COETAIL: Wrong Way Right--A Dyslexic Lament

Another post toward obtaining my Certificate in Educational Technology and Information Literacy (COETAIL)

For my COETAIL Course 3 final project, toward teaching workshops on multimedia poetry with students, I worked on a visual poem stemming from my own mild dyslexic tendencies and frustrations. I've never been officially tested, but if I were, I'm quite sure the results would indicate some degree of dyslexia.

In Japan, despite evidence to the contrary, I've actually been told, "We don't have dyslexia here," but the reality is that dyslexia, as well as other learning disorders, is often simply never diagnosed or not diagnosed until adulthood (see this Asahi Shimbun article Dyslexic People Spread Awareness About the Disorder). Although kanji characters may be, in general, easier for dyslexics to read (see the Wall Street Journal piece Unlocking Dyslexia in Japanese), dyslexia does exist in Japan, and is not uncommon.

For this poetry project I would have loved to play with kinetic typography, but there's a steep learning curve for that, and there was a deadline for this COETAIL project. Plus, a designer brain is generally required for kinetic typography. This video of the poem "Speak With Conviction" by Taylor Mali with typography by Ronnie Bruce, is one of my favorites.



So, lacking kinetic typography skills, I turned to iMovie and played with movement of English words and Japanese kanji and katakana. Here's the result: "Wrong Way Right: A Dyslexic Lament."



I'm grateful to Philip Arneill for his Sparkol Videoscribe assistance in creating this project. Check out Phil's amazing final project with Six Word Stories making use of Videoscribe.