Blog 11 - Audience, purpose, & focus (Research Project)

Topic: Assistive Technology for Autism
Research Question: How have computer games affected the skills of children with Autism?

Audience: Parents, teachers, and therapists, who are on the computer, at home, school, or work.

Purpose: To gain knowledge about the benefits and concerns of computer games in helping children with Autism enhance their learning, social, and personal skills.

Consequences: The text on the website should be user-friendly. It should be very descriptive and include examples of specific ways that computer games have helped children with Autism. There should also be pictures of children engaging in the computer games. Due to the audience, I want to have clear differential categories for parents, teachers, and therapists. In the categories, the interested party can find information about ways that the topic of computer games with Autism can help them. For example, teachers might want to see a section regarding how the usage of computer games with Autism has enhanced learning skills in the classroom. Also, there should be a section of a list of certain computer games that have been proven to be effective.

Examples of sites:

http://www.autismteachingtools.com/page/bbbbgt/bbbbgz - This website has links to sites that provide specific games for children with Autism. Also, I like the design of the light colored puzzle piece design that says Autism Teaching Tools.

http://www.healthykids.us/ - This site has great colors and pictures as links to more information. I want to have pictures like this on my site.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/actearly/autism.html - This site has categories on the side and links relating to each category, which is exactly what I am looking for. Also, when you click on the link, it keeps you in the same page and doesn't take you to another site. I want this type of layout for my site as well because it is not hard to navigate, you always stay on one page without opening another window, and it gives specific categories.

References:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070622183516.htm

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-02-2006/0004443142&EDATE=

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7012645/

http://research.ua.edu/archive2001/autism.html

http://www.accessibility.nl/games/index.php?pagefile=cognitive

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/850553/games_for_children_with_autism_dos.html

http://www.autismribbon.net/assistive-technology-for-autism.html