Many folks decide that the so-called “appropriate education” for their special education child just doesn’t cut the mustard. In many school districts they are correct. This is a travesty in many regards and yet perhaps considering the state of America’s schools, much of the regular curriculum for regular kids in many school districts also leaves a lot to be desired. Okay so, let’s talk.What’s a special education student parent supposed to do? If they keep their kids at home and tech them from there, will they really have the emotional ability to do this? Do they have the education in behavioral psychology necessary? There may be a lot of doubt there, such this makes sense, however also consider this. Before special education at school, the toughest cases were taught by way of homeschooling from family members, at least enough for those young adults and children to get by in life. With the proper love, caring, and patience, the outcome was tolerable if not favorable.Today, many special needs kids have parents how have now come to the realization or conclusion that the school system does not have the ability, money, or perseverance to help their child, so there is no other choice but homeschooling. Okay so, might I suggest that if you are one of these parents that you should be leveraging technology to assist you? Did you know that autistic kids playing with computers and communicating with Avatars on the screen come out of their shells better, and learn faster than they do working one-on-one with teachers or in a setting with other special needs children?It’s true, and there is a ton of research to back this up. If you will get involved with local autistic groups, and educational professionals you can learn more about this. I also suggest you go to Google Scholar and start looking up things like “Special Ed, autistic, avatars” or “learning disabilities, special ed, computer interface,” because once you learn about some of the scientific breakthroughs happening today, you will be less intimidated by the task ahead of you.Even if you don’t have a special needs child, one with a severe learning disability or autism – you might pass this information on to someone you know who does, and you do know a family with these challenges, we all do. It’s time we start playing it smart because that would be the “most appropriate” thing we could do in special education right now. Please consider all this and think on it.

When writing a resume, one question that is often asked is how to create one that appeals to both human eyes and computer programs? Computers do not understand “fancy” formatting, but people are not terribly impressed with something that reads like a solid wall of text. So what is a resume writer to do?Writing for HumansYes, computers are a very important part of the job search process so we cannot afford to alienate or confuse them. On the same token we cannot make our resumes so computer-favorable that they put off human readers.It is very possible that you will hear about and perhaps gain an interview for a job through networking with other professionals or through the “hidden” job market, or the grapevine as we like to call it. When you send your resume to someone that you have been referred to, do you want it to be visually appealing to the eyes who will be reading it? Of course!The solution we propose is to write one resume, but to format it in different ways; one version for the computers, and one set up to be more pleasing to any people who would be reading it. This seems to be the way to take advantage of the benefits of both environments (human and computer viewing) while only have to create a single resume.Writing for ComputersSoftware is only as smart as its creator(s) so it stands to reason that we cannot expect too much of it. ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is a program used by many companies to process resumes. It can be easily confused by bullet points, different kinds of headings, and you can pretty much forget using tables or text boxes.In order to placate this system and others like it you will need to create a bare-bones version of your resume. This resume will be known as your text-based resume. For best results it should meet the following guidelines:• If possible, create it in a text only editor; examples of this type of editor are Notepad, TextEdit, and SimpleText. If you created your resume in another program, copy and paste it into one of these editors and format / save it from there.• Use simple headings with names such as “Education”, “Professional Experience”, and “Summary of Qualifications”• Do not use combined headings or pair related but not equal headings; i.e. do not pair your skills with your interests, or your education with your certifications.• Instead of using bullet points, use dashes or asterisks instead.• When listing your name, address, and other details do so in the standard one line on top of another format as you would when writing a letter or addressing an envelope.• Make sure to have a full line of blank space in between each of the sections of your resume.Making Sure Your Resume Wins the DayHow can you know that your resume has what it takes to succeed in any environment? Programs like Preptel can let you know if your resume is missing keywords or items that will make your resume more impressive to computers. Because often human readers also care about these same things (seeing that you are proficient in something or have education in a given area, etc) it would make sense to have your resume analyzed by this or a similar program to find out if anything is missing in your resume document.Making sure your resume is up to standards and using the proper terminology and keywords is essential. Some people miss out on great jobs because they have no gone over their resumes with a fine-toothed comb and worked out all of the kinks prior to submitting it to both computer-driven services and human hiring managers. The job market is a highly competitive place so you need all of the advantages you can create for yourself before you venture out into it. A solid resume formatted to please is definitely one of the essential things to have in your arsenal when you hit the streets in search of your new job!