Blog Post # 7

I am officially excited that EDM 310 is a required course. I say this because I had no idea there were so many resources for disabled students. I would have to say the videos I watched are two of the most informative sources I have encountered so far. The first video I watched was Teaching Math to the Blind. In the video a professor at the University of San Francisco, Art Karshmer, introduces a system he created, using blocks and a grid, to aid blind students in solving math problems. He explains that braille is not read in two dimensions, so where a seeing person would line an addition problem one number on top of the other and add from right to left to solve the problem, a blind person reading braille will line the numbers straight across from left to right. This makes simple math problems, such as addition, difficult for the visually impaired. Professor Karshmer explains in the video how the systems works. The students scan the blocks, with braille and a visual number on the front, with a barcode scanner. Then a computer will read the number aloud. The student then places the block in the grid to properly set up the math problem.



After watching this video I researched more tools to aid blind students with solving math problems. I came across a site, Science Daily, that introduces a new system being developed specifically with elementary aged students in mind. The site states that "nearly one in 20 pre-school aged children and about 12.1 million children ages 6-17 have visual impairments, according to the Braille Institute." Sheila Schneider a senior at the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Illinois, under the supervision of Professor Deana McDonagh, is creating small sculptures with mathematical equations imprinted with braille. The equations will be written in a form of Braille known as Nemeth Code, which is used for mathematical and scientific symbols. They were designed from the view point of a child and are intended for children ages 7-10.



The second video I watched was entitled iPad Usage For the Blind. In this video Wesley Majerus, Access Specialist for the National Federation for the Blind, gives a presentation on how the iPad is set up to help the blind navigate through its system. As he is demonstrating you can hear the iPad voice-over telling him the programs and how to access them. The iPad even enables the blind to read books. Wesley explains that being able to buy and read books is very liberating.



These tools designed to aid the visually impaired student, are excellent tools to remember as a future teacher. Especially since the "No Student Left Behind" system has physically and mentally disabled students in the same classrooms as non-disabled students. I imagine that the tools are also empowering for a person with visual impairments. I found this encouraging as both a student and a future teacher.

Here are some other video summaries completed by my peers.

Brittany Allemand

Denise Robinson's Video Teaching Mom What Her Deaf/Blind Students are Learning on the Ipad was a pleasure to watch. I feel as though these technologies help the students who are impaired to feel as though they are at the same pace as the other students, which is how they should be able to feel. I remember being in school and having a couple students who were handicapped and visually impaired in my classes. Technology was nowhere near as advanced as today, and they did not get to participate fully or as much in some of the things we did because they did not have the tools too. I was impressed after watching the video by Denise with the Ipad. I never knew that the IPad could be a tool to accompany the deaf or blind. It was easy to use and follow. The voice was at a great speed and easy to understand. Also, the directions were so clear. I loved how all you had to do was slide your finger across the screen and it read out all the apps and how to open them. This would be a great tool to use in my future classroom. After watching this video, I went to the internet to try to find some tools I could use in my classroom for the future that weren't listed in our manual.I came across a page written by Jeanette Dodds, Assistive Technology for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing, it listed some devices and assistants that can be used to help the deaf in the classroom or in life with just communicating with others. She tells about ways to make clocks and phones easier to use for the deaf or hard of hearing. You can use a strobe light, blinker, vibrator, or flash. I thought this could be useful in the classroom when trying to teach or show something is right or wrong, you could use a light or flash to indicate whether correct or not. Green lights could be used for correct and red for wrong. Also, she mentions FM stations which is an assisted listening device. This works well in the classroom. The way it works is the teacher wears a transmitter, that is connected to a microphone, and the student wears the receiver. FM stations send radio waves from a transmitter to a receiver. The student receives the message from the teacher with the microphone by plugging the receiver into headphones, hearing aids, or other devices. I really liked this because this way everything the teacher says is sent directly to the student and it is way easier to hear.

Grace Hofer

After watching Assistive Technologies for Vision and Hearing Impaired Children, I was very impressed with the video. I have known people who are vision impaired but I never thought of how much a struggle it could be in a classroom without assistive technologies. This video shows a few different tools that could help these students. Screen magnifiers, flip cameras, and text to speech devices to name a few. I also found a tool that could be useful called WordQ + SpeakQ. This tool offers an audio proofreading so someone who is vision impaired would be able to hear what the text contains. It also offers a speakQ which lets one speak through a microphone and will be picked up and typed out. The tool also offers the user to change words to similar words like a built in thesaurus. This tool could be very helpful for students to learn how to better speak, write, and strengthen their vocabulary. Another tool that is great for vision impaired people is The Mountbatten. The Mountbatten is a braille write, it can offer audio feedback so the person knows that is being typed. This tool is able to save, transfer, as well as receive files from another computer. With this tool being able to have print and braille results, it allows the teacher as well as fellow students to understand. With everyone understanding, it lets everyone to be included in a project. I do not know if I will for a fact be using these tools in my classroom. But if used, the ones mentioned above could be very helpful. Teachers should be well prepared for all types of students, rather impaired or not, and be able to teach them the way that is best fit for them. It will be exciting to see what the future will hold in my future classroom.