Signed Multimedia Storybooks -- Interactive Vocabulary Instruction

2010 Technology and Deaf Education Symposium
Signed Multmedia Storybooks -- Interactive Vocabulary Instruction (M3A)
Emily Whiteside, Muscogee County School District and Valdosta State University

Take Aways:
Available Symposium Resources: Paper, slideshow, handouts, photos, verbatim captions.

OK, so this was my presentation. My main take away was this: don't keep what you have learned through hard work to yourself. Others want to know, and in sharing what you know, you may just meet some very interesting people who will share what they know with you. 


Take aways for you: the symposium paper gives the most complete information about the research, while the slideshow probably gives a better feel for the multimedia storybooks that I developed for the study. Both are linked above.

This study investigated the influences of signed multimedia storybooks on the receptive vocabulary skills, attitudes, and experiences of elementary aged hard of hearing students. Five multimedia storybooks built in Microsoft PowerPoint introduced 25 vocabulary words to students. Signed multimedia storybooks are hyperlinked, digital learning environments with animated videos of published books, multimedia instructional activities and games, and live-action video sign language interpretation.


Fifteen students enrolled in the Hard of Hearing and Speech/Language programs at a small elementary school in a medium-sized Georgia city participated in the five-week intervention. Two pretest/posttest measures addressed vocabulary achievement. A Likert-style survey measured student attitudes, and a teacher journal documented student experiences. Students showed significant improvement on the two measures of receptive vocabulary skills.


Positive student experiences, including engagement, group interaction, communication, and media interaction, increased with student activity choice and use of game-like activities. Negative experiences increased with teacher choice of activity, length and linguistic complexity of videos, competition among group members, and with technical difficulties. Student attitudes to all multimedia, sign language, and vocabulary statements were positive.


Like to try your hand at producing your own multimedia storybook without all the bother of creating the structure? You are most welcomed to download my template at Slideshare, but please remember to attribute that portion of the work to me. Definitely a time-saver.

Access more blog postings.of more symposium sessions (scroll to bottom of linked blog posting).