- Preface
- I. A new era
- • Globalization, the first sign of change
- • English - the new planetary language
- • A change in the scale of education
- II. Education and its context
- • Education and business
- • Education and the state
- III. The digital habit
- • The new digital culture
- • Digital projects
- • Time for assimilation
- IV. The extended school
- • Education at a critical moment
- • A definition of the extended school
- • Yesterday: concentrated knowledge
- • Today: knowledge disseminated
- • Tomorrow: knowledge connected
- V. New tools and old
- • Chalk and blackboard
- • The spinning globe
- • Microscopic life
- • Desk and work
- • The computer garden
- • Slides and liquid Crystal
- • Projectors and projections
- • Dry and digital copies
- VI. Digital transition
- • Continuing education
- • Cultural exchange
- • The mental switch
- • Critical thought
- • Internal communication
- • Educational frontier posts
- • Technological updating
- • Creativity and deregulation
- VII. Means and ends
- • Values for today and for always
- • Technocentrality and consumerism
- • Software in the public domain
- VIII. The digital library
- • Atoms versus bits
- • The dual book
- • Digital quality
- • Reading and writing
- • Text and hypertext
- • Consult and navigate
- IX. The home computer
- • A new piece of furniture or a new instrument?
- • Playthings and electronic toys
- • Robots for assembly
- • The silent printer
- • The community network
- X. New instruments of thought
- • Word processors, a new way of writing
- • A friendly mouse
- • More portable learning
- • Designing with computers
- • The golden link in communications: the modem
- • Electronic mail always arrives at its destination
- • Fax, a threatened species
- • WWW: three magic letters
- • Reliable and accessible data bases
- • Tables, abacus and spreadsheet
- • The Scanner, a bridge between two worlds
- • New interfaces and old keyboards
- • Presentation aids
- • So-called multimedia
- • Digital cameras without film
- • Digital videos in schools
- • Music for all
- XI. Presence and remote presence
- • Features of distance education
- • The three generations
- • Synchronous and asynchronous moments
- • Spaces for meeting
- • Classrooms open to the world
- • The advantages
- • New educational niches
- • A new type of teacher and student
- XII. Talents and handicaps
- • The right to communication
- • The obstacle of the keyboard
- • The obstacle of the screen
- • The expression of individual talent
- Conclusions
XII. TALENTS AND HANDICAPS
The obstacle of the screen
As we have said, the modern computer with its screen appears to have been deliberately designed for use by the hearing impaired, to the exclusion of the visually impaired. Fortunately in recent years the limitations to visual support have been overcome. Computers can easily control a Braille printer to provide tactile support. As we have said, there are also voice synthesizers on the market that provide invaluable help to those with visual disabilities. In such cases the visual information on a standard screen is converted into sound information. However, it is one thing to view the simultaneous presentation of all the text on an electronic page, reading the words, and another to recognize words and phrases in synthetic speech. The visual processing of the written word and the auditive processing of the spoken word activate various different areas of the brain. It is necessary to develop a special cognitive habit to take advantage of the formidable resources of this voice synthesizing technology.
Today computers combine voice synthesizing optical character reading. There is equipment now available that enables the reading of any book or written page. The text is scanned and the written information is processed by the computer using software that converts it into voice. Some machines are equipped with sufficient artificial intelligence that they can improve vocal performance as the automatic reading of the text proceeds. In this way a visually impaired person can take any book out of a library, place it in the machine and calmly listen to its content. Obviously the same would happen when consulting the Internet. This technology opens up new potential for the education of the visually impaired but it is still not widely available, not only because of its cost but because of the lack of suitably trained instructors.
Lastly, the size of letters on the screen can be varied at will. This is one of the main advantages of the visual presentation of an electronic page. Readers can select the size and type of font that most suits them. Furthermore, some machines have the option of an "electronic magnifying glass" to run over the screen text. All text and images on the screen can be enlarged several times. Students with severe loss of vision can make use of this new resource that has been incorporated to computers to write their notes or read their programs and texts.
In effect, once the obstacles of keyboard entry data and reading information on the screen have been overcome, the computer becomes an instrument of incomparable value in providing genuine equality of opportunity to all students in the digital school, regardless of their talents or disabilities. A computer that has been duly adapted to the needs of the disabled student will enable such a student to fully participate in the learning process both in school and at home.
We have had the opportunity of seeing how a brain-damaged young man has been able to organize his intellectual space with the precision of a skilled technician when we taught him to put in order his CD collection. Not satisfied with carefully recording the titles of the songs and the names of the musicians, to our amazement he added sound samples of each CD and digitized the pictures on the album inserts. This effort of concentration and complex hard work could not have been achieved using the traditional means available to special education. Digital instruments effectively amplify human capabilities and harmonize them. A database is actually a prosthesis for our memory.
We all suffer from a certain degree of disability, which is why the technology developed to assist people with organic or mental defects are of such great value to the educational community as a whole. How many physical and mental difficulties must have been overcome thanks to the use of these wonderful new instruments! progress has been astonishing if one takes into account the short time these new technologies have been implemented. Often it is thanks to a disabled student that schools dare to incorporate new digital resources for all. The digital age actively promotes solidarity among people, helping us to approach machines in a more natural manner.
