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Education Week article on accessible math content

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From: Stephen L Noble
Date: Oct 21, 2008 10:00AM

FYI...apologies for multiple postings

There's an article coming out in tomorrow's print edition of Education Week about a research study involving middle school math students with learning disabilities who are using digital math content. The article also touches on the larger issue making math textbooks accessible to students with print disabilities by publishers using NIMAS plus MathML, The article is already available online. Here's a reposting of the article on the Kentucky School Boards Association website:
http://www.ksba.org/news/article/math-study-evaluates-digital-aids

The National Science Foundation also published something about this project in the October 2008 issue of the "NSF Current" newsletter, although it is very brief. It appears as the number 2 spot on the first page of the newsletter. You can see it on the web, either as HTML or PDF at the link below:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsletter/

The SMART Project is a scientifically-based research project looking at using NIMAS+MathML textbook files (in this case produced by Pearson Prentice Hall) used to produce student-ready versions for 8th grade math students. Results from the first year pilot (last school year) pointed to very encouraging student outcomes. This school year is the second year of the two year study. An abstract of the project is available on the University of Kentucky website:
http://www.ihdi.uky.edu/ilssa/projects/smart.asp

--Steve Noble
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502-969-3088