Abstract:

This paper presents interim outcomes of a European Commission funded project which brings together industry, academics and practitioners in an innovative project to create an international forum of learning. SIGNALL 2 builds on the successes of SIGNALL 1 (a Leonardo da Vinci project). It is promoted by Interesource Group (Ireland) Limited partnered with the Centre for Deaf Studies, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), Irish Deaf Society (Ireland), Finnish Association of the Deaf (Finland), University of Sussex (UK), the Foundation for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship, Lodz, (Poland) and Grant Advisor, Brno (Czech Republic).

Accreditation of this course leads to the transfer of credit points (under the European Credit Transfer System) amongst participating third level educational establishments promoting international mobility in education and the transparency of qualifications. Experiential and evidenced-based material illustrates experiences of Deafhood by using digitised case studies and video materials. The course will be offered as a distance-learning programme with fully accessible (signed, subtitled) course content in each partner country on-line. This is essential given that Deaf people are the most under-represented group accessing third level education (e.g. Leeson 2007, Conroy 2006), and is challenging given the linguistic diversity of the European Union. For example, signed languages differ from territory to territory, even where spoken languages are the same (i.e. Britain and Ireland have very different natural signed languages – British Sign Language and Irish Sign Language).

The core content for the ‘Perspectives on Deafness’ course was created by the Centre for Deaf Studies (CDS) at Trinity College Dublin. CDS has actively engaged in the development of digital learning assets to support traditional delivery of programmes, and are actively engaged in the development of blended learning diplomas and degrees. European perspectives are added, allowing for the exploration of shared – and differing- experiences of Deafhood (Ladd 2003) across Europe as well as notions of d/Deafness as a medical, social, cultural, and historical construct. Human rights perspectives are also explored in this wide reaching course.

This paper outlines the background to the development of this course, outlining rationale, content, creation of multimodal digital materials in nine languages - 4 spoken and 5 signed languages, the nature of international involvement and the challenges to creating a repository of digital courseware that will be accessible and relevant to Deaf and hearing students and employers across the European Union, and beyond.

The paper will discuss decisions surrounding the content, localisation of cultural information, identifying appropriate language for delivery of key and localised content; issues of translation and interpretation; linking digital learning objects to specific learning outcomes, architecture of a digital repository to support the teaching of Deaf Studies, in its most general sense, issues of assessment in an e-learning context and promoting awareness of Deaf awareness and employment. We also aim to demonstrate some sample content to illustrate our work in progress.

Keywords:

e-learning, deaf studies, signed languages, accessibility, european collaboration.