Reading Scrambled Text and Grading Essays with Computers: Some interesting websites

Hlelo tadoy is Monady Mrcah ehtenitegh two tuhnsaod eihgt
-OR- did i mean
Hello today is Monday March eighteenth two thousand eight

Turns out that it doesn't really matter how I type it, experienced readers like us can still understand scrambled words when the first and last letters are consistent with the original word.
Check out these websites for more information:
The original study: http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/~mattd/Cmabrigde/
Type in your own text to get a scrambled version: http://www.hakank.org/reading_scrambled_words/r_words.cgi?xxx=27087132.9107813&submit=OK&num_begin_chars=1&num_end_chars=1&sort_alpha=no&text=Hello+today+is+Monday+March+eighteenth+two+thousand+eight%0D%0A%0D%0A%0D%0A

Here's another interesting website that explains the reasoning and technology behind Latent Semantic Analysis (Ever hear of computers grading essay tests?). Very cool and you can try some things on the demo link. Another cool thing about this is that it can help you choose appropriate reading material based on writing samples.
http://lsa.colorado.edu/

Using text to embellish speech: a response to some of the limitations of using sound to convey affective information

We discussed briefly in class on Monday the limited access that people with hearing impairments have in gathering affective information from auditory stimuli. Moreover, people like me who appreciate and thrive on visual information may find pure auditory presentations of information lacking. It struck me on my way home from class that night that I had previously experimented with a low-tech version of universal design before I knew what universal design was.

Art has always been a hobby of mine, and a few years ago I dabbled in (re)creating fonts by hand using pens, markers and paint. I enjoyed the fact that I could take spoken words and attach additional information on the delivery and emotion behind the text through stylistic representation.

The following is an example of what I’m talking about. The song is Without Mythologies by my favorite band The Weakerthans. Permit me to now take some time to do a “What Makes it Great” discussion on this particular song. First of all I appreciate The Weakerthans because of their masterful use of the English language with appropriate accompanying instrumentals that always add to the quality of the lyrics.

• The word choice in Without Mythologies is so vivid, exact and well chosen that even a visual-dependent person like me can easily transfer the spoken words into detailed imagery.
  


• Also, the music behind the lyrics is simplistic to the point that it only offers only occasional prominence while continually displaying the lyrics.
  


• Lastly, the singer (and songwriter) John K. Samson uses cadence, delicate emphasis and pauses to accentuate poignancy and emotion.
  

Of the three qualities that I mention here only the words themselves are accessible to all people. Therefore, you are about to see how I took the text and transformed it to imitate Mr. Samson’s vocal styling and the mood of the music itself through color, fonts, direction and spacing.

This particular piece is oil on canvas, luckily unstretched, so I was able to put it on my scanner in various positions. I won’t give you too much information about how I interpreted the sounds into text because I think you can do that on your own. Lastly, go easy on me, I’m only a hobbyist; I just did this for fun a few years ago (and there are some typos).

You have two options to view the art and music pairing. First, using Windows Movie Maker I made a movie that changes the images with the music. But, since it is small, it's hard to read so I've included the pictures of the painting that you can pair with the song that is on the playlist at the top right of the blog. You may want to play the song on the playlist first without the visuals. Just so you know, the playlist version is live and slightly different.

Let me know what you think!

Listening and Standards Based Reform

I thought for this unit I would have a little rant and hopefully an online forum if anyone feels inclined to respond.
In this unit we have learned about how sound can deepen student learning, and increase comprehension of text. Students with reading disabilities (RD) enjoy the right to classroom accommodations under IDEA, but are denied certain accommodations in state tests due to construct relevance. For example, the MCAS reading test does not allow audio versions of the reading passages even though some students use this accommodation in the classroom. Subsequently, many students are set-up to fail because they cannot access the content of the test and demonstrate their comprehension skills. The obvious conlfict, of course, is that the construct of reading is narrowly defined as processing written text (or braille) and listening to text interfers with that definition, thus, invalidating the test.
What would be a policy alternative to alleviate this problem?

Leave it as it is; reading is reading kids should know how to read text.

Use the alternative testing provisions in NCLB to create alternative tests that use audio support.

Change the construct of reading to inlcude listening and give it a new name like language comprehension, comprehensive literacy or communication processing and make available audio support for all students.

What do you think? Have I missed another viable option? What are the pros and cons to these options?

The Weakerthans live performance of the Propagandi song Gifts

Don't ever call me K-Dog

Seriously, don't call me K-Dog... or I'll punch you in the throat. Seriously.
I've never punched any one in the throat, but there's a first time for everything.

Who likes music? Hey, I do! Let's talk about it.

Top ten bands/artists as of 10:40 PM, 2/5/08*:

1. Weakerthans
2. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
3. Criteria
4. Alkaline Trio
5. Elvis Costello
6. Albert Hammond Jr.
7. Get Up Kids
8. Medications
9. John Vanderslice
10. Jets to Brazil

*Actually, this list is current as of 10:46 because it took me 6 minutes to come up with my momentary top ten.