20200729 Brauner-Summers Map Library (60:00)
ROBIN SITTEN: So welcome, everybody. Today is Wednesday. It is July 29 of 2020. My name is Robin Sitten. I'm the program manager for Perkins eLearning. Perkins eLearning webinars are presented throughout the year on a monthly basis. You may register to attend live at no fee. And beginning this July, we were able to set up our Zoom room in a way that you don't now need to register ahead of time.
Of course, as I mentioned, we also record webinars so that you can view them later, share them with your team and the families and clients that you work with. The webinar series is just one of the offerings in our professional development program, which includes publications, e-newsletters, online and in-person, classes and self-paced study. You can see our entire listings at our website at perkinselearning.org.
On today's call in honor of the ADA's 30th anniversary, we're discussing a collaboration between Perkins School for the Blind and SAS to develop an accessible map library for non-visual digital maps. And before we get started, let me just review a couple of things about the technology.
To keep noise levels in control, we've muted your lines, but we encourage you to use the chat window for questions and comments throughout the webinar. If your question is a little bit longer in nature, we'll address it at the end during Q&A. If we're able to respond immediately, we can do that as well. Just hover your mouse at the bottom of your window to open the toolbar. That's where the chat feature is found.
Please keep in mind that this is an informational presentation of the map library project. The time does not allow our presenters to really teach how the maps are created or shared or used. We will provide additional resources for that level of detail. Our goal today is to describe how the collaboration came about and how it's progressed and let you have a first look at the library itself. You have individual control over your audio levels, so make sure your volume is on and turned up. You might prefer to use personal headphones or external speakers to give you your best audio.
Captioning is provided in a separate window. I'm sharing that URL again now. You open that separate pod through a link so that you can have that alongside if you prefer to use captions. The event is being recorded. We're being recorded now, and this material will be on our Perkins website. So thank you for taking the time to join us for this event. We appreciate your feedback, and we're really excited to share this project with you. And let me introduce today's speakers who have really made this possible.
Ed Summers is a software engineer and accessibility specialist who leads the accessibility team at SAS, the market leader in business analytics software and services that is used at more than 70,000 sites around the world. He is the chairman of the North Carolina Commission for the Blind. He is also a member of the North Carolina State Board of Education Advisory Council for the Governor Morehead School for the Blind and a frequent presenter for Perkins Professional Development.
Diane Brauner is an educational accessibility consultant collaborating with various educational app developers and agencies. She splits her time between managing the Perkins eLearning website paths to technology, presenting workshops on a national level, and working on accessibility related projects like this one. Diane has over 25 years as a certified orientation and mobility specialist working primarily with preschool and school aged students. She holds degrees and rehabilitation, elementary education, visual impairment, hearing impairments, and orientation and mobility. And Diane, I'm going to turn the microphone over to you, and you can take it from here.
DIANE BRAUNER: All right. Well thank you so much, Robin. I'm very excited to be here today to talk about the map library and this collaboration that we've had with SAS, with Ed and his team. And I'm excited that you're here with us so you can take a look at our new project here. So let me go right on in. Let's see here. There we go. OK.
So I'm going to talk just a little bit about remote instruction needs. Part of the reason we are doing this map library, this resource library, is because with a lot of our students being taught remotely, we have such a need for instant access to accessible digital materials. We also have a need for educators to be able to easily create custom materials.
Educational materials often include visual images which convey critical information. And while alt text descriptions may work fine for simple images, more complex images such as maps need more than a static image description. Maps should be created in such a way that students with visual impairments can navigate and interact with the map and have the ability to compare the distance and the bearing between specific points on a map.
As Robin mentioned, the American Disabilities Act, ADA, was signed into law in July 26, 1990. We all know about this act, and we all use some of the information from this act to provide information, accessible materials for our students. So as part of this collaboration, in honor of the ADA 30 anniversary, SAS, who has recently created these non-visual accessible digital maps and Perkins with Paths to Technology have collaborated to develop an accessible map library. This non-visual digital map library is housed on the Paths to Technology website.
So the map library. What is it, who is it for, and who contributes the accessible non-visual digital maps? So what is it? It's a library of accessible non-visual digital maps. The map library contains a growing variety of maps used for orientation mobility purposes and for K12 mainstream educational lessons. Who is it for? The libraries for mainstream educators, teachers of the visually impaired, O&Ms, students, and adults with visual impairments or blindness.
Who contributes to the accessible non-visual digital maps? The map library is crowdsourced. Anyone can contribute to the map library, including any educator, family member, or an interested group and individual can contribute. The majority at the current college campuses that are in the map library right now were created and shared by SAS interns.
So why digital maps? The 21st century paperless classrooms. We know our classrooms are going digital. Right now with remote instruction, everything is about technology. So having a digital map means there's no tactile materials required, and it's easy to create and to share. We have to remember that 21st century classrooms mirror the 21st century work environment.
I want to give you a quick example of one of the maps or some of the maps that are in the map library and how we use those. So on screen right now, there's a picture of Victor, who is a high school graduate this year. He's starting college in the fall. And of course, as an O&M, one of our concerns right now is how do we transition these kids to college campus when we can't even get on the campuses?
So what I did with Victor is I sent him a link of a map that I created of his college campus. I sent him a link to the map and I sent him a link to the directions on the SAS website on how to use the map. Victor is like all of our students right now. He is very typical. He is very tech savvy. He is a Braille reader, a cane user. He opened up the map, he took a quick look at the directions, the instructions, and he learned the software on his own. I did not have to teach him how to use the software.
Then in our Zoom lesson the next week, we did a Zoom lesson. You can see in the image on the screen that he is sitting in his bedroom and it's a Zoom lesson. You can see the little window with me above him. In that Zoom lesson, we went over some of the things about the digital map that he did not know. Some of the things about how you find out about streets and how they relate together. And we talked through, and that Zoom lesson is recorded in his post on Paths to Technology. From that hour lesson, he really understood and developed a mental map of campus.
So the next lesson we had, we were actually able to get on campus a few weeks ago. We went on campus, and just the outside was open. So we couldn't go in any of the buildings, but we did a tour around campus. We learned about the different sidewalks and the street crossings and all of that. Victor spent about an hour, a little over an hour with me on campus.
When he was done with that hour, he was very familiar with campus. He felt very comfortable about it because he had already developed a mental map of the different neighborhoods, the different buildings, the different roads that go through campus, and he was comfortable with that whole layout. So he used all of his O&M skills to travel the campus after building that mental map. That's one example of how a remote lesson can impact a student that's transitioning to college.
Now, other maps that are in the map library. These are classroom maps that are used in regular mainstream classrooms. This particular lesson is an accessible state capitals map. So it has the states and the capitals and the students learn the spatial relationships between the different states and capitals as well as which capital belongs with which state. Maps are also used in the classroom to teach a lot of other things.
So an alt text description of this map would have so much information that would be really challenging for students to be able to navigate through the map to get the information that they want. Because the non-visual digital maps are interactive, the students can find the information that they want and can answer the questions that-- the typical mainstream questions that are asked about these maps.
For example, what state's around Indiana? Which state is south of Virginia? How many miles is it as a crow flies from Jackson, Mississippi to Madison, Wisconsin? Here's a question. From Helena, Montana, which is closer, Olympia, Washington or Bismarck, North Dakota? So my student can use the non-visual digital map, which is fully accessible with a screen reader. They can use that map to answer those kinds of questions.
OK, and it just dawned on me that I skipped a poll. So Robin, we'll come back and grab some of those polls in just a minute, but let's go on. What types of maps are or will be in the library? So we're looking at college campuses, K through 12 O&M lessons, travel and leisure, maps that are used in mainstream classroom subjects, maps of municipalities and political boundaries.
So are you teaching a lesson that uses a map of the lighthouses on the east coast, state capital maps of the United States, counties in your state, national parks in the US? What about a map of the original 13 colonies or Revolutionary War battlefields? There's a map for that. Or you can create your own.
So we are very interested in learning more about maps that your students are using in the classroom and how we can create accessible maps that support K through 12 education. So I want to take a minute right now to ask you what kinds of maps are you and your students using in regular classrooms? If you take a minute and type that into the chat box. What kinds of maps are you using in the classroom for educational purposes? Give me some examples, please.
ROBIN SITTEN: As you list your examples in the chat, I'll read them out for other people. So state maps, certainly. City maps. Campus maps. Location maps such as malls. Google Maps with various intersections. Residential neighborhoods. Maps of different countries around the world. Jim writes, I've been asked to create maps of the school. Anyone else? That's a wide-- that's a breadth, isn't it, Diane?
DIANE BRAUNER: There are lots of opportunities to make maps. OK, so let's go back to the poll that I skipped, Robin, about what types of maps they're creating as O&M.
ROBIN SITTEN: Sure thing. One second and let me just slip to that one. So this is a question specifically about maps you're currently using for O&M. You can answer within the poll or within the chat if that's easier for you. The choices are local neighborhoods, local downtown areas or cities, making maps for tourism or travel, making maps of the county or state, colleges or universities, or other. And if you do have other, please let us know about the chat. And people are beginning to answer now. We'll just let that give you a chance. So we're seeing a lot of local neighborhoods. College and universities coming in a close second.
So you are correct. The poll is only allowing one response, and I apologize for that. That should have been-- it says check all that apply, but apparently it's only allowing one response. If you'd like to note others in the chat, please do. Or if you'd like to say which one you're primarily using.
So local neighborhoods about 64%. Colleges and universities is in second place at about 25%. Local and downtown areas. Two of you have voted for that, and one person has noted other. Intersections, Julie says. Campus maps and downtown areas as well as local neighborhoods. So Nancy's choosing three. Thank you, Nancy. Apologize for that setup. So I'm going to bring that down now.
DIANE BRAUNER: OK, and I see in the chat somebody also said bus transit routes.
ROBIN SITTEN: Oh yes, thank you. Nice potential bus transit used.
DIANE BRAUNER: OK. All right. So let's go ahead and put the poll up real quick about who is on this call, what your primary job is. So I'm seeing a lot of O&M related maps here. I'd also like to know if we have teachers and who else is with us.
ROBIN SITTEN: OK, great. This is allowing for one choice. So what is your primary role? We know many of you wear a lot of hats. So we've divided orientation and mobility into K through 12 and adults. So if you provide adult services, please let us know that as well.
Are you a teacher of the visually impaired? Are you some other kind of classroom teacher, either a general subject or special ed classroom? Do you work with in college disability services? Are you some other kind of service provider or therapist? Maybe you're an OT or PT, speech language. Are you a family member, parent, or guardian? Or again, some other.
We have at least one person who is responding other. And about half of you have already voted, so thank you. And orientation and mobility at the school level just a little bit ahead of orientation and mobility adults. So 31% K12, 21% adults. About 23% teachers of the visually impaired. AT consultant, Jim says. Thank you. That is a different service provider. We've got six people saying other.
One is a university professor. Thank you, Jennifer. Nancy wrote, besides working with adults for O&M, she also works with school age and is a CVRT and a teacher of the visually impaired. So we know a lot of you have dual certification and sometimes you're doing more one than the other or you're split between. All right, I'm going to close that now.
DIANE BRAUNER: OK, that gives me a good idea of who we're talking to right now. As an O&M, of course, my first thought about making maps is orientation mobility maps absolutely all the way. I make a lot of O&M maps. And the map library is targeting O&M for K through 12 as well as transition and beyond that. So some of the requests that we're getting in for maps are I'm going to be traveling to wherever, and I'd like to know a little bit more about that environment before I go. So some of that travel and tourism section on the map library.
I do like to get an idea of what it is that you're interested in so we can focus on creating more maps and putting those in the map library of the things that you're truly interested in. Now, the exciting part about these maps is that you can create your own map as well and share it with us so we can put that in the map library. So maps can be customized. You can make exactly what it is that you want for your student or your client and you can share that So we're going to take a look at that in just a minute.
But on the flip side of this, I'm also seeing that our students are using maps in the classroom for educational purposes, whether it's a map of the original 13 colonies or it's a map of lighthouses on the east coast. There's a lot of different things that the classrooms are using maps for.
So I'm very interested in learning a little bit more about what's going on in the classroom, especially what grades are using maps, what kind of questions they're asking so that we can make sure that we get some of those maps in the library and that the software will do all the things that we want it to do in order to access those maps for educational purposes.
OK, so I just saw that, Jim, you had a question about is there a standard for representing objects when creating the maps? There are some best practices that we've been working with. I've written up a post about best practices for college campus maps. About to write one for best practices for some other types of maps. This software is brand new. So we are just learning the best way to do some of these things.
So again, as you make your own maps, I'd really like for you guys to give me some feedback and have some open discussions about what the map's for, the goal of the map, and what you've added into the map, and what age you're teaching that map. So you'll see Paths to Technology, and we'll take a look at this in just a minute, but you'll see there's some posts in there about John.
John is a fourth grade student in a small town that's learning about his town. Right now there's three posts in there. It shows John going through a progression of learning how to use the software, then learning about his downtown area and then learning a little bit more bigger area of his town. The next couple of posts will expand from that. Where does the town fit into the state? Those kinds of things. So you can see that whole progression.
Robin just put in there a couple of links for some of those posts on Paths to Technology. You can find these links in the map library as well. So let's continue on, and we can have some question and answer time at the end as well.
OK, so how to access available maps, how to share your maps, and map related resources on Paths to Technology. Those are the next three things that we're going to take a look at, and we're going to go outside of the PowerPoint to do that. So let's talk just a minute here about the non-visual digital map library.
First of all, there's a lot of posts on how do you teach this software. There are posts on how do you create your own customized map. We're not going to get into those pieces today. I want to show you where the map library is and how to access the maps that are already there and how to share those maps out with some other folks as well.
So the first thing is going to Paths to Technology. Paths to Technology is at perkinselearning.org/technology. And I am going to get out of my PowerPoint. And hang on just a second. It takes it a minute to get back to my home screen. And I am going to pull Paths to Technology. There we go. This out of the way here.
All right, so here's the Paths to Technology website. There is my cursor. And I'm going to scroll down. And last week, I'm really excited about this, last week we added a new section. It's a banner across the page, and it says Resource Library. It's a library of free, accessible digital classroom materials created by and for teachers. And the materials are perfect for in school instruction and remote instruction.
So a lot of our schools are doing remote instruction. A lot of our students are going to be doing online courses, remote instruction or online distance education. They're going to be doing things outside of our traditional classroom. So these resources are being developed to help teachers not have to recreate everything themselves.
So let's take a look at this. Here's a teacher created resource library. Get that out of the way. There we go. And if you slide down, there's a book library, which we're not going to get into today. There's a lot of resources on that book library already, and then there's the map library, which is what we're talking about today. So I'm going to go ahead and click on the map library.
Now a page comes up, and it's the map library. It does come into some links here. In order to use the map library, you do have to download the free SAS Graphics Accelerator for Google Chrome. It's a free extension, and the link is right there. This is the software that Ed and his team have developed that creates or converts these maps into an accessible version. And there's some directions in here that I'm going to show you, so I'm going to skip that part.
There are some resources right here as well. And then we get down into the map library itself. And it's organized in different chunks. The first chunk in the map library is how do you teach O&M concept lessons? So this section has maps in there, and then there's a related post underneath that map. And that post is a lesson for a student.
So I mentioned John just a minute ago. So I'm going to come down. And here is John lives in Pittsboro. Here are some of the maps that go along with what John is learning about his town. And then below the map link is a lesson, and it goes through and gives you the goals of the lesson and how to teach that. So it's very step by step for this fourth grader.
I mentioned earlier about Victor, who is transitioning to college. And he was building his mental map of college. He is going to Elon University. Elon, there's a basic map with just a few points on it, and then there's the detail map. We're going to come back and look at that in a minute. But I'm going to slide down and give you a quick look at some of the college campus maps.
The SAS interns this summer created over 30 college campus maps for us to use. They are here. You simply click on it, and it goes right into the map, and you can use that map. They're fully accessible maps. So I'm just going to scroll on down through there. I'll try not to go too fast. I don't want anybody to get seasick here. The state capital map is here. I put in a bunch of maps about lighthouses. So a lot of people doing lighthouse things recently.
There's social studies and history, like the American Revolution map and a Civil War battlefields map. Some things with travel and leisure. So I'd like to build out more of this section for social studies and history and what they're doing in the classroom. We can add more sections as we go along. So please do let me know what you're doing in the classroom with maps.
And also if you have a university that is not done, if you're associated with a university, or if you have a student that will be transitioning to a university and you create a map yourself, please share with me. We can put it back on here, and then everybody will have access to that. So let's take just a second here and put up the poll about if you have a student transitioning to college campuses.
ROBIN SITTEN: We are just interested in hearing those of you who are working with students who might be transitioning to college or university if you know yet whether they're going to be on campus. There is a yes, no, and a still being determined. Or maybe you know that there's going to be some mix of on site or online, so they may not be moving into campus, but they will be there. And the votes are coming in very quickly. There still is some still to be determined. So we're certainly hearing that in our region. Some colleges still trying to figure it out.
Got about 65% of you have voted. So Diane, it's looking like no is actually in the lead. So most of the people on this call do not have students transitioning to a campus. That's 41%. Yes is 27%. But right behind that is still being determined. 20% of those present said their student's still waiting to figure that out. And about 13% of a mixed of on site and online college experience.
DIANE BRAUNER: Great.
ROBIN SITTEN: Thank you for sharing that.
DIANE BRAUNER: Yes, I appreciate that. OK. So let's go back and take a look. I'm going to pick that Elon University, Elon where Victor goes. I'm going to click on this. Now, if you have not installed the SAS Graphics Accelerator extension, this is what happens when you click on the link. It's going to go to a quick little prompt. It says Install SAS Graphics Accelerator. And it tells you, it has a link right here how to install it. And then you can install it.
And so now when I go back, since I-- for this purpose, I have-- there we go. All right. I'm going to copy the link right now, because I have put Safari as my default so I can show you what happens when that doesn't show up when you don't have it installed.
So now I'm going to go to Google Chrome, because you must have Google Chrome. This is a Google extension, the app is, and you must go into Google Chrome. OK, so now I am going to either click on the link directly from the website or I copied it just to make it a little bit faster and I pasted it into my URL.
And here is the Elon University detail map, the visual map. And this is in Google Maps, Google my maps. This is where I would create my map. And I can add in these points over here. I can mark different places. I can zoom in on the map to see more details or zoom back out. So for today, what I want to show you is how you would access that map. So down here in the bottom right hand corner, there's a small button that says Accelerate.
Once you select that Accelerate button, you have to be in Google Chrome, and you have to have the SAS Graphics Accelerator extension installed. Otherwise the Accelerator button does not show up down here. But once you do those things, I'm in Google Chrome and I have the SAS Graphics Accelerator extension, I'm going to select Accelerate in the bottom right hand corner. And now I get into my fully accessible non-visual digital map.
So I'm not going to take time today to explain this map. You have to remember that the map is going to look different. It is a non-visual digital map. It's not going to look the same as a visual map. But if you watch some of the other videos and you can go into the post, you'll learn how to use this map. So I am going to go back to my map here, and I am going to go into a new tab and say mymaps.google. Maps. There we go.
So these are the maps that I have in the Google My Maps. If you get a map, if you download a map or click on the link from the map website, you cannot edit that map because you do not own that map. It was created by somebody else. But if I grab that map, like Elon University, and something's changed, maybe there's a new building or my student has an off campus job and needs to know where that off campus job is in relationship to the map, I can edit the map.
But I cannot edit the one, the original one, that's on the website. What I have to do is I have to go in to the map and I have to copy it. So right here on the Create a New Map in Google's My Maps, you can see Create a New Map is the first tab, all the maps that are here, the ones I own is the tab, the ones that I do not own.
OK. So here is a map for Nicole that an O&M sent to me to take a look at. I'm going to open up that map. And it appears, now she has it satellite view. I normally don't do it in this view. But she has it open. She has marked some of these different tags on here. The Accelerate button is down here in the bottom right. Now, I cannot edit this map until I make a copy of it. So it says the title the map at the top, and then there's the three dots.
I can select the three dots and it says Copy Map. When I do that-- and then I want to rename it something else. It says Copy of Map for Nicole. I might just call it Map for Nicole or Map for Nicole 2. Whatever it is that I want to copy it and say OK. When I do that, it will now put it in My Maps. And it will go under my maps that I own.
So now let's go back. Yeah, it's coloring. I'm just going to add a new tag. There we go. OK. So I'm just going to go back to My Maps, Google Maps. And now I have maps for Nicole. So now I can open this one and edit it, because it is now under my Owned tab and not under the Not Owned tab.
So let me open up Elon again. If I want to share this map, that was Victor's college, when I want to share it with him, I'm going to go under on the left hand side there's a column with the title of the map and then the Share button. I'm going to select the Share button. And I have some different options that I can do. I want to share it with anyone on the internet. Then I would copy the link.
So if you create a map and you want to share it with me to post on Paths to Technology, this is what you would do. You would hit the Share button of your map and then you would select Anyone Can Open and then copy the link and then send me. You would then paste this into an email. If you wanted to send this map to just one person, like if I wanted to send it to Victor, I could type in this pop up. I could type in his email address and say Done and send it to him. And of course, there's a couple more options about permissions and things like that under there. But that's how you would share a map.
If you created this map, you would then share it with your student, and he would get the URL. Click on it. It would come back up like this, the non-visual map. The non-visual maps are not accessible. To create this map. But a student can come down and hit the Accelerate button, which is accessible, and then go right into the accessible version of the map.
OK, so I'm going to stop right here for just a second. Are there any questions about how you access the map on the Paths to Technology website, how you share it, and how you can edit it by going and copying the map?
ROBIN SITTEN: This is Robin while we're waiting for questions. So if I can just say back to you what I think I understand about the sharing. So what we saw you do was identify a map that you wanted to use that someone else had created, but you needed to make some modifications for your student. So you made a copy of that map, of Nicole's map.
And my question in the chat was, you prefer a street view. In your edited version, you could have switched that view as well, right? For the expediency, you saved it as it was. But you could have switched that as well. So let's say it was a map to the library and you needed it to be a map to the cafeteria. You made that new copy.
Now, you could have just sent that directly to Victor, your student, as it is. He opens it, and what he's seeing when he opens it is just a regular Google Map. He has to use his accelerator to make that map the non-visual digital map.
DIANE BRAUNER: Yes.
ROBIN SITTEN: You could have also said, oh, this is a new map we should put in our library, and that's when you chose to share everyone can see this map, and then you posted it into your library. In the same way, when someone finds it in the library, they're finding it in that Google view, that street view, then they have to accelerate it with the SAS Accelerator. OK, great. I just want to make sure I was understanding. Nicole says thank you for sharing her map.
[LAUGHTER]
DIANE BRAUNER: There you go.
ROBIN SITTEN: And could you just reiterate? Rita is asking, reiterate which browsers it works on. It will only work on the Chrome browser?
DIANE BRAUNER: Only on the Chrome browser, because this is a Chrome extension.
ROBIN SITTEN: Correct. So that is different from a Chromebook, which is a machine. So that is a little bit confusing. So for example, you're on an Apple, but you're using Chrome browser. Where ordinarily an Apple user might be using its regular Safari, which is what comes built in. You have to switch to the Chrome browser in order to use these tools.
DIANE BRAUNER: Yes.
ROBIN SITTEN: Great. Thank you.
DIANE BRAUNER: And that brings up a really good question. These maps work on a computer, with JAWS, NVDA, Voiceover on the Mac. It worked beautifully with that. Ed, do you want to jump in about Chromebooks?
ED SUMMERS: OK. Yeah. So Chromebooks are computers, basically, that just basically the Chrome browser on them. And you can install and use SAS Graphics Accelerator there. We have tested occasionally and have not seen any problems. It's not something that we test every single release like we do with the Chrome on Windows and Mac. But if your students are using Chromebooks, then please give it a try. And if there's any problems, then you can always email us at accessibility@sas.com any issues that you're having.
ROBIN SITTEN: Thanks, Ed. And Katrina points out, makes a good point here in the chat as well, that the person that you're sending it to, the person who's receiving the map, needs to already know how to use the internet, access the internet independently. So that might be a lesson that has to take place before you can start using these shared maps.
There's a question from the Navajo Braille Connection. Does the accelerator only work if the map has already been edited for accessibility or could you use the accelerator on any Google Map?
ED SUMMERS: I'll take that one. This is Ed. You can use the accelerator with any map that you create in Google. And what you're going to see, what you're going to be able to-- map features you'll be able to explore using the non-visual access method within the accelerator are the points in the map. So as a map creator, you would need to go in and add individual points. And Diane has a number of posts on Paths to Technology and some best practices that she mentioned for doing that. And there's just a number of resources out there to provide some guidance on that.
ROBIN SITTEN: Diane, one thing, you addressed this, but I don't think all of the detail maybe came through for people who couldn't see what you were showing, when you show that non-visual map and you mentioned it doesn't-- it's not visually usable as a map. What it actually looks like is sort of almost like a radar blip screen. It's a plain black screen with points plotted on it as white dots. It's not the kind of thing you could give to a person to use visually as a map. And so that just might be interesting for those of you who weren't able to see that image. Any other questions? Have we lost you, Diane?
DIANE BRAUNER: No, I'm here.
ROBIN SITTEN: OK, great.
DIANE BRAUNER: See If there were any other questions come up.
ROBIN SITTEN: No, no, I'm just giving people some space. I just wasn't sure if we had lost you.
DIANE BRAUNER: Yes, no. OK. So I want to show the Summary page. And you can put this link if you would, Robin, into the chat.
ROBIN SITTEN: Yes, I will.
DIANE BRAUNER: So this is back to Paths to Technology. And there is a post on here called the SAS Graphics Accelerator Summary page. And on this page, I am adding posts all the time about these maps. This is brand new, exciting software. So we're just starting to understand how we can use it for classroom purposes and O&M purposes and remote instruction.
Definitely it works well for remote instruction. So on here on the Summary page, I keep adding-- as I write a post or somebody writes a post about the maps, I add it to this page. And also the post will go up under the Blog section or if it's O&M related, it'll go under the O&M section.
The actual maps will go in under the Map Library, and then the map will have, if there's a post associated with it, it will have that post listed below. By if you want to know more about how to create, how to get started with non-visual maps, how to create accessible digital maps using SAS Graphics Accelerator and Google Maps, best practices, I'm reading some of the topics, some of the titles of the posts that are out there, activities that build digital maps skills.
So if you're starting with a young student, the activities-- and I would strongly recommend this for O&Ms or any teacher that's going to be using these maps with young kids. Read that post first, because it explains the circle that you saw, the visual circle that's on the screen and how the cane, how you reach out with your cane and you can tap your cane against different objects that are in your reach of your circle. It makes a ton of sense if you read that post first and do those physical activities with students before you go into teaching how to use the non-visual digital map using the actual map itself.
There are lessons in here. We mentioned before the state capital. There is a whole lesson on what do you do. You open up the map, and here are the things that you're going to teach your student. Here are the commands to teach those pieces of it. I'll just go ahead and open that one just real quick, since we're talking about it. So this link goes to state capitals lesson on visual digital maps post. It talks a little bit about the tactile maps. It goes into the lesson.
It tells you, again, there's the link for the SAS Graphics Accelerator extension. It talks to you a little bit about, OK, now this is what you're going to do. When you hit the plus button, you're going to zoom in on a particular area. You're going to sweep your virtual cane. This is what you're going to find. And then it has you-- it guides you to look for certain things, ask certain questions. How do you use that map with a student?
Same thing looking at-- let's take a look at John's O&M lesson number one. So again, it talks about why we want to do this, about developing those mental map and orientation concepts. Then we're going to go look, slide down here, and it talks a little bit about a scenario.
The goal of the map. It's really, really important that you identify what your goal is with the map, what you're going to be teaching before you create your map. I could take create a map of every single point in Pittsboro, but it would be overwhelming for John, who has not used one of these maps before. So we start with a very simple map of his house and the little couple of blocks around downtown. And then we teach the skill of how to use the digital map, the couple of commands that you use to navigate, how do you move around, what it's like. And that's what this post is about. And it tells you, do this, teach this.
And it goes through and then the next lesson is John's O&M lesson number two. And then what is the goal of that lesson? And then that goes along with that. So these lessons are in here that you can take. You can choose to use this particular map of Pittsboro or you can make your own map of your student's town and do the same types of activities with the map of where your student actually lives.
So that's just kind of an overview of some of the posts that are out here on Paths to Technology. Again, you can come back to this Summary page. There are two webinars that are recorded that are posted here about creating accessible maps and how do you explore an accessible map. So one is learning how to create your own. One is learning how to use the software. What is that circle with those tags, those points on it?
So does anybody have any questions for me now? We have just a few more minutes for questions.
ROBIN SITTEN: There was a question posted to them while you were describing that, were making a personalized map for John as a starting place. And Leslie asked, so are you interested in people sharing maps with you even if they're for very specific local neighborhood?
DIANE BRAUNER: Absolutely. Even if it's a specific neighborhood, what I like about these neighborhood maps is every map is different. So in Pittsboro, we have a courthouse in the center of our town. So there's a circle around the courthouse. And we have very few-- there's two lights in Pittsboro. Does that tell you how big this one is? So your city or your neighborhood is going to have something different. Maybe you have a T intersection. Maybe you have whatever it is.
We can all use maps of other places to teach concepts with our students. So part of the goal of these maps is not only to teach the student about his particular neighborhood. Part of the goal is to teach the student how to develop mental maps. What do the streets tell you? Whole to part versus part to whole maps.
There's all kinds of other things. John's O&M lesson number two, learn about streets, it talks about grids and how streets are named and why is it east and west. All kinds of other information that your student can use even if it's not a map of his local town or local neighborhood.
ROBIN SITTEN: Thinks. That's really well said. Is there a connection with these digital maps for reproduction into a 3D model?
DIANE BRAUNER: So Ed, do you have any comments about that?
ED SUMMERS: Not at this time. That's an interesting avenue to pursue. We're in the infancy of access to non-visual digital maps without the need for tactile materials. And this technology is literally months old. And we have a lot of great features like this that have been suggested thus far, so keep them coming. And as they start to bubble to the top and we hear from you and your students the most pressing needs, we will prioritize those for future development.
ROBIN SITTEN: Thanks. That is a really interesting sort of natural next development of a place to go with enough schemes that you could make those.
DIANE BRAUNER: So I have to say that these maps were created originally, Ed, wouldn't you say they were created originally for adults that are using maps as they travel for business and for different reasons. As an educator, I've talked a lot with Ed over the years about how do we bring all of this stuff down to kid level, to elementary school, teaching those concepts early. We have to teach our technology concepts early in order for the students to be successful in mainstream classrooms.
This is another example of solving an issue. The issue is we use maps in mainstream classrooms, but they're not accessible in a digital format. Now we're learning that we can't always make tactile maps and get it to a student from remote instruction. We also know that it's not possible to take a tactile map of a university and have all the information that our students can easily find and can easily go through and interact with different pieces of the map. You can't do that with a tactile map. So there's things the digital maps can do very well once the student understands the concept.
When I teach, anytime I teach digitally, I always pair first with a tactile version. So if it's a map, if it's math, if it's a grid, I always use a tactile version, teach some of the concept first, and then apply it to the digital version and have a tactile representation of that same material to bridge that gap. So I like the thought of being able to do 3D maps from this. I just think there's lots and lots of possibilities. So give us some input on how you would use these maps for O&M lessons or with students or clients. Let me hear what your thoughts are.
ROBIN SITTEN: Go ahead, Ed. I'm sorry.
ED SUMMERS: Yeah, I just wanted to, before we leave that particular thought, I wanted to add on. So as a blind professional, I use these maps for lots of reasons. for quantitative analysis of data for business and scientific purposes as well as getting oriented to the next place that I'm going to travel either for a vacation, I'm going to the beach next week, or for business. And these maps give me a great independent access completely digital, super quick, can be shared globally. And that's great.
At the same time, I have a 3D printer, and I also have a tactile graphics printer. So if I'm not getting the level of detail that I need from a non-visual digital map, then I can quickly go use Touch Mapper or some other service to create a physical map that I can emboss or I can print on my 3D printer.
Now, there's a trade off for the actual extra acuity of those tactile maps or 3D model, 3D map. It takes time to print those. I have to go either out into the garage or to the lab in order to get access. It's physical stuff. It can't be shared instantly around the world. So these things complement each other, and it's not a either or. It's absolutely an and, A-N-D. They're better together when you use them in the right way. The right tool for the right job. Sorry Robin, I cut you off. Go ahead.
ROBIN SITTEN: No, not at all. I'm glad you said all of that. I was just going to share some of the comments and suggestions that people are putting into the chat. Jennifer, you started this conversation about the 3D printing, is just noting that often in O&M programs, the AT and the O&M are kind of handled separately. And she is advocating for including this level of technology and incorporating AT for O&M as part of an O&M's training program.
Patricia also notes you talk about college campus orientation. Certainly these kinds of maps could be used for orientation to a high school or certainly a new job. My addition I'm adding to your note.
Nicole has a question about the technology which has to do with the sound. And I'm just going to read. Her question is, can the sound be made more distinctive between what's in front of the student versus behind them? She says the volume is about 85% and sometimes it's hard to tell.
ED SUMMERS: Yeah, right. It can be. And that's something that we have discussed extensively when developing the technology. Nicole, I would encourage you to if your student or you are not using headphones, a decent pair of headphones, I would encourage you to use headphones, because that provides a great-- it just gives you better audio as opposed to speakers on your desk. People spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on 4K monitors and TV screens. Well, the same is true for the audio that we use. You can't get a $2 pair of earbuds and expect to get good sound out of those. It just doesn't work that way.
ROBIN SITTEN: If you buy $2 earbuds, you get $2.
ED SUMMERS: That's right. Now, the other thing I wanted to mention, and we haven't covered this very much, is that these maps in SAS Graphics Accelerater work with a video game controller, such as a Microsoft Xbox controller. You can get them for about $50 online. They plug into your Windows computer or your Mac just using a USB cable or connect via Bluetooth.
And those controllers have thumb sticks. And thumb sticks are like little joysticks that swing around at 360 degrees. And they provide a tactile way of driving your virtual cane within the map. And we're a little bit beyond what we've represented in this webinar thus far, but essentially the way that a blind student or client would explore the non-visual map is using a virtual cane that they can swing around 360 degrees just like a physical cane. Well, the game controller provides a tactile way of doing that. And it's very intuitive.
So all these questions about what's in the front, what's in the rear, exactly how far is that off to the right, are just completely resolved by being able to feel physically and control that thumb stick or the virtual cane via the thumb stick. And oh, by the way, that aligns with the spatial audio that you're hearing in your good earbuds. And that helps you train your ear to hear the subtleties within the sound.
ROBIN SITTEN: The group from Navajo Braille is commenting, I know that the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco, Blind Ambition, had a winner who was going to develop travel for the blind. Would be interesting to know more about that.
ED SUMMERS: Great, yeah.
ROBIN SITTEN: Shawnee State has a top notch video game production center, says Jennifer. We should talk more about using the maps and the Xbox together.
ED SUMMERS: That would be great.
ROBIN SITTEN: Yeah. Kate's been exploring the maps with JAWS. She says thank you for the innovation. And everybody, let's get to making maps. Oh, thank you. Jim is sharing the article about the student innovation tool that he mentioned from USF. Thank you.
DIANE BRAUNER: Great.
ROBIN SITTEN: And those of you who are attending a lot of Zoom calls these days, as many of us are, may have discovered that you can save the group chat. You can actually make that a setting on your own account that it will automatically save chat. But you can also save the chat before you go. So we have pasted some of the links in there that we've been talking about, but you'll also find them on that Summary page. And we'll have some of those-- we'll link to the Summary page on our page and certainly on Paths to Technology. It's a great portal to getting to all of this.
DIANE BRAUNER: Great So I see that it's just after 2:00.
ROBIN SITTEN: Yeah, good job, Diane.
DIANE BRAUNER: Good timing, huh? OK. If there's any other questions, if we didn't get to it today, feel free to send me an email. You can always reach me through Paths to Technology if you don't have my email direct. I'd love to hear from you, and I'm hoping you'll make maps and share it with us.
ROBIN SITTEN: Well, thank you. Thank you, Diane and Ed, not just for this presentation but for this project in general. I think it is the start of something very big. Also just want to thank all of you, as always, for spending time with us. Thanks to Texas Caption who joins us every month. And on behalf of Perkins eLearning program, we will see you next time. Take care.