They only see it when the sun shines in my ears: exploring perceptions of adolescent hearing aid users

Hard-of-hearing (HOH) young people may encounter multiple challenges to their educational, social, and emotional development. The benefits of wearing hearing aids to enhance communication may be countered by negative stigma associated with hearing aids. This study explored the experience of 16 bilaterally, moderately to severely HOH adolescents in mainstream education to understand their perceptions of using hearing aids. A core category of "normality" emerged from the data, which captures the predominant issue for these young people. The sense of being normal may be situationally determined, but those who are able to perceive their use of hearing aids in a given context as normal most frequently use them. Regardless of the age of diagnosis or length of time since fitting, if use of hearing aids is perceived as not normal then their use is disguised or negated. The perceptions of the young people indicate that psychosocial supports focused on promoting their identity as HOH young people and normalizing the use of hearing aids should be a key feature of interventions.     

Supporting children with communication aids in transition: the perspective of children and adults involved with the Communication Aids Project (CAP)

This paper reports findings from an evaluation study of the Communication Aids Project (CAP), focussing on the perspective of children at points of educational transition and the parents, education staff and Speech and Language Therapists who support them. All participants took part in structured interviews, the individual children face‐to‐face on a one‐to‐one basis and the adults over the telephone. Those involved with the study reported positive effects of the communication aid, including in speech and communication activities relevant at transition. They also raised three main concerns regarding the use of the aids during and after transition, namely the portability and security of aids in the new setting; managing the flow of information between schools and in particular the availability of continued training in the support and use of communication aids.     

Communication aids in the classroom: the views of education staff and speech and language therapists involved with the Communication Aids Project

The findings presented in this paper are part of an independent evaluation study of the Communication Aids Project (CAP). The study was carried out between July 2003 and April 2004 and looked at the impact of CAP on children receiving communication aids and evaluated the CAP strategy of assessment and delivery. In this paper the views of education staff and speech and language therapists who were working with communication aid users in school are presented. The professionals who were interviewed provided positive feedback on the existence of CAP, on the assessment for the communication aid, particularly where the use of the aid in the classroom was considered, and on the children's increased participation in classroom and learning activities since receiving the aid. They also highlighted the issue of managing parents' expectations regarding the use of aids and the value of and need for continued training for professionals working with communication aids in the classroom. The authors of this article, Jannet Wright, senior lecturer, Chris Donlan, senior lecturer, Caroline Newton, lecturer, and Michael Clarke, lecturer, from University College London; Claire Lister, from the Institute of Child Health, London; and Jasmina Cherguit, assistant psychologist, draw upon their findings to develop recommendations for future policy, practice and professional development.     

Computer Toolkits in Special Education

Abstract

Modular software tools and common user‐interfaces have much to offer special education, especially in reducing the problems a child (and sometimes a teacher) has in understanding complex modes. Examples are given of mode‐free toolkits used in the design of a Smart Wheelchair, and in an assessment kit for tailoring communication aids. Toolkit metaphors are outlined. The multiple control and learning tasks for a handicapped user of computers is related to potential toolkit metaphors available to designers. The case is made for common operating systems powerful enough to support those metaphors requiring advanced features like multi‐tasking.     

Four aspects of graphic communication

Information theory, while having a limited direct impact on the study of graphic communication, left a metaphor for communication that, reflecting the transient nature of electronic signals rather than the permanence of the printed media, is, it is argued, unhelpful and somewhat misleading. The metaphor is adapted to draw attention in particular to four aspects of the relationships of the originator and the user to the communication medium: the problem of encoding information in graphic form; diagrams as tools for enquiry and thought; illustrations as aids to learning; and illustrations as aids to problem-solving.     

Is there a link between hearing aid use, employment, and income?

This paper examines hearing aid use by 60 congenitally deaf individuals who attended special education units in South Australia. The study indicates that only one-third to half of deaf adults wore their hearing aids in social situations for speech detection. Just over one-third (n = 22) of the deaf adults involved in this study wore their hearing aids at work and less than half (n = 27) wore their hearing aids at home. Younger deaf adults were more likely to wear their hearing aids in the home than older deaf adults. Younger deaf adults tended to wear their hearing aids more frequently when they were at school if they had perceived their teachers had a positive attitude to deafness. This study found that there was no statistically significant relationship between wearing hearing aids and employment status. There was also no statistically significant difference in hearing aid use between men and women. The low use of hearing aids could be attributed at least in part to the current Australian policy regarding supply and servicing of hearing aids to congenitally deaf individuals which ceases to be free after the individual reaches 21 years of age.     

Intelligent Job Aids For Professionals: Lessons Learned From Medicine

With the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, computer science, and information management seen today, it is becoming increasingly feasible to improve the performance of professional white collar workers with intelligent job aids (i.e., expert systems). Already, performance technologists are advocating and predicting their wide spread adoption. Nevertheless, while such high tech performance interventions are relatively new to business, they have existed in medical research labs and clinics for nearly 20 years. Because of the almost ideal match between medical decision making and the emergent capabilities of knowledge engineering, artificial intelligence researchers made medicine one of their major testing grounds. In this article, I summarize the use of intelligent job aids in medicine as a source of insights for anticipating how they can and should be used by professionals in other areas. These insights include three generalizations which form the conclusion of the paper: (a) intelligent job aids must address a real need, (b) they must be compatible with professionals' larger “performance systems,” and (c) the adoption of intelligent job aids will depend as much on future trends as on the professionals' needs or performance systems.     

Forget EPSSs: How You Can Marshal Mobile Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and Spatial Awareness for Performance Improvement

Mobile geolocation applications identify global coordinates of mobile devices and can be enriched with performance‐context data. This technology has potential to integrate job aids, learning bursts, and parts of manuals with work tools (such as checklists) at the point of performance to better support individual and team performance. Emerging uses of mobile geolocation allow human performance technologists to move from generic electronic performance support systems (EPSSs) to spatial support systems. These increase the potential for performers to access more context‐aware information at the time and space in which the actions occur. Mobile geolocation can also automatically send data about the performance to enterprise databases so that actions taken and the use of training or job aids at the point of performance can be tracked. This article explores how mobile geolocation functionality can be orchestrated to support performance, enrich enterprise databases, and aid human performance technologists.     

中学语文口语交际教学评价中存在的问题及反思

口语交际教学评价对口语交际教学的实施有重要影响。当前,中学口语交际教学评价存在诸多问题,表现为评价标准和体系的模糊性、评价方式的单一性、评价过程中存在的负效应以及评价教师的素养层次不高等方面。为此,制定科学具体的口语交际教学评价标准与体系是前提,凸显学科内综合化评价、开拓以现代科技为辅助、以元认知为基础的评价方式是手段,最大限度地避免评价的负效应是必须注意的对象,提升口语交际教学评价的教师知识素养与组织学生评价的管理能力是关键。     

充分发挥电化教学的优势和作用

电化教学是教育现代化的需要，是实现教学最优化的手段。为了达到教学最优化的效果，学校教育一定要转变观念，发展、推广、运用电化教学。     

Keeping In Touch: Talking to Older People about Computers and Communication

Computer-based communication has tremendous potential to support older adults. But if people are to use such systems autonomously, it is necessary to move beyond current interfaces and systems and develop devices that fit into the environment of the user. Using a Grounded Theory approach, three focus groups were held and, subsequently, 9 older adults (age 70–90) were interviewed about the ways in which they kept in touch with friends and relatives. Outcomes included dependence on the telephone as a way of communicating. There is also a specific, supporting role for e-mail, which was used with younger family members or those living abroad to enrich communication with brief, informal messages.     

Comparing Synchronous Virtual Classrooms: Student,Instructor and Course Designer Perspectives

The synchronous tool that is right for developing an online course depends on the context, needs and priorities. This report compares synchronous, virtual classroom systems Elluminate Live! v. 9 and Dimdim v. 4.5. The researchers compared the features of each system in terms of facilitation of communication, presentation of course content and logistical requirements. Similarities and differences are outlined. Online workshops were conducted with each of the systems to collect feedback from instructors and students regarding overall perceptions of the systems and ease of use. Recommendations are provided for those making decisions about the selection and implementation of a synchronous, virtual classroom system.     

Selection of Technical Communication Concepts for Integration into an Accounting Information Systems Course: A WAC Case Study

A project in writing-across-the curriculum was launched within a nationally ranked baccalaureate degree program in accountancy at a Boston area college. The project team, which comprised faculty from accountancy and technical communication, attempted to integrate technical communication skills, principally writing, into an accounting information systems course. To improve student writing in this way, the team had to determine what kinds of writing activities would successfully introduce accounting students to the discourse of their profession, and had to select, from all the communication skills that might be taught, only those that should be taught to complement the specialized content of the accounting information systems course. The team's collaborative process produced three critical planning decisions that greatly simplified the integration: 1) establishing Joseph Juran's TQM notion of fitness-for-use for evaluating the quality of student communications; 2) selecting only those forms of communication used in the profession's discourse community in assignments; and 3) teaching only those communication skills that support and enrich the principal technical skills taught in the accounting course. This strategy demonstrates that communication skills can be integrated within a technical course so as to enhance the students' understanding of technical content while improving the students' proficiency in written communication.     

儿童英语教学中的语境创设

语境作为语言交际的基石,长期以来,引起语言学界的广泛关注。语用学家和社会语言学家分别从不同的层面和角度对语境进行了定义和分类,但是语境作为影响儿童英语教学效果的一个重要的、潜在的因素被忽略了。通过讨论在儿童英语教学中创设课堂语境的三个途径：运用教师话语创设语境、利用教具创设语境、组织课堂活动创设语境,来进一步说明语境在儿童英语教学中的作用。     

加拿大高中数学课程标准和教学评价的启示

加拿大高中数学课程标准,关于数学学习过程,强调问题解决、推理和证明、反思回顾、选择工具和计算策略、联系、表述、数学交流;对学生的数学学习技能的掌握要求较低,但强调数学学习中用工具、强调数学理解与交流;在数学课程实施和保障中强调学生家长的积极作用;对教材编写提出明确要求;强调对数学知识方法的归纳和概括;对数学教学评价目标指向明确.因此,就目前中国高中数学课堂,应改进课堂教学环节;应树立全过程关注数学学习困难学生的意识;应讲道理、重过程,促进学生的理解;应利用教学评价促进学生的发展和优化教师的教学行为.     

Some call it guts …

In many universities students are widely used as peer resources and paraprofessional aids. This essay contends that their training is frequently minimal and that training programs presently available tend to be narrowly focused and overlapping. A multidimensional, experientially based training model operating from within a speech communication framework is developed. Speech communication instruction provides the conceptual foundation for this mode of paraprofessional training.     

Assessing the Impact of Testing Aids on Post-Secondary Student Performance: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

Testing aids, including student-prepared testing aids (a.k.a., cheat sheets or crib notes) and open-textbook exams, are common practice in post-secondary assessment. There is a considerable amount of published research that discusses and investigates the impact of these testing aids. However, the findings of this research are contradictory and inconclusive. The current meta-analytic investigation provides a general measure of the impact of both student-prepared testing aids and the use of open-textbook exams on student exam performance in post-secondary education, while examining variables that may moderate the effects of testing aids on student exam performance. The results indicate that, overall, testing aids can produce a moderate impact on student exam performance, with student-prepared testing aids associated with a larger effect (d=.402) relative to open-textbook exams (d = 0.257). The results are discussed in terms of their implications for college course instructors and for informing the broader debate about the role of testing aids in long-term student learning and mastery of course material.     

Experiments with Audio-Visual Aids at the Stockholm School of Education

The current educational plans for different school grades consider the use of AV aids as something quite natural and self-evident. But in order to put the plans into action it is important that the various training colleges spend enough time on teaching the use of AV aids.     

Adopting Deverbalization in Interpreting Chinese Political Neologisms

Uniqueness of our political systems and tremendous changes brought about by reform and opening up are reflected in language use,so a boom of Chinese political neologisms is witnessed.Deverbalization,as the core concept of the Interpretive Theory should be adopted in interpreting such neologisms so as to convey the intended meaning of the speaker in a faithful and interpretive manner.This paper makes a tentative attempt at classifying those neologisms and elaborates through exemplification on adopting deverbalization in interpreting political neologisms,with a view to producing China English rather than Chinese English and facilitating political communication among countries.     

The use of audio-visual aids in intermediate stage schools for girls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

This paper decribes an investigation into the use of audio-visual aids in teaching in the intermediate stage schools for girls, which are run by the General Presidency for Girls'Eudcation. Questionnaire data were collected and analysed and various factors were found to influence the use/non-use of audio-visual aids. It makes recommendations, which, if adopted, would increase the use of audio-visual aids in Saudi intermediate schools for girls, and stimulate the teaching-learning process.