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 [...]
IBM’s KidSmart PC Supports Language Teaching
Friday, January 29th, 2010IBM’s KidSmart program was recently displayed at the Young Scientists’ Exhibition in the RDS. This program aims to integrate interactive teaching and learning activities into pre-schools and is aimed at 3-7 year olds.
The program is currently used with over 2 million children in 60 countries. The focus is on underprivileged areas as well as educating [...]
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 [...]
Inclusive Reading of “Ben” Book At County Library
Monday, November 23rd, 2009Students from Tallaght’s Scoil Colmcille and Sacred Heart National School gathered at County Library for a reading of “A Birthday for Ben” on the Tuesday morning of November 10th.
During this interactive session the book was read by Elizabeth and signed by Christopher. At various stages, the kids stopped to learn the signs of key words [...]
Lamh - The Manual Language Explained
Thursday, November 19th, 2009After receiving several queries about Lamh, the manual language, we asked Mary Cullen, Lamh Development Officer, a few questions.
What is Lámh?
Lámh is the accepted manual sign system used by children and adults with intellectual disability in Ireland. Some people use Lámh as their main way of communicating while others use Lámh together with speech and [...]
Sign Language In Schools Benefits All Students
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009Ballymahon Convent of Mercy Secondary School is breaking ground in deaf education in the midlands with a new deaf unit, which is currently educating two young girls in the mainstream system.
An initiative of Eileen O’Donovan (graduate in Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin), the unit was set up in September 2008 and supports several deaf [...]
How The “Ben” Book Affected One Young Reader
Friday, November 6th, 2009Some feedback from a mum about the “Ben” book really made us smile. We think you’ll enjoy reading it, too!
” Dear Caroline,
I hope sales of “A Birthday for Ben” are going well. It is one of Christopher’s favourite books and I thought you’d like to know the impression it’s having on him.
He’s obsessed at the [...]
Bio for Karen Quirke, illustrator of “Ben” Book
Thursday, November 5th, 2009Here’s a short bio for Karen Quirke, whose illustrations feature in the IDK children’s book, “A Birthday For Ben“, and in IDK’s 2010 calendar.
Karen Quirke was born in Dublin, Ireland and currently lives in Malahide, Co. Dublin. She was educated at St Mary’s School for Deaf Girls in Cabra, Dublin, Roslyn Park College and Killester [...]
Computers Learn To Identify Signs In TV Footage
Monday, October 26th, 2009Three PhD candidates in the Netherlands have spent the last few years developing technology to recognise sign language in real-time.
One researcher, Jeroen Arendsen, said, “Very little is known about the perception of sign language. The aim of this research was to expand our knowledge of human observation of signing. For instance, it turns out that [...]
Low-Cost Internet Video Streaming For Educators
Monday, October 19th, 2009A low-cost way of video-streaming to use and distribute information online has been described in the US by Thomas McNeal Jr. and Landon Kearns.
Their article, “Using Video Streaming: Setting up a Cheap System for Distributing Information to Teachers and Students” explores how to set up a streaming system, using tools readily available in classrooms.
Vintage computers [...]