Great experience! Workshop by Conference Call...

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
March 16, 2004

Dear SignWriting List....
Today we had a great conference-call-workshop over the telephone,
between San Diego and Albuquerque, New Mexico...Four hearing teachers
and one Deaf teacher, who all teach Deaf children, plus an interpreter,
each had a Macintosh on Mac OS X, on a network at Hodgin Elementary
School in Albuquerque. Their computer technician had downloaded our
SignBank Runtime from our SignBank web site at....

SignBank Downloads
http://www.SignBank.org/downloads

So the Runtime was waiting for the teachers on each computer's desktop
when the workshop started...

1. First, we went to the SignBank Online Dictionary and I taught the
teachers how to search for the sign BIRTHDAY, copy the sign to the
desktop, copy the sign into Microsoft Word, and how to read the Happy
Birthday Song by Deaf author Adam Frost ;-)

2. Second, we visited the PUDL Web Dictionary, by Stephen Slevenski,
and that was very popular. It is soo easy to click on a word to get a
sign, and everyone found several signs.

3. Third, I showed the teachers the TRANSLATE feature on the PUDL site.
I have feedback for you, Stephen, which I will tell you about in the
next message tomorrow. But they LOVED it, and I am sure they will use
it...It was a hit!

4. We then left the web and I asked them to start the SignBank Runtime
program on their computer desktop, by clicking on the OpenMeMac icon to
start SignBank. I gave them a little tour of the SignBank Portal,
including searching for signs by Sign-Symbol-Sequence, and Portal 7:
Symbol-At-A-Glance...

At this point everyone felt pretty overwhelmed...This was enough to
absorb for the whole Spring semester...They have Spring break next
week, and everyone is very busy.

Then the bell rang and the teachers all had to run...so suddenly the
computer room was empty!

But one teacher got on the voice phone with me to share that she had
developed the most wonderful games for Deaf children using SignWriting
and that her games really taught Literacy. So I told her about the PUDL
Blackjack Game...but I could tell that the games she had developed
meant a great deal to her...I suspect there could be a whole site just
dedicated to games developed by teachers...

All-in-all, this was a great experience, considering I never left my
chair in my office, and five teachers and one interpreter now feel more
comfortable with SignWriting on computers...

If anyone else wants instruction in this manner, all you have to do is
ask...

I will write tomorrow with feedback for you, Stephen, and I look
forward to answering Mohamed's questions...It is great to see you back
on the SignWriting List, Mohamed!

Val ;-)


Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

1. SignWritingSite
http://www.SignWriting.org
Read & Write Sign Languages

2. SignBankSite
http://www.SignBank.org
Sign Language Dictionaries

3. DanceWritingSite
http://www.DanceWriting.org
Read & Write Dance

4. MovementWritingSite
http://www.MovementWriting.org
Read & Write Movement & Gesture