Development of Programming Education Environment Using Ontenna in Deaf School

<p>The manufacturing domain based on digital fabrication has attracted significant attention to create a diverse society. It has made it possible to realize “manufacturing for each individual and products for people close to them, ” which has been difficult toachieve with conventional mass products. Ontenna is an accessorydevice that provides a tactile and visual feedback of various sound information to the user. A condenser microphone mounted on the main body of Ontenna acquires the sound pressure and drives the vibration motor and light emitting diode in real-time according to the input signal. At present, 88 out of 102 schools belonging to the National Association of School Principals for the Deaf have installed the system. It is currently used for speech and rhythm education. We have developed a system that can change the color of the LEDs and the strength of the motor in Ontenna through programming. Additionally, we have made the system freely available to schools for the deaf and other educational institutions. We created an environment where children with hearing-impairment can overcome the obstacles they face at school by programming Ontenna themselves. In this study, we describe the development of the Ontenna programming function and our instructional plan created with teachers at a school for the deaf. We report the educational content (such as class slides and worksheets) that weredeveloped based on the plan. Finally, we present the results of the questionnaire survey and the experience diary conducted for schools that have implemented the Ontenna programming education environment. The results of the survey confirmed the advantages of Ontenna programming for education and its potential application to various other educational institutions.</p>