While in a lesson the other day, my teacher was dictating and all us slaves - errr, I mean students - were scribbling away, keeping up fairly well, when I realised that many of the kids who need to use laptops because they're dyslexic were really struggling too keep up because they can't type as fast as people write.
Which got me thinking (dive for cover).
Yonks ago some clever bloke wrote a program for palmtops and such so that the palmtop could understand that a handwritten letter 'a' was a letter 'a' in computer.
What about with shorthand? Shorthand mustn't be that difficult to learn, coz loads of people know (or used to know) how to use it. If we had the people who were struggling learn shorthand and the school/ workplace/ whatever loaned them a palmtop to use, you could shorthand all the notes, then later on e-mail them to your house where the shorthand can be decoded into proper English.
Plus I wouldn't keep tripping up on those pesky computer cables every time I have to grab some paper from the front of the class.-- froglet, Sep 15 2005 speedwriting - a forerunner of textspeak http://www.speedwriting.co.uk/ [po, Sep 15 2005] My solution to the note-taking-on-computer problem Cursive_20Palm_20Script(Of course, with both a Palm and a Tablet PC, you can just scrawl away without the PC trying to translate it to electronic text.) [DrCurry, Sep 15 2005] SHARK http://www.ida.liu....sonZhaiUIST2004.pdfA shorthand system for pentop computers. Worth exploring, I think - there appears to be some Shark software on the market. [DrCurry, Sep 15 2005] Pitman shorthand uses different degrees of pressure to distinguish between voiced and unvoiced sounds. Could a PDA distinguish between these without changing the hardware? Would people with dyslexia be able to handle shorthand any better than longhand? Maybe something like Pitman Script would work, but in that case again there would be a problem writing it if you were dyslexic. I also fear that this very technology is making kmowledge of shothand extinct.-- nineteenthly, Sep 15 2005 Touch typing? After learning how to do that, I think I can type faster than writing, though havent timed myself as of yet.-- chocolateraindrops, Sep 15 2005 Not a bad idea at all - have you looked to see if there are any Pittman (or whatever) recognition apps for the Palm or Tablet?
My own thought along these lines was that it should be possible to come up with a cursive handwriting with high recognition rates, the same way Palm messed with block letters to come up with something more recognizable to the electronic circuits. (See link.)
And see link about Shark, which appears to be exactly what you're asking for.-- DrCurry, Sep 15 2005 Are dyslexics any better at shorthand than longhand? It seems to me they would have the same problem.-- nineteenthly, Sep 15 2005 [froglet] // Shorthand mustn't be that difficult to learn,..//. No it isn't. It only took me three years to learn shorthand in Dutch, English and German and that included over 300 abbreviations for each language (so over 900 total). Without these abbreviations you are just writing in a different language but maybe a little faster then normal.
I don't understand the problem, much. Dyslectic poeple right it differently but also raed it defferentli. Why do they use palmtops? Writing is the same as typing (committing words to a medium) and I, for one, can type 3 times faster than write.
Nowadays with all these blue teeth flying around accompanied by MP3 devices, why not tape the lecture and Then put it in desired medium? You can actually focus on what the dear proffessor is trying to convey and it gets hammered home a little further when you listen to it again, trying to put it in the desired form. Shorter preffarably.-- Susan, Sep 20 2005 I don't think dyslexics can necessarily read what they write because with respect to writing their perception isn't consistent enough. There may be notations that would work, but not Pitman, Pitman Script or t-line for a start, although maybe Gregg would - i don't know anything about Gregg. Alternatively, there are scripts which are less dependent on being written linearly than Latin, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and Korean. Maybe Egyptian demotic would work, but at the moment, and from a position of ignorance, i wonder if Korean is a possible solution.-- nineteenthly, Sep 20 2005 Susan: while that is an obvious solution, it doesn't take into account what the lecturer writes on the black/whiteboard. But I find the best way to remember a lecture is to take good notes - something about the note-taking itself helps imprint the information on my brain. Then again, you can replay a recording while you're doing other things, and that works well for my wife.-- DrCurry, Sep 20 2005 Ah [pa've], but thats where my 'faster then light' typing comes in handy. I simply bounce the "would be" letters into the letters that actually have an existance into 'real' space forcing them to converge on the pivotal point of delibaration.
[DrCurry] good point. Had not thought of that. Maybe a camcorder?-- Susan, Sep 20 2005 Some people have a learning disability that can cause bad handwriting and mispelling of words (when written). What happens is that when the people think about what they are writing, their minds get further ahead of what they are actually writing, and they struggle to keep up with their own thoughts by trying to write faster and faster. I know about this because I had (and kinda still have it today, thoud not nearly as bad) it in elementary school. Because I had this, I was required to type up everything I turned in (papers and such). Looking back... I have trouble decyphering my own handwriting. Consequently, nowadays I have a shorthand system that incorperates different languages and even the letters Eth and Thorn which used to be used in english, but arent anymore (Icelanders still use them though) that symbolized the TH sounds. The only thing is, no one except me can read my notes...
Heres an example (from my theology notes): Anselm promþ ðe 'satisfact' view f atonemt: 1.God ha been offð o dishonód bæ sin 2.Retribú er reqd 3.God can ik simp forgive sin bcause ðis wuld do violé 2 justí/satisfact 4.Hums kan ik ma restitú 5.Ðe disho f sin er so gr8 at onl God himself kan ma satisfa
Translation:
Anselm prompted the 'satisfactory' view of atonement: 1.God has been offended and dishonored by sin 2.Retribution is required 3.God cannot simply forgive sin because this would do violence to justics/satisfaction 4.Humans cannot make restitution. 5.The dishonor of sin is so great that only God himself can make satisfaction.
My point in all the rambling is that some people who have learning disabilities like what I had, and people with dyslexia might not be able to use the same technique to overcome it.-- Seolyk, Sep 20 2005 [seolyk], amazingly your note form is similar to mine, though yours is more Scandinavian than mine, e.g. "ik" rather than my "¬" for "not", and i use a lot of ð and þ too. This prompts me to wonder if halfbakery people tend to have similar note form.-- nineteenthly, Sep 20 2005 pee-pul shud rite ex-act-lee thee wae thay tok.-- gardenoed, Sep 21 2005 [nineteenthly] Hmm... we should investigate this...
[everyone] anyone ELSE use a similar note taking system? or have you heard of eð and þorn?
Personally I think those letters should be reintroduced into english for common use, it would simplify things... maybe I should make a topic on this elsewhere *goes to do this*-- Seolyk, Sep 21 2005 No, but i use a lot of abb. whc coms frm shorthand.
[nineteenthly] if you are correct, then shorthand is not the solution either because it is not about what you write down but how your translation of what you wrote down, comes back in normal words. '/' should be translated as 'a' and not 'o'. (anyone else remember that trial that had to be done all over, because the shorthand clerk died during the trial and no one could read her notes?)
[Seolyk] I do think faster then I can write. Typing really fast is the solution for me. I think this is common among most people. thoughts go by the speed of light, writing (for most) by the speed of two fingers. And the strange thing is, that I could actually could make sence of your writing... Anyway shorthand for the sydlectic to make it easier for them is not a violable option.-- Susan, Sep 21 2005 random, halfbakery