Children, Australian Sign Language and the Web; The Possibilities

Kirsten Ellis, Lecturer, School of Multimedia Systems, Monash University, Berwick, 3806. Email: kirsten.ellis@infotech.monash.edu.au

Professor Kathy Blashki, Professor of Multimedia, Deakin University, Email: kblashki@deakin.edu.au

Keywords

Multimedia Learning, Sign Language, Auslan, Children Learning.

Abstract

This paper examines the advantages of using the World Wide Web (Web) as a resource to teach hearing primary aged children Australian Sign Language (Auslan). There is a trend towards educating signing deaf children in mainstream schools, therefore it is important to teach the hearing children sign language to enable meaningful communication and the formation of social relationships between hearing and deaf students. The authors will compare various methods of teaching sign language with the Web and further describe a selection of the available instructional material. Considerations for designing appropriate sign language teaching material for the Web are discussed particularly in the context of designing content that engages the primary school aged audience.