By Ted Supalla and Betsy McDonald of Georgetown University
Dr. Ted Supalla will offer a Massive Open Online Course( MOOC) in the Summer of 2017, entitled: Sign Language Structure, Learning, and Change. The course is free of charge and offered through GeorgetownX in association with EdX. It is self-paced and entirely online. The target audience is the signing community and other interested community and scholarly participants. It is offered in sign language with voiceover for participants who are not fluent signers. Below is an excerpt from the Global. Georgetown. edu webpage:
The Sign Language MOOC is a four-week course about the history and usage of sign language taught in sign language— with a voiceover— by Ted Supalla, a professor in the Department of Neurology and the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery at the Georgetown University Medical Center.
“ There is a high need for a basic, accessible course delivered to signers which introduces them to the science of their own language,” said Supalla. He adds:“ Since it will also be accessible to non-signers, my hope is that it will expose this audience to the breadth and depth of discussions in American Sign Language in the fields of linguistics and the cognitive sciences. In viewing lectures and discussion sessions delivered in American Sign Language, the non-signing public will be able to gain exposure to the rich language and intellectual capital of the American deaf community”( https:// global. georgetown. edu / features / georgetown-hosts-edx-global-forum-promotes-global-online-education).
This course aims to integrate the history of ideas about Sign Language with historical and current research, using ASL as an example. Below is an example of a screen capture from a lecture, showing the format of the lecture.
Follow the progress of this course at: https:// cndls. georgetown. edu / projects / georgetownx / courses /# mooc The Power of ASL 9
Winter 2016 – Issue 4