시각장애 특수학교 컴퓨터 교육 실태에 관한 연구

Abstract

This qualitative study was designed to investigate the actual conditions of computer education in schools for the blind by closely looking at educational environments, teaching methods, and educational contents, and to suggest improvements in computer education. To accomplish this goal, semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted by telephone with 12 candidates, all of whom were computer teachers in 12 different schools for the blind in Korea. The results of this study could be summarized as follows: First, most of the teachers admitted that physical environments for computer education were satisfactory. However, too many students were put in one class and each student's computer skill was vary, which made it nearly impossible for the teachers to provide appropriate education for all the students. Assistant teachers were not placed in 7 schools, while most teachers were in dire need of them. Second, in choosing computer educational curriculum, participants fell into two categories: one chose educational curriculum based on the textbooks that were being used in the regular schools, and then made a slight change, while the other chose educational curriculum based on their prior experiences in teaching computer to the students with blindness. There was almost no difference in educational curriculum between regular schools and blind schools, but only minor changes were made on the curriculum unless it was applicable to the students with blindness. Third, teachers tried to provide every student with the best possible education according to their computer skills as long as it allowed. Teachers gave individual tasks or free time to computer literacy, had a hard time teaching students with elementary computer skill, and taught simple tasks or played some music to students with multiple disabilities. Finally, teachers had been encountered with several problems in computer education; they had to teach too many students with different computer skill in one classroom, had a hard time choosing proper computer educational contents, and did not have enough time to prepare for class due to busy school chores. In addition, the sighted teachers had difficulty in understanding the students with blindness or screen reading software, whereas the teachers with blindness, not knowing what's on the screen, had difficulty in teaching students with low vision graphic information on a computer screen. By the results of this study, guidelines and detailed strategies to improve computer education in the blind schools were proposed and discussed.