[Promotion-technology] Fw: New Smartpen And Paper To Help Teach Blind College Students

[Robert Jaquiss]

Hello Colleagues:

     I thought the following would be of interest.

Regards,

Robert

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews at GeoffAndWen.com>
To: <BlindNews at FreeLists.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 8:52 PM
Subject: New Smartpen And Paper To Help Teach Blind College Students


> Science Daily
> Monday, December 03, 2007
>
> New Smartpen And Paper To Help Teach Blind College Students
>
> ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2007) - Subjects like physics, calculus and biology 
> are challenging for most students, but imagine tackling these topics 
> without being able to see the graphs and figures used to teach them. A new 
> smartpen and paper technology that works with touch and records classroom 
> audio aims to bring these subjects to life for blind students.
>
> "Mainstream approaches to teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering 
> and math) courses all rely strongly on diagrams, graphs, charts and other 
> figures, putting students with visual disabilities at a significant 
> disadvantage," Andy Van Schaack, lecturer in Vanderbilt University's 
> Peabody College of education and human development, said. "Our goal is to 
> enable students and teachers to produce and explore diagrams and figures 
> through touch and sound using a smartpen and paper technology that is 
> low-cost, portable and easy to use."
>
> Van Schaack and colleague Joshua Miele, a researcher at the 
> Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute who is blind, have received a 
> $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to apply the new 
> technology, created by technology company Livescribe, to this effort. Van 
> Schaack is Livescribe's senior science adviser.
>
> "My area of expertise is instructional technology. I spend a lot of my 
> time trying to figure out how to use technology to make teaching and 
> learning more effective, efficient and accessible," Van Schaack said. "A 
> new world of possibilities has opened for the rapid creation of portable, 
> low-cost, high-quality accessible graphics enhanced with audio. For 
> example, a visually impaired psychology student could learn neuroanatomy 
> by exploring a diagram of the brain, with each lobe, gyrus and sulcus's 
> name spoken as the smartpen touches it."
>
> The Livescribe smartpen recognizes handwritten marks through a camera 
> inside its tip that focuses on a minute pattern of dots printed on paper. 
> It captures over 100 hours of audio through a built-in microphone and 
> plays audio back through a built-in speaker or 3D recording headset. Files 
> are uploaded from the pen to a computer using a USB connection. The 
> technology will be much more affordable and portable than previous 
> products used for this purpose -- students can just put it in their 
> backpacks with the rest of their books and notebooks.
>
> Van Schaack and Miele will be using a prototype of the Livescribe smartpen 
> and a Sewell Raised Line Drawing Kit, a Mylar-like film that is deformed 
> when a student writes on it with a pen, creating raised drawings. Students 
> will be able to touch a hand-drawn figure with their smartpen to hear 
> audio explanations of its features.
>
> As for other uses of the smartpen, Van Schaack believes the possibilities 
> are endless.
>
> "It really is a new computer platform -- it includes most of the 
> technology found in a typical laptop, but gets its information from 
> handwriting rather than from a keyboard and mouse," Van Schaack said. "One 
> of the most immediate uses of it that I see will be for college students. 
> It will allow them to spend more time listening in class while taking more 
> of an outline form of notes. Later, when they are reviewing their 
> handwritten notes, they can tap within them to hear what the professor was 
> saying when they wrote a particular note, giving them the opportunity to 
> annotate them for accuracy and additional detail."
>
> The smartpen is expected to hit stores during the first quarter of 2008 at 
> a cost of less than $200. Livescribe interactive notebooks will run about 
> the same price as a good quality notebook from a college bookstore.
>
> Adapted from materials provided by Vanderbilt University.
>
>
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203121438.htm
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