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SchoolReformers.com insiderUpdate
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Items in this update:
o FROM THE EDITOR: Some call it a "crutch"
o Voice recognition software helps dyslexics
o LA school decentralization plan fails
o Ethos of private company offers lesson for failing schools
o Vermont Democrats sneer at voucher proposal
o Oregon college won't honor vouchers from 1888
o MA schools violate state law on homeschooling
o Critics ignore charter schools' success,
o High-profile homeschooling
o Big media's lonely libertarian: John Stossel
o Fiscal impact of tuition tax credits in NJ
Dear Fellow School Reformer:
One of the stories that caught our eye this week had nothing to do with
school choice per se. It pertains more to a tool of self-empowerment. But
the story is also incidentally revelatory of the educrat mentality of
status-quo worship.
You may have heard of voice recognition software (VRS), or even tried to
use it. The software is not quite up to Star-Trek standards yet, but it
can
recognize ninety-plus percent of what you drone into the mike at a normal
conversational pace. After you finish dictating you'll need to clean up
the
transcript a bit, correcting typos or supplying omitted words.
Whether using the software saves more time than it wastes depends on the
individual user, including how well he gets along with the software. The
software is capable of "learning." And these days you can also
purchase VRS
with specialized vocabulary modules pre-plugged-in, which further reduces
frustration and errors if, say, you're a doctor who uses a lot of funky
medical terms.
Most people can take or leave VRS given its current capabilities. Reviews
are mixed. Some users are delighted and others are less than impressed.
(That may be the difference between 10 wpm unaided typing speed and 90
wpm.) But the _New York Times_ reports that dyslexics who have made use of
VRS are often enormously helped by it. Dyslexia is a condition that makes
it difficult to read and write words correctly, because something in the
brain puts the letters of a word in a blender. Voice recognition software
can help.
First, the technology allows dyslexics to get a report or letter done
cleaner and faster -- they need no longer suffer the burdens of Sisyphus
every time they sit down at their desks. Second, seeing the words appear
on the screen as they are uttered, in (usually) correct letter-sequence
actually helps _improve_ unaided reading and writing ability.
"Children who wrote using speech recognition technology for as little
as
ten and a half hours showed significant improvement in reading, decoding,
spelling and comprehension," according to Marshall H. Raskind, a
learning
disabilities researcher at the Frostig Center in Pasadena. "We were
blown
away by this. The results are preliminary. But it is very
encouraging."
What could any educator could possibly have to say against this boon? Oh,
it's "cheating," somehow, some say.
It probably would be cheating to use voice recognition software in a speed
typing course. That's because typing courses are about typing, and VRS
allows you to avoid typing. But since VRS can't actually do any cognitive
work beyond the bare act of transcription -- and since it also helps over
time to improve the user's ability to decipher text -- the charge of
cheating seems a bit thickheaded at best.
"I don't want to make it sound like a panacea," Raskind says.
"It can be
very, very frustrating for some students. But many people view assistive
technologies in general as a crutch, a way of avoiding a problem. It's
weird: it's like seeing someone with a white cane and saying, 'Rip that
cane out of their hands and let them do it themselves.' "
Yours for school choice,
David M. Brown
Editor
SchoolReformers.com
http://www.schoolreformers.com
==> NEWS REPORTS <==
Voice recognition software helps dyslexics
----------
How voice recognition software has helped dyslexics to
improve reading and writing skills ... although some educators think
it's "cheating." "Many teachers think that fair is having
everyone do everything exactly the same way. That's a distorted
sense of fairness and a misunderstanding of dyslexia." (Site requires
registration.) (07/19/01)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/19/tec
hnology/circuits/19READ.html
LA school decentralization plan fails
----------
Los Angeles Unified has failed to live up to its promise to
parents and
students to decentralize into 11 mini-districts because too much
authority remains in the hands of bureaucrats downtown, a state audit has
concluded. (07/20/01)
http://www.dailynewslosangeles.com/n
ews/articles/0701/20/new01.asp
Ethos of private company offers lesson for failing schools
----------
A report on how private businesses run public services in
Britain looks at a school in Surrey where the fears of teachers and
parents have been
dispelled. (07/24/01)
http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools
/story/0,5500,526410,00.html
Vermont Democrats sneer at voucher proposal
----------
Democratic leaders from the Vermont Senate denounced a new
school
voucher proposal that they say is an effort "to dismantle public
education" through a "fee-for-all free-for-all." (07/20/01)
http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/
Story/30243.html
Oregon college won't honor vouchers from 1888
----------
In 1888, the Rev. R.C. Hill bought several tuition vouchers
for McMinnville College, hoping his children or grandchildren could
someday attend the small Baptist school. (07/20/01)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l
ocalnews/134320156_vouchers20m.html
MA schools violate state law on homeschooling
----------
The Westford schools are violating state law on
homeschooling,
the Home School Legal Defense Association has charged. (07/20/01)
http://www.massnews.com/sight3.htm#1
For more News Reports see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/res
ources/bycategory/news/
==> COMMENTARY, OPINION, AND BOOK REVIEWS <==
Critics ignore charter schools' success,
----------
by Diallo Dphrepaulezz
"Across the country, school boards, teacher unions and
activists are fueling a culture of resistance to charter schools and
school-choice alternatives for parents, particularly minorities."
(07/01)
http://www.pacificresearch.org/oped/
01-07-06dd.html
High-profile homeschooling
----------
by Brad Edmonds
"Home school your children. Urge everyone you know to do
it. ... Persuade, cajole, persist; home schooling is a big decision, and
some people need a
push. They and their children will be better for it." (07/25/01)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/e
dmonds61.html
For more Commentary, Opinion, and Book Reviews see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/resou
rces/bycategory/commentary/
==> EXPERTS <==
Big media's lonely libertarian: John Stossel
----------
Libertarian reporter John Stossel on why he's doing what he's
doing -- and why he's thrilled that videos of his iconoclastic TV
specials are now in the classroom. (06/01)
http://www.heartland.org/health/jun01
/stossel.htm
For more Experts see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/reso
urces/bycategory/experts/
==> SCHOLARLY AND IN-DEPTH STUDIES <==
Fiscal impact of tuition tax credits in NJ
----------
by Joseph Bast
Reports the results of an independent examination of the
likely fiscal impact of two proposed tuition tax credit plans for New
Jersey. (Adobe Acrobat and HTML) (04/01)
http://www.heartland.org/studies/NJtax
credit-ps.htm
For more Scholarly and In-Depth Studies see:
http://www.SchoolReformers.com/reso
urces/bycategory/in-depth/
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end of SchoolReformers.com insiderUpdate
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David M. Brown, editor <david@schoolreformers.com>
--
Louis James, publisher <ljames@free-market.net>
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