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Sign Language Students Utilize Skype
on November 4, 2009
Students at Sunlake High School are using modern technology to network in new ways. Every week, 155 sign language students communicate with students from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine via Skype technology, Tampa Bay Online reports.
Skype, a computer program for video communication, allows the students to see and sign each other from their own classrooms in different cities.
"I thought that Skyping would help both my students and the St. Augustine deaf students with second language acquisition," said Sunlake American Sign Language teacher Rhonda Leslie. "They can expand their vocabulary, enhance social interaction and develop respect for deaf culture."
Students from both schools exchange basic information, chat about their lives, and study sign language translations of common words and symbols. Sunlake students appreciate the tool because it gives them first-hand experience, unlike learning from a DVD. Melodie Oleson, a media specialist at the school, called Skyping a modern-day version of "pen-pal correspondence."
"It allows for immediate feedback with a visual element and the interchange of personalities and cultures," she said.
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