Flint,
High School tends to be a whole 'nother ball game. Teenagers tend to be
more apt to cheat or more than likely to play games. If they didn't want
you to use your notetaker in class, how did they expect you to take notes?
To bring this back to the BN, how are others using their BNs for testing?
I could see an easy way for high school teachers to verify
cheating/non-cheating would be to use a visual display during the test. I
know of students at the university that use an external floppy drive and
their professor provides them a disk and at the end of the test they give
it
back. The BN would also allow the blind student to use their notes when
their peers do. I have personally run into this problem where my
classmates
could use their book or notes but because I was using the computer in the
DSS office I did not have access to any of these things. Do you think
this
was fair to me? We always talk about the blind student having advantages
with technology but I think we are still at disadvantage in this regard.
Now that we have a daisy player, it will hopefully allow us to have the
same
access as our peers.
Cindy
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Flint
Million
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 2:14 AM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] braille note on testing
When I was in high school I had a Type 'n speak. Just about every teacher
I
had in school was very against the idea of my using it, even during
regular
class time. Their thinking was that I might not pay attention and might
instead drift off into something on the TNS, like say a game, or music (as
if the TNS actually could play good music...) The interesting thing with
technology is us disabled folk often tend to be ahead of our time. I
graduated high school in 2001 and at that time they still pretty much
banned
walkmans and portable CD in school; now with the advent of iPods they've
pretty much given up, last time I visited my school probably half the
students in the library were listening to their iPods.
Us as blind people have been given amazing access with technology, but as
a
famous saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. I'll be
the
first to admit, the temptation to cheat is huge, especially with something
like a notetaker that sighted people can't see (and remember the TNS
speech
was horrid so most people couldn't understand its voice either!). People
are
just afraid of what they do not understand.
In terms of testing, what I would recommend of any teacher or school is,
if
they do not wish to allow the blind student use of their own notetaker -
and
I see all of the valid reasons why that might be denied - then some
alternative and *equal* form of access should be offered; for example, a
school-provided accessible computer, or if they're lucky, even a school
provided BrailleNote! Readers are not really "equal" in my mind because of
reasons previously stated: they can get grumpy if you ask to reread, and
it
doesn't just give you the freedom to explore the test and your answers at
your pace and in your own way. Not to mention I've had readers refuse to
put
down answers I've given. The only fair way to do it is to either use
Braille
in some fashion or provide an accessible computer system that is
school-administered and thus allows the school to feel confident that
cheating is not occuring but also allows the blind student to have the
access they need. And as stated, if other students are allowed to use
their
notes, then the blind person should be allowed to as well. Again the
BrailleNote has so many features that it's easy for a teacher to assume
you're up to no good (think cell phone + Bluetooth + GPRS = access to the
Internet during a test, EVEN if your teacher takes your phone before the
test!!!). We have to be honest and not take advantage of the technology
that
we have because all that will do in the end is cause us to lose access,
not
gain it.
flint
On 12/5/06, slery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I would also like to point out that more and more tests are via the
computer
on blackboard. This is the way the universities are moving so YES our
sighted peers are definitely using computers for tests. Universities now
days are pushing professors toward the digital age. In fact, this past
year
we had two professors use podcasts in their class as well as having more
activities online. This was not a distance education course either.
There also new devices being used across the country that are similar to
a
tv remote that are being used to conduct in-class quizzes and pose
questions
when in a big lecture hall. Blind students need as many advantages as
they
can come up with. Using the BN for tests is only the tip of the ice
berg.
Cindy
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of david
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 6:04 PM
To: Braillenote List
Subject: Re: [Braillenote] braille note on testing
One more point. Sighted people usually don't use cell phones or pdas for
tests or any kind of schoolwork. They usually use the plain old pencil
and
pen.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karyn Campbell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Braillenote List'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 8:49 AM
Subject: RE: [Braillenote] braille note on testing
> Mike, you still have the cheating factor as well as the fact that
sighted
> students are not allowed to use computers, calculators or PDAs for
> testing.
> That being the case, we should not be allowed either. Case closed.
>
> Take care.
>
> **All outgoing messages scanned using Norton Antivirus 2006.
>
> Karyn Campbell, Illinois USA, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
> ___
> To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
> http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>
>
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
__________ NOD32 1904 (20061206) Information __________
This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
http://www.eset.com
