I Speak of Dreams

EdRev 2013: BrainAid's PEAT Device, or Cognitive Orthotics

I spent yesterday at the Parents Educational Network's EdRev 2013. Kudos to PEN for putting on such a dynamic and information-rich day. 

One focus was on exhibitors of technologies focusing on special education students' needs.  

I stopped by the BrainAid suite and had a lively conversation about executive function and technological supports with Brain Aid's president, Rich Levinson.  

Levinson was a robotics researcher at NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. In the early 1990s, Levinson began studying the neuropsychology of human planning -- executive function--in order to increase autonomy for NASA robots such as the Mars Rover.  

In 1995, Levinson proposed a computer model of human frontal lobe function. That computer model led to the development of  the Planning and Execution Assistant and Trainer -- PEAT™.   It is an  Android-based application that aids individuals with memory, attention and cognitive disorders.

PEAT was originally designed for brain injury rehabilitation -- specificially traumatic brain injury with the Veterans' Administration-- but has been used by many people with nearly all forms of cognitive impairment including mild cognitive impairment, early dementia, stroke, autism, ADHD, PTSD, hypoxia and others.

Right now, BrainAid is working with a Santa Clara County school district to build PEAT's capability to help students with executive function dysfunction (conditions such as autism and ADHD) be more successful academically.

I can see the PEAT device, with modifications, also being very useful for autistic adults, who often have executive function challenges that reduce quality of life.  I like the way BrainAid puts "autonomy" front and center -- "autonomy is our core value".  

Kassiane wrote a nifty article on "Autistifying My Habitat"that illustrates her low-tech way of overcoming some of the executive function challenges particular to her and her living situation.  Karla Fisher has a number of reflections on autistic executive function, but this essay is a great place to start.

PEAT training videos 

BrainAid on Twitter 

BrainAid on Facebook

BrainAid on Pinterst

 

 

 

A Confused Young Reporter Needs to Get Up to Speed on Social Media

(click to embiggen all images)

 Late Friday night (June 17, 2011) a young reporter for the Desert Times tried to make a to-do out of nothing, posting a story entitled Something odd afoot on @CalFireNews Twitter account, which began:

We were surprised to get an odd string of messages from Cal Fire last week — including one about cracking open a beer and another chatting about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

Oh dear, the young reporter failed to investigate.  If she had (say by clicking on the link at the  @CalFireNews twitter homepage), illustrated to the left, she would have found that @CalFireNews also has a website, and that website prominently displays the message:

CAL FIRE NEWS IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH CAL FIRE AND CONTAINS UNOFFICIAL FIRE AND DISASTER INFORMATION, NEWS, AND EDITORIAL OPINION
*INFORMATION PROVIDED RAW MAY NOT BE TIMELY OR UPDATED REGULARLY*

 

 

 

The young reporter could have used another tool, http://howlongontwitter.com/, and discovered (as I did, it only took a few seconds) that @CalFireNews has been on twitter since October 24, 2007; that @Cal_Fire and @CalFire_PIO (the official California Department of  Forestry twitter accounts) had been on twitter since February 18, 2009; and neither of the official counts are very active.

But she didn't. Instead she went on to write

@CalFireNews has posted nearly a whopping 50,000 tweets on Twitter so far.

Not so fast, says the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“That twitter acct is not run by us,” @CALFIRE_PIO, a spokesman for the fire department, told us via Twitter.

The Twitter profile offers no hint to @CalFireNews' real identity.

We're still waiting to see if the state will do anything to reclaim the Twitter name to protect its reputation — and the thousands of followers duped into reading its posts.

The only person duped is the naive (and, as least as far as investigative reporting goes, not very adept) young reporter.  She also needs to learn the difference between anonymity and pseudonymity.

Full story:

update: that "whopping" 50,000 tweets works out to about 38 tweets a day.  I know @CalFireNews has exceeded that daily average in an hour when there is important breaking news...like earthquakes or major fires.

Thinking of Buying a New Mac? Essential Apps

Yes I am thinking of purchasing a new computer.  Helpfully, Marc Frauenfelder of BoingBoing has published a three parts of a long series on his essential apps. 

(I took the advice of Leo Laporte, who once said that when he buys a new computer, the applications have to "earn their place" onto the hard drive). On the first day, I installed about 30 applications that I consider essential for the kinds of things I do.

1. Apps One through Five
   
2. Apps Six through Ten
   
3. Apps Eleven through Fifteen

(I actually installed two other applications that I'm not going to bother reviewing: Adobe Creative Suite 5, and FileMaker Pro 8. I feel everyone knows enough about these programs that I don't need to describe them.)

Next week:

I'll describe the other 15 applications.

 

WT??? Every Time I Hit Return, Ask.com Intrudes

I'm using Firefox

I probably need to restart the computer -- something noxious is afoot.  I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.3.

Everytime my right pinky hits [return], I'm taken to  http://www.ask.com/?o=1292

Hey Ask.com?  It may not be your fault, but it makes me hate you.