[bookshare-discuss] Re: old vs new
- From: "siss52" <siss52@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:42:47 -0600
Hi Ellen,
Something I forgot to mention in my post concerning this is that NLS has a
lot of Braille music online that students could download to a notetaker.
When I was a student, I had to order music from printing houses and it took
about 6 weeks for delivery. Nowadays, a few keystrokes will get you to the
place where you can download music from a large selection. Then students
could memorize it by reading it from the notetaker compact flash.
Sue S.
----- Original Message -----
From: Monica Willyard
To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 6:01 PM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: old vs new
Hi, Ellen. I like that you're doing things to help to support your students.
You're asking good questions, and that's the sign of a person who wants to
solve problems well. (smile) I have owned a BrailleLite notetaker for
several years and find reading with it to be both comfortable and portable.
The Braille is clear, and the surface of the plastic seems to resist
becoming sticky even over hours of reading and writing. To me, the portable
part is especially important for students since they have to manage a lot of
information while moving from class to class. For example, my high school
Spanish book consisted of eleven volumes. Since my teacher liked to skip
around a lot, I frequently found myself carrying the wrong volume to class.
They kept my Braille books in a storage room that they kept locked most of
the time, so getting the right volume was a hassle. Accessing the dictionary
without a custodian to unlock the door was out of the question since it was
a whopping 22 Braille volumes. If I'd had a modern notetaker back then, I
could just flip to the correct page of my book and would be reading along
with everyone else. I could access both a dictionary and an encyclopedia
with just a few keystrokes. No heavy, bulky books to carry. No missing
volumes or pleading with a custodian to let me into the storage room just
one more time today. And no heavy Perkins Brailler to lug around along with
the heavy Braille books. I would have thought I was in paradise back then.
Imagine going from lugging around 50 pounds to carrying around 10 pounds!I
guess you can see that I'm firmly in the computer Braille camp. :) I truly
believe that paper Braille will be phased out within the next 10 to 15 years
because of its bulk and inefficiency. I still have a lot of Braille paper at
my house, but I rarely use it since my family doesn't read Braille, and
email is much faster than a snail mail letter.
Monica Willyard
Other related posts:
