tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82442058746851993972024-03-05T06:28:19.318-05:00My Gift of DyslexiaOnce I was lost now I am found, once was blind to the written word, now I read.Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-17809462333195757122023-01-31T09:57:00.004-05:002023-05-09T15:52:52.555-04:00The gift of reading finally joins the Information Age<p> The gift of reading finally joins Information Age</p><p>By Davis Graham Special to the Herald November 03, 2017 10:58 AM</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiINgS225L_z5VLdHv9_OWsv4iqf0EapnuRtfsRtM3Un1N719F6MCxDonT00gWG2qpbEnZOZoI5IESHSUvwJQVClvvjeY-8ohcU5PfOUvdKOXAhFFKGhZ9hGqHruVnHRRiL0tj_IwlkkEk3DJSM5Y-Fxys7rZYHBga9-1f_VyNX0wMhL8SJWxjDAVuC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="288" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiINgS225L_z5VLdHv9_OWsv4iqf0EapnuRtfsRtM3Un1N719F6MCxDonT00gWG2qpbEnZOZoI5IESHSUvwJQVClvvjeY-8ohcU5PfOUvdKOXAhFFKGhZ9hGqHruVnHRRiL0tj_IwlkkEk3DJSM5Y-Fxys7rZYHBga9-1f_VyNX0wMhL8SJWxjDAVuC" width="240" /></a></div>Davis Graham provided photo<br /><br /><p></p><p>“Unfortunately, the system of reading we inherited from the ancient scribes — the method of reading you are most likely using right now — has been fundamentally shaped by engineering constraints that were relevant in centuries past, but no longer appropriate in our information age.” - Matthew Schneps, MIT</p><p>Our education system today is measuring our students not by how well they gain knowledge and are able to express the knowledge they have gained, but by how well they read and write. Our current education model is not inclusive. Buckminster Fuller states, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”</p><p>Our education model is obsolete, and at what cost?</p><p>44 million adults are unable to read a simple story to their children.</p><p>50 percent of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level.</p><p>School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues.</p><p>Technology has put us at a crossroads where technology has created a pathway, not yet used, to a new digital foundation in education where every word sits on top of the internet of things (IoT). With this new pathway, emergence starts to shed light and darkness on our future and our past.</p><p>“The human brain did not evolve to read — literacy has been commonplace only in the last two centuries — so the brain must repurpose regions that evolved for very different ends. And the evolutionary newness of reading may leave the brain without a backup plan. Reading is so demanding that there’s not a successful alternative pathway that works as well,” says John Gabrieli, MIT neuroscientist.</p><p>There is a backup plan through technology to a new digital foundation in education. Technology has allowed us to return to processing the printed word in our first language. Our first language is listening and speaking, while writing is our second language and reading is our third language; to read something, somebody must write.</p><p>“While the visual pathways are being strained to capacity by reading, the auditory network for language remains relatively under-utilized,” says Schneps.</p><p>Almost all individuals can participate in education through technology by returning to our first language, which is the ability to gain our knowledge through our auditory network and to express our knowledge through our ability to speak.</p><p>Most use speech to text when texting, which empowers them to be creative by using words they know but don’t know how to spell. Smartphone and like devices allow them to speak it and it is spelled correctly. But the reading acceleration program (RAP) uses our auditory network, which is currently underutilized.</p><p>One device has led this digital revolution to the trailhead for the pathway to the new digital foundation. Currently, the only device I know which has the innate ability to speak information in our first language, listening and speaking, is Apple’s iPad/ iPod/ iPhone with its embedded RAP and speech to text.</p><p>By allowing the use of RAP, also known as text-to-speech, the hurdles which the printed word has created for so many have now been leveled. Let us as a society, as a state, as a county embrace this technology and empower us to succeed not by how well individuals read and write, but by our ability to retain and express knowledge!</p><p>Recently graduating from Brandeis University with honors, my diagnosis is “When Davis is required to read in a normal fashion and comprehend information, his score plummets from 98% comprehension ‘450 words per minute’ (using Bookshare and ‘TTS’software) to at or above the first percentile, ‘69 words per minute’.”</p>Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-84904633690509945832019-09-15T00:30:00.002-04:002019-09-15T00:30:50.970-04:00<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
A page a minute:</div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Sharing with a coworker of mine the devotions I read each day which add up to sometimes eight pages they said “oh my gosh I don’t have time”; showed them the two finger swipe on any Apple iDevice the answer was “awesome.”</div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Try it you might like-</div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
https://lnkd.in/eWyuyBw</div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Devotions-</div>
<div class="mentions-texteditor__content" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
https://lnkd.in/emp3_Wg</div>
Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-71831039330277412472019-01-12T08:59:00.006-05:002019-01-12T08:59:55.039-05:00What if I told you…By Davis GrahamWhat if I told you we were not born with the ability to read?<br /><br />"The human brain did not evolve to read"... John Gabrieli, MIT neuroscientist<br />What if I told you reading was not prevalent for all of time?<br /><br />"...literacy has been commonplace only in the last two centuries..."- John Gabrieli<br />What if I told the world; reading is not a skill which is easily taught?<br /><br />“Reading is so demanding that there’s not a successful alternative pathway that works as well,” says Gabrieli. It’s like using a stapler to pound a nail—the stapler can get the job done, but it takes a lot of extra effort.-John Gabrieli.<br />What if I told you, if you can't learn to read then there is not a backup plan?<br /><br />..."so the brain must repurpose regions that evolved for very different ends. And the evolutionary newness of reading may leave the brain without a backup plan..."- John Gabrieli<br />There is a backup plan...<br /><br />What if we knew there was another way to "consume" the printed word?<br /><br />‘Our’ current methods we use for reading — based on ancient engineering constraints no longer relevant in today’s society.-Matthew Schneps, MIT<br />
<br />What if our brains were built to consume information faster than we can talk?<br /><br />"The human mind can think at least four times faster than a person can talk." -The Peacemaker by Ken Sande<br />What is the speed we can listen and understand?<br /><br />'People' are capable of listening to more than 600 words per minute. - Modern Human Relations at Work By Kathryn W. Hegar<br />What if I told you with dyslexia, my test scores state, "When Davis is required to read in a normal fashion and comprehend information, his score plummets from 98% comprehension (using Bookshare and 'TTS' software) to at or above the first (1%) percentile."<br /><br />What if I told you, I received my Masters of Science in Health and Medical Informatics and was nominated as the 2016 Student Marshal at Brandeis University.<br /><br />You may ask, "how with dyslexia?" All I did was use the tools at the end of this article!We have the capacity….let’s use it…in education, business, and everyday life! We do not have to leave anyone with dyslexia behind!<br />Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-63375136810805683882019-01-12T08:57:00.004-05:002019-01-12T08:57:54.353-05:00We need a reformation in education, now with the arrival of technology, education should no longer exclusive.By Davis Graham, MHMi<br />
<br />Recently I was reading, The Dance of Hope, thanks to Bookshare.org and Apple:<br /><br />”Knowledge is love and light and vision."-Helen Keller<br />When I read this quote today with my text to speech software on my iPhone I knew exactly what she was talking about. You can gain much knowledge from your surroundings but when you start reading or receiving knowledge from someone else it truly is an experience of love light and vision. <br /><br />I think Helen Keller and all with some disability feel an inequality to the access of knowledge until a bridge occurs. For Helen Keller, it was her friend Ann Sullivan who was the bridge. For me as a dyslexic the bridge to knowledge is technology. I don’t need to be re-mediated or anything else I just need access, and text to speech (TTS) and speech to text (STT) of which is my bridge or my Ann Sullivan.<br /><br /> We need to ponder the thought of establishing bridges with technology for those who are denied access to knowledge because it’s encased in the confines of the printed word.<br /><br /><br />Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-23633113492403380382018-01-21T22:37:00.006-05:002019-09-15T00:30:28.652-04:00Our Brain is of epic proportions to process, here are the stats saying so...<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Unfortunately, the system of reading we inherited from the ancient scribes —the method of reading you are most likely using right now — has been fundamentally shaped by engineering constraints that were relevant in centuries past, but no longer appropriate in our information age.</span>...</span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">and.... </span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">While the visual pathways are being strained to capacity by reading, the auditory network for language remains relatively under-utilized. This then suggests the possibility that the auditory network can be used in conjunction with visual reading to create parallel pathways for reading in the brain that can be used to accelerate processing.- </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/using-technology-to-break-the-speed-barrier-of-reading/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0px 0px; border: 0px none; box-sizing: inherit; color: #827be9; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Matthew Schneps</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">-MIT</span></span> </i></div>
<i>The brain is said to be plastic, meaning that it is possible to change its abilities. Zvia Breznitz and colleagues at the University of Haifa demonstrated that when people are forced to practice reading using a process they call “reading acceleration program” (RAP), people can be taught to roughly double their reading speed, without compromising comprehension. </i><br />
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<i> 50% of the unemployed between the ages of 16 and 21 cannot read well enough to be considered functionally literate.<br />School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues. <a href="http://literacyprojectfoundation.org/statistics-page/" target="_blank">Source</a><br />50% of successful suicides for children 15 years of age and under had a learning disability. <a href="http://www.ldonline.org/article/6292/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_pulse_read%3B%2Fbe4Jq0sSuW709o%2FknJozA%3D%3D" target="_blank">Source</a><br />32% of students with dyslexia fail to graduate from high school.<br />50% of youth in juvenile detention have dyslexia.<br />60% of adolescents in drug and alcohol rehab have dyslexia. <a href="http://www.noticeability.org/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_pulse_read%3B%2Fbe4Jq0sSuW709o%2FknJozA%3D%3D" target="_blank">Source</a></i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; height: 339px; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left; width: 608px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Figure 1. Average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scale scores of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students: Selected years, 1992–2015" height="210" src="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/figures/images/figure-cnb-1.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Figure 1. Average National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scale scores of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students: Selected years, 1992–2015" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cnb.asp" target="_blank">Source</a></td></tr>
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<span style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">”Knowledge is love and light and vision."-<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gift-equaliable-knowledge-davis-graham-ms-in-hmi/" target="_blank">Helen Keller</a></span></span><br />
<span style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 24px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span> </span><br />
<span style="max-width: 100%;"> ▪ </span>50 percent of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level.<br />
<span style="max-width: 100%;"> </span>65% of U.S. 4th
-graders read below grade level, according to their results on the 2013 National
Assessment of Education Progress reading test. (<a href="https://ortongillinghamonlinetutor.com/illiteracy-statistics-in-the-united-states/" target="_blank">U.S. Dept. of Education</a>)<br />
<span style="max-width: 100%;"> </span>64% of U.S. 8th
-graders read below grade level, according to their results on the 2013 National
Assessment of Education Progress reading test. (<a href="http://www.education.pa.gov/Documents/Teachers-Administrators/Federal%20Programs/LiteracyLife/Literacy%20Facts%20and%20Figures.pdf" target="_blank">U.S. Dept. of Education</a>)
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What if I told you we were not born with the ability to read?<br />
<br />
<b>"The human brain did not evolve to read"... John Gabrieli, MIT neuroscientist</b><br />
What if I told you reading was not prevalent for all of time?<br />
<b><br />"...literacy has been commonplace only in the last two centuries..."- John Gabrieli</b><br />
What if I told the world; reading is not a skill which is easily taught?<br />
<br />
<b>“Reading is so demanding that there’s not a successful alternative pathway that works as well,” says Gabrieli. It’s like using a stapler to pound a nail—the stapler can get the job done, but it takes a lot of extra effort.-John Gabrieli.</b><br />
What if I told you, if you can't learn to read then there is not a backup plan?<br />
<br />
<b>..."so the brain must repurpose regions that evolved for very different ends. And the evolutionary newness of reading may leave the brain without a backup plan..."- John Gabrieli</b><br />
There is a backup plan...<br />
<br />
What if we knew there was another way to "consume" the printed word?<br />
<br />
<b>‘Our’ current methods we use for reading — based on ancient engineering constraints no longer relevant in today’s society.-Matthew Schneps, MIT</b><br />
What if our brains were built to consume information faster than we can talk?<br />
<br />
<b>"The human mind can think at least four times faster than a person can talk." -The Peacemaker by Ken Sande</b><br />
What is the speed we can listen and understand?<br />
<br />
<b>'People' are capable of listening to more than 600 words per minute. - Modern Human Relations at Work By Kathryn W. Hegar</b><br />
What if I told you with dyslexia, my test scores state, "When Davis is required to read in a normal fashion and comprehend information, his score plummets from 98% comprehension (using Bookshare and 'TTS' software) to at or above the first (1%) percentile."<br />
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What if I told you, I received my Masters of Science in Health and Medical Informatics and was nominated as the 2016 Student Marshal at Brandeis University.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">U.S. education model </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> obsolete, and the </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">toll</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">significant</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-style: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></b></span> <br />
The gift of reading finally joins information age<br />
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<span style="display: inline !important; font-size: 1em !important; font-style: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%;">By Davis Graham</span></div>
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<span style="display: inline !important; font-size: 1em !important; font-style: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%;"> Special to the Herald</span> and <a href="http://mitili.mit.edu/news?utm_source=MITili&utm_campaign=e2f69e7130-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_11_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b263e985c1-e2f69e7130-105458845&page=1" target="_blank">MiT Integrated Learning Initiative </a></div>
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<span style="max-width: 100%;">November 03, 2017 10:58 AM</span></div>
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“Unfortunately, the system of reading we inherited from the ancient scribes — the method of reading you are most likely using right now — has been fundamentally shaped by engineering constraints that were relevant in centuries past, but no longer appropriate in our information age.”</div>
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<span style="font-style: italic; max-width: 100%;">Matthew Schneps, MIT</span></div>
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Our education system today <span class="il">is</span> measuring our students not by how well they gain knowledge and are able to express the knowledge they have gained, but by how well they read and write. Our current education model <span class="il">is</span> not inclusive. Buckminster Fuller states, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”</div>
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Our education model <span class="il">is</span> obsolete, and at what cost?</div>
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<span style="max-width: 100%;">▪ </span>44 million adults are unable to read a simple story to their children.</div>
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<span style="max-width: 100%;">▪ </span>50 percent of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth-grade level.</div>
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<span style="max-width: 100%;">▪ </span>School dropouts cost our nation $240 billion in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues.</div>
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Technology has put us at a crossroads where technology has created a pathway, not yet used, to a new digital foundation in education where every word sits on top of the internet of things (IoT). With this new pathway, emergence starts to shed light and darkness on our future and our past.</div>
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“The human brain did not evolve to read — literacy has been commonplace only in the last two centuries — so the brain must repurpose regions that evolved for very different ends. And the evolutionary newness of reading may leave the brain without a backup plan. Reading <span class="il">is</span> so demanding that there’s not a successful alternative pathway that works as well,” says John Gabrieli, MIT neuroscientist.</div>
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There <span class="il">is</span> a backup plan through technology to a new digital foundation in education. Technology has allowed us to return to processing the printed word in our first language. Our first language <span class="il">is</span> listening and speaking, while writing <span class="il">is</span> our second language and reading <span class="il">is</span> our third language; to read something, somebody must write.</div>
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“While the visual pathways are being strained to capacity by reading, the auditory network for language remains relatively under-utilized,” says Schneps.</div>
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Almost all individuals can participate in education through technology by returning to our first language, which <span class="il">is</span> the ability to gain our knowledge through our auditory network and to express our knowledge through our ability to speak.</div>
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Most use speech to text when texting, which empowers them to be creative by using words they know but don’t know how to spell. Smartphone and like devices allow them to speak it and it <span class="il">is</span> spelled correctly. But the reading acceleration program (RAP) uses our auditory network, which <span class="il">is</span> currently underutilized.</div>
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One device has led this digital revolution to the trailhead for the pathway to the new digital foundation. Currently, the only device I know which has the innate ability to speak information in our first language, listening and speaking, <span class="il">is</span> Apple’s iPad/ iPod/ iPhone with its embedded RAP and speech to text.</div>
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By allowing the use of RAP, also known as text-to-speech, the hurdles which the printed word has created for so many have now been leveled. Let us as a society, as a state, as a county embrace this technology and empower us to succeed not by how well individuals read and write, but by our ability to retain and express knowledge!</div>
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Recently graduating from Brandeis University with honors, my diagnosis <span class="il">is</span> “When Davis <span class="il">is</span> required to read in a normal fashion and comprehend information, his score plummets from 98% comprehension ‘450 words per minute’ (using Bookshare and ‘TTS’ software) to at or above the first percentile, ‘69 words per minute’.”<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "lyon" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "lyon" , "georgia" , serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Davis Graham, a long-time Bradenton resident, tutors professionals and students on reading acceleration programs. Email: </span><a href="mailto:daviswgraham@gmail.com" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #428bca; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" title="">daviswgraham@gmail.com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "lyon" , "georgia" , serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Phone: </span><a href="tel:(941)%20212-0299" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #428bca; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" title="">941-212-0299</a></span></div>
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From-The Gift of Dyslexia, Revised and Expanded: Why Some of the Smartest People ...<br />
By Ronald D. Davis, Eldon M. Braun:<br />
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<li>They won't read for pleasure, because there is no pleasure in heavy concentration.</li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">The inability to read and write often
seems life-threatening to a dyslexic person.<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">They know only the song; the song
knows the alphabet. So by using the song, they can appear to know the alphabet.
Whenever they want to look up a name in the phone book or a word in the
dictionary, the song will be used. It has become a compulsive behavior</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"></span></span>.</li>
<li>T<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">he gift of dyslexia is the gift of
mastery.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Some brilliant dyslexics become corporate
executives because of their intuitive gifts for "seeing" the correct
strategy and mobilizing the work force.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Boredom also plays a role, because
boredom often happens to someone whose mind is working between 400 and 2,000
times faster than the minds of the people around them. A dyslexic child who is
bored will do one of two things. Either the child will disorient into creative
imagination (daydreaming), or will shift his attention to something that is
interesting (destructibility or inattention).</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Attention vs. Concentration: It is
natural and easy for dyslexic children to pay attention, but difficult for them
to concentrate.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Keep in mind that dyslexics have
little or no internal monologue, so they do not hear what they are reading
unless they are reading aloud. Instead, they are composing a mental picture by
adding the meaning--or image of the meaning--of each new word as it is
encountered.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Trigger words have abstract
meanings, and often a number of different meanings. They trip up dyslexics
because they do not represent visual objects or actions. They also happen to be
the words that occur most frequently in everyday speech and writing.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">The brown horse jumped over the
stone fence and ran through the pasture</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">. Once disorientation begin to cause
mistakes, the dyslexic child becomes frustrated. Nobody likes to make mistakes,
so around the age of nine, in about<b> third grade, the dyslexic child begins to
find, figure out and adopt solutions to the problem. Even though this may seem
like a good thing, it is actually how the reading problem becomes a true
learning disability.</b></span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">There are at least 40 different
variations of a three-letter word such as "cat," and only six of
these are "logical" versions..</span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;">Dyslexic children often get tagged
with the hyper label because of the physical effects of disorientation. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"></span> </span>
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Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-61963521460425529882017-05-19T15:36:00.001-04:002018-03-03T12:18:10.447-05:00Are you looking for time to read? Want to read click play video below...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2Bxfhe3EMNo/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Bxfhe3EMNo?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-10918153904387336872017-03-30T22:17:00.001-04:002017-08-02T13:52:45.322-04:00My Lifesong to you....Davis Graham's educational history and resources, in his own words<br />
My Early Background<br />
I was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, USA<br />
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We left Bradenton when I was four years old and moved to Saudi Arabia for four years, and then returned to Miami where my father went into radiology. When we were in Saudi Arabia my parents became frustrated with my learning and were concerned for me, I was tested in 1967 and was diagnosed with Dyslexia at the University of Miami. I was put on Ritalin and directed to a private school for children with learning disabilities.<br />
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My family moved back to Bradenton in 1970. I went to St. Stephens Episcopal School and became the class clown to keep people at bay as to what was going on inside, got into trouble and was asked not to come back. Transferred to St. Joseph Catholic School in 1972 where the Head master had some knowledge of dyslexia. Then off to Manatee High School, class clowned again thru school, used every opportunity to make it thru, did get my pilot license, and graduated from High School in the top 50%. SAT totaled 650, SAT un-timed 800. My guidance counselor discouraged me regarding college by saying, “why would you try for something like a college degree and not be able to finish it.” A college degree was the only thing no one could take away from me. I was accepted to three schools: Emory Riddle, University of Montana, and Westminster College. I decided it would be Westminster College.<br />
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Westminster College accepted me under their L.D. Program, I was held back on taking some classes. At Westminster I received some great tools, RFBD books on tape, dictating papers and group therapy.<br />
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I Transferred to University of The South, Sewanee, Tenn.<br />
Great academic environment; I learned more about studying and wanting to learn than in any other environment. I discovered frustration with professors not understanding my gift of dyslexia but felt accepted. There were several times I felt as if I did not want to go on in life, but my faith saved me.<br />
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I Transferred to the University of South Florida<br />
At USF I was accepted in under the Special Services for the Handicap program. For a year and a half I did not take all the help which was given and was academically suspended in 1983. There was a time I wanted to end my life during the end of this time in college, but I reached out to Sally Jesse Rafael, who had her own radio talk show at the time, and was then again renewed in hope.<br />
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When I received the letter of Academic Suspension, I was very depressed; however, my strong faith in God and a lot of friends and family got me through a very tough time.<br />
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Interesting Experiences<br />
I worked for a night club for 2 years and was in the Movie “Cocoon” in the break-dance scene. Was given an opportunity to be promoted, then decided to go back to school.<br />
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I applied and was accepted back at USF. In order to get a psychology degree the Dean of Social Behavioral Sciences told me that I would be required to make a 3.0. So be it.<br />
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After registering for classes, I met Chris Martin; she was the administrator for the Special Services for the Handicapped. She asked me how my “gift” affected me; it was also the first time I was ever willing to talk about my gift. I was asked “Well then what do you need?” My answer was I need a note taker, my books on tape, my test given orally and tutoring whenever needed. 3 semesters later I graduated with “a 3.0” no more, no less. My degree was earned by grace, faith, and an ear for my compassion and persistence.<br />
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First Job as a Graduate, Director of the Florida House: In 1986 I was offered a job as an intern at Florida House, Inc. in Washington, D.C. The Florida House was started by Rhea Chiles, Senator Chiles wife in 1972. It is an Embassy of sorts for Floridians who are visiting our Nation’s Capital. In October 1986 I was offered the Director’s position, and worked for 7 years for Mrs. Chiles. Highlights were many, broadcasting with Willard Scott weather show on the Today Show was one, working with the full Florida Congressional Delegation closely for 7 years, the Clarence Thomas hearings, Iran-Contra hearings, working with the Reagan and Bush administrations on special needs children, Walt Disney programs, dissidents coming from the Eastern Block countries trying to get family members to the USA, the “Iron Curtain” falling and then Desert Storm.<br />
<br />
After 7 wonderful years it was time to move on. I joined Manatee Diagnostic Center, Ltd. in 1993 after taking 6 months off and touring/camping/being a cowboy and writing a book titled “In Search of the Risen Son”.<br />
<br />
Manatee Diagnostic Center, Ltd. was a family business; I worked with my father and two other administrative personnel. We had 85 folks who I worked with where together we served close to 80,000 patients a year.<br />
<br />
Today I’m married to my wife Trish; we have four children. Our oldest son is Davis Woodward, Mary Grace, Andrew James and Sarah Abigail.<br />
<br />
Enter Readplease/Bookshare/Voice Dream Reader<br />
In 2001, while needing to read a 30+ page contract, while reading 69 words a minute, I needed to read this contract with 98% or higher comprehension. The internet had come into fruition, so I Googled “Text reading Software” and second in line was Readplease, with “free-download” now called “freeware”. Downloaded the software, it was so similar to my recorder controls it became a part of my life, like an old shoe. The contract was read in about an hour and a half, and I have not stopped reading since.<br />
<br />
Today I use Voice Dream Reader with Bookshare.org which has taken on the task with other Print Disabled organizations to make copyrighted books available to the Print Disabled public. The membership is free to all qualifying students in the United States; a paid membership is required for non-students. They have 500,000 and growing are now books available to its members along with the text-to-speech software. The most text to speech software blends the internet technology and the written word in to a virtual book. If there is a word, person, place or thing the reader does not understand or know, then just highlight the word and you go to the World Wide Web and then the reader can read about the unknown and make it known.<br />
<br />
My spelling has improved by 60 to 70 percent, I read between 370 up-to 650 words per minute with 90%+ comprehension; fear of the written word is no longer present. There is nothing in my way except for motivation. When I get ready to read a document such a 59 page lease, I have to gear up and focus, and then I’m living the word as I read.<br />
<br />
Today I am here to inspire those who still look at the written word
as a threat. Today I’m here to say this threat should no longer exist,
so much so I went back to Graduate School at Brandeis University for a
Master of Science in Health and Medical Informatics, graduated on May
22, 2016 with academic honors, nominated as Student Marshal. Reaching
goals which once seemed out of reach because of the written word is no
longer out of reach; it is available to read and comprehend. Voice Dream
Reader, Balabolka, and Apples two finger swipe option, as well as other
text reading software are here to give you and your all individuals
with dyslexia a “New read on Life”.Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-86715204777769222172016-05-10T22:30:00.001-04:002018-03-19T09:20:27.191-04:00I've received my Masters from Brandeis University with the Gift of Dyslexia On March 29, 2016 I finished my<a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/gps/future-students/learn-about-our-programs/health-and-medical-informatics.html" target="_blank"> Masters of Science in Health and Medical Informatics from Brandeis University</a> and was nominated by the faculty and administration to be the Student Marshal at the May 22, 2016 graduation ceremony. Without the <a href="http://www.apple.com/education/special-education/osx/" target="_blank">assistive technology that Apple</a> has incorporated into my devices this would not be my story.<br />
<br />
I was diagnosed in 1967 with dyslexia and had to be retested in 2013 for dyslexia to receive my accommodations at Brandeis University.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizzW_IXoNhQcox0PmncP5Ja0pnlI9xK8JNmwrZQOZe9ZG9yERYTUUHhYJ0uIypZ8rIFZXF-F733rdiNBl1Q9FgQcYjdjzNw9m4gCVFKrpcuwhGxOm7VY-YdstizKRLYeCz7ujoGpquSds/s1600/2016+Marshals.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizzW_IXoNhQcox0PmncP5Ja0pnlI9xK8JNmwrZQOZe9ZG9yERYTUUHhYJ0uIypZ8rIFZXF-F733rdiNBl1Q9FgQcYjdjzNw9m4gCVFKrpcuwhGxOm7VY-YdstizKRLYeCz7ujoGpquSds/s320/2016+Marshals.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The future is yours....</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Thank you Apple for being an advocate for those who are trying to
understand that dyslexia can be a gift once it is diagnosed and the
proper tools are given to the individual. There is hope which can be
turned into success with assistive technology in education/life. There
is a huge struggle within my state of Florida, and other states who do
not recognize dyslexia as a learning disability which is protected by
the American Disabilities Act (ADA). There are some staggering
statistics which I would like to briefly express in my hope that my
success can change the minds of educators, politicians, parents and
encourage children/individuals/students to turn what most people call a
disability into the gift that it can be with the proper tools.<br />
<br />
<i><b>32%</b> of students with dyslexia fail to graduate from high school</i><br />
<i><b>50%</b> of youth in juvenile detention system have dyslexia (why it will be a 0 budget item, if legislation is passed to test individuals in schools and provide tools to succeed)</i><br />
<i><b>60%</b> of adolescents in drug and alcohol rehabilitation have dyslexia <b><br /></b></i><br />
<i><b>50% </b>of successful suicides for children under the age of 15, had a learning disability</i><br />
<i><b>50%</b> of the unemployed between the ages of 16 and 21 cannot read well enough to be considered functionally literate.</i><br />
<i>School dropouts cost our nation <b>$240 billion</b> in social service expenditures and lost tax revenues. </i><i><i> </i></i><br />
<br />
<i><i>Sources:<a href="http://www.noticeability.org/#section-information">http://www.noticeability.org/#section-information</a> , <a href="http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/depression-and-learning-disabilities/" target="_blank">http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/depression-and-learning-disabilities/ </a></i> and http://literacyprojectfoundation.org/statistics-page/</i><br />
<br />
<br />
My studies and papers were all done with assistive technology I used <a href="http://www.voicedream.com/reader/" target="_blank">Voice Dream Reader</a> (VDR) to read my textbooks and articles and I used Dragon Dictation to dictate my discussion post and papers. Sometimes I had up to 500 pages a week to read and with Voice Dream Reader while reading the text I would make notes within the VDR Apple application and export them out for referencing in my papers and discussions. Bookshare.org allowed me to enhance my learning by downloading books such as "Confessions of a Successful CIO" or another such example "Less Medicine, More Health." It was an exhilarating 3 years/90 weeks of education, the light of this education shine so bright that the shadows of failure which have plagued me all my reading life disappeared into the glorious success of a bright future with a Masters degree from a premier university.<br />
<br />
During my education, I had to be my own advocate to get my textbooks from the publisher directly and then hand off the information to Brandeis University who was authorized to present the textbook company with my proof of disability. The fear of the past, I could not leave in the hands of the school. I had to be my own advocate and make sure that I received the textbook in time of the course. At one point, the professor changed the textbook a week before class started, but Wiley publishing stepped up to the plate, as did my advocate at Brandeis University and we got the job done.<br />
<br />
<br />
It is my hope my story is an inspiration to others who struggle with the unknown gift of dyslexia.Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-34070055282558962512015-03-07T12:57:00.000-05:002016-04-29T15:52:56.717-04:00NextGen Article for the Manatee County Early Learning Coalition.<div class="MsoPlainText">
Born in 1959 with dyslexia, my “learning disability”
created an arduous journey for me, my parents, and educators, finding out what
dyslexia can do, how it can create, and after a long road, how it can be
considered a “gift.” For those persons
who have been diagnosed with dyslexia today, life can be less arduous and
become exciting once the person is provided with the available tools. Today is
a technical dream come true world for those who struggle with the printed word.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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For most who knew me growing up, they would probably call
me the class clown in elementary school, the crazy guy in high school and the
fun guy in college. Inside, though, was
a brewing storm of lack of self-worth, feeling empty with lack of knowledge
from books and the “self-titled” dark horse of the family. All of these clouds of deceit kept either me
or others away from the truth. We are
all made perfect when we receive the gifts of our Maker. I grew up in a compassionate, Christ oriented
and successful family, of which I struggled to feel academically a part of due
to my inability to process the printed word.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In 1967, the validation of my inability to learn with the
then current way of teaching was documented and defined as Dyslexia at the
University of Miami, much to the relief of my parents. My parents were
struggling with the difficulty I had learning.
My normal way of school life abruptly ended when I was placed in a
school for students with special needs.
It did not last long, but the remembrance that the drug line, my drug
was Ritalin, was longer than the lunch line, was a constant reminder I was not
considered normal when compared to the educational world I had just come
from. After about 6 months, I was pulled
from the "pharmaceutical (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) school"
back into the mainstream and was then tutored in reading until the early days
of middle school. Back then, and even
today, a good question to ask is how long do you teach a child to read? To an educator, the answer is you never stop
teaching a person to read; to the dyslexic the answer is, “please embrace the
way I consume the printed word.” To
teach me how to read is to tell me that I cannot read and I am not going to
succeed like my peers. It ushers me to
the back of the bus and lays upon me, the guilt which comes from feeling
different and inadequate when it comes to processing the printed word.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p>Four foot heirs to a ten-foot throne</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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With its rusted out dishwashers<o:p></o:p></div>
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And its ivy grown Home.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It may become theirs with a form of neglect, or it may bloom to be theirs with religious care.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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They are our flowers<o:p></o:p></div>
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which some will turn to weeds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Weeds which are our own from unmet needs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So to the chieftains, Mayors,<o:p></o:p></div>
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and unlikely parents,<o:p></o:p></div>
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to caring hands, kisses and well packed lunch boxes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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What is it that we want to pass on,<o:p></o:p></div>
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is it hoops and snares to our four foot heirs?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Or is it our dreams which become their dreams to a wonderful kingdom.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Which will be their new thrones?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Poem by Davis Graham, after visiting a ground breaking event for a Learning Disabled facility for LD students.</div>
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The damage that ensues from feeling inadequate is
immense! Most self-worth slowly leaks away one spoken word at a time. One such occurrence was at a conference in
Colorado Springs, Colorado, when the keynote speaker came up to speak and held
up a book. The keynote addressed the 400
plus crowd by saying everyone should read this book titled “Good to Great"
by Jim Collins. As soon as I heard
“everyone should read this book," I sank into depression because I knew I
would never be able to passionately read the book. Immediately I wanted to numb the shadow of
failure which followed me around because of my past failures with the ever
waiting fillers of darkness this world is so quick to provide. Those failures were from High school with a
SAT scores of 650 timed and 800 untimed. In my senior year my high school
counselor told me I would never make it through college; his words initially
came true with not just one but 2 academic suspensions from 2 separate colleges
within a 2 and a half year time span.
Thank goodness it was not 2014 where I would have an FCAT/PARCC score
follow me around constantly telling me I am a failure as early as elementary
school, not to mention how test scores allow peers to validate their teasing the
person who is different and has a failing FCAT/PARCC score and left behind.
Even today there are no accommodations for the print disabled student for the
reading sections for the FCAT testing. As for me, I persevered and graduated
from the University of South Florida in 1985 with BA in Psychology.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Today, these failures are successes and the finish line
is now a starting line; I survived, there are many that do not. The statistics are atrocious. Our education system is passing up some of
the most creative students by pushing the testing aside to diagnose them with
the gift of dyslexia. To be diagnosed is
one thing, but to provide the tools to succeed is an invitation into the world
of the printed word, which can become a virtual experience with everyday life
which is exciting and looked at with renewed expectation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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In 2013 I was offered to go back to graduate school,
although I would not go back without receiving accommodations in the form of
receiving my books in a digital format, in addition to having longer time to
take tests and turn in papers. In order
to receive these accommodations, I needed to be reevaluated through a battery
of tests to validate my print disability.
So today, after being re-credentialed in 2013 with the gift of dyslexia,
I am a graduate student at Brandeis University.
I am going into my fifth semester towards earning a Masters of Science
in Health and Medical Informatics. In
2013, I was honored to be asked to represent Brandeis University as their
attending Scholar at the 2013 Health Connect Conference Sponsored by
Partners.org. My most recent
accomplishment outside of achieving academic excellence in my last 4 semesters
is recently winning an essay contest sponsored by Eric Siegel who is an author
and graduate of Brandeis University and founder of Predictive Analytics World.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How do I now thrive in the "academic" world? I use assistive technology. To get a taste of assistive technology, all you have to do is look at any Apple iDevice. For iOS 7: Go to settings, general, accessibility, speak selection, turn it on and turn on the highlighted words and adjust the speed or for iOS 8: Go to settings, general, accessibility, Speech, then turn "on" Speak Selection, Speak Screen, adjust speed, and turn "on" Highlight content . Then go to any text, such as a news article, highlight the words, and instead of copying, press "speak." <a href="http://bdmtech.blogspot.com/2014/09/new-in-ios-8-start-text-to-speech.html" target="_blank">Or with iOS 8 swipe two fingers</a> down from the "very" top of the screen and it will begin to read the text. This is a simple illustration of the power Steve Jobs has given those who have the gift, as he did, of dyslexia. <a href="http://www.voicedream.com/" target="_blank">Voice Dream Reader</a> is another text to speech
Apple application for $9.99, although schools can get a very hefty discount for
their students, all students. Then for
those who have the documented print disability, Bookshare is the digital
library come true for all those who have the qualifying disabilities.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I am still my own advocate until the rest of the world
catches up by overhauling the archaic delivery system of education to one which
is electronically and technologically advanced to empower those persons with
the tools which enable them to consume the printed word. So today for my graduate classes, I write the
textbook publisher asking for the person in charge of providing permission to
send an alternative format of the textbook to me, the person with the print
disability. They send me the form for my
school to fill out; the school fills out the information needed, signs it,
sends it back to the publisher and receives the book in an alternative format.
I prefer the PDF format and I am off to reading. I consume/read most of my books on my iPhone.
When I want to make a note, I dictate in “notes” speech to text and if I do not
know a definition of a word I ask Siri or Google for the definition to be read
to me. At work I use Dragon Dictation to
dictate written communications. I read
with text-to-speech software such as Balabolka and at conferences I take my
notes with Xmind note taking software.
The last 2 software programs mentioned are free, as is Dragon dictation
on the iPhone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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For all those parents and children/students who have the
gift of dyslexia, it only feels like a gift when you receive the proper tools,
and once you receive those tools your determination and perseverance which has
delivered you to this point in life explodes into one of expectation and a
thirst for knowledge to be applied to the intelligence you have always had.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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Today, I tutor students with assistive technology and
speak words of encouragement to those who seek me out. I am blessed and remain
gifted with the gift of dyslexia.<br />
<o:p><i>Dec/Jan 2014-2015Edition</i></o:p></div>
Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-68266490793592746052013-12-05T06:26:00.000-05:002016-04-29T15:53:43.190-04:00Mark Alt and I at the Bridge Church:<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/78844338" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-21218495063765688502013-08-01T18:03:00.003-04:002013-12-06T15:41:04.669-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Gift of Dyslexia sources:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
50% of successful suicides for children 15 years of age and under had a learning disability:<br />
Understanding Children's Hearts and Minds: Emotional Functioning and Learning Disabilities<br />
By: Jean Cheng Gorman (1999), http://www.ldonline.org/article/6292/<br />
<br />
80% of children with a Learning disability actually have dyslexia.[1]<br />
Pediatric Clinic North Am. 2007 Jun;54(3):609-23, viii.,Management of dyslexia, its rationale, and underlying neurobiology. Shaywitz SE, Gruen JR, Shaywitz BA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17543912<br />
<br />
Up to 50% of juveniles who are incarcerated have learning disabilities.<br />
Transitioning Students into a Facility: Comprehensive Assessment at Entry, By Angeline Spain and Regina Waugh http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/nd/resources/spotlight/spotlight200503a.asp#1<br />
<br />
Up to 600 words per minute. Some researchers have actually suggested that listening may occur at a rate of 1,000 to 3,000 words per minute. - Communicating Effectively, (10th Edition) by Richard L. Weaver II and Saundra Hybels,Chapter 5, page 132<br />
<br />
35% of Entrepreneurs in the United States are dyslectic<br />
New Research Reveals Many Entrepreneurs Are Dyslexic, Posting Date: January 23, 2008<br />
http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/New-Research-Reveals-Many-Entrepreneurs-Are-Dyslexic.aspx<br />
<br />
Steve Jobs and his gift of dyslexia: The Guardian<br />
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/24/dyslexia-not-a-disability-gift</div>
Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-30475530319139470952013-05-31T11:08:00.002-04:002013-05-31T11:13:42.269-04:00Neurobiology of Learning Disorders by Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide on Oct 16, 2012<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvw_YEF2EcX5HNsaWJahMw6aoCaJBmu6_MR9J8HTZVnrUj7CQwxPD7b54Ql4TvoF0M3m_dJxDs_d0DeKc3lRf4TJGu5N_v4IJ049HIEmHdVai6q4PTG-He5xO1oJCx5W54KvaqW9n1BE0/s1600/Dr.+Eide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvw_YEF2EcX5HNsaWJahMw6aoCaJBmu6_MR9J8HTZVnrUj7CQwxPD7b54Ql4TvoF0M3m_dJxDs_d0DeKc3lRf4TJGu5N_v4IJ049HIEmHdVai6q4PTG-He5xO1oJCx5W54KvaqW9n1BE0/s320/Dr.+Eide.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #ebeae4; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: start;">Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide and their <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/drseide/neurobiology-of-learning-disorders?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=drseide&utm_content=Dyslexic+Advantage+Newsletter+January+-+February+2013" target="_blank">talk </a>to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in San Francisco, CA. Latest updates in research-based understanding of learning disabilities and learning differences. Topics covered include: co-morbidity of LD, prevalence, neuropsychological testing, fMRI, auditory and visual processing, development, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and ADD / ADHD, reward and motivation, creativity, gifted, neurodiversity. </span><br style="background-color: #ebeae4; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: #ebeae4; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: #ebeae4; color: #555555; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; text-align: start;">For more information about dyslexia, join our community at: </span><a href="http://dyslexicadvantage.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #ebeae4; border: 0px; color: #0077aa; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://dyslexicadvantage.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-21585260844586730832012-09-07T15:49:00.002-04:002012-09-07T15:49:41.776-04:00A Mother and Son Talk About Bookshare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Listen to the mother and then just do it. Eccl 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.....Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-35633304365091676462012-06-04T10:45:00.002-04:002013-02-22T16:36:17.735-05:00Guest column: FCAT fails to allow dyslexics, disabled to use technology<br />
Published: June 3, 2012<br />
<a href="https://www.box.com/s/3efe1f8425508726b62c" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Click here to listen to the commentary.</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">By Davis W. Graham — Commentary (Bradenton.com)</span></span><br />
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As a person with the gift of <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu/">Dyslexia</a></span>, today I am thriving with text-to-speech technology that enables me to read at 340 to 510 words per minute. Not all the population has the ability to access such "free" tools.<br />
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Over and over again I hear stories of people who have dyslexia and other print "disabilities" and are still struggling. Their lives, like mine, could be changed with such <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com/">Tools
of Engagement</a></span>.<br />
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Then I began to hear of lives and families who have been devastated by the FCAT and the lack of accommodations for those with print disabilities.<br />
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Did you know a child with the gift of dyslexia is not permitted to have assistive technology to help them in the reading portion of the FCAT?<br />
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High failure rate<br />
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The recently <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://fcat.fldoe.org/mediapacket/2012/pdf/2012FCAT20_Grades910.pdf" target="_blank">posted scores on the 10th-grade
reading test</a></span> show 81 percent of kids with disabilities failed. It is suspected that means about 80 percent of the students with specific learning disabilities failing -- compared to 73 percent last year.<br />
<br />
Once they fail this test, they are then set on a path of lifelong struggles centered on this one failure, one of which <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx">I have endured</a></span>.<br />
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The cost of funding this failure is enormous. We have increased populations in juvenile detention. Some <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.neglected-delinquent.org/nd/resources/spotlight/spotlight200503a.asp#1" target="_blank">30 to 50 percent of juvenile detainees</a></span> have a reading disability.<br />
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Even if the person is not in a correctional facility, the knowledge of failure can lead to addictions which numb the present to forget the past. The list goes on.<br />
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Our test-based education system not being held to American Disabilities Act standards is blatant discrimination. ADA is required in almost every other facet in our lives.<br />
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This is the beginning of a child's life in the education system and hence begins an intelligent life being measured and changed by a discriminatory test.<br />
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It is said there is a 16-year-old who is still in middle school because of failure to pass the FCAT. If not for a counselor's intervention, a woman who has been sight impaired since age 13 would not have been allowed to graduate from high school because she did not pass FCAT -- even though she was in the top 10 percent of her class.<br />
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Technology bridges gap<br />
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People with dyslexia or other print disability are living in a technical dream-come-true world which can equip the 10 to 20 percent of those who have dyslexia with tools such as Balabolka, Readplease, Xmind (note taking tool), Read2Go and Bookshare.org -- which will change their future outlook.<br />
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This technology has bridged the gap, but for this technology not to be allowed in today's educational journey -- such as the FCAT -- then our education system is living in a two-faced world.<br />
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When a building is built today, it is required by law to have ADA-compliant restrooms. A person in a building that does not have an ADA restroom may be put at a temporary disadvantage. Because the FCAT does not accommodate a person with a print disability, that mars the person and family for life.<br />
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We are on the edge of the digital age where we can power up all students by advocating technology, but as it stands we are asking students in some academic settings to "power down."<br />
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Davis W. Graham, is the executive director and CFO of Manatee Diagnostic Center in Bradenton.<br />
<br />
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/06/03/4061085/guest-column-fcat-fails-to-allow.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpyDavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-83321871714432954832012-05-10T11:24:00.003-04:002013-12-15T08:48:42.542-05:00If we change Education in a way which a person with the Gift of Dyslexia can learn then we have changed a Nation.<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://youtu.be/K8G9rjkNm_Y" target="_blank">Diamonds In The Rough 2011(Click Here)</a></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a>Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-82676504715328861292012-02-23T15:58:00.001-05:002012-02-23T16:02:40.128-05:00Technology to Help Struggling Students (Click to listen)<a href="http://m.ascd.org/EL/Article/c60682b332709010VgnVCM1000003d01a8c0RCRD" target="_blank">Technology to Help Struggling Students</a><br />
<br />
by Heidi Silver-Pacuilla and Steve Fleischman<br />
Feb 2006 | Vol 63 | No. 5<br />
<br />
Helping Struggling Students Pages 84 - 85<br />
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Many technology features that were originally developed to help people with specific sensory impairments are now widely in use. We have begun to take for granted the ability to zoom in on small print or to have written text speak to us. Closed captioning of video programs, originally developed to support viewers who are hard of hearing, also has mainstream uses, allowing us to “tune in” to a program across a noisy room by reading the captions.<br />
Such accessibility features, particularly text-to-speech and speech recognition, are increasingly available in educational technologies as well. Although schools commonly use them to support students with sensory impairments and learning disabilities, these features can help a broad range of students. Research is beginning to show the benefits of giving all students access to these capabilities.<br />
What We Know<br />
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Research in psychology has shown the power of simultaneous, multiple modes of input to gain and hold a person's attention and to improve memory. Lewandowski and Montali (1996) conducted a study that compared the learning of poor readers and skilled readers who were both taught through a text-to-speech application with simultaneous on-screen highlighting of the spoken word. This study showed that experiencing the text bimodally (visually and aurally) enabled poor readers to perform as well as skilled readers in word recognition and retention. Research by Allinder, Dunse, Brunken, and Obermiller-Krolikowski (2001) and Meyer and Felton (1999) confirms that highlighting text as it is spoken can help learners pay attention and remember more.<br />
Text-to-speech also relieves the burden of decoding for struggling readers, allowing them to focus on comprehension (Wise, Ring, & Olson, 2000) and improving their endurance in completing reading assignments (Hecker, Burns, Elkind, Elkind, & Katz, 2002). Research has also shown that students with learning disabilities identify and correct more errors in their compositions when they use text-to-speech for proofreading (Higgins & Raskind, 1995).<br />
The inverse of text-to-speech is speech recognition, in which the technology takes spoken words and translates them into type. Speech recognition provides access to computers not only for users who have physical disabilities, but also for those who have constraints related to fatigue, poor handwriting, spatial organization, or spelling. Speech recognition also provides immediate constructive feedback, as users see their own words transformed into written text with correct formatting and grammar (Silver-Pacuilla, in press).<br />
Early research conducted with previous versions of the technology, which had considerable problems with accuracy, indicated that the strategic use of speech recognition improved users' literacy skills (Higgins & Raskind, 2000). The researchers attributed these benefits to the heightened, strategic engagement with print and language that users experience while dictating and correcting errors.<br />
A third technology application that has received research attention is computer-based graphic organizers. These tools facilitate brainstorming, concept mapping, and outlining in much the same way that teacher-led instruction does, but with the advantages of providing word processing and text-to-speech support and the ability to rearrange elements or switch between outline and map view. In one study (Sturm & Rankin-Erickson, 2002), middle school students with and without disabilities were taught concept-mapping strategies and then were asked to write descriptive essays using either no map, a hand-drawn map, or a computer-drawn map. Students who constructed concept maps during the prewriting stage—either by hand or with the computer—produced significantly more sophisticated and complete essays. Students who used computer-based mapping also reported a more positive attitude toward the writing process.<br />
What You Can Do<br />
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Educators should not hesitate to integrate technology features into instruction for students who struggle with academic tasks. These approaches can support learning by building literacy and language skills and independence.<br />
Text-to-speech. You can use text-to-speech to increase the amount of reading that struggling readers do. For early readers and young English language learners, use digital storybooks as a fun and interactive way to engage with books. Encourage older readers to use text-to-speech to access motivating, content-specific texts on the Internet. For students who struggle to read classic literature, consider downloading the texts as e-books that students can read with text-to-speech. Much e-book software includes annotation, highlighting, and linked dictionary tools to facilitate studying. To help with writing, have students proofread their compositions as the software reads them aloud. You can install free, downloadable text-to-speech programs or find this feature bundled in many operating systems and stand-alone applications.<br />
Speech recognition. Use speech recognition technology to help struggling writers and spellers get their ideas on paper. The immediacy of the dictation process reinforces the vocabulary and use of writing conventions and punctuation. Special programs can help struggling math students dictate and organize mathematical expressions. If you haven't tried speech recognition software lately, you'll find vastly improved capabilities, reduced training requirements, and better microphones available at very reasonable costs.<br />
Graphic organizers. Many teachers now use graphic organizers to tap into students' visual and spatial abilities, strengthening the connection between these ways of knowing and academic tasks. You can use computer-based graphic organizers with whole-class instruction to show the connections among big ideas in the content areas, as well as to demonstrate writing and reading comprehension strategies. Encourage your students to try using graphic organizer programs for annotations during reading or prewriting brainstorming. The ability of most of the software packages to switch between map and outline views supports students' progress through the writing stages.<br />
E-Resources. Today's Internet contains a plethora of reference and resource material. Encourage all your students to use these resources, which provide “just in time” and “just in case” support to help address vocabulary and background knowledge gaps. For English language learners or students struggling with reading and writing, provide extra training in using e-resources with text-to-speech software. Such support will give these students access to the same powerful knowledge base that their peers enjoy.<br />
Technology to Help Struggling Students<br />
<br />
by Heidi Silver-Pacuilla and Steve Fleischman<br />
Feb 2006 | Vol 63 | No. 5<br />
<br />
Helping Struggling Students Pages 84 - 85<br />
<br />
Educators Take Note<br />
<br />
Accessibility features in common technology applications can help struggling students make important connections—to the content, among ideas, among their own sensory modes of learning, and between their digital competencies and the curriculum. These technologies, however, will not automatically create success straight out of the box. Educators need to strategically integrate these features into sound pedagogy to help struggling learners achieve both academic and technological success.Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-81570463550312802022011-12-19T11:33:00.003-05:002011-12-29T09:18:46.815-05:00Returning to the scene of failure. (click to listen)Recently, I viewed the HBO Documentary, <a href="http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/journey-into-dyslexia/index.html#/documentaries/journey-into-dyslexia/index.html" target="_blank">Journey into Dyslexia</a>, it was a good view of all the aspects of the Gift, and it gave to most of our peers an understanding of the "Mysterious Gift of our Intelligence", but as for the person with dyslexia we were left with a "nowhere to go from here" feeling. <br />
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For me the person who has the Gift of Dyslexia I can tell you once you overcome the failure, there are still calluses to the world of the written word which need to be conquered and I still feel alone in the closed door world in which I live, but have not yet mastered. <br />
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The written world is like embarking on a new wilderness and I come across a guide who knows all of the trails and sources of water and danger. Turn this new world of reading with "assistive technology" and I now have my guide, but to get there is painful. Why because as Ron Davis's book The Gift of Dyslexia states, a person with dyslexia "to read seems life-threatening". Or another way to put it, is now that I have mastered my current environment, why return to the scene of my tragic accident of failure in consuming the written word. Internally you state, "I will have nothing to do with it, it is too emotional", but yet I still feel so left out and in the dark when it comes to the written word.<br />
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So we are caught in this closed loop of failure, if we continue on in our now well padded "Pseudocompetence" world I become harden to life. Life goes on and the once mastered skills come boredom, and I slip in to <a href="http://www.videoverite.tv/pages/film-JID-about.html" target="_blank">self condemnation</a>.<br />
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My life was changed to a new life of beginnings, for me it was starting with going to church with the high school guidance counselor who told me I would never make it in college, I forgave him, and when I forgave him I forgave myself, one callus gone. Then a contract comes across my desk and I find Readplease (2001) on line, I use Readplease to read the contract in an hour, it was 30 pages, another callus gone. Then a librarian encourages me to become a member of <a href="http://bookshare.org/">Bookshare.org</a> (2007) I read for the first time a book which I choose "The Preacher and the Presidents" and I'm starting to feel alive and look for another book. Before I know it, the life to the once closed door community opens and then I internally start to change. It is truly a freeing experience, it is life changing, because I was headed back to the life of failure because I "can't" read.<br />
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So for me a person with the Mysterious Gift of Intelligence", Dyslexia, I am now in a new wilderness world with an expert guide and the Frontier of exploration is on.Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-17646566139521734592011-11-16T11:37:00.003-05:002011-11-16T11:42:26.130-05:00Pseudocompetence (click to read) As a person with the Gift of Dyslexia before fully mastering the tools which I now use on a hourly and daily basis, I use to call <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocompetence" target="_blank">Pseudocompetence</a>, "survival". If I saw an article which I thought would be pertinent to my need to know knowledge, I would show the article to someone and tell them "here read this article I think you would be interested in the topic". Then later on I would ask them what they thought of the article and then gleam what I could from them without ever reading the article. But over a period of time what built up is the knowledge the data base I have in my head is totally dependent on others accomplishing what I can't do on my own. Then once I master this ability my heart is harden to someone else proposing something to me which I should know but it is too much to pick up a book or article and read it to gain the knowledge I need to understand. Then my sights became more and more narrow.<br />
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<div></div><div><span class="491323721-15112011">So now jump forward, Bookshare.org comes into my life from a librarian who advocated me to become a member and today I can read the Wall Street Journal on the way to work for today (not to mention Europe's WSJ, and Asia) or read any New York bestsellers or most books mentioned at conferences. These tools or the "dyslexic's eyeglasses" which enable me to read have changed my world. One day I was reflecting with one of my friends, and I was telling him how now with all the right tools I can read almost anything I want and how confident it made me feel, in addition it allowed me to contribute to my work, family life, parenting...... Then he said something which took me time to understand. He said Davis you know reading has also made you a better Receiver." </span></div><div></div><div><span class="491323721-15112011"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="491323721-15112011">A "Receiver" , I pondered and then it became clear, my defensiveness and at times almost anger has vanished on new subjects. Why because if I don't know lets take some parenting skills, I can read about it, or develop a new idea then I can read about it. My knowledge base now comes from my efforts not someone else's, the knowledge gained by reading goes thru my filters, which is the way God created me to be, and why I am where I am, because someone saw those talents. </span></div><div></div><div><span class="491323721-15112011"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="491323721-15112011">So now let's jump back to the reason for this List Serv. You all have students who struggle (as I have and failed) and as a teacher or advocate you want to make their life better by enabling them to read. Well all I can offer is my knowledge of the tools I use on a daily basis, which I discovered from my failure and my way to survive in a "real world", 'assistive technology' has contributed to my drive and I want to pass it on to you as an<a href="http://mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com/2009/04/postcards-from-ld-veteran.html" title="blocked::http://mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com/2009/04/postcards-from-ld-veteran.html"> LD Veteran</a>. </span></div>Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-20479002762755908692011-11-07T16:46:00.000-05:002011-11-07T16:46:27.698-05:00Special font helps dyslexic readersNew 'Font' outside of the walls of education seem a bit too much, what about "assistive technology". <br />
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Moments ago I received a 23 page contract from a new Healthcare Provider Network, I have the "Gift of Dyslexia" and I have to read this contract before I put my signature on the agreement. No special font, I just highlight and copy to<a href="http://www.readplease.com/english/downloads/"> ReadPlease 2003 Plus</a> add my footnotes to the document and send it back with my questions in the footnotes and move on.<br />
Or if the contract is too wordy I will then paste the contract into <a href="http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm">Balabolka</a> because it reads up to 510 words a minute, so I don't lose my comprehension by my mind drifting; most contract contain a lot of fluff.<br />
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The key to unlocking the Gift of Dyslexia is to create an environment which enables me or the person with dyslexia the ability to read. Who wears glasses, this is in someone's world assistive technology. Who and what gave Stephen Hawking the ability to pour out new insight to the Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics departments at the University of Cambridge and the world?<br />
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We are on the edge of the digital age where we can power up all students by advocating technology, but as it stands we are asking students in most academic settings to "power down". Who can bring it better than those who have mastered it, through achievement.<br />
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Bookshare.org is doing such, all should embrace it with passion, and if you want to know the outcome, ask me or visit My travels with the "gift of dyslexia: www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx and my blog at www.mygiftofdyslexia.blogspot.com<br />
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All who touch a child with the Gift of Dyslexia have the ability to send them to the boardrooms or prison cells, I was blessed with compassionate ears and hearts, so my path has placed me in the boardroom.<br />
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"Once I was lost now I am found, once was blind to the written word, now I read."<br />
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Sincerely,<br />
Davis W. GrahamDavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-31289210291093300672011-11-03T13:05:00.004-04:002011-11-03T13:08:26.411-04:00The Case Against Assistive Technology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/lNs88Ki1WSo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=lNs88Ki1WSo"></a>Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-9832766410176155402011-11-01T09:40:00.002-04:002011-11-03T09:11:45.952-04:00Steve Jobs impressions.Blogs - <a href="http://www.hutchcraft.com/blogs/ron-hutchcrafts-blogs/steve-jobs-and-god?utm_source=Ron+Hutchcraft+Ministries%2C+Inc.&utm_campaign=d5f6b43882-AWWY+6472&utm_medium=email">Ron Hutchcraft's Blogs</a><br />
When you're a kid, you're wet cement. Impressions get written so easily - and so deeply. Then they harden into the beliefs - or unbeliefs - of that kid-become-adult. Apparently, Steve Jobs was no exception.<br />
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Apple's communications genius/revolutionary, has been described as "intriguing, yet inscrutable." But as he battled cancer, he opened some windows into his mind and soul to the author writing his life story. According to the new biography that bears his name, Steve Jobs studied Zen Buddhism for years. A recent article in USA Today said, "He never went back to church after he saw a photo of starving children on the cover of Life and asked his Sunday school pastor if God knew what would happen to them. He was 13 at the time."<br />
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In a separate article, USA Today includes this near-the-end spiritual observation from Steve Jobs' biography: "The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than on living like Jesus or seeing the world as Jesus saw it."<br />
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None of us knows exactly where Steve Jobs finally landed in his spiritual journey. But in his words about Jesus is a glimmer of the bedrock truth that answers so many spiritual questions: It's all about Jesus.<br />
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Christianity, the religion, never has been the issue - although many have been unable or unwilling to separate Jesus from the religion that is about Him. But Jesus made it all about Him, and Him alone, in the simple two-word invitation He extended over and over again - "Follow Me." Jesus never said "follow My religion" or "follow My followers." And He didn't say "follow My rules" or "follow My leaders." No, the only reason to turn away from Jesus is if you have a problem with Jesus.<br />
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As for "seeing the world as Jesus saw it," He saw it broken because people walk past the wounded, absorbed with themselves - as in His story of the Good Samaritan. He saw it cold and lonely and twisted because every man has chosen to ignore the Manufacturer's instructions and become our own god for our life. And that has brought us a world of bleeding families, greedy hoarding that produces global hungering, and an endless drama of people being used, abused and walked on.<br />
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And what about those starving children? Jesus said when we reach for them to help them, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me." And, "whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me" (Matthew 25:40 , 45/). Jesus is so personally identified with the hurting people of our world that He takes our treatment of them as our treatment of Him. With eternal consequences.<br />
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This Jesus that's it all about came here as "a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering...pierced for our transgressions...crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:3 , 5). This is the God who leaves the Throne to die on the Cross. He's a God you can believe in. A God who stands alone above all the wannabe gods of earth's spiritual pantheon. And ultimately, we find in Jesus the only man of the billions who've lived who has come back from the grave - and promised eternal life to all those who would "follow Me."<br />
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Behind all the fog of all the "sophisticated" spiritualities and dueling religions of our world stands one real God. One real Savior. The God who hung on a cross.<br />
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USA Today - October 21, 2011, 1B; "Jobs biography pulls back web of privacy;" Rachel Metz, Associated Press.<br />
USA Today - October 25, 2011, 2B; "Jobs lived intriguing, yet inscrutable life;" by Jon Swartz and Scott Martin.Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-28777261673614638052011-10-15T07:17:00.002-04:002011-10-25T09:34:51.085-04:00Thank you Steve Jobs and hello to Read2GoThank you Steve Jobs and hello to Read2Go:<br />
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Steve Jobs was to us like baseball was to the great depression. We as the American public and the world watched the big west coast Apple waiting for the next homerun. <br />
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Steve Jobs was fun to watch, he was fun to talk about as we waited his next up to bat and talk to each other about what it is like to experience his last homerun. The field of technology was changed forever as was the field of baseball when Babe Ruth called his shot in the 5th inning of Game 3 of the 1932 World Series.<br />
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We have been blessed; Steve Jobs creations have touched the world of communication, the world of children, artist from musician to software writers and touched the person who has the print disability who was given <a href="http://read2go.org/">Read2Go</a>. We have now all been put into the mainstream of the amphitheater of life to discover, express and read in valleys and places we thought our minds would never have been able to go before.<br />
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As his life light has been blown out he has left this world his creative light, like Edison. He has given us a table to place our reading light which has changed hearts and encouraged minds to the next generation. <br />
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Steve Jobs gave us a new image to technology just as Babe Ruth gave an everlasting image to baseball; we all have been given a new view in our inning of life.<br />
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Thank you Steve Jobs, and to your wife and family and your creative team who forever changed our lives. We will pass our given light on to our children as we read on.<br />
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In Christ service,<br />
Davis GrahamDavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-73670436456897303032011-09-07T11:36:00.010-04:002011-12-13T09:12:08.772-05:00Dyslexia the Mysterious Gift of Intelligence: (Click to listen)The key to unlocking the <a href="http://www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspx">Gift of Dyslexia</a> is to create an environment which enables me or the person with dyslexia the ability to read. Many times I have heard the call for help and desperation for those parents, adults and children who have dyslexia. There is crying for direction and what will it be like at the end of the road. <br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">If any one has dyslexia they are living in a technical dream come true world which can equip the 10-20% of those who have the Gift of Dyslexia with tools such as <a href="http://www.cross-plus-a.com/balabolka.htm">Balabolka</a>, <a href="http://www.readplease.com/english/downloads/">Readplease</a>, <a href="http://www.xmind.net/">Xmind</a> (note taking tool), <a href="http://read2go.org/" target="_blank">Read2Go</a> and <a href="http://www.bookshare.org/">Bookshare.org </a>which will change the landscape of their future outlook. It is my hope nobody has to go through what I went through in high school, grade and middle school, but the word needs to get out to the public. <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
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Today I read with not boarders or hurdles to the written word at speeds of 340 to 510 words per minute with 90+% comprehension. Bookshare has changed my life and Bookshare® is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities, thanks to an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Bookshare has 125,000 digital books and textbooks of which are awaiting access to those who struggle with the printed word. <br />
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Read:OutLoud is the text to speech software which comes with the membership (free for students or $50 for non-students who qualify) and can take any textbook and turn it into a virtual book. For instance when I read if I come to a person, place or thing, I don't know who, where or what the subject is all I have to do is with one click of the mouse I can surf the net to find out who it is with a picture, or where it is on the map and then read on.. If I was in the class room without this and other tools I would never had raised my hand nor would I have ever gotten to the point where I would look up a subject as I do today. <br />
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Recently, I finished reading The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, when I came to the "Dust Bowl", I knew a tiny bit of what the Dust Bowl was but with a few clicks of the mouse I found out the facts. <br />
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Below is my testimony and my life travels with the gift of dyslexia but I know it would be encouraging to many millions of students and then parents or adults, to know the tools are here and ready to use. <br />
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As a point of insight we (dyslectics) are way ahead of the dawn of the "digital textbook" era, and we have a great chance of being the navigators of how it can change the life of a student and family, if not a nation.<br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-flagg/dyslexia-is-the-best-thin_b_936096.html">From a recent blog post comment I made:</a><br />
Yesterday I read "Dyslexics are overrepresented in board rooms and prison cells", and yet our archaic education system remains. Today, like ‘many who have the Gift of dyslexia’ my life has changed with the "Gift" of Dyslexia. The mountainous boarders of books which blocked my self-esteem has been all but flattened. Bookshare free for all United States students with qualifying disabilities (dyslexia being one of them) has changed who I perceived myself to be and who I am today (Jesus is the biggest part of this change). Now when a book is mentioned at a conference, the waves of failure which use to wash over me are now a wave of anticipation of reading the book. Text to speech software, like Readplease, Balabolka and Read:OutLoud combined with Bookshare digital books have made reading a decision not a chore or dreaded thought of me thinking I'm a failure.<br />
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Today, in this awesome digital and software landscape for a dyslectic I am free to read. Thank you for your inside look into your road of freedom. The journey I have experienced has been similar and can be read at: www.manateediagnostic.com/davisgraham.aspxDavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-17885063778126339482011-09-03T09:41:00.000-04:002011-09-03T09:41:48.391-04:00Helping Struggling Students To SucceedSCHOOL NEWS AND NOTES<br />
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Helping Struggling Students To Succeed<br />
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(NAPSI)—For some students, trying as hard as they can just isn’t enough. These students may be at a disadvantage because of widespread learning differences such as dyslexia or because of disabilities like visual impairment. Studies show that for these students to succeed, an online audio library of core curriculum textbooks and literature titles can make all the difference.<br />
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Research by Johns Hopkins University and case studies in the Baltimore City Public Schools showed significant improvements in students who use audiobooks. Reading comprehension improved by 76 percent, content acquisition by 38 percent, reading accuracy by 52 percent and self-confidence by 61 percent.<br />
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Scott Bartnick was diagnosed with a severe learning disability in 1st grade. His parents were told he might never be able to read, yet the 19-year-old recently graduated from high school with a 4.35 GPA-no easy feat given his disabilities in reading, decoding, fluency and spelling. Bartnick relied on a service called Learning Ally, which offers the most advanced library of accessible audiobooks in the world.<br />
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“Learning Ally helped me achieve academic success,” said Bartnick, who is now thriving in his junior year at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In fact, his elementary school awarded him the “Disney Dreamers and Doers Award,” an honor presented to just one student every year for “curiosity, courage and constancy.”<br />
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Early intervention can deliver dramatic results. When Leslie H. was in 2nd grade, teachers informed her mother, Lisa, that her daughter was only reading at a kindergarten level. A friend of Lisa’s told her about the Learning Ally website. Within 24 hours of signing up for the program, Leslie, who has severe dyslexia, had read three books. Lisa reported that her daughter’s speech pathologist noted a major difference in her daughter’s fluency and self-confidence. “She embraced words and books in a way she never had and that was really exciting.”<br />
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Originally founded in 1948 as Recording for the Blind, the nonprofit Learning Ally has grown to serve a complete spectrum of individuals from kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as college students and working professionals.<br />
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Learning Ally’s digital library of audiobooks has special accessibility features for readers with print disabilities, and can be played on popular devices like the Apple iPad and iPhone, as well as MP3 players, Mac and PC computers and CD.<br />
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Students with a certified print disability are eligible for an individual membership from Learning Ally, allowing them to work on assignments at home as a supplement to their school’s membership. Institutional memberships are available for schools and districts to accommodate students with IEP and 504 plans. To learn more, visit www.LearningAlly.org.<br />
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Early intervention for reading difficulties can deliver dramatic results.<br />
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Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8244205874685199397.post-71645104550760550692011-08-27T00:02:00.000-04:002011-08-27T00:02:42.299-04:00Dyslexia Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me, by Donna FlaggMy mother would disagree. She still agonizes over how I went through living hell in school as a result of being dyslexic and undiagnosed. It pains her to think that there was something my father and she could have done to spare me the grief, humiliation and shame of not functioning, and therefore performing, in line with the rest of my peers. She blames herself regardless of how many times I try to tell her that it all went exactly the way it was supposed to go, that is, if you use my life as it exists today as the means to measure. I'm healthy and happy and highly engaged in my life, all things I consider more valuable than regrets over what had been. Plus in some weird, ironic way, my success today is directly tied to my ostensible failures of the past, not because of the scars, but because of what I had to learn in order to survive a system that did not recognize me as a legitimate member. <br />
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I didn't always feel as though my years struggling in school were the gift that I do now, however. After I was diagnosed in college, I was angry and full of resentment toward the people who were unable to see the truth of what I was, and a system so small-minded that it couldn't function without labels. But it wasn't just the labels that angered me; it was the derogatory, demeaning, minimizing, soul-sucking nature attached to them and how they were used against well-meaning and talented kids without even the slightest awareness or concern of how it would affect the child's view of him or herself. Today I've come to see it as selfish to teach in such a way that suits the teacher more than it does the student. For a while, every time I thought about the level of ignorance, myopia and critical judgment rampant in my school, I felt my heart skip into my throat carrying with it an intense desire to tell every last one of them that it was they who were stupid. Eventually bygones became bygones and it was clear to me that once I got out from under the misguided goals of education, I was free. Second chances, as it were, I was away from the grinding toll of being reminded daily of all the things I couldn't do.<br />
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My first job was working for Chanel, my last was at Goldman Sachs, and in between there was a string of other companies whereby I was surrounded by business people who weren't looking for what was wrong, but saw what was right, and beyond that, wanted to use it constructively toward a common goal. As you might imagine, I found this very refreshing. Work ended up being the antithesis of primary school, which is to say positive, enriching and highly instructive. Between that and a successful run in college and graduate school twice, the glaring flaws in education became even more blinding. With no appreciation for cognitive diversity whatsoever, the system churns out more of the same old thing falling to realize that when children become adults, they will need to compete in an environment where innovation, creativity and point of difference are together the single most coveted competencies in organizations. Schools, as we know them, don't get that.<br />
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Additionally, it does nothing to prepare kids for the real world of work where emotional and psychological skills come into play as much as, if not more than, the tactical and technical. For me, it so happens that what made the situation unbearable from K through 12, is also what forced two things to happen which could not have been foreseen at the time. One, I developed the kind of survival skills that can't be taught from a textbook. And two, my brain was unable to adapt to the status quo. As a result, it's as if all the best parts were preserved, which turn out to be the most valuable assets I've brought to bear on my professional life. Not to mention that in the process, I learned to fight the system, communicate very well verbally as I dodged bullet after bullet, and most importantly, discovered that there was no point in listening to people who thought they knew about me and believed they had the authority to define who I was under the guise of their authority and/or title. They didn't.<br />
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So, here I am. I write, I teach, I dance and I have created two businesses that I run, all from the failure that everyone believed I would ultimately become.<br />
Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288698696060272925noreply@blogger.com0