From: barry@chezmoto.ai.mit.edu (Barry Kort) Subject: Virtual Reality and Deaf Education Date: 14 Nov 91 17:50:05 GMT Organization: MicroMuse I have received some correspondence from Amrit Chauhan, a high school senior who is working on a Model High School project for applying network technology to improve deaf education. Amrit has asked for assistance in gaining access to appropriate network resources and services. I am reposting my correspondence with him here to help spread the word on this worthwhile project. I hope the readers of this forum find Amrit's efforts as engaging and compelling as I did. Barry Kort Visiting Scientist Educational Technology Research BBN Labs Cambridge, MA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: "Barry Kort" Return-Path: Subject: Re: Virtual Reality and Deaf Education To: harvard!scubed!pro-hindugods.cts.com!amritc@EDDIE.MIT.EDU Date: Wed, 13 Nov 91 9:56:34 EST Cc: amritc%pro-hindugods.cts.com@nosc.mil, inner@michael.ai.mit.edu, hal@altdorf.ai.mit.edu (Hal Abelson), dept41@bbn.com (BBN Education Department), nyctasia@michael.ai.mit.edu, kevin@media-lab.media.mit.edu, yduj@lucid.com, 11mmurth@gallux.gallaudet.edu In-Reply-To: ; from "Amrit Chauhan" at Nov 12, 91 7:25 pm Hi Amrit, > Hi. I am a senior in high school and recently I was approached by > teachers in the deaf education department. Currently, I attend an > experimental program called the Model High School, and there we stress > the development of vocational skills and skills needed to survive in > the "real" world. It is fairly difficult, and for comparisions sake, > it's something like the curriculum at Brown University in Rhode Island, > if you're at all familiar with how things go there. Most interesting! > Anyhow, the deaf ed. teachers asked me just yesterday if I > would do some researching into Virtual Reality and applying it to their > students. Prime Time live did a special on VR, and it seems that these > teachers have found something they can latch onto. What they would like > to be able to do is (idealistically) have a student (deaf) sit down and > learn how to sign with VR technology. Maybe the movement of the student's > hand would cause a visual image of the thing described. This would work > only for tangible, describable things. Other things may included having > a hand that would respond to certain actions the student takes...I'm not > really sure, but what I'd like to know is if you could get me any > information on this subject. I will send you (under separate E-Mail) the literature I have on VR that may be of interest to you. The high-tech VR, with hand-gestures controlling the action within a computer-generated 3-D scene, is still in its infancy, and still very expensive. Nevertheless you can begin to learn about it for your research if you find a copy of Howard Rheingold's new book, _Virtual_Reality_. You may recall seeing Howard Rheingold on the Prime Time segment on VR. > I'm trying to hook MHS (Model High School) up to the Internet, and > am running into quite a bit of red tape...go figure :-) Well, I run a > BBS and I can get things out to the Internet so I thought I'd start > looking there. I was reffered to you by an administrator of the Merit > Network here in Michigan. She told me about MicroMuse, and I cannot, > YET, telnet to the site. If you could give me some advisement as to > where I can turn, or who I could e-mail, I would really appreciate it. I can empathize with you regarding the difficulty of connecting K-12 schools to the Internet. Many of us are also working on that problem, with equal levels of frustration. I think it would be an excellent start if we could facilitate your connection to Internet and to MicroMuse. Although MicroMuse is not (yet) the kind of high-tech VR which you saw on Prime Time, it is the best available free VR technology currently accessible over the Internet, and it is ideally suited for deaf students, since all interaction is by keyboard and text. We have had a deaf student from Gallaudet on MicroMuse who found (not surprisingly) that she could function and thrive in our Virtual Community with no disadvantage relative to other participants. In fact, I did not even know she was deaf until I asked her where she went to school. I am sad to report that she has not yet succeeded in persuading the Gallaudet faculty to provide Internet access to more students there. > There is very little offered for the deaf in this country, > as far as learning sign language. I think that VR has a tremendous > potential market in this field and would really like to at least get > some research on the topic. It is my understanding that you are involved > with researching VR, and I find that very exciting...I'm a student of > computer science and lately, I've found very few people I can just > "chat" with locally...no one knows the lingo, if you will, and it's > hard just doing it on your own...anyway, I'm sidetracking... Well, I'm not sure how to apply computer networking to the problem of learning sign language. I can tell you from my own observation that computer networking is a boon to learning verbal communication skills through the medium of electronic text dialogues via E-Mail, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), NetNews, and the new real-time Internet Virtual Worlds like MicroMuse. [Note: There are many dozens of Internet VRs similar to MicroMuse, but MicroMuse is the only one explicitly chartered as an Educational Muse. The others are mostly for social and game-play activities.] > Both I, the deaf students at my high school, and the facilitators > there would like to lead the school district into something as exciting > as VR technology...what are your thoughts? comments? skepticisms? First of all, let me encourage you in the strongest possible terms to take a leadership role in harnessing VR technology to deaf education. I will use what little influence I have to support and promote your project, and to keep you apprised of opportunities and technology advances that you might be able to exploit. > I appreciate the time. Thank you. Thank you, Amrit! I appreciate the opportunity to be of service. > Talk to you soon... > Amrit Hopefully on MicroMuse! > Amrit Chauhan (VOICE: 313/644-2971) -- The Hindu Love Gods BBS @ 313/644-0481 > ProLine: amritc@pro-hindugods | Better to be poor than be > Internet: amritc%pro-hindugods.cts.com@nosc.mil | a fat man in the eye of a > UUCP: pro-hindugods!amritc%ttardis@nosc.mil | needle... - Sting P.S. Would it be OK with you if I reposted this letter on KIDSNET, DEOS, and alt.education.disabled? Thanks. Regards, Barry Kort Visiting Scientist Educational Technology Research BBN Labs Cambridge, MA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hi Amrit, > I want to thank you for taking the time to respond. The people here at > the deaf ed department are very excited. I would most definitely like > you to repost this EVERWHERE you can and maybe include a message that > would ask people "in the know" to respond back to me at my e-mail address. OK. I'll do that. > It's really exciting to be involved with something so new and so > pioneering as VR technology. I am very excited to be able to get > involved with this, and the Internet. Things should take off from > here, and I'll start off the teachers in deaf ed with the book, and > we'll move from there. Whatever you can recommend me, I would be > very happy to hear and also would pursue it with the teachers and > the students involved. This is one of the most exciting things in > my entire high school career, except for hooking up to the Internet :-) > Lemme know anything else you can hook me up with, and sometime, maybe > we'll be able to talk on MicroMuse...matter of fact, the proposal has > flown and our whole district may be up by early next school year...I > know I'll be able to get onto telnet and then MicroMuse by at least > February, since that's only $10 a month for the school. Well, thanks > for the quick response, and I'm waiting to hear more. I'm very excited > about this...or haven't I told you that yet 8=) I appreciate your enthusiasm, Amrit. I hope it spreads to others in the educational community as a result of your efforts. By posting this on KidsNet and DEOS-L, you should get additional input and suggestions from other innovators in computer-mediated education, distance learning, and technologies for empowering all of America's young people equal access to network information services and educational experiences. > Amrit > Amrit Chauhan (VOICE: 313/644-2971) -- The Hindu Love Gods BBS @ 313/644-0481 > ProLine: amritc@pro-hindugods | Better to be poor than be > Internet: amritc%pro-hindugods.cts.com@nosc.mil | a fat man in the eye of a > UUCP: pro-hindugods!amritc%ttardis@nosc.mil | needle... - Sting Regards, Barry