Judy's Interview
Judy Morgan
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Transcriber: Pamela J. Barnes
Judy's interview
Hello my name is Judy Morgan. This is my sign name. I currently aspire to achieve my degree in deaf education. Once I accomplish this I would like to teach deaf children. When I first started taking online classes I felt a little awkward at first. I didn't want to take them. Now the online classes have the teacher there on the computer screen and the teacher is lecturing, explaining what is happening. An interpreter is in the bottom corner. The interpreter is interpreting what the teacher is saying. There is a power point on the screen. There are captions at the bottom.
Previously, disability support services (DSS) would give me a transcript of what was happening online in the class. I would get this 3 days later and I felt like I was falling behind. Today I have full access like the other students in the class. I can watch and get the information instantaneously. With the transcript I would get the vocabulary and the words and sometimes I would forget what the teacher had said or where that happened in the class. Today I have it instantaneously and I see the power point and the teacher explaining what is happening on the power point. It is great!
In my opinion one of the challenges of taking an online course is time management. If a class on campus starts at 9:00 I can get in my car and arrive at nine. Yet, at home I feel there are other temptations and other things I want to put my attention towards. The class may be last on my list of things to do. Someone taking an online class really needs good time management.
Also another negative is that the student has to have DSL, or high speed cable access. Dial up can't be used. So this might be a little expensive for the student. Another negative, possibly, is if the teacher is talking and lecturing and the interpreter is interpreting what the teacher says, I can't interrupt with a question. I have to wait until later to make contact with the teacher through telephone or email.
A benefit for establishing this program and using it is, for me the student, if I am missing information and I am not sure of what is being said or I don't understand I can rewind it and watch it over and over again until I understand.
Would I recommend using the online courses like this for other deaf and hard of hearing students? Yes!!
Hopefully other universities will use this program and it will take off in other places. Because it is such a wonderful program, with technology advancing like it has, I think services out there need to improve as well. Deaf and hard of hearing students will benefit greatly.
I want to thank you for your interest and motivation for learning about the new technology out there. Hopefully you will provide this program in your program as well. If you are curious and have more questions at the end please ask Sharon Downs. Her contact information will be provided at the end of this program.