even commented to me after we left the meeting about getting complimented. I have never taken to compliments well. As a matter of fact I am more prone to come up with excuses as a response to being complimented then to just accept it. And more prone to just accept being criticized the come up with excuses for it. I know this may seem the opposite of how it should be, but I think it all has to do with my LD and lack of self confidence. It is pretty common for students with LD to have low self confidence. And I am sure I will talk more about this in later postings.

My next meeting of the day was pretty routine, just a meeting about a new online interface I am going to probably end up being some what involved with. Looks like a cool program though.

And finally was my class. I am doing my internship this semester co-teaching a class with that same professor who started the praise during the faculty meeting. I did think him for it by the way when we were setting up for class. I had 30 min to present the first of 2 parts on Text-to-Speech software today. I ran out of time of course, but in a good way. The students were asking questions and we were starting a discussion. But the class had to move on to other things. I am glad I set it up as a 2 parter. I felt good about my presentation and my professor also said it went well. As a whole I think the overall class went well. I am looking forward to finishing my lesson. One of the things I am working on under the guidance of my professor is to make my lessons more personal and more story like. I tend to be very didactic when I tech, and I agree that more personal and story like instructors are better instructors. I also feel I can be a good role model for other with LD so I am trying to bring my lessons home, so to say.

I am still on a high from that faculty meeting!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Burden of Accommodations

As a college student with a disability, making sure you have the appropriate accommodations is one of the most important things there is. Lately I've been really thinking about this for several reasons. First off, this relates to my assistantship where I am assisting one of my faculty members with her online course by providing technical support. One of the students in the class has a disability and requires accommodations in the class. We, the professor and I, had suspected they might need accommodations because we had heard rumor of their disability. The professor had tried contacting this student a number of times to find out exactly what accommodations they might need. The student never responded. This particular student missed the first of four online conferences, I honestly don't know if it is because of his/her need for accommodation or other reasons, there were other mitigating circumstances for several students for this conference. However it is now the third week of the semester and he/she finally contacted the DSS office on campus to arrange accommodations for the class. The problem is that we are now scrambling to try and make this class accessible to them when if he/she had the forethought to contact the needed people before hand all this would've been done. I mention this partly out of frustration and partly because it is a sore spot with me.

Being a student with a disability myself I realized the importance of “having all your ducks in a row” before the semester begins. As a matter of fact I remember expressing to several of my professors how I was kicking myself and feeling guilty that I was getting such a late start on preparing for this semester by only contacting them and arranging my own combinations of couple days before the semester began instead of my usual week or two. I think one of the reasons, and a pretty major one at that, for my success at the postsecondary level is my self advocacy. One of the main changes between high school and college for a student with a disability is the level of self advocacy needed. You see in high school laws are there to protect students with disabilities so it is the teacher's responsibility to make sure they get all the combinations they need, it's not as simple as that but that's the gist of it. Whereas in college student first must disclose their disability before any accommodation arrangements can be made. The student also has to take the first step by contacting the DSS office every semester to receive accommodations for their classes.

As far as my own combinations go, today presented with a little glitch that I hope I worked out. The DSS office sent me e-mail today with questions regarding a course reader I given them to scan and provide electronic text for me. When I spoke with the professor about this e-mail he cleared up some of the confusion in the discussion he mentioned a change in the syllabus. Now ordinarily this would be a big deal, except that the DSS office uses the syllabus as he tried for when and which ordered to stand with readings from this reader. It occurred to me that the professors’ thought behind what the DSS office would do is they would just take the tire readers scan it be done with it. However having worked in a DSS office myself I know this is not a practical option, I am not the only student who is requesting materials to be scanned. So the office needs to prioritize and order what gets scanned when. Basically today I met with the counselor in charge of providing the electronic text and gave her the new syllabus timeline. However I'm sure I'll be needing to contact her again as the semester progresses to keep changing the order of things. I just hope they can get as much of the scanning done as soon as possible so the fluidity of the syllabus does not become too much of a burden.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

My Readings

You may have been thinking to yourself “how does someone with a learning disability handle the reading load involved with a PhD program?” then again you may no. in either case I am going to tell you.

Because I am studying technology and people with disabilities. I usually provide my own accommodations when it comes to the technology side of things. What I do is take my printed text, whether it be from a text book or from an article, and scan it into my computer. I then take that scanned image and use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to convert that image of my readings to electronic text (e-text). Once my print readings are electronic I then edit the e-text for recognition errors and formatting. Once edited, I use text-to-speech software to covert the e-text to mp3. then once in mp3 format I use a program that converts mp3 to audiobook format. This allows me to bookmark and adjust the speed of the reading once on my iPod. Once all this is done I take the original print version and my iPod (now loaded with the audio version) and head off to a coffee house or café to read. I listen to the audio and read along at the same time.

You may be wondering to yourself “why format the text if it’s just getting converted to audio?” then again my may not. Anyway I discovered that the software I use to covert text to audio doesn’t pause unless I tell it to. It also handles some punctuation with, well not enough of a pause. So I go thought and put the appropriate punctuation in the appropriate spots to make it more comfortable for me too read. So this formatting thing is really a personal preference and not a necessary step. What it does is allow me to concentrate better on the reading and not get caught up on “there should be a pause there” or “where was that title it was just part of the first sentence”.

I’m sure that seems like a long complex process just to read an assignment. Well it is. But up until I started doing that, and I have really only been using this method for my PhD program not really before. Anyway up until I started this method, I have never completed the assigned reading for a class. I would start off reading, then skim a bit (never could skim well either) then just jump to the chapter summary or discussion of the article. I now complete all, well almost all my readings. My grades are better now then they have ever been. So the work is defiantly worth the effort.

Plus I don’t do all the scanning/OCR myself. The Scanning/OCR being the big and slow part of the process. I take a good amount of my readings to the disabled student services (DSS) office on campus and they provide me with an e-text version of my readings. I have also been relatively successful in contacting the publishers of my text books, and after providing them with the necessary information (proof I purchased the book, proof of my disability, etc.) have been able to receive an e-text version of the book from them. I do want to take this opportunity to then the publishers you don’t know how vital that is for me.

The only draw back of having others provide me with the e-text is receiving it in a timely manner. For example this semester. I also admit it is partly my fault, I started the process late. (we will talk about timeliness and timelines later) but I have yet to receive any e-text from the DSS office I know they are backed up especially this time of year. And I also have not received anything from the publishers of my texts, well not yet anyway. Fortunately I have been able to scan the readings for the next couple of weeks myself. And the article I sent to the DSS office was more of a reference and I didn’t need it scanned.

I have noticed that I don’t need all my readings scanned. If it is just a reference article not something we really need to read through then I don’t want it in e-text. It is easier for me to just skim for what I am looking for.

Well that about does it for my method of reading. I did not discuss software specifically because I don’t want to promote one program over another. I am happy to share the specifics to anyone who asks.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Voice-Recognition

I have been thinking about an idea of what I would like to research this semester. This semester I'm taking a class on general research methods and the major project in this class is to write a research proposal. So you may see as the semester progresses and as my blog progresses the writing style make change. I was working with one of my professors today and we were discussing our research idea (I'm not going to share it now). What is encouraging is that he suggested he would like to help me out with this research idea. Before I get too excited about it and move forward I do need to speak with several other faculty because the goal would be to write a proposal the semester and conduct the research and write it up the following semester in a different class. You see, as part of my program I have to create a portfolio. One of the items in this portfolio is a research project, I'm hoping that this idea can become that project. Just to give you an idea, because I realized I never discussed what my research interests are. My primary research interest is looking at technology specifically assistive technology and students with learning disabilities at post secondary settings. Yes I know it sounds like a mouthful basically, it boils down to special technology for college students with a learning disability.

A little background on why I got involved in this field. My learning disability affects me in the area of written language. Basically, I have difficulty with writing and reading. The writing difficulty is visible in the mechanics of how I write. That means my spelling, punctuation, organization, and even handwriting. The reason I mention this is because this is one of the factors that led to my pursuing a career in technology and people with disabilities. I first started using technology as an accommodation for myself when I was a junior in high school. My high school chemistry teacher felt my handwriting was so poor that he had me type all of my lab reports so he could read what I was saying. Having always enjoyed working with computers even back in the day, this was no big deal for me. When I was in college myself I took a class on computers for people with disabilities, and thought "wow, this stuff is really cool!" My first memories of seeing "assistive technology" in action stems from watching science-fiction television as a child. One of my favorite television shows was the original BattleStar Galactica. At the end of every episode the commander of the ship would make entry into his journal. What was so fascinating to me was the method in which he made these entries. Instead of writing them out by hand or typing them on a keyboard/typewriter he would hold a microphone dictate these entries directly into the computer. The memory of that still has a wow factor, despite the dated technology that was used, and old hand-held microphone and in old terminal with the green on black display,. As a matter of fact I think of those scenes every time I use voice recognition software today. And I think to myself "how cool is this?"

As a side note, today's entry into this blog was completely dictated using voice recognition technology and a wireless Bluetooth microphone. It's kind of cool to think that I am right now using fancier flashier technology then the writers dreamed of in that old sci-fi television show.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Hopefully the begging of something

I am going to try something new here. It has been mentioned to me that I should write about myself for my dissertation. I think this is a good idea, however I don’t agree that the dissertation is the time to do it. My belief is, it will be more meaningful if I write about myself after I graduate with a PhD.

You see currently I am in my 2nd year of a doctoral program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, working towards a Ph.D. in Special Education. The reason it has been suggested that I write about myself is, I am a student with a Learning Disability. I have been diagnosed with LD since I was in the 3rd grade.

Recently while reading for a research methods class I am currently taking I came up with the idea of blogging my experiences through the program as a way to keep notes to reference for any future papers or articles I may write about myself. But more importantly as a way to share my experiences with others. And isn’t that what it is all about, to share what we know to help others?

During the progression of my entries in this blog you will learn more about me and my background. The goal of this project is to document my daily, but most likely semi-daily progress/adventures/journey though school and academic life. I may even though in what life is like here in Hawai‘i. Especially in the middle of winter when it is still nice sunny and warm here, and cold most other places J.