Despite the fact that I have not been posting news on my blog for about a year the visitors keeps comming. Thank you. This post do possibly sound odd but good news for a 3,5 mill euro big project is actually good news for pupils, parent, psychologists and teachers around the world. The size of budget may have big consequences for caretaking of individuals with autism. For that reason good news is really good news. In the forthcomming weeks and month I will update my blog more regularly.
This posting consist of an update: what has append the last year?
What has happend the last year? - Good news
Basically the projectplan states that the first year is a preparation for testing the software on the four HANDS schools. The HANDS internal metafor for this projectplan is putting a man on the moon. For that reason the photo of a rocket take off is a actually a good metaphor of the kick off meeting in June 08 in Slettestrand.
Last year in June the partners in the HANDS project met each other for the first time: philosopers, software developers, psychologist, teachers, researchers and practioners. From six different european contries. It could be a big waste of money and a lot of walking on the same spot. It has not been so. The kick off meeting in Slettestrand was wonderful and so has the work of the Consortium been the last year. All our HANDS partners are really engaged and skilled. Eager "To make the HANDS dream come true"(Tobias Berglund, teacher at Svedenskolan, Sweden). We knew from the start that the idea of using Persuasive Technology as a leading star in the design work was interesting, but facts
- All partners have been working like ants.
- When the HANDS projectplan missed important activities the partners have found solutions themselves.
- Partners have a good understanding of the need for respect and trust in a highly interdisciplinary collaboration like HANDS.
are not only facts but experiences that makes you very happy.
The concrete public results of the work are "deliverables" and they can be downloaded and read on the public HANDS-webpage (click the download menu).
During exciting, challenging and wearing work with the requirements I had a little time left in which I created the poster "One for each". That is a poster that used a lot and the slogan is too. "One for each" is the understandable for psychologist, the teachers, the software developers and the rest of us. Parents and not involved teachers do understand that HANDS strive to conform to one of the post important principles in autism pedagogical activities: adaption of pedagogical efforts to the individual are mandatory.You may download the complete poster here(7.1mb).
The first half year has consisted from setting up requirements and designing the test-setup.
To me that period was all to exciting: will the single partners work like they have been told? Will the consortium collaborate?
And the answer was yes. The requirement proces was organised as 3 separate process organised by the 3 universities. To get as many new ideas and perspectives on the users needs and wishes.
From the requirements the consortium created an common set of requirements. A number of requirements was unfortunately very simular. Other requirements was different perspectives(cognitive psychology, schoolperspective or persuasive technology). And a number of very small designdetails was identified as well.
All was specified in a format "Use case" that the softwaredevelopers easily could create specifications from.
In the second half year(spring 09) the consortium started focusing on the preparations of the test on the school and the approval of the test setup of the HANDS internal Ethical Board.
We are not done preparing the schools. But we are on the road. We still have 1 and half month left. The most important prerequisite is the teachers that are engaged and I cannot question their engagement any longer. That is a very nice experience.
The Ethical approval of the test setup has taken a long time and a lot of work. I am very thanksful to all the partners who have contributed. And the efforts have not been wasteless. The members(especially the parents) of the Ethical Board have been very engaged and involved in improving the test setup from an Ethical point of view. We had some valuable discussions and improvements to the test setup.
Summing up: the HANDS consortium is progressing very well and still have a fair chance to create really interesting research with the autism area and within the persuasive technology area. And HANDS still have a chance to create really valuable software for the benefit of individuals with autism.
But HANDS has to be stimulated with a lot of luck.
Morten
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