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WILLIAM LI: Well, I
think the first thing

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to say in terms of
tips for educators

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is to really encourage you or
really encourage them to do it.

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It's a very
rewarding experience.

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I think that the opportunity
to engage with community

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organizations and assistive
technology users--

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people with disabilities
in the wider community,

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beyond a college
campus-- is for us

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as instructors a very rewarding
and exciting experience.

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And you also find within
the university itself

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a lot of support and
interest-- people

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who want to bring
their own experiences

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or different aspects of the
university that maybe work

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in assistive technology
or Student Disability

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Services that really get
very excited-- or in design,

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or in engineering, and so on.

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And the students
themselves, I think

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it's really a special
group of students who

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are interested in this topic.

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I think that's really
probably the biggest

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kind of joy of working
in a class like this--

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the kind of experiences
that students

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bring to the table,
the dedication

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that they bring to the class.

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So there's sort of a
big need out there.

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There's sort of a big
interest from students.

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The other core part I would
say is, there's no doubt,

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I mean logistically it's
always a lot of work

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to bring together--
different partners

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or find people out
in the community,

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and find lab spaces and places
to build prototypes, and so on.

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And I wouldn't
even claim that we

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tried to make it particularly
efficient this year.

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I think to us, particularly
given the circumstances

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and given that we were doing
this for the first time,

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we tried a lot of
experiments that did

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require more time to set up.

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That might be one
thing to say to

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that-- there might be more
sort of efficient ways

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to put this all together.

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But the big thing
that I think comes

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to mind is that it's
really the students working

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with their client--
or it's really

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the results of this interaction
between the students

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and their client that
really motivates students

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to learn, and to
develop new skills,

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and to put a lot of time and
effort into their projects.

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I really think that the way the
relationship between clients

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and students is set up
really drives the course.

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It's really the clients that
work with the students who

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do a really substantial part
of the teaching associated

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with the class.

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So in terms of learning
outcomes or in terms

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of the things that students
learn in the class is really

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big gains, I guess, to be
gotten from a setup like this.

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GRACE TEO: I have two
tips for other educators.

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I think the first one is,
before the semester starts do

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all your homework
as to where all

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the resources within
your school are

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and within your community,
because you have no idea where

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the projects are going to go
and what help your students are

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going to need.

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There is no way
that you yourself

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are going to possibly have
all the skills to teach them

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how to do things.

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So just make as many friends as
possible, who are on your side

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and who are willing to
help out the students

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with their projects.

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The second tip is that
80%-- 70% to 80% of the work

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is all about people management.

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At the end of the
day, you're trying

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to facilitate students
working for a client.

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And the students are
usually novices at this.

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And most of the trouble that
the students have come down to,

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the client wants this, or
the client is doing this,

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and it's very
discouraging, or we don't

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know how to do this for them.

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And so being able to
facilitate that relationship

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becomes a big part of the work.

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WILLIAM LI: One other
tip I would share

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is really in terms of
the setup of the class.

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I think we really do
believe that working

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with the real clients
over the semester

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is really at the core of this,
as opposed to maybe working

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more theoretically in terms
of assistive technology design

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or kind of a generalized
more abstract need.

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I think what I've seen
is that really sharpens

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the particular
need that students

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identify and try to fulfill.

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It certainly motivates
students to try

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to get their project working.

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And it also just
ends up, I think,

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being just a stronger
learning experience

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for everybody
involved-- just kind

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of that human side of things.

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So I know there's a lot of
moving parts in the class

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that we've put
together this semester.

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But from what I've seen, I
think working with a client,

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and I think that associated
with that is the efforts

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to identify the right groups
of people to work with, I think

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is really important.

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And I think there's some
question always about, well,

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if you work with one
particular person,

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does that mean you
sort of overfit

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to that particular person?

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Is this kind of
product only going

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to be useful to that one
person in the world perhaps?

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And the answer might
be, yes, sometimes.

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I mean, it's very customized
and it works, hopefully,

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for that particular person.

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And intrinsically, I'd argue at
least that that's a good thing.

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But the other
aspect-- and I think

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a student wrote about this
in one of the blog posts--

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is that I think doing this
kind of design for one

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and making it work
end to end really

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can be a successful way of
teaching design or teaching

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engineering and
could lead as well

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to kind of successful ideas
or successful solutions

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in assistive technology
that are applicable to more

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than one person.