Meeting

On Monday August 24, I met with Dr. Wills, Cara Meade, and Dr. Childre to talk about assistive technology. The meeting lasted over an hour, and I got a ton of new ideas, directions, and information concerning integrating technology into home lives. They were incredibly interested and informative about the project. Here are my notes from the meeting.
There is money set aside within the schools to spend on Assistive Technology, but this is kept quiet within the schools.
The resources are fully underused in the school systems. Most families have trouble getting the technology to begin with because of financing.
Even if the child does get assistive technology to use in school, there is often a huge gap between the school use and home use of the technology.
Legally if the school decides that a student needs assistive technology, then the school is responsible for providing the technology in school and the home. A communication device cannot be ripped from a child's hand at 3 o'clock.
The schools in the area have gotten tech teams trained but not give them time, resources, or compensation to train the other teachers let only go into the homes to take the time to teach the parents.
If the technology breaks, the school is then required by law to replace it, so this makes the schools even more hesitant to send the items home. Everyone has accidents. Dogs eat. Things break. Buttons stick. Glitches happen. Someone drops. Some times parents are too embarrassed or forget to ask for new or more items. So the technology is of no use anymore. The schools have had very negative experiences with sending technology home with the students.
These parents are also very busy and do not have the time or energy to work with the devices. There is already so much going on for them that the last thing they can think about is integrating the technology into their home lives. Sometimes technology scares the parents, or they don't believe in it or want it to play a part in their child's life.
How a child functions within a home is often very different from how he or she functions in the school. The dynamics and personal roles and responsibilities are completely different. this means that the technology would also be used differently in the different situations.
By going into the home, the technology is almost met with cultural differences and challenges as well. Some people don't see the value of the technology within the home setting. Some people also become fearful that the technology emphasizes the students disabilities instead of treating he or she as just a member of the family.
We also got onto a discussion of the YES program here in Milledgeville. How this origonally worked extremely hard to get the parent involvement up and keep the children involved.
The team was very interested in what the purpose of Digital Bridges and the Knights Foundation is going to be in Milledgeville for the long run. A woman named Linda Watson Kauffman is evidentially the expert on getting family involved in programs. She would be a great resource to talk to when the time comes.
I was very curious going into the meeting to hear what these people thought about the program, Successmaker. In all of the school tours the other days, the teachers would always make a point to mention their technology labs and the successmaker programs. The meeting's opinion was that the kids absolutely hate Successmaker. They just get sent to sit in front a computer until their math skills are better. It is much more like a punishment for not being good at something. Maybe some kid likes the computer better, but some would do just as well getting put in a corner with an extra notebook. There is no real fun or engagement in a required time with no choice by the student.
An interesting twist to the meeting was that all of the technology that I thought we might be working to create has already been invented. This was slightly disappointing but makes sense. I was going to be completely shocked if my ideas had not been thought of before now. This also revealed to me that the technology is out there but not at all being implemented here in small town Milledgeville. Whereas in Atlanta, or somewhere like that, there is a lot more resources and technology being used in homes and schools. This project needs to focus more on bring this technology into the homes on a personal level.
(2 hr 15 min)