, Empowerment Technology, Group-Based Training, Simulation-Based Training, Computer-Assisted Training for more informtion.
Assistive Technologies
To see or not to see -- that is the question.
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Special conditions, such as poor vision or poor mobility, call for special responses. And as a society we have responded by building special tools as aids. In libraries, for instance, you may find mechanisms (identified as the tools of assistive technologies) used to help people who have any of a variety of disabilities that make it difficult for them to access reading materials. These mechanisms are meant to make it easier to access the information. Examples include:
This is a rapidly growing field, largely because of the availability of affordable and ever-improving computers. I see the technology as an extension of many established aids that have evolved over the history of human civilization for one task or another. In fact, I see them as defining elements of our great variety of skills.
At one time or another most people need assistance: physically, mentally, emotionally, perceptually, whatever. Such assistance is most notably required in our early years. But it also continues into adult life. As we get older, our systems simply wear out and, wilting flowers that we are, we soon lose our bloom. We may suffer a hearing loss, or go blind, or become incapacitated and suffer all kinds of personal problems and limitations. Even with healthy sensors, though, we can still fall well short of required skills. To compensate for our individual frailties, we as a society have developed a variety of computer and other technological aids.
On a personal note, let me point out that if you have difficulty reading stuff on the Internet because the font size is too small, there is a way to improve the situation. If you have a word processor, I recommend that you highlight the text you wish to read, copy it with your copy and paste mechanism and paste the text into a blank page of your processor. You can then highlight it again and set the font size to a more convenient value. To avoid having to slide the text back and forth, use the format trick to narrow the text width. It works for me. Also note that it's easier to read white on black than black on white. Highlight this paragraph and you will see for yourself.
Broader Help Technologies
The wider technology includes familiar things like ordinary books and magazines, pencils, pens, and paper, desks, scissors, paper clips, calendars. We have telescopes, periscopes, microscopes, stethoscopes, and x-ray machines. We also have calipers, hammers, nails, pliers, saws, knives, forks, spoons, ladles, tables and chairs, phones, cars, boats, buses, trains and planes. And there are needles, thread, sewing machines, nail clippers, combs, electricity, wire, tape, and electric lights. In medicine we have stethoscopes, x-ray machines, and magneto resonance imaging machines (MRIs), among many other investigative tools.
On the computing side there are calculators, laptop and desktop computers, together with languages, computer programs, and of course, simulations and simulators. (I'm producing such stuff, myself, like tennis tutorial games.)
You might more fully appreciative the nature of the technology if you refer to it as our empowerment technology. I'm sure you can make up your own pages and pages of the many other items, large or small, that serve our various and sundry needs and establish and enhance our individual skills.
Unfortunately, for one reason or another, many of us have difficulties learning the skills that are brought about by the available mechanisms. To make it easier to learn them, I recommend use of benign representations of the environments of the skills as a learning tool. In other words, I support adding skill-context simulations to assistive technology.
See Assistive Technologies
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