Contact: Maridith Geuder
Voice-conferencing software recently purchased by Mississippi State is allowing university students with vision impairments to participate in online learning opportunities.
Enabling students to hear their instructors and classroom peers via online chat rooms, iVocalize was acquired by MSU's Division of Continuing Education in collaboration with the on-campus Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision.
The new online environment, which the division has named "iDeclare," is helping allay a fear that the traditional classroom becomes lost in Internet courses, said Laura Crittenden, manager of credit studies.
"With the advent of voice technology, instructors and students will have one more tool to help them develop more nurturing and positive relationships with each other," she said. Instructions for online access are available at http://www.distance.msstate.edu/ideclare, she added.
Frank Puckett, a faculty member using the software this semester, describes it as "very accommodating to people with visual disabilities." An associate clinical professor in the department of counselor education, educational psychology and social work, he works with the RRTC.
"I'm using it frequently for conferencing with the American Foundation for the Blind," Puckett said.
Teaching online courses exclusively, Puckett uses iVocalize in a course on the medical aspects of disability. "The software promotes class discussion and enhances review of the material," he said.
To use iVocalize software, instructors and students must have a Windows Media Player 9 and a microphone. The equipment also enables students who miss a chat session to record it for later review or re-visit chat sessions for study purposes.
Providing technical assistance in the new effort are Franklin Johnson, RRTC access technology specialist, and Jason Crittenden, technical assistant for the continuing education division.
For more information about the iVocalize software or about distance learning at MSU, telephone Crittenden at (662) 325-2677.