28 Dec 2014
Technology helps blind kids 'see' stars
ARTURO PELAYO: "It proves that, regardless of where you are and who you are, you can be enabled by technology to make your life experience better."
An innovative Kiwi is about to teach astronomy to blind students with the help of 3D printer technology. It will be a first for New Zealand's education system with a pilot programme set to launch next year.
Designer and entrepreneur Arturo Pelayo is the brains behind Tactile Astronomy, a programme that aims to use technology to help teach blind students.
He says there is potential to improve the quality of what can be achieved from 3D printing.
At the moment things such as toys and hearing aids are printed using the technology.
But, as costs decrease and printers become more accessible, there are greater options for serving those at a disadvantage when it comes to learning.
The pilot programme will be carried out at the Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand (BLENNZ) Homai Campus in south Auckland.
The project has backing from the Blind Foundation and Auckland-based 3D printing business Vivenda.
Pelayo says Tactile Astronomy will give teachers and students a new way of learning. "It's about equality as much as possibility . . . It proves that, regardless of where you are and who you are, you can be enabled by technology to make your life experience better."
The technology is already being used in places like museums to print replicas of fragile and precious exhibits and there is further opportunity for 3D printing to be used in the education system, he says.
All that is needed is a printer and an internet connection.
The technology can be used across different science and art subjects to better explain concepts to all students but especially those without vision, Pelayo says.
Astronomy made sense when it came to choosing a subject for the pilot.
"How do you explain a galaxy or an eclipse or the Big Bang?"
Tactile Astronomy will print the objects for learning from new designs as well as existing public libraries such as those from the European Space Agency and Nasa, Pelayo says.
The programme will include a 3D printable lesson plan with scale models of satellites, rovers, comets, asteroids, tiles of the surface of Mars and the moon.
Pelayo says the idea is to put New Zealand at the forefront of using the technology for innovative and socially rewarding projects.
At the moment New Zealand is catching up when it comes to using 3D printing technology, he says.
"We shouldn't always be catching up."
At the moment some New Zealand schools have invested in 3D printers, but hopefully by the time students in the pilot programme leave school the technology will be cheap enough they will be able to afford their own 3D printer and continue their learning without the school's resources, he says.
Pelayo says the programme shows what could be done in a New Zealand classrooms - using the internet - with designs captured from outer space.
"Tactile Astronomy is an exploration of how 3D printing can augment learning."
Pelayo hopes to launch the programme in 2015 but is still in the process of securing the $12,500 needed to run the pilot programme. LAURA WALTERS
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