Talk:Dyslexia Handheld Computer

From Dyslexia

[edit] Please introduce yourself if you are interested in this project.

Hello Patty,

I had a quick look at your site and there are some interesting ideas - I agree with you about the cumbersome nature of a dedicated laptop - although much more robust than they were, they are still susceptible to breaking down and that leaves a child stranded if s/he has become dependent on it for school use.

Personally I am more in favour of a child having access to a good desktop at home plus a notebook like the Alphasmart Neo or Dana for doing written work, plus a digi camera for quick pics and even short videos and brief recorded notes. There is still scope for them to have mobile phones / ipods / gameboys etc that 'everyone else' has. A downside of having leisure and academic tools in the same device is that there is too much temptation to be distracted by 'fun' activities, when they should be working! The 'danger' of having an all-singing-all-dancing device is that by its nature it will be complex(more to go wrong) and if one bit fails, the whole support mechanism is out of action while it is fixed. Don Johnston Special Needs have already provided CoWriter for the Neo and a sound module and Write Outloud for the Dana, with CoWriter to follow, once it has been re-programmed - this provides very portable, cheap and sturdy support for dyslexic and dyspraxic children - they dont tend to break down but are cheap enough for the school to have a reserve machine or two. It is very easy to export data to a desktop, so notes made in class can quickly and easily be worked up into a final piece of work. Cheers Judith

Judith Stansfield SEN ICT Consultant BDACC (Associate member)

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Hi Patty! Your project seems interesting. I'm not a specialist on computers, but I'll be following the progress.

Patrik Austin 10:29, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi Patrik, Thanks for saying hello. Patty Scheel