This would be a great blog post! Thanks so much for all this information! Joanna, I'll send you an email about posting on the Data Carpentry blog.
Best, -Tracy On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 3:21 PM, C. Titus Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes, thank you! I was planning on posting the replies myself as well, but > this is considerably more than anyone else has responded and I would be > more > than happy to link to a blog post, or post just this response under your > name on my blog (ivory.idyll.org/blog/). If you post it somewhere could > you send me the link? > > Thanks!! > > best, > --titus > > On Fri, Apr 07, 2017 at 10:16:35AM -0700, Steve Haddock wrote: > > Thank you Joanna for those great insights. This seems worth posting as a > blog entry...! > > -Steve > > > > ----- q???b ----- > > > > > > > On Apr 7, 2017, at 08:10, Joanna Leng <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hello, > > > > > > I am dyslexic! :-) > > > > > > Dyslexia is a polymorphic condition that affects more than just > reading and writing and is thought to be caused by poor short term memory, > where short term memory is the length of time it takes to turn a key in a > lock or less. A common analogy is the CPU is good but the buffering on I/O > is not good enough to keep up with the CPU. For example it would be > like having a keyboard or scanner with a buffering system that mixed up > input or output and sometimes lost characters. This would also make it > difficult to rapidly change from reading to writing and explains why doing > things like reading, writing, listening, speaking and transcribing at the > same time are more difficult for a dyslexic than a non-dyslexic. I think > this can make software carpentry a difficult way for a dyslexic to learn > how to write programs as it requires multi-tasking a variety of activities > that are separately quite hard for a dyslexic but which are rapidly changed > to and from. > > > > > > On top of this nearly half dyslexics have another condition, visual > stress that 10% of non-dyslexics also have. People with this condition do > not handle the high contrast of a white background with black text well. > There are indeed fonts that are considered good for dyslexics, they tend to > be similar to the Arial and Helvetica fonts but they have very slightly > more spacing between the letters. > > > > > > In my opinion dyslexics benefit from spending more time setting up > their environment and understanding/documenting what they have done. > Setting up an environment means getting everything so that it is working > technically as it should as well as setting up fonts and background colours > on their preferences. They will be slow to read and so configure the system > on their own, especially if programming is new and they do not understand > the vocabulary. If they have to do this at the start of a course they may > well fail to ever catch up with the class. I think they would benefit from > being offered help the day or week before to set up their environment. > > > > > > Dyslexic are also more likely, especially initially, to like text > editors that open up in their own window rather than one that takes over > their shell. They are unlekely to remember ho to spell things that are in > the shell and will have to keep on opening and closing the text editor to > get the sytax and spelling right. This will disrupt learning. > > > > > > A dyslexic will have to repeat and practice more than a non-dyslexic, > they are less capable of surface learning and will need to deep learn. This > will take time and they may prefer to work at their own speed and repeat > concepts and exercises. It may be good to have a summary of what you will > learn at the beginning, then exercises and then another summary at the end. > There is a fair amount of evidence that some dyslexics are not good at > multiple choice exercises so self-assessments which have multiple choices > are not good. > > > > > > Having one consistent reference text book for an entire programming > language maybe helpful as this lays out all parts of the language in one > place so that the learner can go back and identify areas they do not know > over the first few years of using that language and so gradually fill in > the gaps. I have seen some short programs that are the length of a page in > a text book that can be used to document the main parts of syntax used in a > language. These are good reference for the main syntax and functionality of > a language. The classic example program is a program where the user inputs > a radius and the program uses a function or class to calculate the area of > the circle with that radius. > > > > > > A dyslexic will probably benefit from being able to ask lots of > questions and chatting about programming - social learning. They should try > to get one or more technical mentors who they can go to with niggling > questions. > > > > > > I hope this helps > > > Joanna > > > > > >> On 04/04/2017 15:46, Neal Davis wrote: > > >> I don't have experience with this. > > >> > > >> With that caveat in mind, I am aware that some work has been done > towards dyslexic-friendly typefaces, such as http://opendyslexic.org/. > These weight the font deliberately to increase recognizability. This is > worth trying with coding to see if it helps, at least anecdotally for now. > > >> > > >> Sincerely, > > >> Neal Davis > > >> Teaching Assistant Professor · Department of Computer Science > > >> 2229 Siebel Center · 201 North Goodwin Avenue, MC-258 · Urbana, IL > 61801-2302 > > >> 217·244·4181 > > >> > > >> 2017-04-03 8:20 GMT-05:00 C. Titus Brown <[email protected]>: > > >>> Hi all, > > >>> > > >>> at the JGI User Meeting two weeks ago, I met someone who wanted some > advice and/or lessons on learning to code while dyslexic. Any resources or > opinions would be welcome - I don???t know that I???ve heard it discussed > by any of the Carpentry folk or in the context of lesson design. > Curious! > > >>> > > >>> (E-mail me privately if you???d like a summary of what I find.) > > >>> > > >>> thanks, > > >>> ???titus > > >>> > > >>> _______________________________________________ > > >>> Discuss mailing list > > >>> [email protected] > > >>> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> Discuss mailing list > > >> [email protected] > > >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Discuss mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss > > -- > C. Titus Brown, [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss
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