Greetings Educators,

As readers of this newsletter may know (or know if you’ve tried to call me) I travel a lot. I’m regularly on airplanes and besides collecting a lot of frequent flyer miles I meet a lot of people. I fly to the Middle East and North Africa which means many hours on a plane and many plane changes. A typical flight is from Lansing to Detroit to Paris, sometimes to Marseille, and then on to either Beirut or Algiers. In addition to flying overseas, I regularly fly across the United States often going to Las Vegas (for work – really) and, most recently, to Key West (also for work, at least sort of). And this means someone is normally sitting beside me, often for many hours.

If you’ve ever met me you know I’m a bit “conversational” and I’m always interested in what people do. I’ve met many great and interesting people including a dentist specializing in veneers, a concrete engineer, contractors, a coffee sales rep, a Mississippi cotton farmer, an auto industry light specialist from Brazil, and many auto industry marketing, finance, and sales professionals. I had an air marshal sit next to me once although he wouldn’t admit it. And I’ve met a number of educators, professors, and teachers.

I’m telling this story for a reason – and, yes, it’s related to educational technology. On my most recent trip back from Key West I met a gentleman on the leg from Detroit to Lansing. We first sat next to each other but changed seats before taking off. But in the few minutes we were sitting next to each other I asked a bit about what he did (he had a large laptop computer that caught my eye). Although I’m guessing he probably didn’t really want to talk, he politely said that he owned a company that provided assistive technology and I gleaned that one of his clients was the Clark County School District which is Las Vegas. Okay – now I’m interested as I’ve worked with the Clark County School District. And I learned that he lives in DeWitt and I live in DeWitt.

So, as we exited the plane I hung back a bit and gave him my card. I learned that his name is Steve Timmer and that he created a company called Premier Assistive Technology. They produce assistive technology software which is pre-loaded on a flash drive (or MP3 player) making the assistive technology portable.  The company produces a suite of 23 products and technologies designed primarily to assist those with reading difficulties.  

We quickly learned as we walked to baggage claim that we have similar education interests, we both work to make a difference through the use of technology, and we live about a mile apart in DeWitt, Michigan.

As we live so close together Steve invited me to his home that weekend and we talked “tech.” Although I’m a “tech” guy I learned a great deal from Steve including the fact that assistive technology is not just for those with disabilities. Rather, it’s for anyone who needs help reading. Think about how many people in this world have difficulty reading? How many are labeled illiterate because they can’t read? How many students have special needs related to reading? How many ESL students are there with reading problems (did I mention that it translates between English, French, and Spanish)? And imagine a portable product (everything’s on the flash drive) that allows students and other users to carry their tech tools in their pocket. Just plug it into any computer any time.

As educators I would urge you to find out more about Premier Assistive Technology by visiting their web site at www.readingmadeeasy.com . Or read a great 2005 article about Steve on the National Center for Technology Innovation web site at http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2005/06/01/pigeonholes-are-for-
pigeons-premier-assistive-technology-and-access-for-all/ 

Thanks! And, as always, send me your comments, ideas, or innovative uses of technology. And watch our program web site for new class locations and for news on the world of technology in education.

Best Regards,

Joseph Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program

Contact us at: 517-432-9259
http://edutech.msu.edu

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Directors' Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.