[blindkid] Math technology

H. Field missheather at comcast.net
Sat Apr 10 23:19:34 UTC 2010


Hello everyone,
It is a tragic truth that people who have the requisite knowledge and 
training to produce braille of any kind, let alone graphics using a 
Tiger embosser, are incredibly rare in most parts of this country. If 
we place this debate in the context of the acute shortage of trained 
teachers of the blind, and school districts floundering beneath the 
weight of budgeting problems, then it is not difficult to understand 
why there is a lack of qualified paraprofessionals/transcribers and 
expensive, adaptive equipment.

People who have grown up in large cities with big school districts 
which serve a number of blind children may not have experienced this 
shortage reality. and, the magic words, Commission for the blind, roll 
easily off the tongue of those who live in states that have them. 
However, the harsh reality is that many states do not have a 
commission for the blind and the section of the human services 
department that oversees blind services in these states has little or 
no involvement in providing early intervention or student services. 
So, no money, equipment or people to set it up or run it will come to 
school districts from blind services in many states.

Furthermore, blindness is a low incidence disability and in many parts 
of the United States, there may only be one or two blind children 
receiving services in any given county. With the neighbourhood school 
policy these students Often attend schools at the opposite ends of the 
county. Many of these students don't have a teacher of the blind 
because the schools can't find one to hire. They also usually don't 
have a braille transcriptionist. These students are usually served 
through the resource centres at their state school for the blind. The 
general special education teacher at the school orders books, braille 
writers and other such equipment, using Quota funds, and the resource 
centers send the school the materials and equipment.  The idea of a 
school district buying an embosser that produces graphs and then 
finding someone willing and able to run it is simply a pipe dream for 
most blind students right now. This lack of qualified teachers and the 
high cost of adaptive equipment for blind children is a large factor 
in the tragic trend to "unblind", many children. Much easier to call 
them "low vision" get them a cctv and a parttime aide and call it 
service than to try to solve such a complex and difficult problem.

The question then, becomes one of practicality. What will work to get 
the mathematical concepts across and the lessons learned for blind 
children. Low tech, inexpensive solutions like the Sewell Raised Line 
Drawing kit and the Draftsman from APH, wikki sticks, string and 
raised line graph paper, all used by the qualified sighted math 
teacher, an aide and/or parents will be the answer. A few, very bright 
and accomplished, science and math students may have the opportunity 
to learn all the skills, using various high tech, adaptive equipment.
But, for most students, the low tech solutions remain the only, 
realistic means by which they can be taught complex mathematical 
concepts.  We can wish it were otherwise and proclaim that, to be fair 
and just it should be different, but that won't change things. There 
are many practicalities working against high tech equipment 
opportunities for most blind students, attending local schools. The 
NFB has an outstanding record in working to give blind students 
opportunities to excel in the fields of mathematics and science, but 
this education question is a very complex, many factored issue and the 
answers aren't simple.

Incidentally, in case any parents are worried about their child not 
getting taught in their preferred learning style, I submit the 
following for consideration. This is an unpopular truth, while the 
concept of, learning styles, is very dear to the hearts of pop 
science, and dear to the bank accounts of those who produce and market 
educational materials, and people use personal, anecdotal experiences 
to prove their existence to themselves, no real aptitude treatment 
interaction has been proven to exist. Thus, when students are taught 
in their preferred style by a teacher who teaches in that preferred 
teaching style, and other classes containing students with all the 
learning styles are taught with no special attention to learning 
styles, when their school year learning outcomes are compared, the 
difference in achievement is not significant. Note. I am not referring 
to the theory of multiple intelligences.

Regards,

Heather Field

 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 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Math technology


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."


Visit us on Facebook LinkedIn



-----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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