<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Hi, Gerry!</div><div><br></div><div>Well, you said to dream big, so here's a real "blue sky" approach to the ultimate classroom for students with disabilities.</div><div><br></div><div>Back in 2001, Stanford's Office of Accessible Education (then known as the Disability Resource Center) began examining how technology could be used to create the "ultimate classroom", or more broadly, the ultimate inclusive learning environment. We developed a concept called Proteus; based on the principles of Universal Design for Instruction, it was a technology-enhanced strategy for making the various modes of classroom education (spoken word, whiteboard, media, etc.) available to all students in a variety of alternative forms in real-time.</div><div><br></div><div>Here's an article I wrote about the project in 2003:</div><div><a href="http://speaking.stanford.edu/Back_Issues/SOC63/highlights.html#high9">http://speaking.stanford.edu/Back_Issues/SOC63/highlights.html#high9</a></div><div><br></div><div>A summary so you don't have to read the whole article: The "aha!" moment was recognizing that most accommodations involved converting instruction into digital form. Why not synchronize and link all these information streams? A Proteus-designed classroom would thus capture the various "streams" of educational content in a digital form (including lecture, whiteboard, projected media, discussion, etc.), convert or augment these as needed to alternative accessible forms, then use the DAISY protocol to synchronize the various streams of information. The education could then be made available to learners in a variety of alternative forms, both in real time and afterwards. (This gave rise to the project's name: the Greek God Proteus could change himself into any form.) Since everything would be synchronized to text versions of the spoken word, it was all searchable. Even a student's notes (typed or handwritten) would be synched with the education going on in the classroom, kind of an über-version of what the Livescribe Pulse pen does with audio.</div><div><br></div><div>I used a proof-of-concept simulation of this "UDI classroom" to present a session about Proteus at the Syllabus 2003 conference. It looked more impressive than it actually was, though: we used an online captionist halfway across the country to simulate speech recognition, producing a real-time transcript via Internet which appeared on the front screen below the slides. People who walked in late and missed the explanation saw me generating nearly flawless speech recognition using only an Apple iBook and were utterly amazed. It was pretty funny (especially when I made a joke and the faux "speech recognition" came back with its own impromptu retort!).</div><div><br></div><div>Later that year, we collaborated with Stanford's Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL), Benetech, and the California Community College System (through the HTCTU) on a far-reaching proposal for a 3-year federal grant to develop and test Proteus demonstration classrooms, but were unable to work out the details before the submission deadline. (In retrospect, I think a research and development project of this magnitude was simply too much for a disabilities office to manage, especially in light of everything else we had to do.)</div><div><br></div><div>The OAE eventually decided to pursue just one part of that concept: transcribing lectures in real-time both for display in class and access afterwards. Working with SCIL and the university's Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR), we examined technical challenges such as how to capture and isolate multiple voices in a classroom (e.g., during a discussion) and how to time-synch the numerous information streams (including student notes). We presented our work at the Computers & Writing Conference in 2005. This project was further "downscaled" to a goal of producing captioned searchable lectures (see article at this li<font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">nk: </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ygnf8en)">http://tinyurl.com/ygnf8en)</a></span></font></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">, though it</span></font></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; "> laid some groundwork for Stanford's current captioning program (<a href="http://captioning.stanford.edu/">http://captioning.stanford.edu/</a>).</span></span></div><div><br></div><div>As blue sky as it was, I still believe the concept behind the full-blown Proteus Learning Environment is a sound approach to creating a technology-enabled inclusive classroom, and given the extra few years of technology evolution, it's even more do-able now than when it was originally conceived.</div><div><br></div><div>Best of luck with your classroom project!</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div> Shelley</div><div><br></div><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div>_____________________________</div><div>Shelley Haven ATP, RET</div><div>Assistive Technology Consultant</div><div><a href="mailto:Shelley@TechPotential.net">Shelley@TechPotential.net</a></div><div><a href="http://www.TechPotential.net">www.TechPotential.net</a></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br><div><div>On Oct 21, 2009, at 1:09 PM, Gerry Nies wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>I have been asked what the classroom would have to make it more accessible to students with any disabilities. We have been told dream big, it may not happen but we will indeed dream.<br><br>So I would like to get your suggestions on what you would have in the classroom.<br><br>Thank you in advance<br><br>Gerry<br><br><br>Gerry Nies<br><br>Information Technology Tech<br><br>University of North Dakota<br>Disability Services for Students<br>McCannel Hall Room 190<br>2891 2nd Avenue North Stop 9040<br>Grand Forks, ND 58202-9040 <br>(701)777-3827<br>(701)777-4170 FAX<br><a href="mailto:gerrynies@mail.und.edu">gerrynies@mail.und.edu</a><br><br><br>STOP!<br>This message is CONFIDENTIAL, intended only for the named recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are NOT the intended recipient(s), you are notified that the dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you receive this message in error, or are not the named recipient(s), please notify the sender at the above mentioned e-mail or telephone number and delete this e-mail from your computer<br><br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Athen mailing list<br>Athen@athenpro.org<br>http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org<br><br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>