>>Robin: Across the country there are shortages of math teachers who are trained in the Nemeth
Code, which is the math code for the Braille system; and do not understand how to
teach math to the visually impaired and blind students.
>>Dr. Stenehjem: Our mission at the school is providing quality services to blind and
visually impaired children. If we are going to reach out to kids throughout the state
and really throughout the country we need to
tap into a digital environment. With one tenth of one percent of the student population being
blind or visually impaired that means one student
is in this location and one in another - it is
very very difficult to get to these kids.
>>Robin: Having kids being able to come into my class via distance learning these kids
get an education at the pace that they need, with the tools they need, with a teacher who
understands what their needs are. We've used
more than one system for distance learning for these math classes. We did a straight
video conferencing using a television and a
camera and the camera stopped working. Someone I know, who works at Microsoft, suggested
we use Microsoft Lync and said there is a lot more
features that you can use above and beyond just video conferencing. So, we decided to
try it out and see how it would go. We really
needed to find something right away because the camera wasn't working and class was
still happening so, it was an instant switch.
>>Robin: Microsoft Lync has many different components to it. And, the ones that we use
are: The video conferencing, so I can connect down to the school to see these students.
Instant Messaging, so students can send me messages and I can send them messages.
We use the desktop sharing, so I can look at
the student's desktops to see what they're doing
on their computers. We also use, the file sharing,
so they can send me their work just via Lync. By being through the computer the students
have access and they can log in themselves, which
is a good advocacy. They can manipulate the program themselves, because Microsoft Lync
has all keyboard commands which allow them to
go through the keyboard commands to manipulate
and go into different parts of the program. It is accessible and usable with JAWS, a
screen reading program.
>>Robin: What makes this better, it's not just teleconferencing. It's a whole entire
system.
>>Dominique: Back in my old schools, they had the huge white boards. It's like...
you expect me to read what you write on there? With the small single white board
on the screen now I can actually see, take my notes, and still follow along without
getting lost.
>>Robin: And that's for a low vision student using print and if a Braille
student wants to show me what they're doing and I want to see what their looking
at. I can desktop share with them.
>>Chris: That is helpful because she is able to take a look, tell me if or when
I make a mistake.
>>Robin: What they're entering in I can see right on my screen. So I can say
"ohh, you have a little bit of an error- you forgot a minus sign."
>>Chris: With this she can look right there, it is with this part-this place,
you need to take a look here, that's where your numbers are wrong.
>>Robin: It's almost like being able to walk around the classroom and see
their work.
>>Sunny: If I have a question, or if anyone in the class has a question,
they don't have to disrupt the class they can send an instant message.
>>Robin: It's basically like raising their hand. They can send me messages that
the rest of the class doesn't need to hear. Plus, they can talk to me just like I am
in the classroom. We have a lot of fun! I always like to say my class is the
nosiest class on campus. And since I am not there we talk a lot. We have a lot of
discussion. We go over the problems together out loud. There is a lot of interpersonal
communications that happens by using Microsoft Lync.
>>Dr. Stenehjem: The nice thing about it is it's off the shelf software so it's
not something specifically designed for the
blind. So, if you can take off the shelf software it means you can tie that into
any person's laptop, computer, or note taker devise without a lot of
sophisticated equipment. Your regular classroom equipment, which most school
districts are going to have, gives a flexibility with all of this, where others
systems did not do that.
>>Robin: By having this distance in outreach we can give these kids the free
and appropriate education they deserve.
>>Dr. Stenehjem: It helps make the world smaller place and lets us connect with a
lot more people.