Assignment - Assistive Technology for Visual and Hearning Impairments

- Assistive Technology for Visual and Hearning Impairments - Assignment Example In addition, these devices are enabling students with such low-incidence disabilities thrive academically and contribute a great deal to their communities, despite any setbacks that they encounter. Teachers today are wise to learn about such devices and become an agent for helping students properly apply the technology to their daily personal and academic lives. What follows is a description and evaluation of several such devices that are currently available and in use today. It is estimated that 24 million Americans suffer from some degree of hearing loss. For students, this can be particularly troubling because, if proper modifications are not implemented, such individuals are placed at an academic disadvantage. It is important to use modern technology to assist students in leveling the ‘playing field’ as much as possible. According to research, students who are hearing impaired can exhibit a low self-esteem, lose interest in many learning activities, fail to participa te in social activities, and often have poor communication skills (DeConde-Johnson & Thibodeu, 2005). As such, looking incorporating assistive technology devices that help hearing impaired students perform better in school and become more sociable with their peers can only serve to benefit the entire academic community. While there are many such devices on the market today, three particularly stand out for their effectiveness, even in the face of certain inherent challenges that must be overcome. ASL software is a readily available program that can be used on either a PC Windows operating system, or on a Macintosh. This software allows students to learn advanced sign language skills in an interactive environment, thereby allowing them to communicate more opening and freely with their peers and other adults. In essence, the program promotes literacy skills for the hearing impaired student in much the same fashion as phonics does for the non-disabled individual. This assistive technol ogy device can be easily implemented into a traditional classroom setting. In addition, students can use the software independently at home or in other locations. The benefits are many, and the challenges minimal. One hurdle for the software is that the teacher will likely need to have some basic knowledge of sign language in order to assist the student in learning how to make full use of the program. That being said, such knowledge can only serve to strengthen the student/teacher relationship, which in the end should prove beneficial itself. ACL software requires only 3-4 hours of training time for the student learn how to make proper use of it, and the IT department at any school should be able to assist with its installation. Such devices and software can be used to enhance math skills, promote literacy and spelling, focus on the advancement of sign language, improve visual perception, and strengthen memory skills. From this evaluation, the software should be considered in any en vironment where there is a hearing impaired student. The cost is minimal, with most packages running only about $35. Another device designed to help hearing-impaired student is the speech synthesizer. Depending on the age of onset for the disability, many hearing impaired students cannot communicate verbally. They do not know how to make certain sounds and cannot hear what they are saying. A speech synthesizer enables the student to type out information that they wish to say and

Amadeus the Film Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Amadeus the Film - Movie Review Example The atrocities of the royal couple in France are well - known. Marie apparently influenced Joseph to keep a strict control on any art and culture developments in Austria, which might turn subversive. These facts seep casually into the narrative through Joseph II's dialogues. An otherwise liberal man, Joseph had an Italian triumvirate to advise him on 'proper' entertainment. Salieri was part of this trio. The handful of musicians and artists who enjoyed royal patronage stayed on the right side of royalty and composed pieces in Italian that very few understood, eschewed ballet as debauched and favored themes that would offend no one and cause no one to think. The film shows this beautifully, through skillfully chosen characters, their pompous stance and carefully cultivated expressions. It was in this atmosphere that Wolfgang arrived in Vienna, freshly banished by the Archbishop at Salzburg. Unrepentant and arrogant, he did not believe he had any rivals. He was simply the best while others composed rubbish. Mozart is the polar opposite of a serious composer. The audacious Amadeus and his artless wife giggled their way through mindless entertainment, were very bad debtors and yet had a strange dignity about them; there was self belief and belief in each other. Constanza took in her stride her husband's lack of practical sense, gently coaxed and cajoled him into doing things to earn money, was ready to trade her body for a night to buy him a tutorship to royalty, but was impractical enough to estrange a concerned and well-heeled father in law. Of course, the movie has taken liberties with facts, for instance, Mozart's sister Nannerl, who was actually quite an influence on him is completely done away with, as are the many children that Mozart and Constanza had. Retain ing them in the story would have underscored the pathos of his isolation and gradual slide into drunken desperation. However, none of this prevents him from composing brilliantly. One of his first commissions was to write the score for an opera - a Turkish folk story set in a harem (Mozart's choice of subject) in German (the emperor's choice of language). The turca-allegro form uses sopranos for the fun element and a heavily textured orchestra. This was the first of many deviations that Mozart would insist on. The film, which opens with one of his famous tutti with a signature tremolo and a heavy orchestra scores, is peppered with snatches of his work -the conventional chamber music to entertain the royal family, writing Masses and so on. They are rightly not mentioned prominently because of their huge numbers; but they are representative of Mozart's style of playing upon a single note or phrase before launching into symphony. The movie gives music lovers and aficionados a delicious slice of the music of the classical era through Mozart's pieces. Both the sonata allegro and the sonata rondo are in evidence. The Marriage of Figaro is trademark Mozart - rich in notes, too much for the untutored Viennese public to take. The emperor famously remarked that it had too many notes to which Mozart had made the equally famous reply that it had not one note too many and had gone on to audaciously ask -which would you have me remove, superbly establishing himself as the master of his craft . Figaro, with it risqu Italian intrigue was originally rejected as subject (apparently it had caused unrest against the royalty in France) but later allowed. The same fate met the ballet in the marriage