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Gallaudet University
Gallaudet University has been chosen as the site of a national science of learning center devoted to cultivating better understanding of visual language and visual learning, thanks to a large grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Specifically, the NSF has awarded Gallaudet $3.5 million over two years to establish the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2). The purpose of VL2 is to gain a greater understanding of the biological, cognitive, linguistic, socio-cultural, and pedagogical conditions that influence the acquisition of language and knowledge through the visual modality. If successful, NSF will fund an additional three years of VL2 at a level of $4 million per year. At the end of the five-year cycle, VL2 could receive another five-year grant at the level of $4 million per year. The total funding for VL2 could be $35.5 million over the next 10 years.
VL2 is one of six NSF Science of Learning Centers. Three of the centers were funded in October: VL2, The Temporal Dynamics of Learning, University of California, San Diego; and Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa. The other three centers were funded two years ago during the first round of competition: The LIFE Center, Learning in Informal and Formal Environments, University of Washington; CELEST: A Center for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology, Boston University; and Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, Carnegie Mellon University.
The VL2 proposal has been under development and review by NSF for more than three years. Under the leadership of the center’s director, Dr. Thomas Allen, dean of the Graduate School and Professional Programs, VL2 was first submitted as an NSF catalyst grant, designed to help universities prepare for the larger applications and establish inter-disciplinary and cross-university teams. As part of the catalyst award, Gallaudet sponsored a landmark meeting in April 2005 of deaf and hearing researchers from the disciplines of neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, computer science, hearing and speech science, and education. From this meeting a team of leading scientists and educators from these disciplines from around the country began to work on the proposal that has led to the granting of the award.
VL2 will be housed on campus, and will bring together deaf and hearing researchers and educators from a variety of disciplines to explore how deaf people acquire visual language and learn to read. Despite current theories of learning that assume a central role for speech and hearing for language acquisition and literacy development, deaf people effortlessly acquire visual (signed) languages and are able to learn how to read and write fluently. VL2 therefore challenges current theories and will contribute to the general knowledge of the science of learning. This knowledge will benefit both deaf and hearing learners.
In addition to drawing on the expertise of campus researchers, VL2 will collaborate with researchers from Georgetown and Rutgers Universities, the Universities of California-Davis, New Mexico, and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Boston University.
“This is a hugely significant grant, not only for Gallaudet University, but for the entire field of learning scientists, especially those who seek to understand processes of learning for visual learners,” said Allen. “Not only does VL2 have the potential to transform the science of learning, it will bring deaf researchers into the mainstream of scientific thought about learning and cognition, and, it will bring many esteemed hearing and deaf scholars to campus to interact with our community. Already, in its short life, VL2 has begun to break down barriers among deaf and hearing researchers, among scientists from different disciplines, and among researchers and practitioners in education. The dissolution of these disciplinary and human barriers is at the core of the NSF Science of Learning Center philosophy. When people holding different perspectives come together to discuss research, the science is improved.”
Allen is joined by a Scientific Management Team that includes: Administrative Director Carlene Thumann-Prezioso (Gallaudet); Science Directors David Corina (University of California at Davis) and Guinevere Eden (Georgetown University); Domain Leaders Marlon Kuntze (Boston University), Jenny Singleton (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Peter Hauser (National Technical Institute for the Deaf), Paul Dudis (Gallaudet), and Jill Morford (University of New Mexico),; Senior Consultant, Carol Padden (University of California at San Diego); Engineering Consultant Dimitris Metaxas (Rutgetrs University); Research-to-Practice Manager Steve Nover (Gallaudet); and Internal Evaluator Diane Clark (Gallaudet).
Gallaudet University has been chosen as the site of a national science of learning center devoted to cultivating better understanding of visual language and visual learning, thanks to a large grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Specifically, the NSF has awarded Gallaudet $3.5 million over two years to establish the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2). The purpose of VL2 is to gain a greater understanding of the biological, cognitive, linguistic, socio-cultural, and pedagogical conditions that influence the acquisition of language and knowledge through the visual modality. If successful, NSF will fund an additional three years of VL2 at a level of $4 million per year. At the end of the five-year cycle, VL2 could receive another five-year grant at the level of $4 million per year. The total funding for VL2 could be $35.5 million over the next 10 years.
VL2 is one of six NSF Science of Learning Centers. Three of the centers were funded in October: VL2, The Temporal Dynamics of Learning, University of California, San Diego; and Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa. The other three centers were funded two years ago during the first round of competition: The LIFE Center, Learning in Informal and Formal Environments, University of Washington; CELEST: A Center for Learning in Education, Science, and Technology, Boston University; and Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, Carnegie Mellon University.
The VL2 proposal has been under development and review by NSF for more than three years. Under the leadership of the center’s director, Dr. Thomas Allen, dean of the Graduate School and Professional Programs, VL2 was first submitted as an NSF catalyst grant, designed to help universities prepare for the larger applications and establish inter-disciplinary and cross-university teams. As part of the catalyst award, Gallaudet sponsored a landmark meeting in April 2005 of deaf and hearing researchers from the disciplines of neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, computer science, hearing and speech science, and education. From this meeting a team of leading scientists and educators from these disciplines from around the country began to work on the proposal that has led to the granting of the award.
VL2 will be housed on campus, and will bring together deaf and hearing researchers and educators from a variety of disciplines to explore how deaf people acquire visual language and learn to read. Despite current theories of learning that assume a central role for speech and hearing for language acquisition and literacy development, deaf people effortlessly acquire visual (signed) languages and are able to learn how to read and write fluently. VL2 therefore challenges current theories and will contribute to the general knowledge of the science of learning. This knowledge will benefit both deaf and hearing learners.
In addition to drawing on the expertise of campus researchers, VL2 will collaborate with researchers from Georgetown and Rutgers Universities, the Universities of California-Davis, New Mexico, and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Boston University.
“This is a hugely significant grant, not only for Gallaudet University, but for the entire field of learning scientists, especially those who seek to understand processes of learning for visual learners,” said Allen. “Not only does VL2 have the potential to transform the science of learning, it will bring deaf researchers into the mainstream of scientific thought about learning and cognition, and, it will bring many esteemed hearing and deaf scholars to campus to interact with our community. Already, in its short life, VL2 has begun to break down barriers among deaf and hearing researchers, among scientists from different disciplines, and among researchers and practitioners in education. The dissolution of these disciplinary and human barriers is at the core of the NSF Science of Learning Center philosophy. When people holding different perspectives come together to discuss research, the science is improved.”
Allen is joined by a Scientific Management Team that includes: Administrative Director Carlene Thumann-Prezioso (Gallaudet); Science Directors David Corina (University of California at Davis) and Guinevere Eden (Georgetown University); Domain Leaders Marlon Kuntze (Boston University), Jenny Singleton (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Peter Hauser (National Technical Institute for the Deaf), Paul Dudis (Gallaudet), and Jill Morford (University of New Mexico),; Senior Consultant, Carol Padden (University of California at San Diego); Engineering Consultant Dimitris Metaxas (Rutgetrs University); Research-to-Practice Manager Steve Nover (Gallaudet); and Internal Evaluator Diane Clark (Gallaudet).