[Blindmath] Division of Polynomials

Mon May 5 02:28:39 UTC 2014

Understanding spatial concepts is important yes, but there has to be a point at which you say that understanding these concepts is impeding your Learning. You need to learn in the most effective way for you. If you have tried and tried to understand spatial layouts and you can't, then you should find an alternate way to learn. There comes a point when you will be choosing between understanding the spatial layout and learning the Mathew need to get your degree in succeed at your job. Also, remember that a lot of us are in college. We don't have the option of doing math on the Perkins. In my case, it's all I can do to schedule a test with the office for students with disabilities. There's no way I'm going to get anyone to transcribe my work from MBraille to print. That's why I use an electronic bro display. I still like to be able to read my math and read what I'm writing, but I need to be able to produce it and print at the same time. That bro display only has one line, which makes it very hard to view spatial layouts on it. Further, I don't do well with spatial layouts. If I can find a non-spatial way to do synthetic division that works for me, I will do it.

> On May 4, 2014, at 6:31 PM, "John Gardner" <gardnerj at onid.orst.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hi Susan, I agree with you that it is important for students who need to
> master the subject to be able to communicate with sighted peers.  Which
> means that understanding standard visual layout is usually important even if
> there are alternate ways to approach a problem.  For people fluent in
> Nemeth, your references are very good, and most Nemeth-speaking students
> would do well to follow your advice.
> 
> I will point out however that understanding visual layout does not
> necessarily require Nemeth braille.  Or any braille.  Pranav's suggestion of
> using Excel fulfills the same need of understanding layout and can be used
> by braille readers or by audio speech readers.  Though braille is probably
> faster.
> 
> Be well.
> John 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan
> Jolly
> Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2014 3:22 PM
> To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Division of Polynomials
> 
> Let me start by saying that I know from my own experience as a student, 
> teacher, and parent that not all teachers fully understand their subject.  A
> 
> good teacher is able to communicate with a student and distinguish actual 
> misunderstandings from the student's use of an alternate but valid approach 
> to problem solving.
> 
> I also feel that educational materials in mathematics are often 
> unnecessarily visually-based.  This can be true even in the lower grades 
> such as when a child is asked to count the monkeys who are eating bananas.
> 
> Finally, I hope that students always have the goal of understanding the 
> content of a course, not just figuring out some way of getting through the 
> course without understanding what is being taught.  However, I am not naive 
> enough to think the latter doesn't happen all too often.
> 
> Those of you were expecting that a "but" is coming were right.  But I do 
> think that it is important for braille-using students to understand how and 
> why common solution procedures work even if they choose to use alternate 
> procedures.  One reason is communication.  There is important mathematical 
> terminology that depends on spatial concepts.  The term "place value" is an 
> example. Another reason is that you might need to teach this material to 
> someone else.  After all, Dr. Nemeth taught university math for more than 30
> 
> years.
> 
> Back to the subject. My concern is whether there is a need to reinvent the 
> wheel. The official document for Nemeth Braille was adopted in 1972 and  is 
> available in both print and braille.  Its title is "The Nemeth Braille Code 
> for Mathematics and Science Notation 1972 Revision." The print version of 
> this book presents print math side-by-side with the corresponding simulated 
> braille in a way that should be easy for any sighted person to understand. 
> Section 180 gives two examples of braille spatial arrangements for division 
> of polynomials. Section 182 explains synthetic division and gives four 
> choices of spatial arrangements for the sample problem.
> 
> There is also a very thorough book on doing spatial math in braille that was
> 
> adopted in 1987.  The title is "Learning the Nemeth Braille Code" by Ruth H.
> 
> Craig although the book doesn't cover higher mathematics.
> 
> I am very sympathetic to those of you who are students and are having 
> frustrating experiences. I'm happy for you to write me privately and ask 
> questions.  I have a strong background in chemistry, math, computational 
> math, and computer programming and at the very least know enough to know 
> what I don't know!
> 
> Best wishes,
> SusanJ
> 
> 
> 
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