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GRACE TEO: I will say
that one of the things

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that I used be pretty insecure
about as an educator-- to put

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this in context,
I just graduated

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with my Ph.D. over the summer.

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And after spending five years
working on one niche problem,

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you're like, all
right, well I don't

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have a lot of usable
skills, I just

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have a lot of knowledge
about this one tiny problem.

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What can I possibly teach?

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And so I used to think
about that a lot.

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But something this
class showed me

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was that actually just the
ability to be entrepreneurial,

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the ability to be adaptable,
the ability to be a facilitator,

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a communicator, mediator
between people-- which I think

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were all huge parts
of this class--

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was the most important thing
in being an educator here.

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So it wasn't so much about
knowledge of subject material,

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or knowledge of a specific
skill, but just the ability

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to facilitate learning, which
a lot of times just comes

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down to knowing how to ask
the right questions of what

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is needed at this moment to help
my student learn and succeed,

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and being able to
answer their questions.

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So I didn't need to
know the knowledge.

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I didn't need to
have the skills.

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But I just needed to
know where to find

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that knowledge and skills
and be able to bring

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my student to that place.

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WILLIAM LI: Yeah, wow.

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So I think this is a
challenging question to answer,

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what I learned in terms of
teaching or being an educator.

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One thing I'd say-- so I'm
currently a Ph.D. Student.

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And so this semester, as
a graduate instructor.

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It was a little bit
unexpected certainly,

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to be involved in teaching
the course this semester.

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And to try to carry on and
extend the work that Seth

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Teller had done in this
class was to me, personally

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a very monumental undertaking.

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Seth was my master's
thesis adviser,

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and I worked on assistive
technology with him

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and saw him teach the
class the first time,

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and gone to some of the classes
and helped out a little bit

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in the last two years
or three years as well.

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So to suddenly be
a co-instructor

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of the class with Grace
was a sudden, almost kind

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of jarring experience.

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A baptism of fire, perhaps.

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So maybe there's
three things to say.

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One is, it was
immensely challenging.

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It is different from doing
research, which is mostly what

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I'm doing as a Ph.D. student.

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Even working on projects
with different people,

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you sort of have this
one level removed,

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where suddenly-- as
Grace was talking

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about-- working with students,
and trying to encourage them

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in certain directions.

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And there's certainly
some uncertainty

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associated with that.

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Or whether they will take
your advice, I guess,

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or whether you should nudge
them further in this direction.

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Or sometimes they surprise you.

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Very often, frankly,
they surprise you.

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Very pleasantly,
in terms of what

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they're able to accomplish
over the semester.

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So how to inspire
or mentor students

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is really something that I
learned over the semester.

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I think a part of this is
that it was pretty emotional.

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Maybe that's the right word.

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In terms of the
history of this class,

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the very personal nature of it.

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I think we got to know
our 35 students very

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well over the semester,
and certainly the clients

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as well, the 11 clients
that we worked with.

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And so you really
experience the ups and downs

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with the students over the
course of the projects.

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And that's
challenging sometimes,

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or interesting to experience.

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I think the third
thing I'd say is

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that it was, in the end, very
rewarding, to see the results,

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and see students excited
about what they had done.

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To be able to work with a
really great team of people all

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passionate about the course.

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So co-instructors,
and our teaching

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and lab assistants who had taken
the class before and really

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wanted to make this a positive
experience for students.

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I think in a lot of senses,
this is pretty unprecedented.

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I don't know if I
will ever do anything

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like this again for
a fairly long time,

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I guess in terms of
the meaningfulness

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and the challenge and
the personal side of it.

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I might be waxing poetic.

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But I think it was really
exciting to be able to put

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something like this together.

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And for that matter, I
think it's one reason

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to try to share our
full experience really.

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The things that worked, and
things that maybe didn't work

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as well on something like OCW.

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Warts and all, I suppose,
in terms of what we tried,

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and what was successful,
and what guidelines we

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might have to other educators.

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So I think really the
focus of our class,

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or if we've delivered a
good class this semester

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and provided a good learning
experience for our students,

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and our students have learned
and taken away something

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from Principles and Practice
of Assistive Technology

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this semester, then I think
that's what we set out to do.

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If we can inspire educators
and students elsewhere,

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who might be interested
in assistive technology,

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or working in this space, if we
can kind of let 1,000 flowers

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bloom when it comes to
assistive technology or the work

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that we're doing,
then maybe we've

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done our job this semester.