[nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction
Josh Gregory
joshkart12 at gmail.com
Sun May 22 00:11:20 UTC 2011
Kirt, good points. How are you finding the online classes? Do
you use a screen reader, BrailleNote, things like that for them?
Josh
sent from my Apex
----- Original Message -----
From: Kirt Manwaring <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sat, 21 May 2011 16:17:22 -0600
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction
Chris,
If you don't know who your partner is until you swap papers,
just
have them read you the dang thing. If, however, it's
pre-arranged (as
it is a lot of the time) you can often ask them to send you a
copy in
word, rtf, etc. This also works for those situations where
you're
supposed to peer review something for homework.
Josh, Ashley does bring up some good points. But don't you
dare let
that discourage you from doing what you want to do. Online
classes
can be very accessible, I'm in one right now and it's amazing.
You'd
know more about wheelchair access than me, but I've made some
good
friends who use wheelchairs on my campus (BYU) and they do great.
I
think sometimes we have the tendancy, and I'm not saying Ashley
was
remiss because she brought up some great points, but I think
sometimes
we have the tendancy to look at something, say there are
accessibility
challenges, and then ignore that thing because it won't be easy.
Either way you'll have accessibility issues-life, quite frankly,
will
often be inaccessible. That doesn't mean you don't go the extra
mile
and do what you need to do.
I'm not mocking your questions. But be ready for a difficult
road
through college, no matter if you do most classes online or spend
the
bulk of your time in traditional classes. Buckle up, it's not
going
to be easy. My recommendation, not knowing a thing about
personal
factors you aren't telling us, is that you take most of your
classes
on campus. It'll give you an experience of being away from home,
if
you're anything like me it'll make you get better travel skills,
and
it's the route most people take. But that doesn't mean online
classes
are bad, or that they aren't a good option-I'm probably going to
take
more because of the great experience I'm having with it now.
Best of luck,
Kirt
On 5/21/11, Jorge Paez <computertechjorgepaez at gmail.com> wrote:
Chris:
What I do is ask my friends to read their papers too me, and I
can correct
any grammar/phrasing issues that way.
I usually either have a copy of my paper printed,
or if the teacher is aware that we're peer editing,
she'll usually have a print copy ready for me when I get to
class to share
with the other students.
Jorge
On May 21, 2011, at 2:20 PM, Chris Nusbaum wrote:
Ashley,
You bring up an interesting issue. My middle school, too does
peer
editing of papers, where we hook up with a partner and read and
make
revisions to each other's handwritten rough drafts before we
type them for
our final copy. But if you're mainstreamed in a class with
sighted
people, how do you handle those situations? I have to resort to
a reader
because my instructional assistant wouldn't have time to scan
and Braille
it. But are there ways that you all handle these peer editing
times
independently? Do you request your partner's paper ahead of time
and scan
it into Kurzweil or OpenBook? Will those OCR softwares scan
handwritten
materials? In college, are even rough drafts typed into a
computer, so you
ask your partner to email their draft to you? I would be
interested to
hear all of your strategies! By the way, I hope to see many of
you on the
call tomorrow!
Chris
"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities
motto)
--- Sent from my BrailleNote
----- Original Message -----
From: <bookwormahb at earthlink.net
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sat, 21 May 2011 00:16:41 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction
Josh,
You have a lot to consider with being a student coupled with the
wheelchair.
I went to the traditional classroom all through college. I went
to a big
state run school and then transferred to a smaller private
school,
Marymount
university.
No, online college is not more accessible. Things like the
discussion
board
on Blackboard are problematic, so are the quizzes.
I tried an online class this semester and was very disappointed.
Its
partly
my learning style. I didn't know what was important to extract
from the
text
without a class lecture. I wasn't sure what to study for the
test.
Assignments seemed a bit ambiguous with the instructions. I
just was
never
sure what the professor expected.
What do you want from college? If you want the social aspect,
the
independence and living away from home, the increased freedom,
the ability
to just go where you want on campus such as a friend's room late
at night
to
hang out, then stay on campus. Oh, another thing on campus its
easier to
see your professors, if you need extra help during office hours;
where as
if
you are a commuter or online, you can't get to campus as easily.
]
But if you just want the academics, then online might work.
Also what is
your study habits? Online classes you are more on your own. You
are not
in
class with a schedule to turn in things and you won't have
classmates to
study/compare work with; what I mean is with papers, you often
get to
read
each other's work and get suggestions.
Personally, I see challenges either way. On campus classes will
present
accessibility challenges since you cannot see the board or
screen; so you
will want the powerpoints or screen lecture notes sent to you.
But online challenges abound because of graphics, flash content,
and
blackboard if your school uses it.
Regarding access to school due to your wheelchair, I'd check
that a lot,
even more than the blindness accomodations. The blindness is
something
minor
to accommodate, where as physical disabilities require
modifications to
the
built environment.
Ensure you can access all classrooms with your wheel chair.
Does the
school
have enough ramp access? Does the school have enough space for
your chair
to wheel into class?
The law, ADA, requires renovated buildings to be wheel chair
accessible.
Unfortunately, some schools including the community college, I'm
at now,
are
not in ADA compliance because either they did not think of it or
buildings
were built prior to 1990 and were not yet renovated.
So the law requires access, but if your school was not built
with ADA
accessibility in mind such as wide door ways, ramps, accessible
restrooms,
push buttons, etc. you will have a hard time living and moving
around
campus. So check into that. You could even bring someone
sighted and
help
you look around. That person can check for ramps, push buttons,
elevators
to
each floor, accessible restrooms, and even check the door way
width for
you.
For ADA compliant wheel chair access door widths need to be 32
inches.
But
again, if built before 1990 without renovations, buildings are
not covered
by ADA.
HTH,
Ashley
-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Gregory
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 8:25 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] online college vs classroom instruction
Hi all,
I'm a little curious here, what do people think on this? For us
blind students who are about to graduate from high school soon
(I'm a junior this year and will be a senior next) college is
something some of us look into. So, my question: Do people
think
that online college is more accessible for blind people, or
classroom instruction? If I may ask, what have people's
experiences been with both? What about a person who is blind and
partially in a wheelchair such as myself, could I manage in an
on-campus environment or would online instruction be better for
me?
Thanks so much,
Josh
Sent from my Apex
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