Sunday, April 13, 2014

Blog Post #12

What assistive technologies are available to you as a teacher?

There are so many assistive technologies that are available to you as a teacher that can be very useful to you in your classroom. The first that I found was the Mountbatten Braille Writer. In the video, The Mountbatten – Assistive Technology for the Blind , would be very useful in the classroom. Using the Mountbatten brail allows for audio and tactile feedback. This machine is very advance. As the students brail the machine produces the brail while announcing what is being brailed. As the students brails it converts it into text and displays it onto a screen and allows teachers and students, who do not know brail, to be able to communicate. This machine can also save files, transfer files to a computer and receive files from a computer. Also allows blind students to be involved in the curriculum, receiving feedback from the teacher and participating in peer group projects.

Blind


In the video, Teaching Math to the Blind, the University of San Fransico have been working on solving this problem for blind students. Their idea was to build a device using small blocks that have brail and a visible number on the front. The students then place the blocks on the grid and can run their fingers back and forth across the problem. This allows the students to map into visual cortex with the two dimensional model of the mathematics problem. This allows the problem to be laid out just like site students would do. Everything on the device is in brail and text so that both students can read the problem. This device will help educate very young blind students into the basics of math. This will allow the blind students to have a foundation for later studies.

Math


1 comment:

  1. Briley, you did great on your blog post. I especially like the Braille Writer, because it allows both the teacher and the students communicate with the student that is using it. You did a good job researching technology that can assist the teacher in both the elementary and high school grades. Great Job!!!

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