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Deaf studies students at Bristol Community College teach using social media - Fall River, MA - The Herald News
A group of deaf studies students at Bristol Community College is giving voice to five deaf advocates from more than a century ago through a medium those individuals never would have imagined: Facebook.
For two weeks during Deaf History Month, the students are taking the role of people like a co-founder of the American School for the Deaf, a man who advocated for a community just for deaf people, or a priest who conducted religious services in sign language.
It’s a much more effective way to teach the students about early pioneers in deaf history, said Sandy Lygren, deaf studies program director. It also helps others learn. Each of the five figures has at least a few dozen friends on Facebook, and they list personal background and post updates.
“Anyone who is interacting with them is learning about deaf history,” Lygren said. “I could have said, ‘Write a 10-page profile on them.’”
Students in the online deaf history course, which BCC holds every other spring, have taken the personas of people like Alice Cogswell, who was the first student at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Conn., the first school in the country for teaching the deaf. Cogswell was the only one of the five advocates who was deaf. None of the students in the course is deaf.
Cogswell, or more accurately, the student portraying her, says in her profile she likes sign language — and American Idol. She’s also posted comments about the poor start to the Red Sox’s season.
The two men who co-founded the American School for the Deaf, Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, are also being brought into 21st-century social networking. Olof Hanson, an advocate for the deaf who conducted religious services in sign language, ran into a particularly modern problem. He was born in 1862, so Facebook wouldn’t allow the age to be entered.
“Darn Facebook,” Hanson wrote.
The other pioneer, John Flournoy, was an American School for the Deaf graduate. He’s best known as an advocate for creating a community specially for the deaf.
Deaf History Month actually straddles two months to include two key dates in deaf history. It begins on March 13, when in 1988 the first deaf college president in America was named, at Gallaudet University in Washington. It ends on April 15, when the American School for the Deaf opened in 1817.
Read more: Deaf studies students at Bristol Community College teach using social media - Fall River, MA - The Herald News
A group of deaf studies students at Bristol Community College is giving voice to five deaf advocates from more than a century ago through a medium those individuals never would have imagined: Facebook.
For two weeks during Deaf History Month, the students are taking the role of people like a co-founder of the American School for the Deaf, a man who advocated for a community just for deaf people, or a priest who conducted religious services in sign language.
It’s a much more effective way to teach the students about early pioneers in deaf history, said Sandy Lygren, deaf studies program director. It also helps others learn. Each of the five figures has at least a few dozen friends on Facebook, and they list personal background and post updates.
“Anyone who is interacting with them is learning about deaf history,” Lygren said. “I could have said, ‘Write a 10-page profile on them.’”
Students in the online deaf history course, which BCC holds every other spring, have taken the personas of people like Alice Cogswell, who was the first student at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Conn., the first school in the country for teaching the deaf. Cogswell was the only one of the five advocates who was deaf. None of the students in the course is deaf.
Cogswell, or more accurately, the student portraying her, says in her profile she likes sign language — and American Idol. She’s also posted comments about the poor start to the Red Sox’s season.
The two men who co-founded the American School for the Deaf, Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, are also being brought into 21st-century social networking. Olof Hanson, an advocate for the deaf who conducted religious services in sign language, ran into a particularly modern problem. He was born in 1862, so Facebook wouldn’t allow the age to be entered.
“Darn Facebook,” Hanson wrote.
The other pioneer, John Flournoy, was an American School for the Deaf graduate. He’s best known as an advocate for creating a community specially for the deaf.
Deaf History Month actually straddles two months to include two key dates in deaf history. It begins on March 13, when in 1988 the first deaf college president in America was named, at Gallaudet University in Washington. It ends on April 15, when the American School for the Deaf opened in 1817.
Read more: Deaf studies students at Bristol Community College teach using social media - Fall River, MA - The Herald News