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Direction Service
541-686-5060 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 51360 Eugene, OR 97405 Physical Address: 3411-A Willamette St. Eugene, OR 97405 |
Agency News
From The Director’s Corner
I recently had a remarkable experience. My daughter was attending the Coachella Rock Festival in California. I discovered that it was possible for me to watch my choice of three stages live on my home computer here in Eugene with remarkably high quality audio and video. I was able to text back and forth with my daughter and match notes about the performances as they occurred. While she seemed enthusiastic, I suspect that this was far cooler for me than it was for her. I don’t think I’d have wanted to be text messaging my parents when I was at Woodstock. While my experience depended on a good computer, good internet connection and text messaging, none of which can be taken for granted, it was otherwise free with no charges for the connection or performances. I was blown away by this experience.
For those fortunate enough to have access, technology is opening remarkable doors and enabling communications and capacity that is well beyond anything I can easily imagine. At a conference I recently attended a major focus was on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). As CAST, a prime mover in this area describes it, through UDL they are “helping those who are marginalized in traditional classrooms (e.g., those with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, and other challenges) by discovering educational methods and materials that are flexible and powerful enough to help all students, regardless of their ability, maximize their progress.” Assistive and medical technologies are crushing historic barriers to participation and astonishing new, often free, technological advances are transforming all of our lives at a remarkable pace. Holographic web-casting, social networking, i-everything, to name but a few, leads to remarkable possibilities and eats away at the limits of time, distance and physical ability. It won’t be long until this newsletter, and probably all news, will come electronically saving trees, postage and lots of time while profoundly altering my morning coffee ritual.
Technology also creates a potential for distraction that can divert us from other important uses for our time. I often find myself feeling like a stodgy old analog guy fumbling around as a tourist in an increasingly digital world, spellbound by the dazzling array of possibilities. I can easily get lost. While virtual approximations can be efficient they can also consume significant amounts of time producing unclear results. I’m optimistic that we will figure out what really works and that the rest will fall by the wayside, but “what works” will continue to be replaced at a dizzying pace by the next best thing. As we head down this road I hope that we remember the crucial importance of “touch” in the cultivation and nurturing of relationships. The work we do at Direction Service depends on sitting down with people to get to know them and figure out how we can best be of assistance. Whether it’s attending musical performances, building energetic work groups around individual and community needs or simply spending time with family and friends, there’s no true substitute for the connectedness that results from physical presence. I hope that in all the excitement we don’t lose sight of this.
Marshall Peter
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