An educational Web-portal New opportunities for Visually Impaired Students

Educational institutes for special education cluster 1 Sensis, Grave Bartiméus, Zeist Visio, Huizen Kennisnet ICT at School

Special Education

Concentration of pupils with the same disability Teachers with disability-specific experience Wealth of disability-specific information and instruction material Whole environment tuned to teach visually disabled pupils

Integration in mainstream education 75% of pupils in mainstream education 75 peripatetic teachers (special school teachers) Peripatetic teachers tend to be general teachers Mainstream setting with mainstream educational material

Goal of eduVIP Maintaining / restoring the special educational environment for our visually impaired students By means of webbased educational information and instruction material and applications

Target groups of eduVIP Peripatetic teachers of visually impaired pupils/students Teachers in Special Education Teachers in Mainstream Education Pupils/students with a visual impairment

Divisions of eduVIP ICT courses for VIPs Touch-Typing course for VIPs Additional education material for VIPs Visual training courses for VIPs Didactic information for teachers

What can be retrieved from eduVIP Everything that can be produced in a digital format ICT courses for Windows, Word, Excel etc. Didactic information for teachers per subject and school type

What can be retrieved from eduVIP Images, ready to produce tactile material Special Software applications Laws and regulations Information about the visual system and visual perception

Scenarios PS5 introduction to writing BL5 reading and writing Braille (Dynamic Braille Project)

Scenarios BL8 Getting a computer with assistive technology (Braille & Speech) - How a blind person uses a computer - How to teach Touch-typing - How to teach a blind computer user Windows and Word etc…

Job First IT training

Specs Touch-Typing program Full curriculum Webbased Webbased tracking of results/progress

Scenarios PS8 Visual stimulation and training

Kijktraining

Specs visual training program Many different exercises Application adapts to level of pupil Based on ‘Inzicht’ specifications (scientific research results) Based on ‘Kijkdoos’ a successful existing program for visual training

Scenarios PS10 and BL10 Should use a calculator PS10 and BL10 Should use an agenda to keep track of homework, projects etc..

Scenarios PS12 and BL12 Understanding maths BL16 Making and presenting PowerPoint presentations

Specific Teaching material

Clear drawings Prepared for making tactile material

Scenarios School management needs to know what extra money the school can obtain for a blind student (in secondary education) Teacher needs to know what it means to have ‘Diabetes Mellitus’, ‘Astigmatisme’ etc., and what the consequences are in regard to learning

eduVIP Digital support for the education of the visually impaired Support for teachers and students Support for specialist and mainstream education Communication between teachers And more…

End of eduVIP presentation

Dynamic Braille Project The development of an educational computer program for the teaching of Braille Based on the use of (synthetic) Speech and refreshable Braille For young children and mature learners

Reasons / necessities to seek other methods of teaching Change of educational visions Change of educational settings Change of learning strategies Change of technical possibilities

Change of educational visions E-learning holds the future Inclusion is the way (WSNS together at school again) The start of paperless schools in the Netherlands From 2010 all exams computerised Society is changing and VI pupils too (networking, gaming, self discovery and challenging)

Change of educational settings Integrated versus special education (75% of visually impaired pupils are integrated) Peripatetic teachers are increasingly trained as general teachers More teaching by general (mainstream) teachers

Change of educational strategies Independent Peer to peer (communication) Technological Flexible Request based Attractive

Change of technical possibilities Computers in education Network facilities in all schools Availability of assistive technology for schools and students

Existing Winbraille project Used in practice for some years (DOS/Win) At the least a good ‘Proof of concept’ Teacher-oriented Not user (teacher) friendly But still…

Full ‘PC’ features available for an educational program Universally usable with current equipment Good possibilities for independent learning Compatible with current mainstream IT hardware and teacher skills Possibilities to provide complete curriculum for learning and teaching Braille Dynamic Braille Project

Specs Dynamic Braille Works with as many different Braille displays as possible Consist of instructions, exercises and games

Specs Dynamic Braille The structure of the program is in modules Number of modules are extendible New modules can be made available by the internet Possibilities of distant education

Dynamic Braille Project Compatible with current teaching vision Compatible with actual learning strategies Compatible with current teaching settings Compatible with assistive technologies used

Contact details: Dick Lunenborg T: Don van Dijk T: Titia Thomason T: Henk Snetselaar T: