Are There Any Kinesthetic Learners With Dyscalculia & Dyslexia using Maxmsp?
I have the above learning difficulties and I'm studying creative music tech. Thought I'd drop in some descriptions to give a full picture of my predicament.
Kinesthetic (hands on learning) I don't get enough time with the tutors, I need to be shown what to do, reading and the help function only gets me so far.
Dyscalculia (innate difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic) Pretty self explanatory, I can't do maths and Maxmsp is fairly reliant on it.
Dyslexia (impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid naming) I mix up letters, which cause a lot of problems in Maxmsp. My short term memory is awful, my tutor can tell me something twenty times and i'll forget it in a second, even if i write it down I can't remember how it related to something else, also a massive problem when using Maxmsp. bang you say? Oh thats a loud noise. groove? Yeah man, I love grooves.
I'm trying to maintain a sense of humour and willingness to learn but its getting tougher. I stare at the screen for hours and can't think of anything. ln my first year I winged my project and my tutor took pity (I spent 20 hours after class working on 4 step sample sequencer) My friend helped me out a lot to. I'm now entering my second year and have a lot more to deal with. I was wondering if there was anybody else using Maxmsp with similar conditions to mine, is it even possible to 'get it' are there different ways of looking at it? I know Maxmsp is scary for anyone new to it but i'm seriously struggling. My degree is hanging in the balance. Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Hi
some positive comments to encourage and excite:
1. Congratulations on a very clear and concise description of your situation.
2. I (and several others on this forum) have some considerable experience of designing creative environments for people with a wide range of abilities and expectations, using MaxMSP.
3. The Max user community no doubt represents a similarly wide range of backgrounds.
While I cannot describe myself as having a medically-defined learning disability, I certainly struggle with number theory (algebra and geometry especially) and would say that I am a, if not kinesthetic, then certainly trial-and-error learner/do-er. What I'm saying here I guess is, it takes all sorts if that's not too patronizing.
Furthermore, there is often a misconception (maybe in your case too?) that MaxMSP is a complete and mature 'foreign language', with a unique and secret grammar and pronunciation. In this case, that analogy is misleading. I try to encourage myself to think of Max as a VAST toolbox, full of thousands of wonderful but simple objects which will allow me to build stuff. If I want a light that flashes once every second then Max will do that. If I want the light colour to depend on how hard a sensor is pressed, again Max can do that. I don't need to extend this analogy any further I think......
There are numerous high quality online tutorials and the following video tutorials are simply perfect and peerless in this respect:
The tutorials and documentation that come with Max do assume a basic (high school) grasp of maths, which is why I was initially scared of them (my maths is THAT bad!!), but as my Max chops developed so did my grasp of these concepts.
Finally, your tutor is a professional and will be able to differentiate when assessing your submitted work (if this is your main concern); I doubt if he will "pity" you, or be forced to "compensate" for your own learning challenges. This is a very helpful and (mostly) patient community here, so put some patches together, ask questions and smile - you've just joined a very elite club.
Brendan
ps
Your degree will only truly be in the balance if you sit on your arse and do nothing for the next 2 years. It doesn't sound like you are one of those students.
Why not design an accessible interface in Max for people with learning challenges? Is that a patronizing suggestion? Is that last sentence patronizing? Is that..................BOOM **just disappeared up my own backside in a P.C. feedback loop**
pps
where are you studying?