YouTube Automatic Captioning Moves Out Of Beta
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010In recent years websites such as CaptionTube and independent services made videos and audio more accessible to deaf or hard of hearing people. In November 2009, Google announced the automatic captioning of videos on its YouTube site to boost captioning provision and support text indexing.
Existing captioning services are not always user friendly or free. With [...]
Inclusive Education Is ‘All-Encompassing’ Learning
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010Inclusive education gives all children mutual learning experiences - while also benefiting teachers’ preparation skills and professional development.
Fundamentally, inclusive education teaches children about diversity, and leads teachers to diversify within their own professions, for social benefit.
This academic blog post, “Inclusion Is Needed In Classrooms“, makes a solid case for inclusive education, with an itemised reading [...]
The Value Of SMS Texting To Deaf Youngsters
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010At Griffith College, Cork, SMS texts are used to advise students of cancelled classes. Texting is a simple and often free method of communication that is available to anyone with a mobile phone. And these users range from young kids given phones by parents just in case of an emergency, to the elderly who may [...]
Teacher Question: Sourcing A Soundfield System
Thursday, February 11th, 2010A teacher recently asked IDK how to source a soundfield system for a child at their school. The system needed to be movable between classrooms.
Our first response was to ask if the school has any contact with the Visiting Teacher service for deaf students at the Department of Education (DES). If yes, the visiting teacher [...]
European Award for Languages 2010 (Leargas)
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010Leargas, the national agency in Ireland for co-operation programmes in education, youth and community work, vocational education and training, is managing the European Award for Languages 2010 on behalf of the EU.
Schools, colleges, businesses and language institutions can apply for these awards. The aim in 2010 is to find organizations that promote language learning in [...]
IDK & Special Stories on TV3’s Ireland:AM Show
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010TV3’s Ireland:AM team invited Caroline Carswell from IDK, and Kate Gaynor from Special Stories, into the studio to talk about their “Birthday For Ben” book after Special Stories received a Moonbeam award in the US during late 2009. The video clip of the interview is online at the TV3 website.
Subtitled video clips are also available [...]
Schools ‘Must Change Their Attitude To Disability’
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Ann Heelan, executive director of AHEAD (Association for Higher Education Access and Disability), recently had an excellent piece in The Irish Times.
A key point in the article states:
” Children with disabilities can learn as much as other children when given the right tools and the right learning environment. Technology can make a significant difference and [...]
‘Experience’ Books From Off We Go! Publishing
Monday, January 18th, 2010Irish company, Off We Go! Publishing, has released a set of books for children to learn about different first-time experiences in early life.
These books benefit those with special needs and any young child experiencing these outings for the first time.
Twelve different titles are in the series, including “Going on a Plane’, “Going to the Optician” [...]
New Simply Signing Initiative For Parents/Teachers
Monday, January 4th, 2010Simply Signing is inviting members to join its new “Now I Can Sign Programme” (NICSP), which is geared to parents and teachers.
The NICSP gives the skills to learn basic vocabulary in Irish sign language (ISL) such as “more” and “all gone”. These signs can be easily introduced to all babies and children from as young [...]
December 5th Creative Play Sessions - UPDATE
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Update: Owing to the volume of seasonal festivities on Saturday, December 5th, IDK and Helium are postponing the sessions until late January. We apologise for any inconvenience.
On December 5 2009, IDK and Helium will host another Learning Language is Fun! creative play session at the RuaRed arts centre in Tallaght, Dublin. Helium artist, Margot Jones, [...]
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