Sorry for not posting in a while! The last few days have been busy and Bea left for Doha yesterday – I miss her already
. To make up for lack of entries, I’ve filled this one with lots of videos and pictures. Here’s a short video of Bea before starting work on Monday.
On Monday, Bea and I collected data and I videotaped teachers’ thoughts on the Braille Writing Tutor. Sanju and Teju trained the Mathru teachers over the weekend to use the Braille Writing Tutor and so far, no major problems. After work, Bea and I went to a nearby mall to buy some gifts for people at Mathru who have been essential to our study. I also treated Bea to some yummy chocolate ice cream from Baskin-Robbins and took a break from Indian food by having McDonald’s for dinner
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On Tuesday, we collected more data, videotaped more teachers and started talking to Ms. Muktha about a long-term partnership and data collection plan with the Mathru School for the Blind.
Wednesday was Bea’s last day in Bangalore and we had a long but productive day at Mathru. We observed Teju teaching 1st standard students with the Braille Writing Tutor. In the following video, Teju teaches the concept of switching braille cells when writing a word on the slate (each letter should be written in a different braille cell).
We also interviewed eight students, most of whom “grew up” with the Braille Writing Tutor. Here’s a video of one student, who tells us what she thinks of the tutor.
On a personal note, it makes me happy to know that a lot of students — even teachers — like the Animal Game, which is a game I thought of for the second version of the tutor in 2008
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Bea and I were able to finish all of the work we wanted to do on Wednesday. After work, we presented our gifts and took pictures with Mathru staff.
Today, I stayed in the hotel to catch up with work. Tomorrow’s going to be another busy day at Mathru!


