This issue was edited by Marion Blazé, Education Officer, Statewide Vision Resource Centre. Deb is doing well but now has a cold!
All activities offered by the SVRC are open to class and subject teachers,
integration teachers and aides, careers teachers, therapists, parents VTs, students
etc. Please register:
tel (03) 9841 0242, fax (03) 9841 0878 or email svrc@svrc.vic.edu.au
For the complete list of activities for 2006 and downloadable programs for all of the listed activities for the rest of the year, go to: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/pd2006.htm
As you know, there is an acute shortage of qualified Visiting Teachers for the Vision Impaired throughout Victoria. No new teachers specialising in Vision Impairment have graduated since the demise of the course run by Gayle Lamb at Deakin University (Burwood Campus) well over 10 years ago. A large proportion of our staff is fast reaching retirement age.
Opportunities have recently arisen that could address this problem, and they come as a package.
1. Deakin University, who currently offer a course in Special Education, are negotiating to offer two electives in 2007 that can be done as Vision Impairment specific subjects, focussing on the Professional Development activities run through the Statewide Vision Resource Centre. Two of their core subjects can have a Vision Impairment specialisation. To graduate from the one-year full time (or equivalent) course, eight subjects in total must be studied.
2. A DE&T initiative has been announced by Darryl Fraser detailing 6 ways that the DE&T is encouraging retraining of staff for difficult-to-fill and rural vacancies:
Saturday, September 2, 2006 at SVRC. Geoff will be covering a very important topic for families of our students. Tell parents who have never been to these meetings before, that this is a very friendly group. Annette and I are always there and baby sitting is provided for littlies, so parents can be free to listen and discuss issues. If families are at all reluctant to come, suggest that you’ll come too. The more, the merrier!
Topic: Siblings and Disability
Speaker: Geoff Bowen, Educational Psychologist with the Statewide Vision Resource
Centre, will explore the affects disability can have on siblings and how to
minimize the impact.
Stay for afternoon tea and a chat after Geoff’s talk.
For more information call Annette Godfrey-Magee or Marion Blazé on (03)
9841 0807.
John and Judy Bowen: (03) 9842 5103 or Leigh Heaven: (03) 9857 0152 or (03)
9878 4477
attended by Marion Blazé – Leader Newspapers July 18
How do you get positive news coverage for your school or service? This was the
topic in the minds of participants at this half-day workshop provided for Eastern
Region personnel.
Some top tips I heard were:
Google has released Accessible
Search http://labs.google.com/accessible/, a Google Labs product aiming
to rank higher pages which are optimized for blind users. Basically it brings
pages with better design, no flash graphics and less tables to the top of the
list plus gives a few minor changes to the search page itself, like less useless
junk and no ads.
Thanks to Lea Nagels’ network for alerting us to this info.
Technology is overcoming the tyranny of distance to give deaf and blind children
in rural and regional Australia new skills and new hope. An article in The Australian,
July 18, 2006, outlines how video conferencing, teleconferencing and regular
care packages are allowing specialists at the Royal Institute for the Deaf and
Blind (Sydney) to reach out to disabled children across the country. For the
full article, go to: www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19825581-2702,00.html
Thanks to Mike Steer for sending this our way.
A new division of Guide Dogs Victoria, the Centre for Vision Independence,
was launched recently to help people with Low Vision regain their independence
and confidence. The Centre can give free advice on services and devices to help
and how to find these. It is located a ‘short walk’ from the Royal
Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne and their number is 03 9639 4401.
Department travel costs??
Excerpt from ‘Visions & Realisations’ – History of the
Victorian Education Department
“Some men in charge of large areas faced travel difficulties. The Western
District officer, whose diary for July 1878 disclosed his mode of transport
to be a buggy and pair, learnt that he must be content with one horse or travel
by horseback. When confronted with his costs of twelve shillings for accommodation
and five shillings for horse-feed during a one night stop at the Hermitage Hotel,
Harrow, officialdom frowned and replied that ‘the Department cannot continue
to allow expenses at this rate’.”
Some things never change! Thanks to Geoff Bowen for this excerpt.
Excerpt from ‘Visions & Realisations’ – History of the
Victorian Education Department
“Some men in charge of large areas faced travel difficulties. The Western
District officer, whose diary for July 1878 disclosed his mode of transport
to be a buggy and pair, learnt that he must be content with one horse or travel
by horseback. When confronted with his costs of twelve shillings for accommodation
and five shillings for horse-feed during a one night stop at the Hermitage Hotel,
Harrow, officialdom frowned and replied that ‘the Department cannot continue
to allow expenses at this rate’.”
Some things never change! Thanks to Geoff Bowen for this excerpt.
Open days are coming! If you were buying a car, wouldn’t you check it out first? Considering the cost and time spent on post-school education, it is sensible to check that out, too. Dates coming up are:
How to get the most out of Open Days
Thanks to the Koonung Secondary School newsletter for this useful information.
Most universities have Open Day Programs. These are probably available from careers teachers but are also on the web, eg www.latrobe.edu.au/openday. Get a copy beforehand so you can plan.
Some of you may remember Dolly Bhargava, a Speech pathologist who specialises in communication for severely multiply disabled kids, who spoke at the Melbourne SPEVI conference. Well she, along with Mike Steer, have contributed to some very useful looking handbooks available on line. Look at http://www.trinity.edu/org/sensoryimpairments/
A new device from Haines Educational will capture microscope images to your computer and allow you to magnify them and add your own information. At the cost of $209 it could be just the thing for some of our science students. We’ll see if it can be demonstrated at our Expo. Thanks to Lee Clarke for this info.
There is a new web based brand of educational products which might be useful
for our students. Brita-fun make BIG toys like giant chess sets, balls, dice
(and I mean big!). You can see their catalogue on line at www.britafun.com.au
or call 1300 369 527.
Thanks Jeni Blake for passing this on.
For those of you with students applying for the Special Entry Access Schemes
(SEAS) the dates are below. This is an online application process and it was
quite involved for those who applied for it last year. If you have a student
who wishes to apply for special entry to a tertiary course it may be worth a
visit to the VTAC site to familarise yourself with the process. The link is
http://www.vtac.edu.au/seas/index.html
Important Dates for VCE Students
Applications for entry into tertiary courses 2007
Opens 9am Monday 31 July
Closes for Timely applications 5pm Friday 29 September
Closes for Late applications 5pm Friday 10 November
Closes for Very late applications 5pm Friday 8 December
Applications for Special Entry Access Schemes (SEAS)
Opens 9am Monday 7 August
Closes 5pm Friday 6 October
Please email Lyn if you have any questions. Lyn Robinson can be contacted at
the Statewide Vision Resource Centre on (03) 9841 0242 or by emailing
lynrobin@svrc.vic.edu.au
This year’s driving camp will be held at the Charlton driver education
centre on Thursday the 30th November to Friday the 1st of December. Only 9 places
are available. Please register your interest ASAP so that organisation can be
done before the exam period. Email is preferred:
Helen Caldow
PO Box 201, Nunawading 3131, Tel (0409 381 723, Fax (03) 9841 0878
Email caldow.helen.f@edumail.vic.gov.au
Mobile 0409 381 723
This is a cute little light which would be great for inside lockers. It runs on batteries, uses three extra-bright LEDs (which take hardly any power) and is turned on and off with just a push. Comes in many groovy colours. It retails for between $10 and $15, including batteries. To have a look go to the Osram/Sylvania website. www.sylvania.com and look for ‘Dotitlights’.
Engineering students at John Hopkins have invented a low cost alternative to the Perkins Brailler. Their goal was to make something which could be sold for less than $50. Apparently it is not quite in production yet, but we look forward to the day that it is. Thank you, Mike Steer for this info.
Thanks to Lyn Robinson, Mike Steer, Lea Nagel, Jeni Blake, Helen Caldow, Geoff
Bowen, Lee Clarke, Dolly Bhargava, and the Koonung newsletter for contributing
to this edition of The Bulletin. Perhaps the list would have been shorter if
I’d named the people who didn’t contribute! Thanks also to our fabulous
proof-readers, technology trouble-shooters, stuffers and mailers. And to Lyn
Robinson and Lea Nagel for getting the electronic versions out there.
If you have something you would like included in ‘The Bulletin’,
please contact:
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed
at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).