Patty Albee's C2I Conference Notes

Here are Patty Albee's C2I conference notes. She, too, did not have enough time to say what she wanted to say. Plus, her notes may be read by those who have missed the live webcast or could use these notes as a closer inspection on what she was trying to say.

Patty Albee's notes:

I’d like to start by talking about the technology everyone fears most as being possibly the one thing that could extinguish ASL and Deaf culture completely – cochlear implants. After all, now that universal hearing screenings are becoming a reality, Deaf babies can be implanted as early as 1 year of age. Since hearing screenings are done in a hospital, it is medical personnel who identify the hearing loss, that often means they are the parents’ only channel to information about deafness, and more likely to be steered to a CI center instead of the Deaf community. There is concern that the medical field is not being realistic with parents about, and not giving full information on exactly how much benefit a deaf baby can reasonably get from an implant. The success of the implant depends on how early the procedure is done, and the implanted child still needs training on using it. The implant doesn’t make the process of associating sounds with meaningful language as effortless as it is with a hearing baby, but it helps a great deal. Some studies say that only 30% of implanted children are successfully mainstreamed into regular education without services. That means that the other 60% will need some type of services. In the future, hearing technologies will only get better, and include stem cell replacement and the like.

What this means for Gallaudet is that with more and more deaf children receiving implants, it’s more likely that those children will be mainstreamed and then more likely to consider a hearing university than Gallaudet. So Gallaudet could be facing a smaller and smaller number of potential applicants, especially if ASL will be the language of instruction at Gallaudet. On the other hand, since children with implants are still aware of their hearing limitations, they may not totally assimilate into hearing culture, still feel different from the mainstream, and want to seek out others like themselves. Today at Gallaudet there are students who were some of the earliest recipients of implants back in the 80s and it’s amazing that they came here at all! Just goes to show that hearing status is not the only thing that defines Deaf culture. I think just because we have implants does not necessarily mean that the Deaf community is doomed to disappear.

One side affect of mainstreaming is that few deaf students come to an ASL environment not having mastered either ASL or English. This happens because students learn their sign language from hearing adults such as teachers who in turn learned their sign language at a class in college, instead of from deaf adult language models. Many school districts interpret the term “least restrictive environment” to mean fully included in regular education with hearing peers, rather than a deaf institute where the student could have 100% communication access with peers and adult language models. And because 90% of parents of deaf children are hearing, and in most cases have never met a deaf person before, there is a lack of knowledge and misconceptions about how deaf children learn to communicate. Nonetheless, the experience of deafness is a common bond among all, and each individual understands, if not empathizes with, the visual communication needs of others. So what might happen in a classroom is that there could be a mishmash of languages and communication modes, and that might become the norm rather than standard ASL.

Let’s talk about the technology of yesterday and how far it’s come just in less than 20 years. When I was at Gallaudet in 1989, I had never used a computer for anything besides playing games before. The operating system was MS-DOS 3.0. Does anyone here remember MS-DOS? There was no mouse, only keyboard commands that had to be memorized. There was basically one widely used word processing software, and that was WordPerfect 4.0. Mice were coming into use around that time but were not widespread yet. A computer that had a hard drive of 80 MB was considered top of the line! For email we had VAX. That’s what we were using at Gallaudet in 1989.

Let’s talk about the technology we have TODAY. High speed Internet, wireless Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, various types of imaging software and hardware, text pagers, PDAs, instant messaging, Tivo, DV-R, smart boards, and video camera capabilities, to name just a few. However, it’s important to recognize that these technologies are only tools, NOT substitutes for a teacher. Especially because so many of these technologies are visual imaging tech, they can actually make the job of teaching easier since deaf people are visual learners. It still takes a trained teacher who understands deaf learners to put a lesson together, providing that they understand how to use it in the first place.
I can see Gallaudet’s enrollment expanding because of increased use of distance learning (online courses) taught with VPs and Blackboard. Not only that, but parents of Deaf infants, and hearing infants too, can take sign language classes online so that Deaf babies can be exposed to a visual language starting from birth. Deaf toddlers and their parents can take self-paced reading instruction programs using their computers, VP, and a signing teacher that can be either a real person or a simulacrum (is that the right word?). Literacy will increase because of early language exposure. What’s exciting is that the technology is already here, it just needs refining.
Will there even be a classroom? With video conferencing technology, could Gallaudet classes be expanded to students all over the world? Absolutely yes! At the school where I work, we have two Polycom videoconference rooms. The advantage of a Polycom and other systems over a standard web cam is that it has a field of 180 degrees, and the picture quality is so much better. The Polycom also requires a much faster connection speed, something that’s extremely expensive (thousands of dollars per month just for the connection) that not all schools have or can afford at this time. In the future, there will be much less reliance on the traditional educational setup of one teacher and many students in a classroom, staying in classes continuously from 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. Instead, there could be one student and many teachers, not limited by geographic location, and class schedules can become more flexible regarding the times and locations. The student would also have the option of selecting a language or communication mode that he/she understands best. This might allow deaf people in the workforce to continue their studies of English and other academic subjects in their preferred mode of communication. I visualize deaf education of the future as having regional centers such as at Ohlone College, physically located in major metropolitan areas, but accessible via satellite and Internet to deaf students anywhere in the country and the world. This makes lifelong learning possible no matter where one lives, whether in an isolated rural area or a big city. Deaf individuals could continue their formal education throughout the lifespan, not just the K-12 or college years. In addition, it can be a means of preserving ASL and maintaining a standard lexicon for future generations of deaf children to use.

Taking that idea even further, do you suppose that if all deaf children were to become literate in English at their grade/ability level, there would be no further need for Gallaudet at all? What if in the future, all education will be delivered by programmed simulacra, simultaneously in sign language, spoken English, other spoken languages, or captions — the “user” selects his/her communication mode at the touch of a key. Seems like kids nowadays spend so much time in front of a TV or computer, it would be the next logical step for them to get their readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic from a video teacher in a massive multiplayer online school.

I’m really excited about the possibilities of technology to reach out to parents who otherwise would never learn of the existence of Deaf culture, Deaf people, and ASL. Through video technology, deaf individuals who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to meet other deaf people and learn about sign language in addition to the shared interests like sports, literature, entertainment, games, crafts, and so on.