Former Liberated Learning Partners:
University of Kentucky, Kentucky, USA
Overview:
Although captioning is widely used by the broadcast industry as a method of presenting verbal material to individuals who are deaf or Hard of Hearing (HOH), sign language interpretation is currently the standard method for providing universal access to spoken content in the K-12 classroom. Unfortunately, research has demonstrated that high school students who receive their instruction through sign language interpretation demonstrate deficits in lecture comprehension. In fact, students using sign language interpretation have been found to comprehend only about 84% as much as their non-hearing impaired peers and as little as 70% of the overall lecture.
Past research has shown that the use of captioning can significantly improve the comprehension level of deaf or hard of hearing students in the classroom. Research has also shown that captioning can also improve overall retention of course material. Through the use of electronic captioning equipment, full transcripts of classes taught can be produced. Research has shown that deaf or hard of hearing students given a transcript found it to be more useful to them than notes provided by note-takers.
UK's Liberated Learning focus was on the use of computer-driven, real-time captioning and transcription systems to provide classroom content in an accessible format that would meet the needs of students who are deaf or HOH. For example, captioning with C-Print provides a real-time, near-verbatim accounting of what is being said in the classroom - including classroom interaction between teacher and students.
UK was interested in the relationship between captioning display modality and student performance. Research into captioning in the classroom has historically used a whole-room projected display and/or a laptop computer at each individual student's desk to deliver captioning. UK was exploring the use of heads-up, micro display glasses fitted with a small video camera to allow users to focus on communication cues, such as the teacher's body language or gesturing. It was felt these glasses would help students attend to any visual material presented in the classroom while simultaneously receiving real-time captioning.
Contact:
American Institutes for Research/National Assistive Technology
Research Institute
University of Kentucky
212J Taylor Education Building
Lexington, KY 40506-0001
http://www.uky.edu/
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