Dyslexia DiaBlogue ®

Mary McCaslin discusses her paper co-authored with Heidi Legg Burross, \"Research on Individual Differences Within a Sociocultural Perspective: Co-regulation and Adaptive Learning.\" (WATCH Mary McCaslin from @UofA discuss sociocultural perspectives...

Policymakers in Washington, DC, and the rest of the nation listened on February 15, 2012, to “The Dyslexic Brain,” a featured program on National Public Radio’s The Diane Rehm Show.

One of the featured experts was NCLD’s Director of Public Policy, Laura Kaloi.

Ms. Rehm was intrigued that Laura was not only the Director of Public Policy at NCLD, but that she has a husband and son with dyslexia. Other guests approached from a research perspective — they study learning and the brain:

Dr. Brock Eide, clinician and co-author with Dr. Fernette Eide of "The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain"
Jeffrey Gilger, professor, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced
Guinevere Eden , director, Center for the Study of Learning; professor, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center

Former U.S. commanders decry the declining emphasis on education and its impact on our security.

Consider this: the Defense Department estimates that 75 percent of our young adults are not qualified to join the military. Yes, three out of four of 17- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. currently cannot enlist due to a variety of disqualifying factors.

According to reports by the national security non-profit organization

Mission: Readiness, to which we both belong, 1 in 4 young adults is too overweight to join the military. One in 10 has had a serious run-in with the law, and still others have a range of health problems that disqualify them.

In addition, 23 percent of young adults in Tennessee cannot enlist because they have not completed high school. If that were not bad enough, of potential Tennessee recruits who have graduated, 1 in 4 of them can’t pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), our military’s entrance exam,

"Universal Design for Learning is an educational strategy designed to address the needs of ALL learning differences. It is based upon the way that the brain works. It involves providing multiple means of representation,expression and engagement. This means that there are: • multiple ways to acquire information (e.g., reading, watching, listening, or doing.) • multiple ways to engage in the learning process (e.g., creating projects, exploring environments, or collaborating with others.) • multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge (e.g., creating videos, writing papers, and solving problems.) :

There are many aspects of Assistive Technologies and Universal Design for Learning that educators MUST consider. As teachers, we are legally and morally obligated to provide our students with learning opportunities that best accommodate their needs."

As more and more people join the world of Twitter (460,000 signups per day), school parents and teachers are more commonplace on this global social media tool. According to a recent Pew Internet Study, 84% of all Twitter users are between the ages of 18-49. Why is this important to school officials? The age range includes the majority of our school parents.

"Google's Glass augmented reality system may be the smartphone (smartspecs?) of the near future, neatly linking our digital lives with our real ones. Is this a good thing?"

DRC:  I guess the question has to be asked, but the tech is too cool for anyone to really care about the answer.  Will it live up to its promise?  That's a question people will care about.