Hi there!
I am a lurker on this list - read posts once in a
while. Last semester I was teaching at an elementary school and used
Sugar on a live CD with the kids. It was a big hit and I passed out at
least a hundred Sugar CDs to students. They squealed with delight and
begged to use it in class.
A very important piece of dyslexia
legislation passed the house and senate unanimously in Texas over the
weekend. The three most important features in my mind are:
* All
school personnel must be trained in the recent scientific studies about
dyslexia ( Reference:
http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexiastraighttalk.html )
* Teachers
must use multi-sensory methods (audio, video, etc.) to teach dyslexic
students
* Schools must incorporate assistive technologies that are
helpful to dyslexic students
I am currently working on writing a high
school class that accommodates dyslexia (http://marilyn.hagle.com). It
is a music technology type class and I am using Musix, a Linux OS that
focuses on music compostion and audio/video production, for my software
base. Downloads are already available of course, but I will make sure
students can inexpensively purchase live DVDs or USBs that are software
ready.
I am writing to the folks on this list, hoping that one of you
will take on a similar project for dyslexic elementary students using
Sugar. Make a Moodle site and post video & audio with lessons using
Sugar.
If one or more of you wish to do this, make sure you write to
Virginia Gonzalez ([email protected]), the state dyslexia
consultant and tell her about it so she can get the word out.
You know
that commercial interests will see dollar signs and try to make a buck
off of this. I would do it myself, but this class I am working on will
at least take months to finish.
Thanks! And thanks for creating Sugar!
Marilyn Hagle
_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
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