[BlindMath] I need some ideas and encouragement for doing braillecalculus
Radu Vasile
rvasile at gmail.com
Fri Sep 20 07:22:25 UTC 2019
Hello,
I am Radu Vasile from Romania and I have graduated in Math and Computer
science.
I am now working as a software developer and I have my own business in this
at this moment.
Also, right now I am enroled in a phd in Math.
I had no Braille Display in my studies.
I have recorded courses on tapes and in the evening I have transcribed them
in Braille using a Perkins like machine.
During exams, I have used my Perkins machine to write down problems and
exercises, and then solve them.
Nothing is better for a big math problem than to have all the information,
from different parts of the page, at your disposal in the same time.
A Braille display will never do the job.
Using direct Braille, you can have several pages of informations around you,
checking them in the same time.
Using a Braille display, to see what is in the previous pages, you must
navigate back and forth and you loose focus.
Now, in my PHD studies, I take latex sources from my professors and print
them using a Braille Printer to be able to read them.
To write, I use Latex, or latex like expressions, so my professors can read
what I write.
Most of the time we communicate using latex like language, because even
sighted persons do this between them when they communicate by writing on
social media accounts, or other online tools.
Using latex like language, I was able to do computations in notepad using a
screen reader.
I move expressions by cut and paste.
And from step to step I write what transformation I apply there.
The main Idea is that you need direct Braille to be able to follow big
computations, or a procedure like mine using a latex like notation.
I am able to do computations directly in my head too, but it is better on
the paper, because some times I found my self computing the same thing again
and again, because I have forgoten it.
The second main idea is that calculus is no so hard as it appears in the
beginning.
Best Regards
drd. Radu VASILE
e: rvasile at gmail.com
t: +40722614784
-----Original Message-----
From: Emily Schlenker via BlindMath
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2019 3:36 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Cc: Emily Schlenker
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] I need some ideas and encouragement for doing
braillecalculus
Hi. You have really inspired me, and now that you mention it, I am much
calmer when I’m doing math mentally. The problem is, it is hard for me to
keep track of problems where I do three or 4 chain rules and one or two
product rules, and then I have to put it all together. I also get very lost
with implicit differentiation. These often have fractions with different
denominators and ugly numerators. I would love to have a little bit of
tutoring on the weekends. I really think this will make my brain better
overall if I can do more and more in my head.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Sep 19, 2019, at 7:25 PM, David Moore via BlindMath
> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hey guys!
> I majored in mathematics at the Ohio State University!
> I loved calculus, because the disability office did such a great job a
> converting all graphs into tactile form.
> Also, I had an Optacon.
> The Optacon allowed one to run a small camera over the page, and I could
> feel exactly what a sighted person could see as a vibration on my finger
> tip of my left hand.
> I traced graphs, and learned what all of the symbols look like in print!
> I used tapes from the Recording for the Blind, which is now Learning Ally!
> I would hear the function on tape, and I would take the derivative or the
> Integral in my head, and I would check the answer that was read to me on
> the tapes from the back of the book!
> Also, I spent time with many sighted engineering majors, and they took my
> hand and traced all kinds of graphs with my hand.
> They explained how a simple graph can be moved around, stretched, and made
> fat or skinny to make the graphs of much more complicated functions!
> The derivative
> Is slope, and the second derivative tells you where the graph changes from
> curving upward, to downward, the inflection points on the graph!
> I did so many of my calculations in my head, and never in Braille!
> Braille just slowed me down.
> I wrote my math for my professors by writing a symbol in words!
> For example,
> The derivative of (X^2 + 1)^2
> Requires the chain rule giving!
> And then I just kept writing each step out like that!
> They understood what I was writing.
> For example,
> Integral of E^(x^2) does not have an anti-derivative!
> Take care, guys, and I will help you and tutor you for free over concepts
> that are giving you problems!
> Have a great day!
> David Moore
> Sent from
> Mail for Windows 10
>
> From: Nicolas Spohn via BlindMath
> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2019 8:01 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> Cc: Nicolas Spohn
> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] I need some ideas and encouragement for doing
> braillecalculus
>
> Hi Emily,
> I think it is interesting that I got your message today because today I
> have been thinking a lot about how frustrating calculus is. I am a high
> school senior taking advanced placement calculus. My blindness occurred a
> few years ago so I am not up to par with braille. I have been using math
> player to read my equations. One of my biggest struggles is interpreting
> tactile graphs. Another one of my struggles is making sure I am typing my
> work on Microsoft word in a way that my teacher understands it. Keep
> putting forth the effort with calculus! I always say to give something a
> try and figure out whether or not it’s possible or whether or not it’s
> something worth trying. Keep at it! I’ll try to keep at it too!
>
> Nick
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Sep 19, 2019, at 7:05 PM, Emily Schlenker via BlindMath
>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you so much. I am very lucky in that we have an office at my
>> university where I get all of my tactile diagrams done for all of my
>> classes. They also do my braille, and if I need a graph at the last
>> minute, they will make it. Awesome idea about the calculator.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Sep 19, 2019, at 5:36 PM, Doug and Molly Miron via BlindMath
>>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Emily,
>>>
>>>
>>> When I learned calculus I was a low vision person, not totally blind. I
>>> did not use braille. Now that I am totally blind I can understand the
>>> desire to work in braille, but there is a problem in that so much of
>>> calculus instruction is based on graphs, which are poorly supported in
>>> the tactile display world. One thing you have described is a shortage
>>> of braille display space for your equations. There are several braille
>>> displays available that will handle many lines of braille that might
>>> ease your problem. The TI84 graphical calculator abailble from APHB
>>> might help also. Good luck.
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Doug Miron
>>>
>>>> On 9/19/2019 2:52 PM, Emily Schlenker via BlindMath wrote:
>>>> Hi, everyone. I am in first semester calculus, and I am really
>>>> struggling. I
>>>> understand the processes, but I am having trouble staying organized
>>>> while
>>>> working problems in braille. I use a braille notetaker with 32 cells,
>>>> and I
>>>> am having trouble with things like the chain rule that require lines
>>>> and
>>>> lines of equations. The actual line on my braille sense is not long
>>>> enough
>>>> to accommodate some of my equations, and I get flustered and lost
>>>> scrolling
>>>> between so many lines. Ho do those of you who are braille users stay
>>>> organized? Do you have any strategies for keeping parts of the same
>>>> problem
>>>> organized? I am not opposed to breaking out the Perkins Brailler with
>>>> wide
>>>> paper, but I am also wondering if there is anything else I can do to be
>>>> successful. I have a great instructor who always goes step by step and
>>>> doesn't mind repeating things, but I always get lost about half way
>>>> through
>>>> big problems.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any help you can give me.
>>>>
>>>> Emily
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
>>>> https://www.avast.com/antivirus
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>>>
>>>
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>>
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