This study examined the effectiveness of two types of assistive technology for writing instruction of students with Down syndrome in British Columbia. Students received either Clicker 5, a symbol-supported writing software program; or Co:Writer, a word prediction software program designed to support written output. Data collection was conducted between January-June 2007 (Year 1) and October-May 2008 (Year 2). Clicker 5 was provided to 43 students in Year 1 (17 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support early and emergent literacy development. Co:Writer was provided to 18 students in Year 1 (2 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support text writing. Each month during both school years, teachers were asked to complete an on-line survey with questions related to their impressions of the impact of the technology and other variables. Students in the Clicker group produced 10-minute monthly writing samples about a selected topic using a Clicker grid designed by the research team. Students in the Co:Writer group produced one handwritten and one Co:Writer-supported 10-minute writing sample every month about the specified topic. Data were analyzed with regard to writing rate, spelling accuracy (Co:Writer group only), and quality (measured both analytically and holistically). Results for dependent measures of writing for the Clicker group were variable but provided some support for the use of symbol-supported writing software for producing meaningful written output. The Co:Writer group was more accurate with regard to spelling and grammar while using Co:Writer compared to handwriting. The results are discussed in terms of the practical implications, limitations, and areas for future research.

This study examined the effectiveness of two types of assistive technology for writing instruction of students with Down syndrome in British Columbia. Students received either Clicker 5, a symbol-supported writing software program; or Co:Writer, a word prediction software program designed to support written output. Data collection was conducted between January-June 2007 (Year 1) and October-May 2008 (Year 2). Clicker 5 was provided to 43 students in Year 1 (17 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support early and emergent literacy development. Co:Writer was provided to 18 students in Year 1 (2 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support text writing. Each month during both school years, teachers were asked to complete an on-line survey with questions related to their impressions of the impact of the technology and other variables. Students in the Clicker group produced 10-minute monthly writing samples about a selected topic using a Clicker grid designed by the research team. Students in the Co:Writer group produced one handwritten and one Co:Writer-supported 10-minute writing sample every month about the specified topic. Data were analyzed with regard to writing rate, spelling accuracy (Co:Writer group only), and quality (measured both analytically and holistically). Results for dependent measures of writing for the Clicker group were variable but provided some support for the use of symbol-supported writing software for producing meaningful written output. The Co:Writer group was more accurate with regard to spelling and grammar while using Co:Writer compared to handwriting. The results are discussed in terms of the practical implications, limitations, and areas for future research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [95]-102).

This study examined the effectiveness of two types of assistive technology for writing instruction of students with Down syndrome in British Columbia. Students received either Clicker 5, a symbol-supported writing software program; or Co:Writer, a word prediction software program designed to support written output. Data collection was conducted between January-June 2007 (Year 1) and October-May 2008 (Year 2). Clicker 5 was provided to 43 students in Year 1 (17 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support early and emergent literacy development. Co:Writer was provided to 18 students in Year 1 (2 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support text writing. Each month during both school years, teachers were asked to complete an on-line survey with questions related to their impressions of the impact of the technology and other variables. Students in the Clicker group produced 10-minute monthly writing samples about a selected topic using a Clicker grid designed by the research team. Students in the Co:Writer group produced one handwritten and one Co:Writer-supported 10-minute writing sample every month about the specified topic. Data were analyzed with regard to writing rate, spelling accuracy (Co:Writer group only), and quality (measured both analytically and holistically). Results for dependent measures of writing for the Clicker group were variable but provided some support for the use of symbol-supported writing software for producing meaningful written output. The Co:Writer group was more accurate with regard to spelling and grammar while using Co:Writer compared to handwriting. The results are discussed in terms of the practical implications, limitations, and areas for future research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: Chrystalla Mouza, School of Education. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines the use and representation of letters (and other written messages) in Thomas Hardy's novels, and it considers how Hardy's writing engages with Victorian communication technologies. The 1895 Preface to Far from the Madding Crowd describes Hardy's fictional setting as a ‘a modern Wessex of railways, the penny post, mowing and reaping machines, union workhouses, lucifer matches, labourers who could read and write, and National school children'. The penny post, a communication revolution with an enormous social, economic, and cultural impact, was introduced on 10 January 1840, just a few months before Hardy was born. This thesis aims to demonstrate how a consideration of the material, technological and cultural conditions of communication in Victorian England might reshape our understanding of Hardy's novels, especially of the countless letters, notes, and telegrams which permeate his texts. The written messages in Hardy's novels serve as a means for exploring the process of human communication, and the way this process shapes individual identity, interpersonal relationships, and social interactions alike. Chapter I of this thesis relates Hardy's portrayal of letters to the historical transition from oral tradition to written culture. Chapter II enquires into the relationship between letter writing and notions of privacy and publicity in Hardy's novels. Chapters III and IV argue that Hardy uses letters so as to give a strikingly modern complexity to his representation of human subjectivity and intersubjectivity. The two final chapters investigate how the modalities and technological conditions of written communication influence the construction of Hardy's narratives, the design of his plots. Taken together, the six chapters examine Hardy's perception of one of the most fundamental human activities: communication.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 IvoneteBS_TESE.pdf: 686223 bytes, checksum: b6f369c540e13858a6fb1f6fddf65d7e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-14 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This thesis proposes a new thinking on the English teacher and their continuing education, leaving the picture emerging of a new professional, who is producing and being produced. From this perspective, I present an analysis of self writing of thirteen student-teachers, teachers on how they position themselves to be discursively constituted as subjects in the context of continuing education. As part of Applied Linguistics, the theory and method that supports the analysis of data are articulate key elements of Foucault notions, namely:The care of the self, seeking their connection with one another and care of and the self writing. In the theoretical notions of these elements are implied notions of others, such as speech, ethics, technology of the self, subject and truth. (Foucault, 1984, 1995, 2004c, 2006), and questioning the ethics of the subject. I propose to examine selected excerpts from the self writings of student teachers with a specialization in Teaching and Learning the English Language, seeking linguistic processes in the material production of subjectivities.In order to analyze the process of subjectivation, I examine the discursive statements of selected cuts, aiming to learn more specifically, the points of identification and fragments of the uniqueness of the teachers, showing how they care for themselves and reflect upon them in building their subjectivity from the technologies of the self, to occupy the position of English Language teachers. The results show that, in the exercise of self writing, the subject falls, and a practice of asceticism, discursively construct her/his subjectivity / A presente tese prop?e-se a construir um novo olhar acerca do professor de l?ngua inglesa em sua forma??o continuada, deixando emergir a figura de um novo profissional, que est? se produzindo e sendo produzido na contemporaneidade. Nessa perspectiva, apresenta-se uma an?lise das escritas de si de treze alunosprofessores, sobre como esses docentes posicionam-se discursivamente ao se constitu?rem como sujeitos em um contexto de forma??o continuada. No ?mbito da Lingu?stica Aplicada, a trama do tecido te?rico-metodol?gico que sustenta a an?lise dos dados articula elementos principais das no??es foucaultianas, tais como: o cuidado de si, buscando sua conex?o com um cuidado do outro e com a escrita de si. Nas no??es te?ricas desses elementos est?o implicadas as no??es de outros, a saber: discurso, ?tica, tecnologia do eu, e sujeito e verdade (FOUCAULT, 1984, 1995, 2004c, 2006), al?m da problematiza??o da ?tica do sujeito. Prop?e-se ainda a analisar recortes discursivos selecionados a partir das escritas dos alunosprofessores de um curso de especializa??o em Ensino e Aprendizagem de l?ngua inglesa, buscando, na materialidade lingu?stica, os processos de produ??o de suas subjetividades. Com o prop?sito de analisar o processo de subjetiva??o, examinamse enunciados fazendo recortes no intuito de apreender, mais especificamente, os pontos de identifica??o e fragmentos da singularidade dos professores, identificando como eles cuidam de si e refletem sobre si na constru??o de suas subjetividades a partir das tecnologias do eu, ao ocuparem a posi??o de professores de l?ngua inglesa. Os resultados apontam que, no exerc?cio da escrita de si, o sujeito se inscreve, e, numa pr?tica de ascese, constr?i discursivamente sua subjetividade