Mick Trott wrote
> I would be concerned if there became a general assumption
> that access to the
> Internet is generally 'a good thing' for dyslexic students
> and something that
> it is assumed *should* be provided under DSA funding.
I can't think of many cases where it wouldn't be a good thing for a
dyslexic student.
Any text is already in a form that it can be manipulated to make
it readable - TTS, font, size, colour etc. Much better than scanning,
or, in many cases, reading print.
Web information is often much more succinct and to the point,
and may be better presented than books where the author has a number of
pages to fill, whether the topic needs it or not. It may also be chunked
in a more readable fashion. I suspect that dyslexic students often do
better to get their own information from the web rather than relying on
the set books.
Email is by far the easiest way of handing in and receiving
assignments, lecture notes etc.
Research using tools like Google (complete with "did you mean"
spellchecking) is a helluva lot easier than looking things up in books,
if your sequencing and spelling aren't too good.
A lot of very good universities have put a lot of very good
materials on the web. It may even (heaven forfend!) be better than your
own home grown.
In principal the web could be a useful tool for the student
getting computer support (in practice they usually prefer the phone, for
obvious reasons).
I do, indeed, have a vested interest: but not in the obvious direction -
a very high proportion of our support calls and costs relate to the web,
from:
Email and other Viruses;
Computers clogged up thanks to Kazaa and other malware and
adware which has installed itself from dubious sites and slows the
computer to a crawl;
Installation conflicts, particularly with AOL;
Windows updates (made necessary to resist viruses and trojans)
causing conflicts with installed software and making changes to the
setup.
(Sure, we warn students not to load spurious software, but we don't
expect them to listen . . .).
Of course it is also another way that you can waste a lot of time, when
you should be working, as well as mucking up your computer. Then there
are the temptations of plagiarism. But the web is an unbeatable resource
for dyslexic people.
Regards
Ian Litterick
iANSYST Ltd
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Trott [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 14 October 2003 18:36
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [DIS-FORUM] Phones lines for dyslexic students
>
>
> In a message dated 14/10/03 18:00:27 GMT Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << the uni may even be able to get some money for
> this service from the student's DSA. >>
>
> I would be concerned if there became a general assumption
> that access to the
> Internet is generally 'a good thing' for dyslexic students
> and something that
> it is assumed *should* be provided under DSA funding.
>
> There could be cases when this is desirable, for example, if
> it provides a
> student with access to good quality resources on the
> university's network. But
> as a general rule or even common practice ??? The general
> case seems a bit
> woolly to me.
>
> Mick Trott
>
>
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