[NABS-L] tech for college

[Ben Fulton]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found a PC indispensable for my degree.

Right now it all depends on the grants you can get your hands on. This varies a lot by region, but there are frequently grants that cover tech, especially for colledge. Look into as much as you can, and make sure that you are using those funds to the best advantage. Right now you may be able to get a lot that will launch you into your career past school, especially if there are grants that are assigned each year. Determine what you absolutely need and then what you could use next year etc.

For instance, I would recommend the victor stream reader trek. It is a book reader that also has gps, it would be very useful, but you could wait till next year to purchase that, if you need the grant money to purchase a note taker, which you will need immediately. Get something that will last long term, if the grant can cover something then focus on what suits your needs.

I would say get a PC with a CD/DVD disc drive, many computers don't but I found a lot of material still handed out on CD's and having an external drive was a pain, but it is personal preference at that point.

I would also say get Jaws the lates version, and if you can get the license to include an upgrade or two down the road that would be good.

Kurzwell is also a wonderful program. It is the most sophisticated OCR software I have worked with. It's pricy, around 1,000 but again if you can get a grant for this, it is worth it. It made a lot of difference for me when I was able to purchase this in my second year.

Someone made a point that you will need to learn a lot of platforms, like blackboard, and moodle. This is true, and I found one thing truly beneficial was that I was able to get funding for training where I could work 1 on 1 with a specialist who was very good at instructing me in how to use jaws on multiple platforms. I was able to get about 40 hours of training in total, and it made a huge difference. I would schedule sessions once a week or two, and then between sessions I would record everything that I found challenging between sessions. 

Also, make sure you purchase the full suite get the professional MS Office with outlook and everything, this will benefit you long term, and the initial investment is worth it.

You will also need a printer, get one with a scanner, but depending on the grant situation you might be able to wait a year, and use the library to print for the first year. I found the librarians were usually pretty good if I handed them a usb key with the assignments that needed printing.

Best of luck,
Ben