Thanks Joanne, I have been doing some of these things, especially the mental mapping exercises, but the apps you mentioned sound great, and I'll start exploring them. I was hoping to have students come to my neighborhood, or that I could possibly go to them outside of the Center; however, my supervisor, and the Deputy Director feel that there is a need for all concerned to avoid the potential exposure on public transportation at this point. I have been giving my students assignments based on their skill level, but without the ability to monitor their travel directly this is both a concerning, and sometimes frustrating effort. Today I assigned two students to travel together for a distance of five blocks, to explore both sides of our main street, and it turned out that they only traveled two blocks before turning around and going back to the apartments. There was no real reason given, other than that was all they did, and they didn't know where the street was that I asked them to walk to before turning around. Of course, this was nothing but a lame excuse for not completing the assignment. So, I will try again tomorrow. Of course, many of the downtown businesses are closed anyway, and that makes it harder to figure out whether they are actually completing assignments anyway. On the other hand, I know that some of my students are following directions very well, and making every effort to complete their assignments, so there is that. I have also spoken with a student that has gone home for the time being, and she lives in a very rural area. So, we discussed different ways of handling non-visual travel over open fields and on country roads. She seemed to get quite a bit out of this, and I felt like she really would benefit. A lot of this is going to be a matter of adjusting to this new teaching environment, and not allowing myself to get overly frustrated when things don't go as I would wish. Thanks again for the ideas. Thanks, Jeff From: Joanne Gabias [mailto:jklgabias at hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, March 23, 2020 3:11 PM To: Merry-Noel; Deb & Jeff Altman; nomc at lists.nbpcb.org Cc: greg.dewall at nebraska.gov Subject: Re: [Nomc] Loking for good approaches for working at home Hello everyone, Thank you Merry-Noel for your comments along with everyone else who has commented. For some reason, responses were going to my junk mail so I just saw these. Jeff, we have done about a week of virtual training at this point. Some of the O&Ms are still doing some one on one instruction while practicing social distancing protocol. Some of our students went back to their respective homes so that is not possible. We have been testing different apps like Moovit, Blindsquare, Transit apps, Google maps. For example, you can use Blindsquare to explore a brand new areas. My dad did that with my new condo and was able to explore everything around my house and could tell my mom about things around my house that she didn't even know was there. My mom had been here and he had not but he became more informed through Blindsquare. I really like Merry-Noel's suggestions of going through routes verbally and working on their mental maps. I have also had students look up a random store like CVS and find 3 different locations around town. They needed to find the address and plan out routes from either their home or from the center. Trying to do as much theoretical things as possible. These apps are also good for instructors to explore the neighborhoods of their students and try and create routes around their student's neighborhoods. I think this is good for students that you know well enough to know that they have the problem solving skills to navigate through things the instructor did not anticipate along the route. I wouldn't do that for students who have not learned all the foundational skills yet or for students that get easily turned around because it would be harder for the instructor to help them problem solve in unfamiliar areas for both the student and the instructor over the phone. I hope these thoughts help your creative juices flow! Joanne Gabias, M.A., NOMC, NCUEB, NCRTB Statewide Operation Manager SAAVI Services for the Blind _____ From: NOMC <nomc-bounces at lists.nbpcb.org> on behalf of Merry-Noel <owinm at yahoo.com> Sent: March 19, 2020 3:30 PM To: Deb & Jeff Altman <debandjeff at allophone.com>; nomc at lists.nbpcb.org <nomc at lists.nbpcb.org> Cc: greg.dewall at nebraska.gov <greg.dewall at nebraska.gov> Subject: Re: [Nomc] Loking for good approaches for working at home Jeff, Work on mental mapping skills. Have them review routes you know they went on. Discuss possible scenarios such as, what if they heard a vehicle on their right instead of their left? Ask them to describe what encounters they have when walking to the bus stop from the apartments. What do they hear, feel? Over the phone, have them do a route in their head- for example, " You walk out of the apartment building and turn right. You walk to the end of the block and turn right then you walk the entire block. At the corner you turn left and cross the street. Then you turn right. Which direction are you facing? What street are you facing? Which street did you just cross?" I'm sure you can come up with other scenarios. Read some articles from Kernal Books, the Braille monitor or Future Reflections and discuss them. Dr. Merry-Noel Chamberlain Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone <https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/?.src=iOS> On Thursday, March 19, 2020, 4:13 PM, Deb & Jeff Altman <debandjeff at allophone.com> wrote: Hello Everyone, Our agency is encouraging staff to work from home for the next couple of weeks or so, and with teaching O&M, that requires quite a bit of creativity. I have been calling students and giving them some basic assignments, and then checking back with them later to see how things have gone, but of course, this has its limits. My supervisor Greg has suggested working with them over the phone on some of the way finding apps, such as Goodle Maps and the like, which I can certainly do; although this is not where I usually focus. So, I'm wondering if any of you have some creative ideas you could share? I know that Joanne has asked this same question, and a few of you have responded, but I'm hoping there may be even more ideas being generated as we all begin shifting to this new mode of teaching. Thanks, Jeff _______________________________________________ NOMC mailing list NOMC at lists.nbpcb.org http://lists.nbpcb.org/listinfo.cgi/nomc-nbpcb.org