[sw-l] GebardenSchrift in Germany

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 24, 2004

What a fabulous report, Stefan!! I am grateful to have this
information, and I will be including it in a second Year-End-Report, on
SignWriting in Deaf Education & Research in 2004...

And congratulations on all your accomplishments, and to Lars too!

Val ;-)

PS. I am not a programmer either, and there are times when I cannot
follow the conversations between programmers too, if that makes you
feel better...I am glad this List can be a home to so many brilliant
people, with different professions. Feel free to start conversations
about education and research anytime...then people can read the
messages that are important to their work...


-----------------------------



On Oct 23, 2004, at 3:34 PM, Stefan Woehrmann wrote:

> Hi Valerie and everybody,
>
> well you are right - there is so much to do - but that is nothing new-
>
> While all these smart computer experts discuss software-programming
> questions I feel lost because I cannot understand anything of these
> discussions. I am teaching deaf students and I try very hard to offer
> lots
> of different materials in order to give them a better chance within our
> hearing society. They will have to pass examinations, will want to get
> a
> drivers licence, will want to be able to read and to write -
> I understand that some day new software programs will support us in our
> efforts to improve literacy in deaf children ..
>
> You ask for software programming here in Germany-
>
> Again I was asked from the University of Hamburg to teach students who
> will
> become teacher about GebaerdenSchrift. Just out of the blue sky I got
> in
> contact with a genius in software- programming. Lars made the
> SignPuddle
> work offline on my computer.
>
> Yes (smile) there are some wonderful people working on some different
> projects that will improve the situation of all teacher for deaf and
> hard of
> hearing children - but we have not finished so far.
> ("Hallo Lars - wenn du das liest - ich freue mich so sehr uber dein
> Engagement!! )
>
> Well as soon as we can work with a new program I will report ...
>
> In Germany GebardenSchrift became much more popular. We had the chance
> of a
> great 30 minute lasting TV - presentation.
> Some articles were published in different magazines.
> I still offer workshops on weekends.
> Lots of people visit the German Website  www.gebaerdenschrift.de  ;-)
> and
> some of them give a kind feed - back
> I will publish soon my "Handbuch der GebardenSchrift"
>
> ... and well - I was asked to report about GebardenSchrift in the
> field of
> DEAF Education  at an international conference in the Netherlands - but
> right now this is far away (2005) since other project keep me under
> pressure.
> I will tell you as soon as I know more about that.
>
> And what about our problems and doubts ? (smile)
>
> I told you already about my great feelings when all of my students sat
> in
> front of their computers and typed on their own for a period of two
> 45minute -sessions on two following days their descriptions of a
> picture
> story. And yes they felt so proud - and me too (smile!)
>
> This comes close to what I had in mind, when I first heard of the
> Nicaraguan
> project with SignWriting. If deaf children would be able to write their
> signing  - well that would be half way down the road to express their
> ideas
> in any other second language as well. ;-)) And I am really optimistic
> that
> my students are on a good path.
>
> They developed a routine to work with the good old SW4.4  DOS - but
> they do
> not write by hand or "create"  signs on their own - except if I ask
> them to
> do so -
>
> This is something  interesting. They are able to read lots of
> GebardenSchrift - documents fluently but feel not comfortable with
> writing
> GebardenSchrift on their own. Well - here and there four or five signs
> (smile) -no problem - but I ask them to write day by day lots of
> sentences -
> and compared to writing in German they would feel overburdened and
> insecure -
>
> I have never seen other handwritten documents of other deaf children -
> except for two to seven sentences - I am really curious - do other
> students
> write up to 20 - 40 sentences as a report in SW ?
> I understand that it would be a wonderful skill - but it seems to need
> more
> time and practice in young years. And you had been right when you
> asked me -
> I never allowed them to spend
> that much time in order to practice that - compared to the reading  and
> writing course in German Language ..
>
> Have a nice day and hopefully we will continue to discuss
> spelling-questions
> and exchange materials on the list
>
> Stefan ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Ursprungliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
> [mailto:owner-sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu]Im Auftrag von Valerie
> Sutton
> Gesendet: Samstag, 23. Oktober 2004 21:15
> An: SIGNWRITING List
> Betreff: [sw-l] Thank you, Stefan...
>
> SignWriting List
> October 23, 2004
>
> Thank you, Stefan, for this web page, which really floored me...(that
> means I was amazed so much, that I almost fell onto the floor!)...
>
> http://www.gebaerdenschrift.de/documents/magic_sw.htm
>
> But now I am asking...can you tell us about what you are doing in
> Germany? I understand that you are presenting a paper on SignWriting in
> a Deaf Education conference? Please tell us about that...
>
> And are you doing some software development of your own in Germany? I
> know how busy you are...but I need a report summary of the year 2004
> from Germany...I am writing the Year-End Report for SignWriting in
> Education and Research in 2004...
>
> Val ;-)
>
> please see attached diagram from Stefan's page:
>
>
>
>