Meeting 2

The main point of that I got out of the meeting was that the technology is out there, but no in use in the Milledgeville area for many many reasons.
Another problem with assistive technology is the potential harms for being outdated. Once the technology is in use and new software comes out, the people have to be retrained in how to use the different systems and understand the changes that have been made to the old software. Although the changes are usually for the better, the people fear the changes, don't want to learn a new operating system, the student may not like it, or the old operating system breaks completely. This sometimes leaves students, teachers and parents wishing they had never started using the technology at all.
The most successful program in the area according to these sources is the GA project for assistive technology. (GPAT) They train teams from schools to go back to the schools and train the other teachers. This is at least the premise and idea, but not actually the reality in most school systems in GA.
There is a center in Macon. I believe it is located at Macon State, but I could easily be wrong. The point of the facility is for people in the community to come in and use the technology, but almost no one does. I asked about the programs set up at the early learning center for parents to come in and use the computers, but hardly anyone ever does. There is not time nor energy in the adults to spend their time working with this technology because they have to seek it out. It is not being made available to them simply within their own homes. If televisions were only available in one spot of town, people would not make the effort often to go watch television. We are lazy people a lot of the time.
I also learned about a program called Tools for life which is supposed to help adults with disabilities have access to the tools and technology they need to function more easily in society.
The project seems to be changing directions a lot. I am definitely coming to the conclusion tht educating the community and bettering it may come in the form of changing a few lives at a time. Because one of the major problems with assistive technology is the funding, I am wondering if this is where the grant money can come in to help with the project.
(1 hr, 20 min)