ISAD Assignment

International Stuttering Awareness Day 2006 Online Conference

Don’t Talk About Us … Talk With Us
October 01 through 22, 2006

As described by Judith Maginnis Kuster, Minnesota State University, Mankato …

THE EVENT

The freely available ISAD Conferences are composed of panel discussions (comprising several 500 — 1000 word papers written around a specific topic); invited 2000-3000 word papers written in a "reader friendly" style, appealing to both professionals and consumers; and poster sessions (up to 1500 words) with students and professionals reporting on current research projects. A special section of the conferences is "Office Hours: the professor is in" — where consumers can ask questions of professors who specialize in stuttering. Each panel, paper, poster and office hours is linked to a "threaded discussion," an open bulletin board where participants can comment or ask questions, and authors can respond. These threaded discussions are "closed" at the end of the conference, but all conference papers as well as information posted during the conferences, remain online for anyone to access. October 22, 1998, marked the first International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD). Supported by the International Fluency Association (IFA), the International Stuttering Association (ISA), the European League of Stuttering Associations (ELSA) and the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), the stated purpose of ISAD is "to promote awareness and understanding and to show appreciation for people who stutter and the speech language professionals who work with them."

This international online conference is live October first through October 22nd, 2006. Last year’s conference had over 65 conference contributors from 20 different countries.

As a result of completing this unit you will

1. a) Have interacted online with at least three different conference presenters
2. b) Have discussed contemporary topics in fluency disorders with individuals from cultures different from your own
3. c) Have increased the development of your awareness of cultural difference in the area of stuttering

Tasks in this unit include

1. a) Reading a minimum of five different contributed papers
2. b) Posting your comments online in at least three different presentations
3. c) Write a reaction paper to each of the five presentations that you attend

Reading Contributed Papers

Please read at least five different papers that are posted for the conference.

Posting Your Comments

You are required to participate, by including an online response in three of the presentations that you are attending. Please copy your posting and include it along with your reaction paper.  

Reaction Papers

You are required to submit a reaction paper for each conference presentation you attend. Please include an outline of the nature and content of each of the presentations you’ve read or participated in and discuss how each has helped to increase your understanding of stuttering, the culture of stuttering, and if applicable, the different cultural viewpoints regarding stuttering that your became aware of, etc.

Please Note

Ms. Kuster has asked that students not use the conference to post questions to the “Prof is In” section. You are welcome to post questions to the “Researcher is In” section.   The “Prof is In” section is for consumers only.

Grading

The total points for this unit is 50. Each reaction paper is worth 10 points. Please refer to the rubric in the syllabus for grading guidelines.

You must post your comments online before the conference ending date, October 20, 2006. Reaction papers, along with documentation of your online postings, are due by the end of the day on Friday, October 27, 2006.