Learning Center

Does Television Rot Your Brain? New Evidence from the Coleman Study

Heterogeneity is used in the timing of television's introduction to different local markets to identify the effect of preschool television exposure on standardized test scores later in life. The writers' preferred point estimate indicates that an additional year of preschool television exposure raises average test scores by about .02 standard deviations. Read Matthew Gentzkow's and Jesse Shapiro's article to learn more. January 2006.

Learning from Television: A Research Review

Traditionally, educators have perceived television as not particularly beneficial to literacy development. Concerns were fueled by findings suggesting that, with the introduction of television, people spend less time reading books, and reading scores decline. However, as our society is striving to make adjustments to the decline in literacy skills and new ways of learning and teaching are being explored, educators are becoming interested in exploring the educational potential of television and video for teaching basic literacy skills such as reading, writing, and math. By Babette Moeller, October 1996.

Learning with Technology: Evidence that Technology Can, and Does, Support Learning

"We've wired the schools—now what?" This question resonates with educators and troubles them at the same time. After countless local and national efforts have boosted the infrastructure of our schools, the significant issues now arise. Should we continue to pump money into educational technology for our schools? Do computers really help students learn? How can students and teachers best learn from the World Wide Web and its contents? James M. Marshall, Ph.D., touches upon these questions and many more. May 2002.

Introducing Captioned Media In The Early Years

In the March 2008 issue of the Clarke School's "Mainstream News," Information Outreach Specialist Melissa Griswold makes the case for captions in the classroom. In encouraging teachers to adopt captioned media early and often in their students' academic careers, Melissa references the varied and proven literacy benefits of captioning, directs readers to programs such as the DCMP, and includes useful tips for teachers and parents. (Reprinted with permission.)

Microcomputer Activities of the Special Materials Project

This article was originally written by Leonard Novick in 1983, published in the September 1983 edition of the American Annals of the Deaf, and presented at the Nebraska (Lincoln) Symposium. Mr. Novick was then Director of the Special Materials Project (SMP), a contracted activity of the U.S. Department of Education with the Associations for Education of the Deaf. To support the task of the SMP to circulate Educational Captioned Films nationwide through 58 depositories, he describes two microcomputer-based systems to enhance the cost-effectiveness of the project. FILMSHARE, an inter-depository loan system, made it possible for depositories to draw on one another's film collections for bookings they would otherwise be unable to make. BICS made it possible for SMP to manage a floating inventory of educational captioned films in each region of the United States. Both activities were extremely innovative for their time.

Canadian Network for Inclusive Cultural Exchange: Online Enhanced Captioning Guidelines

From Canada, these guidelines focus on how to caption for Web-based media items. Topics include the following: the current state of captioning on the Web, tools for captioning on the Web, plenty of visual examples, and a bibliography of educational references. Also includes information on Web-based description for the blind or visually impaired. (Companion document to the Canadian Network for Inclusive Cultural Exchange: General Guidelines for Inclusive Online Cultural Content.)

Canadian Network for Inclusive Cultural Exchange: General Guidelines for Inclusive Online Cultural Content

From Canada, these guidelines give a comprehensive review of existing web accessibility guidelines before beginning a discussion of accessibility techniques specific to online cultural content. The document outlines key considerations for creating inclusive online cultural content as well as for translating existing content to other modalities to make it accessible. Suggestions and guidance are provided to the reader around the concept of modality translation for each kind of translation specific to the online environment. Techniques for moving content between audio, visual, tactile and language modalities are discussed and explained at length. (Also see the companion document: Canadian Network for Inclusive Cultural Exchange: Online Enhanced Captioning Guidelines.)

Feasibility Study Relating To The Establishment Of A Descriptive Loan Service

Educational Captioning: Teachers Share Their Experiences

The following statements are teachers' testimonials of utilizing captioned educational media from the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP). Each teacher relates their experience using captioned media as a teaching tool in the classroom and why this accessible media is important in the education of students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

A Librarian's Viewpoint

[Editor's note: This article is archived. Some content may be outdated.]

Captioning Captures Captivated Audience

[Editor's note: This article was originally written in August 2004 when the DCMP was then the Captioned Media Program. This article has been archived in its original form.]

Captioning From a Native American Perspective

When the first Europeans arrived on the shores of the land that today is called America, they had no idea that the native people greeting them were citizens of only one of the over five hundred different nations that existed at the time. The customs, traditions, cultures and languages of these native people were as diverse as those of the Europeans. However, that was not the way the Spanish, French, English, and other colonizers saw it. To them, one Indian was the same as another.

Interpreters and the DCMP: They Help Busy Teachers

I am an interpreter in the Michigan public schools. When I began interpreting at the secondary school level in 1996, I discovered that the majority of our media center's video collection was NOT captioned, even though we were a large, urban school with a center-based deaf education program for many years! Since then I have moved into an elementary placement, where I discovered a similar lack of captioned media.

The CMP Captions Videos for the SignWriting Literacy Project

[Editor's note: This article was written in 2004 and has since been archived. Some of the information contained therein may be outdated. The CMP is now the DCMP.]

Deaf People are Patient People

[Editor's note: This article was written in 2004 and has since been archived. Some content may be outdated.]