Project Math Access DVD 03 - Graphing - Part 08 Transcript Start Audio Description: Part eight; student interview; Graph-It. KAPPERMAN: Brandon, I was watching you use your Braille Lite and the Graph-It program, and I was very impressed with what you were able to do with it. Tell me in your own words what do you like about it. What did it do for you? BRANDON: Well, I think it's very,.... you're talking about, that particular program? KAPPERMAN: I want to know when you're examining the graphs... does it make a difference in how you understand the effects of those equations? BRANDON: Yes, I think I understand it better, because I can feel where the axes are and feel the lines. So, that's very helpful in determining whether it printed out the graph right, things like that. KAPPERMAN: Do you... tell me what you think of this... do you like using this combination of a Braille Lite and Blazer? BRANDON: Yes, it seems to work very well, I think the Blazer does a nice job of printing out the graph. It's pretty accurate. KAPPERMAN: Were you able to understand it tactually? Does it make sense to you? BRANDON: Yes. KAPPERMAN: What's your impression of how the level of difficulty using this combination of the Braille Lite and the Graph-It program, and the Blazer? BRANDON: I think it works pretty well. It's not too difficult once I pick it up. STICKEN: Brandon, can you identify an advantage, perhaps, or two of using Graph-It over using a graphing board and Wikki Stix. BRANDON: WeIl... hmmm. Well, I think it's nice that the Blazer does it all for me once I put the equation in. STICKEN: Much like a graphing calculator that your sighted classmates use? BRANDON: Yeah, that way I don't have to worry about missing lines or something. STICKEN: So it's more accurate? BRANDON: Yes. STICKEN: Okay. Can you think of any other advantage? BRANDON: Well, I think that's the main one. STICKEN: How about disadvantages? BRANDON: Hmmmm. Well, I think a disadvantage would be that it's very noisy... So, if you were to do that in a classroom, in class, it would be very distracting. STICKEN: Yes. BRANDON: So it's definitely not the kind of thing you'd want to use in the classroom. That's where you'd want to use the graphing board, with Wikki Stix. STICKEN: Okay. So where would you see yourself or other students in high school math classes using this program? At home? BRANDON: Possibly doing homework. STICKEN: What about the technical difficulty? Is there a big learning curve, or is it pretty straight forward and easy? BRANDON: Yes, when I first started using the program, when I first tried to put in the equation, instead of pressing the E chord, so I could put in an equation, I just started typing the equation, and the Braille Lite just... phffft, died on me, like, it turned off, on it's own, kinda thing. And it was like, really annoying. Both Miss Seleb and I were like, "Oh my gosh", why is it doing this? STICKEN: Right. BRANDON: It was like, real annoying. STICKEN: So there are potential obstacles. You have to know what you're doing. BRANDON: Yes, yes. STICKEN: How did you find out what to do? How is it you know what to do with this program? BRANDON: Well, from reading the manual and BRANDON: having Miss Seleb help me out. STICKEN: Great.