Videoconferencing – a great connection!
Problem:
I am an outreach teacher from the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, CT. I work with students mainstreamed into public school classrooms in their communities. This year one of my students entered first grade in his hometown. His previous education was at the school for the deaf with an additional two mornings spent in a mainstream classroom. Our biggest concerns focused on how to ensure his academic success in a hearing environment, sensitize his classmates to sign language and deaf culture, and have him maintain an active, communicative association with his deaf peers at ASD. With outreach support, this child ended up doing wonderfully well academically, and so I will focus on one of the solutions to the last two challenges.
Solution:
With the assistance of the mainstream school’s principal, special education coordinator, technology crew and our counterparts at the school for the deaf, as well as the Connecticut Cable Network, we were able to link classrooms once a week through videoconferencing. Our distance-learning project lasted a half hour each Wednesday morning, and was facilitated through the use of a Polycom video conferencing system. The set top device was connected to the network and our servers with attachments to the TV for display. Additionally, whenever pictures or printed words were hard to discern on the screen, ASD used a document camera to project their images more clearly. A VCR recorded successful parts of each lesson. Though some technical glitches, such as screen freezing, were never completely resolved, in time we adapted to these situations and learned to creatively work around them until visual transmission resumed.
A supplemental goal that sustained our project was to tackle our students’ nascent ideas regarding the concept of “disabilities.” We wanted them to challenge their emerging beliefs as they witnessed and identified with the positive similarities in all children. And we hoped that this would generalize to an understanding that differences are often of minimal value, and can be bridged to create a successful learning environment and lasting friendships.
Karen, ASD’s first grade teacher, and I, ASD’s outreach educator, met and /or emailed weekly to formalize our lessons. Our first obstacle arose as we confronted the imbalance between the two class sizes. In the mainstream, we were dealing with twenty-two children in each room, while the school for the deaf served fewer students with multiple needs. After trial and error, I decided to select a small rotating group of children to interact with ASD in a two to one ratio. In this way, we were able to alleviate the tedium of having some children “just watch” while others were more involved. Our deaf student was a participant each week. .
As it turned out, the distance learning became a huge confidence builder for our student. He was identified as the student “ expert” on deafness, while being viewed as a vital participant in the education of his peers. He was able to share his knowledge of sign language and the deaf world, and mediate the communication between deaf and hearing friends. After a while, the term “ disabled” was completely negated as all students engaged fully in an exchange of songs, games, poetry, and direct sign language instruction. At times, each experienced frustrations and successes and the communication field was equalized. Insightful queries were asked and answered from both groups, and the sign language growth, as well as the maturation of the children’s understanding was palpable. We discussed and viewed pictures of our families, shared our holiday and vacation experiences, and even participated in a group yoga lesson transmitted between the two schools! Along the way we bonded closely.
Towards the end of the year, I noticed that my whole class felt very comfortable signing our opening poem and closing goodbye song. Both classes treated each other with great mutual respect, and the terrific sense of humor between both teams was demonstrated during one session or another. We all were sad when our time to convene came to an end. And as one of our students remarked, “ I don’t like when I get signs wrong, but I sure do like our new friends!”
Linda Mondschein
Outreach Teacher
American School for the Deaf
W. Main Street
West Hartford, Ct