At the curriculum director's suggestion, the Vigo County School Corporation today has about 35 of these devices, as well as 23 Timekettle ear buds, more sophisticated devices that provide translations in real time.
They enable teachers and administrators to converse effectively with parents and students alike. They're used frequently with new families wanting to register a student for school whose English speaking abilities are spotty or nonexistent.
Brosmer and Abigail Grose, the English language coach and teacher of record for the Vigo County School Corporation, demonstrated how the device works. It has a small screen — on the left is a button indicating English, on the right is a button that can be toggled to select a language to translate.
Grose's husband Timothy is a professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; they have spent years in China, so she's fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
"Good morning, welcome to our school. How can I help you?" Brosmer asked. The device provided an audio translation.
"That's perfect," Grose said of the device's translation, adding, "It also does a very good job with slang."
She responded in Chinese, and the device answered, "Hello. This is kindergarten registration."
"We are keeping these at the front desk," Brosmer said. "Most of our schools have them."
"When parents are doing a task as monumental as enrolling your child in school for the first time, it's reassuring to make sure you understand everything and that parents and teachers and administrators are on the same page," Grose said. "This helps us to welcome families and reassure them that we're doing the best for their child and we're there to help."
Timekettle ear buds, on the other hand, are "more for academic use," she added. "Someone during a lesson, it can translate in real time some of that academic language." The teacher uses one, the student uses the other.
"They provide a complex academic vocabulary," Grose said. "It helps students with lengthy assignments."
The devices are capable of speaking 130 different languages, though they may have to be connected to the web to access some of them. They serve 217 English language learners at various stages of proficiency throughout the school system.
Parents need to use the devices more than students, Grose said.
"Students are immersed in English all day, they're getting lots of input," she said. Students can use them as long as they need, but are eventually weened off the devices.
"We have that scaffolding and we provide it to them," Grose said.
Given their usefulness and effectiveness, the devices are veritable bargains. The speaking device costs around $170, while the TimeKettle ear buds go for $249.99.
After borrowing devices from the School Corporation, the Vigo County Health Department was so pleased with their performance that it purchased six of its own, reported Shelby Jackson, the department's health educator. They're used both in the clinic and on field inspections.
Libby O'Pell, a nurse with the Vigo County Health Department, said the language translation device is "really a bargain for us. It's an excellent tool." The Health Department has translated languages from Ukrainian to Jamaican Creole.
O'Pell said the devices are helpful in updating children's vaccine information.
"It's an excellent usage — parents are very pleased that they can do that," she said.
Brosmer said she was happy to share the device with other local governmental departments.
She said, "It's nice to branch out and show this is a community."
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