Introducing Echolocation into O&M University Courses for Professionals

The echolocation package was one part of the course and comprised four lectures including theory and practice. The echolocation package was executed over two days. In order to learn about echolocation, the theory was combined with practical echolocation exercises (Lawson & Wiener, 2010). There were 13 of 15 students participating in the echolocation training.

After echolocation practice the students received an evaluation form enquiring about their experiences during the exercises. All 13 students responded, of which only four were earlier acquainted with echolocation. The nine students who had not developed echolocation skills earlier had learned to identify walls, distances to walls, beginnings and endings of walls, openings, variations in ceiling heights, stairs, and create their own mental images of the rooms. Only one student did not learn to echolocate. One of the earlier skilled students did learn to identify a fence and a stair by auditorily discriminating between the echo sounds emanating from the each object.

The students reported some important strategies used when learning to echolocate and included, first, not being afraid of making their own sounds and using various sound sources such as feet stamping, tongue clicking, and finger snapping. Second, several students also found it useful not being able to see because of the blindfold, and being guided through the practice by a skilled teacher. Third, recurrent training was useful as well as the ability to concentrate and listen to the sound-type of the echo and the direction from which it travelled. Finally, to learn echolocation skills time is required and a calm approach, as well as repetition of each exercise to reinforce learning.

One month later the students received a 12 track CD of material. Tracks 1 – 7 were recorded with a Tascam Hd-P2 and a stereo microphone Soundman okm marc 2, and a stereo-head worn on the head by the recording person. Tracks 8-12 were recorded with an interview recorder Olympic DM550 with an inbuilt stereo microphone. The aim of the CD was to examine if it was possible for the students to recognise the echolocation shadows from a variety of objects at various distances. Specifically, the CD included the following: (i) Track 1: echo shadows in a home environment where benches, corners, walls, closed doors, and a bush was evident (ii) Track 2: Kitchen recording of echo’s reflected off a wall, cupboard, and corners (iii) Track 3: A man moves and turns around in a kitchen. The listener needed to identify the man’s positions and movements according to the echo shadows (iv) Track 4: Echo shadows in a bedroom that contained a bed, many books, and a closed window (v) Track 5: A vocalised ‘S’ was given at the same time the person was ascending and descending. The students were required to identify the various changes in height according to the change of position. (vi) Track 6: Three different positions were recorded while a person talked, standing, knelt, and lay. Positions were to be detected by matching the echo shadows with the position (vii) Track 7: Footpath walking was recorded. The sounds of birds, the wind, an airplane, a moped, a traffic light, and a tunnel were also heard (viii) Track 8: The university corridor echo shadows were described by the recorder (ix) Track 9: The same recordings as in Track 8 but without the explanation about the echo shadows (x) Track 10: Echo shadows from a fence were made by foot stamping, hissing, smacking, and clicking (xi) Track 11: The skilled echolocator vocalises letter ‘S’ which makes it possible for skilled echolocators to hear a half of a centimetre edge of a flat, plain wall (xii) Track 12: Daniel Kish (2003), an expert in echolocation, demonstrates a variety of ways to make clicks useful for echolocating.

The students received a questionnaire that asked about echolocation shadows on each track on the CD in an attempt to identify what the students perceived and understood of the training material. Only six of 15 students answered the questionnaire. The reasons for the small response might be that the CD exercise was complicated and/or the questionnaire was voluntary.

The six students reported to hear echo shadows off the walls, ceilings, and corners. When comments were made on a track, echo shadows became much easier to detect. However, students experienced some difficulties concentrating and differentiating between the various sounds. For example, students reported not hearing sounds from objects close to the ground like benches, as well as distant sounds.

Interestingly, the student’s echolocation experiences in practice were similar when listening to the CD. Further, echolocation from objects in the corridor familiar to the students were no longer heard when the echolocator talked on the CD.

The six students reported that the echo shadows from objects recorded on the CD were difficult to consistently identify. The easiest echolocation track to identify was track seven characterised by an outdoor promenade without talk but with a lot of clues although few echolocation possibilities. Though the students had listened to the tracks many times they still had challenges identifying the echolocation tasks. Most students preferred the outdoor recordings where it was easier to identify echo shadows from objects.

All students thought it should be worthwhile to have recorded material when learning echolocation. However, the recording needs to be more structured with a pedagogically developed strategy.

It appears possible for unskilled echolocators to learn basic echolocation skills. The students and teachers had positive experiences integrating echolocation skills into the O&M course. Students’ seemed to have developed their echolocation skills enormously within a short period of time. Students also integrated echolocation in their case studies, which was one of the examinations at the course. The author’s believe that after the course students’ were capable of teaching echolocation skills to people who are blind or vision impaired.

Important prerequisites for the students learning echolocation skills were the practical exercises. Also the skilled echolocator was useful as a guide and teacher when learning echolocation skills.

The CD was useful but too complicated and unstructured. This learning tool needs a great deal of refinement. There is also a need for more sophisticated recording equipment to record echolocation tasks. A video/DVD might also help introducing the skills of echolocation.

When teaching echolocation skills to people who are blind or vision impaired there needs to be discussion and reflection on the concepts and processes of echolocation. Hence, there seems to be a need within the O&M profession to develop a comprehensible language for describing echolocation phenomena. By applying “dialogical pedagogy” where the concepts are discussed between the O&M professional and client, new ideas and applications of echolocation for the client will emerge.

The authors recommend that echolocation theory and practice be integrated in O&M courses for professionals internationally.