Key words: Curriculum Materials, Deaf Education, K-12
Submitted by: Lisa Sommers
What is Closed Captioning:
Although television has been viewed by some as having a negative impact on the children in our society, there are times when it can be used as a positive educational tool.
March 1980 was a historic time for hearing impaired people. For the first time closed captioning was available to the world.
Captioning is the process of displaying spoken dialogue so that it can be read. Two types of captioning are used. Open captions are visible to everyone all the time. Closed captions are carried by a video signal. One must use a decoder box (which usually runs about $200.00) connected to the TV to overlay the caption on the TV screen. There are two types of closed captions. Real time captions are those in which captions are written on a stenotype machine, connected to a computer, which translates the stenotype into English words. Regular closed captions in which the captions appear as a result of a captioned viewing the show a few days before it airs, and typing the words as they appear in the dialogue.
Most users of closed captions have very little trouble hooking up the equipment. According to Crowlie (1984), the most common problem is that the captions go too fast and not enough programs are captioned.
Currently, I substituted the following instructional closed captioning television technology research for a course in educational technology.
Phase I: Scriber Software
The "Scriber" software is used to connect a closed caption monitor to a word processor. The word processor is connected to a television that has a PL100 closed caption adapter connected to it. A television show is selected and if the show has captioning and the captions are available through the scriber program, a green light will be continuous on the PL100. If captions are not available or accessible, a red light will be on the PL100 adapter. The closed caption text that would appear on a TV will appear on the computer screen. Text can be formatted to show an exact copy as it comes from the closed captioning broadcast, assemble the text into sentences (putting a new sentence on each line), or provide a continuous text in which sentence breaks are not new lines. The scriber text is saved to disk by depressing the appropriate key and it is then edited in a word processor.
* (It is important to note that shows are recorded on a video tape recorder as they are playing through the scriber. This is to ensure that if something would happen during the captioning process a back up copy could be played from video to the scriber.)
Phase II: Video Capture
The recorded video from the selected show is inserted into a video tape recorder (VCR). The VCR is connected to a television and a computer with the capturing program loaded onto it. The icon for video capture is selected from the main menu. The play button on the VCR is pushed. As the video plays on the television screen, it also is displayed on the video caption screen on the television. To capture an image simply press the PF7 key on the computer's keyboard. The image is "captured" and displayed in a "slide". For each major scene change, a slide was created. After capturing all of the slides that you want, they should be saved onto disk as a TIF file. This type of file is used for storing color photos.
The next step in the captioning process is to use the Corel Photopaint software to change the size and contrast colors of the slide, if necessary. Slides are then stored as GIF files.
Phase III: HTML-Hyper-Text Markup Language
This program utilizes markup tags that you embed in the text itself to signal a computer where things like headings, subheadings, paragraphs, and bullets go. This allows users of different computers to see the same text format.
After marking the text, one can "link" text to other sites. For example, not only can you pull in a slide that you just captured from the video you are using, but you can also "highlight" a word that when "clicked" on will take the user to another site. If I were, for example, to click on the highlighted word "Paris", I may jump to a picture of the Eiffel Tower with a brief description of the surrounding area.
Students not only see the visual television captioned images and the captions, but they can click on key vocabulary words that were in their pre-existing knowledge, and link them to new knowledge about that topic.
Phase IV: Internet (Applications for Teachers of the Deaf)
The closed captioning of students' television shows not only can be used as a source of entertainment, but also as a source of instruction.
It has been found that hearing impaired children learn significantly more from captioned material than uncaptioned material (National Captioning Institute, 1983). This may be due to the fact that students not only view the visual picture in captioning, but they also see the words. More than one sense modality is made available to the students.
Closed captioned television may improve motivation, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. The first application of closed captioned television is that it is motivating. Motivation that had been a major problem for teachers of hearing impaired students may be a problem of the past with the use of this new technology. Captions on their favorite television shows put words into a motivating environment where the context helps students to understand words they do not know. It is much more motivating for a student to select an activities about their favorite television shows than to be involved in an activity about a story that they feel is boring.
Reading comprehension can also be strengthened through the use of closed captions. Students can be asked to predict what might come next, tell what the sequence of events was, or write a paragraph about a character. All of these are great comprehension building activities.
Vocabulary learning is related to the frequency of exposure to print and the amount of time spent reading. Hearing Impaired students often read infrequently and therefore are less exposed to print. Television is a medium that students watch frequently. Captioned television watching may enhance vocabulary because students are exposed to print in a visual and audio context. Vocabulary activities can be created to complement closed captioned television. The following is an example of how to use closed captioned television to strengthen vocabulary.
1. Choose a topic.
2. Find a short captioned video relating to the topic. (You
could create your own).
3. Numbers 1 and 2 could be used in reverse order by
finding a video and then selecting the topic of the video to use.
4. Inform the students of the topic.
5. Write key vocabulary words on the board.
6. Relate the topic to prior information students had.
7. View the video.
8. Describe the topic in more detail and let students
select a vocabulary word from the list.
9. View the video a second time. Students should raise
their hand when they see the vocabulary word in the caption.
10. Stop the video and discuss the word in more elaborate
terms. How is it used in the video, can it be used in another
way?
11. Continue steps 9 and 10 until all of the vocabulary
words have been discussed.
12. Students find key words in sentences in a handout.
Sentences are taken directly from the caption.
13. Relate other books and magazines to the topic and
continue to look for vocabulary words in these places.
References:
Crowlie,C., & Franco, C. (1984). Caption tv, libraries, and the hearing impaired. Library Journal, 109, 56-57.
Goldman, M., & Goldman, S. (1988). Reading with closed- captioned tv. Journal of Reading,31, 458-61.
Elwell, C., Reeve, K. & Hofmeister, A. (1992). Captioning instructional video. Educational Technology,12, 45-50.
Murphy-Berman, V. (1983). The impact of captions on hearing- impaired children's affective reactions to television. The Journal of Special Education, 17, 47-62.
Nugent, G. (1983). Deaf students' learning from captioned instruction. The Journal of Special Education, 17, 227-34.
Uploaded by: Melissa Close/Kent State University/Deaf Education Major