Project
CBCN:Computer-based
Collaborative Notetaking
Bo
Adan, Center
for Electronic Study, University
of Oregon, Eugene, OR
>>
My name is Bo Adan, and
I am on the faculty at the
University of Oregon. We
do research in -- there
are institutes within institutes.
Pockets within pockets.
And we are federally funded
to do work with various
special needs and at-risk
populations, so some of
our work includes a migrant
education grant. There is
a five-year project to work
with secondary school students,
who are in the migrant ed
population. We have recently
done research with learning
disabled and hearing impaired
and upper mobility dysfunction
in the secondary schools.
And
this current grant, which
is federally funded by the
office of special education
programs, does work with
post-secondary community
colleges, and transition
to four-year institutions
with the hearing impairment
population, and what we
are doing, I think, it is
really nice, I originally
Cheryl had scheduled me
to make this presentation,
I think it was at 9:00 this
morning, and a couple of
weeks ago she called and
said, can you do it later
in the afternoon. This is
right about the time I want
to take a nap, so that wasn't
my first choice. But, in
terms of the pedagogy in
terms of what we have been
doing today, this really
flows well from what we
have been talking about.
The assistive listening
and learning devices that
were talked about in the
full-day workshop yesterday,
and in this morning's workshop.
Not the first one, but the
one before lunch, with Terri
Goldstein, and talking about
college choice, and student
access.
So,
I think that, what I want
to do is I want to make
this presentation to you
because I worked so hard
on it, but really, I want
to open it up and have a
discussion with you all.
I want to demonstrate the
technology that we use in
the post-secondary education
setting, and, and then get
some feedback from you and
see how it is you can see
yourself using this technology,
what impediments it might
provide because as you saw
yesterday, there is this
wonderful technology out
here, but once you set it
up, sometimes there are
problems. And what kinds
of problems, as well as
successes, so you think
you might encounter using
some of the technologies
we saw yesterday, as well
as something that we --
that I will show you today.
Because, clearly, the technology
is always up and coming
and improving, but it still
has a long way to go in
some areas, if we want to
make this facile, in other
words, we want to make this
as easy to use for our students
and service providers in
the classroom. So, let me
step out of my own way here.
So,
the current research that
we are doing feeds off of
an earlier project. It was
called Project Connect.
We were working in the secondary
schools with learning disabled
and hearing impaired populations
to provide in-class network
note taking, which means
that we were going into
the schools. We were, both
training and ourselves,
conducting network note
taking, network note taking
simply means, as a term
of art, that we are doing
wireless note taking. It
is simultaneous. It is collaborative,
and it allows for both the
student and the service
provider, whether that be
an interpreter or, or a
staff person or a hired
note taker, to take notes
simultaneously with a student,
as we talk about this more
today, you will see that
for various -- for the various
populations there is greater
or lesser degrees of simultaneousness,
so with a student who is
profoundly deaf, that student
may be using the notes as
a resource, but is not collaborating
as much because that student
will be looking at the interpreter.
Students who have mild hearing
impairments, will be doing
much more collaboration
with the note taker in class.
So, the -- so, this system
is, is facile in the sense
it allows for various uses.
The
CBCN part of this project
stands for computer-based
collaborative note taking.
The computer-based is what
I will demonstrate for you
in several minutes. The
collaborative is what I
have alluded to. It allows
for both note taker and
student to work together
to develop notes and note
taking strategies in class.
And then the note taking
is exactly that. We also
do work with students outside
of class, and in talking
about study skills and study
strategies but that's a
different component than
what I am going to be talking
about today. What we are
doing, in this project,
in the earlier research,
we were working, we were
working in the classroom.
We were working with resource
room folks. We were working
with, with Voc Rehab. We
were working with regional
programs, particularly in
our program, which was localized
in Lane. We were working
in Lane and South Lane,
so we were the secondary,
then the middle and the
high schools there, but
primarily there, we were
going in, rather than training
other people to do the work,
we would go in and do the
work, show people was we
were doing, and we would
also have them help us.
What
we didn't like about that
is that once that grant
was done the work was done.
The project was done, and
there wasn't a way to continue
this effort. And so we wrote
a second grant that would
work with, so that we could
talk to high school students
who were going to be going
into college but then be
in the colleges and talk
with the disability services,
staff with voc rehab, outside
of the schools who are service
providers, and to try to
train them to do some of
this work, and teach them,
so train the trainers, in
other words, so that this
work would carry on after
the life of this grant,
because we are in -- this
is a -- there particular
grant is four years in duration,
and we are nearing the end
of the second year. And
we are spreading ourselves
very thin. At this point,
we are in a few community
colleges in Oregon, we are
going -- we are now expanding
into other community colleges
in the western United States.
That's as far as we can
go, and as the project coordinator
on the grant, that's faster
I can go without literally
splitting into lots of pieces.
So, we are working with
college disability services
staff to provide that academic
support system. We are supporting
the hearing impaired students
in class. This is in their
regular education classrooms,
so we are going in, like,
like you saw yesterday,
I am sorry, was it Patti?
>>
Pat.
>>
Pat, excuse me, as Pat was
talking about, there are
several note taking systems.
There is CART and CAN and
C-Print. There are varying
costs, and other issues
associated with providing
any of these services. Likewise,
with this service, this
service tends to be less
expensive than the other
ones, but there are always
costs and benefits to each
of them. So, my point in
presenting this information
to you, just in a brief
hour today, is to encourage
some of you who might be
interested in seeing how
this might work on any of
the college campuses that
you are either teaching
at or where you, or where
you are coordinating with,
maybe what we could do is
come out and do a presentation,
but there are a lot of different
things out there that are
very valuable, and so it
is not really that one --
one is better than the other.
Using as many of these technologies
as are available, I think,
is probably the best strategy.
And
what we are doing is we
are supporting them in class.
We are training note takers
and students, were use Mac
laptops in this case to
take notes from lecture
and discussion. What's really
nice about there is that
with the, the laptop computers
in the classroom, what you
can also do is when the
lights go down, and there
are video presentations,
you can still be taking
notes, obviously, because
with the, the back lighting
on the computer, you can
still see what you are doing.
In class, you can take notes,
it also, because of the
portability, you can also
move from desk-to-desk,
so that if you need to --
a lot of times, you will
have projects in class.
This was especially true
when we were in the secondary
schools. It is also true
in the, in the general education
classes, in, for undergraduates,
in writing classes, for
example, or labs, in biology,
that you are working in
small groups, and when you
do that, the portability
allows you to move with
the student rather than,
than bring everybody into
a corner somewhere of a
room. So, that's a nice
advantage of this technology.
This
moves slowly. Some of the
places we have worked, include
Lane Community College,
Chemeketa Community College,
we are trying to set it
up at Portland Community
College. Clark Hochstetler,
the director of disability
services there wanted to
start this up in the past
year but was on sabbatical
for the entire year, so
we are waiting until he
gets back to make some moves
there. There has been some
interest expressed, I can't
remember the name, it is
a community college in Oakland
but it is not called Oakland
Community College. Oakland,
California, not Oakland,
Oregon. And at -- I have
talked to some folks here
this week, in fact, from
southern Idaho, who are
interested in implementing
this, and from Utah State
College, as well.
This
is a community college disability
services interpreter. If
you have all got the handout,
you can follow along or
follow with the interpreter.
I have captioned what she
has to say in each of these
slides so you can read along
here. She's been working
in our project now. She
worked with us in our previous
research, so actually --
>>
Some people need the handout.
[video
shown]
>>
Oh, we have got -- they
are up here. She was actually
with us in our previous
research in project connect,
so had worked with students
who were transitioning into
LCC, from high school at
the time. What has been
really neat about having
done this work for several
years now, is that we just
got a call from her a couple
of weeks ago saying, oh,
so and so is going to be
graduating from high school,
and wants to be in this
program, what do you think
and what you want to come
out and meet with us, and
I said, oh, yeah, we worked
with him in 7th grade science,
so all of a sudden we have
students more familiar with
the technology than even
some of the disability services
staff because, except in
Cathy's case, because she's
been with us all along,
but this kid has been using
this on and off now for
five years. So, he's, he's
ready. He's ready to --
he's ready to take this
into school.
We
have another who is going
to be going to the university
-- this is at Lane Community
College. Another student
who is going to be attending
in the fall, the University
of Oregon, same situation.
And he's going to be majoring
in, in chemistry and physics,
and we are still trying
to think about wow, note
takers for chemistry and
physics, that will be the
next challenge but the technology
is up to the task. Let us
hope. All right then.
>>
The instructor specifically
said they don't know how
to work with students with
hearing impairments. They
don't have that experience.
And they don't think about
the simple, every day things
that we totally rely on
our hearing for. So, having
an instructor in the classroom
writing notes on the board
and continuing to lecture
to the blackboard while
they are making notes is
information that these hearing
impaired students generally
miss out on, especially
if they don't have any additional
accommodations.
>>
So, what -- these are some
of the issues we have been
talking about in the last
day or so, is that we have
got -- there are people
working with Vocational
Rehabilitation. There are
people who are working on
disability services. There
are people who are working
on service -- as service
providers in other ways
that are familiar with these
issues. And the instructors,
when you walk into the classroom,
as a hearing impaired student
or a learning disabled student
or students who has a need
for an accommodation, it
is not -- we did hear from,
from, from Martha this morning
that sometimes, you walk
into -- a student will walk
in, and know that they want
an accommodation, and need
an accommodation, but meet
reluctance or stubbornness
from an instructor, and
that's true, but we also
have instructors who are
incredibly well meaning,
who would bend over backwards
to do anything and everything
that they can. They simply
don't have the expertise
for working with an accommodating
student, and this is what
Cathy was speaking to.
So
you will have a teacher
who will be talking to you
like this. As they are writing
on the board, and they have
no idea that you are missing
out. And it is not because
they are insensitive. It
is not because they are
unkind. It is not because
they don't know what they
are doing as teachers. They
simply don't know how to
meet this special need.
And so our project, as well
as to work with the student
is to help educate the educators,
as we are all trying to
do.
I
have a friend who is a Ph.D.
years ago in geology, and
she and her fiancee went
to California to meet her
-- his parents. And they
were, I don't know what
had happened, there was
maybe, maybe a tremor that
had been happening in California
at the time, and the, the
parents asked Judy, do you
think the soon to be daughter-in-law,
well, do you think we should
get earthquake insurance?
And without missing a beat,
without hesitating, she
said well, yes, of course.
And even though they had
asked her, they really wanted
to hear a safe answer. They
wanted to hear no. Because
once she said yes, then
she had to convince them,
even though she felt no
need to have to convince
them, but she had to convince
them, and even still they
weren't into it. And she
says, well how can you be
so sure, and she said, well
that's what I do. See. For
her, having studied tectonic
plates all her graduate
school life, she knows,
she understands the need.
She's keen on that and sensitized
to it, in a way that we
working with deaf and hard
of hearing population are
more sensitive and sensitized
to, to the needs of this
population.
Whereas,
the regular education instructor
who, if that person is,
is not deaf or hard of hearing,
or is not married to someone
who is deaf or hard of hearing,
as we have talked about,
or has a child who is deaf
or hard of hearing, doesn't
have that exposure on a
day-to-day basis, and so
forgets or never knew how
to accommodate and meet
the needs of those students.
So, I think what Cathy is
saying here is really incredibly
important, is that there
is -- she's not saying that
there is anything wrong
with these instructors.
They simply don't know.
So,
what networked note taking
is doing with these students
in the classroom is, is
we are working with, with
students who have enrolled
in their regular education
classrooms. That sounds
almost trite, but it is
important to note because
the point is, to be with
these students where they
need the assistance. And
they need the assistance
in their regular education
classrooms. This is not
remediation. It is compensation.
It is how do we say, what
are you doing here. What
you are doing is, you are
trying to, to pass your
biology class. You are trying
to pass your English class.
You are trying to learn
something. You are trying
to hear something. Well,
where are we going to help
you? Not, with tutoring
outside of the classroom,
we want to be inside the
classroom and doing note
taking with you. Where are
you needed? Which is then
and there.
So,
they need that in-class
support for equitable access
to information, and we have
an assumption, as we are
working with them, that
they want to improve their
language acquisition, reading
and study skills, and some
students don't. And that's
important to know because
sometimes, my ego gets in
the way because boy, I think
this is so great and I want
it to help anyone and everyone
it can, but there are students
who don't want the assistance,
and you have to be open
to knowing that they may
not want this type or that
type of assistance. The
students, some of the students
we worked with at Chemeketa
Community College in Salem
for those of you, I don't
know how many of you here
are from Oregon or not,
those students are almost
exclusively coming from
OSD, Oregon School for the
Deaf. Those students' primary
and almost exclusive form
of communication is ASL.
That's how those students
want to receive services
in a classroom. And they
don't want the note taking.
And that -- some of them
were really happy to have
it, and into it, into the,
the nice technology, as
much as anything else, but
some really didn't want
that, as either a form of
access or communication.
And
so we had to, to take a
step back and say, okay.
We understand that. And
this isn't for everybody.
This is for students who
want it, not -- it is not
something that you, you
know, like a parent, say
you will have this because
it is good for you. It is,
working with those students
and various students to
see who this best serves.
So, and, and I should add,
one more thing, this may
or may not be to the student's
benefit, but again, we are
not their parents. And so
we have to decide, you know,
we have to decide what our
role is in, in advocating
with them and having them
advocate for themselves.
Because we have had students
who said that they don't
want this, and there is
one in particular that comes
to mind. He was going there
for about six months. He
didn't want it any more,
and we said sure, no problem.
Fine. And we started working
with another student because
we have limited technology
-- numbers of computers.
And three months later he
came back to us and said,
you know what? That was
the biggest mistake I ever
made. How can I get back
in, and we said, sure, fine,
you know. We had to wait
until another pair of computers
were freed up, but then
we were ready to work with
him again.
Some
students, though, like I
said, with Chemeketa, they
don't want it, and I am
not sure -- I mean, I am
sure that that is not to
their benefit because in
one particular case, a woman
was taking two English classes,
a history class, and a biology
class. And yeah, the biology,
too. All four of those classes
were text-heavy.
She
had a lot of reading to
do. And yet, her reading
skills were not very good,
and we talked with her about
how this note-taking service,
to the degree that she used
it or didn't use it, it
can still benefit her because
if she had the notes to
refer to, after receiving
ASL services, she could
start making connections
between the concepts that
were being signed and the
words. Because she was having
trouble simulating the reading
that she was doing at home.
And that's a problem that
a lot of the students, they
don't make that connection
or see, so that's why I
include that what we are
doing there is, we are wanting
to work with students as
much because they think,
and as much because we are
trying to prod them, move
them toward recognizing
this will help them improve
their language acquisition
skills.
There
was a student, one more
anecdote. There was a student
at a secondary school in
our previous research who
had the epiphany. It clicked
for her that one day she
was in her biology class,
and she didn't know meiosis.
It was either that or mitosis,
cell dividing, and she didn't
know that. She said well,
what's that? And she read
it in the notes. And her
interpreter signed it, oh,
she says, I know that. She
knew the concept, she didn't
know the word. And if she
didn't know that she didn't
know, she didn't know the
difference between the two,
she would be at home reading
chapter whatever, three
or four, on meiosis and
mitosis, because she knows
the concept but not the
word. And when she understood
that there was a gap, not
in her learning, but between
language acquisition, text-based
and English acquisition,
that's language based, she
started using the notes
in different ways.
So,
what do we do? So, this
is the need for these students.
What we do is computer-based
collaborative note taking
is using laptop computers,
radio wave networks and
collaborative software.
I will describe each component
of these and tell you a
little bit about them. The
laptops, I am actually going
to bring all of these up
all at once. Don't feel
like you have to simulate
any of this. It is just
a bit of history so that
I can show you where we
are at now. The laptop technology
has been around for several
years now. The earlier versions,
these Power Book, 145s the
Power Book 145s were out
around '91, '92. The only
way that you could have
interconnectivity between
computers was to use a printer
cord at the time. So, that
made you pretty static in
a row, unlike what I told
you at the beginning of
the presentation, which
is what we will get to in
a little built. Where we
started, we were in a classroom
but you were basically sitting
side-by-side, and to a degree,
that can get to the student,
you are putting them into
a corner or a part of the
room, not allowing the students
to move freely as you would
any other student. You are
setting them up.
And
what was nice about the
evolution of the technology,
as you can see not only
was the technology getting
better, but physically,
geographically it say freeing
up the students in the room,
and the interpreter, and,
and the note taker. So what
happened was that we have
-- the reason I put these
up here, is also to say
that all of these technologies
are still available, and
they still work, and they
are still inexpensive because
the, the newer, the technology
gets, the cheaper the older
technology gets, and while
I wouldn't recommend a couple
of these early models that
I am going to talk about
briefly, several of these,
which are now a few years
old, are on the market,
inexpensive. You can get
them refurbished. They run
the same software I will
be demonstrating for you
today, and they, you know,
they work just fine.
Computer
technology, unlike other
industries, the computer
industry -- the computer
industry has a computer
turnover every six months
to a year, they come out
with something bright and
shiny, new and improved.
Well, however new and improved
it is, it is not all that
much better unless you are
something who -- you are
somebody that is a graphic
designer or architect, and
somebody that needs the
brand new software to accomplish
what you do in your work.
But if you are doing this
kind of in-class writing,
when you are talking about
using these computers for
word processing, and for
accomplishing your assignments
and doing all kinds of other
things, you don't need to
have the highest machine
that's out there. And if
you wait, if you like a
high-end machine, like one
of the ones I will show
you, if you wait another
six months, even those machines
will come down several hundred
dollars in price, so as
I like to say in meditation,
just everybody take a deep
breath, you know, just wait
and the prices will come
down.
As
the technology evolved,
they came out with a power
book -- these 520s. What
was nice about the 520s
at the time, and those are
the ones still available.
They are black and white.
However, they have two battery
ports. And so that's great
in a classroom, because
you have double the battery
life of these older model
laptops, so if you want
to -- if you know you are
going to be note taking
as a note taker or as a
student, if you know you
are going to go from class
a to class b to class c,
one after the other, then
either you need a place
to plug in eventually or,
you need -- or you need
a computer that sustains
use for several hours without
interruption. And this 520
allows you to do that. Again,
the newer model, that I
will show you, even though
it only has one battery
port, they do last several
hours now because the batteries
have improved. But that
was an issue for us yesterday,
right, we were talking about
the, the, we were talking
about the assistive listening
devices, and which one were
we talking about?
>>
The FM system.
>>
Thank you, we were talking
about the FM system and
that
They
eat batteries, and I have
had that experience myself
in a class with, with, I
was working with a graduate
student in philosophy. And
we were in, because she's
a graduate student, the
nature of those classes
tends to be two and three-hour
seminars, rather than a
50-minute lecture three
days a week, so one particular
class that I did note taking
with her in was a 3-hour
-- 3-hour seminar once a
week, and by the second
hour, between the second,
going into the third hour,
she was having problems
with that. So, even though
it seems like sort of a
silly issue to talk about
when we are talking about
this high end technology,
batteries are what power
the technology and it is
really important to think
about that if you are thinking
about using these technologies
in the classroom and again
these power book 520 models
have those power points.
The G3, which is -- I left
this too high. This one.
Is a really nice machine.
But, it is more for presentational
work --
>>
audience speaker:
Would you like me to move?
>>Bo
Adan: No, no, I can't
lift it because it is plugged
into too many things. These
are wonderful machines.
They aren't necessary for
doing this work. What's
really nice about them,
though, is that they have
come down considerably in
price. I mentioned the migrant
education grant that a colleague
of mine is involved in.
She was able with the Oregon
State Board of Education
to, to get about 20 of these.
At some, you know, wonderful
discount, not only because
she was in the ed institution
but also buying several
of them at, at one time,
and also, then again, because
these G3s which were so
wonderful two years ago,
are now, which were so wonderful
two years ago, they are
not dinosaurs but falling
now that we have Ibooks
and the G4 and all these
other brand new banking
technologies, so all after
sudden, a computer, which
honestly, this is like,
I don't know what, this
is like a 1995 Toyota. You
know. It will still run
for another hundred thousand
miles and you don't need
to trade it in. If it works
just fine for those purposes
and it is wonderful in the
classroom and what she is
doing in the migrant ed
project.
But
what I really want to talk
about are these Ibooks,
which although they are
newer on the market, they,
are actually less expensive
than these G3s were. These
are running right now, maybe
about $1400, $1500, and
that's actually for the
newer models now, which
have firewire, which people
are using for digital video,
which you don't need. These
first generation Ibooks
are now at about $1,000.
So, they are coming down
very quickly. What's nice
and what I skipped with
these other models is that
we went from using these
printer cords to an infrared
technology. And the infrared
devices, we called wireless,
and they were kind of, sort
of wireless. What they allowed
you to do was take an infrared
device and hook it into
the back of one computer
and take another infrared
device and hook it into
the back of another computer.
I could be here, you could
be in the back of the room,
and we could get these computers
to communicate together.
The problem was --
>>
audience speaker:
At what point in this progression
of text does that fit in?
>>Bo
Adan: Yeah, those
were -- you could use the
infrared device with the
160s and the 180s, the 520s,
the 190s, and yep, you can.
And if you wanted to you
could use it with the G3s.
And the infrared devices
were hit and miss. They
were effective, but you
had to be in a room that
didn't have halogen lighting,
and you had to be, when
we were in the secondary
schools, the problem was
that a lot of those schools,
and you never knew, depending
on the school you were going
into, some of them, horribly
for me, had no windows at
all. And I thought, what
a horrible way to educate
a child. Like this room.
What a horrible way for
us to meet. And but the
downside was some of them
had banks of windows. And
even in Oregon, where we
don't get all that much
sunlight for many months
of the year, if you were
setting up those computers
anywhere on that half of
the room, where you have
got this indirect light,
it would interfere with
the infrared signal. And
so that was problematic.
The
technology worked in theory.
In practice, it was problematic,
and we saw that yesterday
even with the FM system
and the infrared device.
It
is wonderful technology.
They just haven't quite
figured it out yet. And
with the infrareds, those
are still available, but
the particular company that
we had been going through
to get the devices changed
its name, moved to Israel,
changed the product line
and then went out of business.
That's over about a 4 1/2
to 5-year period, so we
decided okay, maybe this
technology, it worked for
us sometimes and didn't
work for us others, let's
try something else. So around
that time, these Ibooks
came out, and these Ibooks
used something called an
airport which is radio wave
technology, which is seamless
and wireless, and although
it takes a while on some
technical parts how to set
it up, once it does, it
is golden. It works. It
doesn't fail you. It hasn't
ever failed me at this point.
Knock on wood. Let's talk
about that.
>>
audience speaker:
I know on our campus with
C-Print technology, when
we try to use the wireless
stuff, and there's been
like a computer lab next
door or something, and it
gets all messed up, have
you had experiences or problems
like that?
>>Bo
Adan: We haven't so
far with this technology.
One thing, you know, I wish
the person you loved having
yesterday was in this room
today. His name was Mitch,
he seemed to know a lot
about the FCC regulations.
He was suggesting that there
is a band width 72 to 76
mega-hertz at which the,
that's the hearing aid bands.
And I was trying to find
-- I didn't bring the, the
documentation for the airport
with me. It does come with,
you know, when you buy these
computers. And so I don't
know what, what the, the
hertz is for these, but
so far, we have not had
interference with that.
Again, knock on wood, that
doesn't mean we won't, but
so far, it has worked really
well.
>>
audience speaker:
Can you speak to a little
bit about, I don't think
it is peer-to-peer, right?
Don't you need the airport
server for that?
>>
No, isn't that lovely? I
will speak to that, thank
you.
>>
audience speaker:
And the fact that you can
just put a radio -- even
though I love my brother,
Macs, and I wouldn't put
them down --
>>
Bo Adan: Yes, you
will. [ laughter ]
>>
audience speaker:
No, but you can put a PC
radio card in any PC, I
mean, you don't need an
Ibook, you can just have
the PC radio card in the
PCMCIA slot in any computer.
It is not as fast as a Mac
but, it can be on the PC
side and Mac side --
>>Bo
Adan: It can be. You
are correct in terms of
this technology, the software
that's out there for collaboration
and synchronous note taking
is Mac-based right now,
and again, is out of our
hands. The reason we went
with Macs is that's what
the software that was out
there, which is called,
Aspects, and which I will
demonstrate for you and
talk a little bit more about,
today is, is Mac platform
only.
>>
audience speaker:
Wonderful. So my next question
would then be, any Mac laptop
that has a PCMCIA slot type
thing, you could work, right?
>>Bo
Adan: I would think
so, yep. I don't know if
it will interconnect with
an Ibook but between those,
yeah, between two PCs, that
has the slot card, yes,
yes. So, there is a software
product called "Aspects."
and it is synchronous collaborative
working software, the wonderful
thing about this, that's
exactly what it is and all
that it is. It is not an
esoteric software program
that takes a lot to use,
a lot to learn, a lot to
read and think about. It
is exactly like a word processing
program and functions as
such, except that it allows
for interconnectivity, simultaneousness
and collaboration.
Just
in case everybody isn't
familiar, by synchronous
what I mean is you can work
literally at the same time.
E-mail would be an example
of something that's asynchronous.
You don't know what I am
talking about, until I type
my e-mail and send it to
you. With this program,
what I type shows up on
your computer, or –
>>
audience speaker:
Like ICQ.
>>Bo
Adan: Yes, and you
can be typing simultaneously,
as well, and working together,
so that's what synchronous
and simultaneous and collaborative,
that's what I mean when
I use those words. The other
program that we found helpful,
is something called QuicKeys.
That's not so easy to learn,
but students don't know
anything about it. That's
at the training, trainer
training the trainer level.
Does everyone know what
macros are? Anybody not?
Should I explain? Okay,
good, happy to.
It
is basically automation
software. Makes something
that you do all the time
routine. So, in other words,
if I had to, in the physical
world, if I was going to
wear this jacket and this
shirt and these pants and
these shoes every single
day, same pair, right, and
I knew that's what I was
going to do and every day
I was going to put the pants
on first, then jacket and
then the shoes, I could
either take the time to
do that every single day,
step one, two, three, four,
or if I could magically
program the universe so
I could just press a button
and it would do all these
things for me, step-by-step,
I would like that a lot
better. I wouldn't like
the smell of my clothes
after a few days, however.
What
we use the QuicKeys for
is to set up, and when I
demonstrate this for you,
it is good I am talking
about it now, it will take
a 15 to 20-step process
and reduce it to one key
stroke. And that's perfect
for a lot of reasons. One,
it means that in terms of
training the trainers, they
don't have to remember how
to do a lot. They simply
have to know how the macros
work. Two, when you are
in class, whether the trainer
is acting as a note taker
or you are hiring other
note takers to do the work,
they don't have to think
about. They can also use
the shortcut, command to
set up aspects. And then,
of course, three, the student
has nothing to fear, either,
nothing to think about or
worry about. It is one key
stroke for the student,
one stroke for the note
taker computer and they
work seamlessly, so that
kind of technology is wonderful,
again, if it is easy to
use. If it is not easy to
use, it gets in the way,
and so what we wanted to
do and why we invested time
and energy learning about
this is because aspects
is great and does everything
we want it to do but in
order to set it up every
day to do the same thing
every day, there is about
a 15 to 20-step process
of opening documents and
sizing windows and margin
and is setting things up
and it is simple things
to do, but you don't want
to spend five minutes at
the beginning of every class
when the teacher, especially,
at the post-secondary level
is already beginning a lecture
in a timely way. Yes.
>>
audience speaker:
Before you go on, can I
just ask about your application
choice especially the G4s
are coming out and the things
are getting faster, I am
wondering why you didn't
take, like a dragon speak
-- a voice recognition,
voice to text track, especially
when you have professors
that teach every day so
that, you know, the software
gets better and better with
one person talking, so I
am just wondering why you
did the --
>>
Bo Adan: Yeah.
>>
audience speaker:
A note taker, you know,
that just so much more,
especially when we type
out the cost prohibitive
and things like that.
>>Bo
Adan: It is a good
question. My answer may
not be the, may not be a
good one. It is just, just
my response. What we were
doing at the time was looking
at the best available technology
that would serve our needs.
We were looking at Dragon
Dictate, an earlier version
at the time, and even now,
Natural Speaking, 6.0 is
out. But even that, it takes
a lot to train your voice
to the computer, and then
-- it takes a lot to train
your voice to the computer,
and even then it is only
85% accurate. The head of
assistive technology for
disability services, and
at the University of Oregon,
his name is James Bailey,
about a year ago, did --
no, not even that long ago,
did a demonstration, Dragon
Dictate and here's a guy
that spent hours and hours
and hours just him, his
voice, a single computer,
and I thought it was going
to be wonderful and seamless,
and it wasn't by any means.
And so my response was that,
and may just be my prejudice,
I am not sure yet, but I
am not ready to see that
technology works well enough
for our purposes yet. I
think it will. But it hasn't
yet.
>>
audience speaker:
Has the power but not the
application strengths.
>>Bo
Adan: I think so.
I think that's where we
are at. That could just
be my prejudice because
I haven't been working with
6.0 yet, maybe it is far
better, I am only what people
are telling me and they
are saying that it is, it
is not up to speed yet.
>>
audience speaker:
There is a fundamental difference
in what you are proposing
and what he's proposing,
and that is you are getting
a speech to text transcript,
similar to what our real-time
captionist is providing
and the volume is overwhelming
for most students. So most
of them prefer note taking
that encapsulates and promotes
the hierarchy of information
and so on, categorizes the
information, and puts it
in a more digestible form.
>>Bo
Adan: And I will show
you a couple of examples
of that in this presentation
of actual notes of note
takers and students because
that has been an issue and