[blindkid] Math technology

Heather craney07 at rochester.rr.com
Sat Apr 10 16:01:02 UTC 2010 

I am sure that there is variation, but my experience in upstate New York is 
that Boces the agency that provides special education services also has 
adaptive technology instructors that work with the schools, and if they do 
not have someone who has the expertese, then the Comission for the Blind 
will provide the service or track down someone who does provide the service. 
To the origonal woman who asked for the advice, what state are you in?  Is 
there something like Boces or Vesid or CBVH or a local blindness 
organization?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 11:35 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Math technology


You forget the raised-line drawing kit. And school districts in my
experience don't often have the real geeks of which you speak below. It's
plug-and-play all the way!

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Heather" <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 7:55 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Math technology


The key is to get the adaptive person who probably knows the computer
technology of the embosser and the calculator, together with the math
teacher who knows how graphs and the mathematical component works, as
neither will be able to help your child on their own.  But geekese is pretty
similar in dialect between math geeks and computer geeks, so they should be
able to figure it out.  And, yes, graphs and some type of graphing
calculator will be extremely neccessary, not "if it is absolutely
neccessary".  Tracing tools are alright, but there must be graph paper
behind the tracing, as a general shape of the graph will not be helpful, if
the child needs to assertain which exact point the vertix of the perabola
passes through, or whether or not the sine curve is passing through the
origin or not.  I hope this helps.  Oh, and as to affording it.  If the
school fights it, remind them that A. she needs it, really and truly needs
it, B. they can store it carefully and use it for other blind and VI kids
coming up in the grades below her and in other schools in the district and
C. they are by law required to provide her equal opertunities in education
in the least restrictive environment, which includes adapting the graphs and
graphing technology for any level of math course that she is cognatively and
accademically ready for and that is offered by the school.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Math technology


I'd try to ascertain (a) who her algebra teacher will be next year and then
talk to him/her about the problem, emphasizing that you will assist with
drawing of raised-line graphs and perhaps showing him a Sewell raised-line
drawing kit to show how impromptu graphs can be made and (b) get a copy of
the book to see how much it relies on whizbang technology as opposed to
good, old-fashioned reasoning skills. Bear in mind that I am a strong
advocate of writing out math problems on a brailewriter.

If a graphing calculator proves absolutely necessary, I'd go with one that
can produce graphs on a Tiger embosser although for the life of me, how any
parent can afford one or, for that matter, how a school district can
successfully use one when it probably hasn't got anyone with the requisite
skills is beyond me.

But one should always approach the problem from the standpoint that it's
solvable, because it is. I hope that Steve Jacobson chimes in on this one
also.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Albert J Rizzi" <albert at myblindspot.org>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)'"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Math technology


so, Michael what suggestions do you have for her daughter as she works to
maintain her grade average and commitment to academic enrichment?

Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
CEO/Founder
My Blind Spot, Inc.
90 Broad Street - 18th Fl.
New York, New York  10004
www.myblindspot.org
PH: 917-553-0347
Fax: 212-858-5759
"The person who says it cannot be done, shouldn't interrupt the one who is
doing it."


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-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 11:07 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Math technology

Pat:

I'm sure many will disagree with me here but I could never fathom how audio
could accurately convey graphics to the blind. In my book, graphs are only
crutches to illustrate abstract concepts and math teachers are only as good
as they can deal with the abstractions without needing to "picture"
everything.

Mike Freman, B.A. and M.S. in physics

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pat Renfranz" <dblair2525 at msn.com>
To: "blindkid" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2010 2:36 PM
Subject: [blindkid] Math technology


My daughter will be taking Algebra II next year in 9th grade. She uses
Braille/Nemeth texts with tactile graphics. She's gotten by just fine with
relatively low-tech math tools.

We are wondering if it would be useful for her to start using an accessible
graphing calculator. Does anyone have any practical advice on using one of
these programs? I am looking into the Audio Graphing Calculator from
ViewPlus and Math Trax from NASA. They both produce an audio signal
representing the shape of the function, while the AGC has the advantage of
being able to produce tactile graphs on a Tiger embosser. Maybe there are
other products available? Our school district has no experience with any of
them. Does anyone¹s teenager think this software is worth learning?

We are a little nervous about this, because our experience has been that,
math is great because you can pretty much always count on a Brailler, paper,
and sticky dots from the hardware store to NOT fail and to NOT require
specialized training that gets in the way of actually learning the
material...

Thanks in advance for any help.
Pat
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