Difference between revisions of "STEMFaculty"

Revision as of 18:41, 28 May 2008

Outline of Talking Points for STEM Faculty Group

DHH Cyber Community Summit June 25-27, 2008

5/20/2008

Please note: this is a preliminary list in progress. Feedback and contributions are greatly appreciated.

The following points focus on mainstream classrooms where majority of students are hearing. The goal of accommodation should be to encourage a 2-way (or many-way) interaction between students and instructor. Many of the same issues arise for accommodating deaf and hard of hearing students and a hearing instructor or accommodating hearing students and a deaf or hard of hearing instructor.

• Problems faced by deaf students in mainstream classrooms
  • Visual dispersion
    • Students must divide their visual attention between instructor, overhead slides, handouts, interpreter/captioner, other students, and notes.
  • Access to appropriate accommodation
    • The best interpreter/captioner may not be co-located.
  • Barriers to classroom participation
    • Language barriers, interpreter delay, feeling excluded
  • Barriers to after-class activities
    • Examples include group work, study sessions, etc.

• Accessible teaching styles for d/hh students
  • Pausing for the interpreter/captioner
    • Example: Ensuring hearing students don’t answer questions before interpreter is finished
  • Teaching to the “top of the class” versus more inclusive teaching for all.
  • Turn-taking and discussion
  • Identifying yourself / standing before speaking
  • Likely will have positive affect other hearing students as well
  • Universal design in teaching
    • Example: Having each student take a turn with public class notes
  • Large lecture style vs. small group discussion
    • The importance of 2-way, N-way communication

• Accessible use of classroom technology
  • Captioned videos
  • “Talking while doing” increases potential for missed content
    • Students must “follow along” with displayed technology

• Changes in teaching style due to remote accommodation
  • Increased delay in feedback loop
  • Technology setup (cameras, microphones, laptops). Who is responsible?
  • Technology failures and recovery
  • Repeating questions from audience (or adjust location of microphone)
  • Providing lecture notes or Powerpoint slides to captioner ahead of time so vocabulary can be added to their database

• Communication outside the classroom
  • Encourage/facilitate/moderate group work
  • Email, wiki, pre- and post-class discussion
  • “Blended learning” – hybrid distance learning and in-class learning

• What to expect from deaf or hard of hearing students
  • Deaf students are typically good at self-advocation, whereas hard of hearing students may be less assertive. For example, the accommodation that has worked well for a student in high school may not work well in large lecture classroom or multi-student group discussions. How to encourage and recognize when students need help.
  • Request at beginning of semester for notetakers among the class for the deaf/hoh student
  • Educational background of students, and how to deal with mixed backgrounds

Members of the STEM Faculty Group

Facilitators

Richard E. Ladner, Boeing Professor in Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/ladner

Caroline Solomon, Associate Professor, Biology Department, Gallaudet University, http://biology.gallaudet.edu/x3708.xml

Members

Catherine Beaton, Associate Professor, Information Technology Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, http://www.it.rit.edu/~cii/

Matt Huenerfauth, Assistant Professor, The City University of New York (CUNY), Department of Computer Science, Queens College, Computer Science Doctoral Program, Graduate Center, http://eniac.cs.qc.cuny.edu/matt/

Joseph Stanislaw, Assistant Professor, Information and Computing Studies, National Technical Institute of the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology