Our work with Discovery en la Escuela has started!
Last December, Dicapta hosted its first Advisory Board meeting for the project “Captions and Video Description: Educational Tools for Hispanic Children with Disabilities,” funded by the Department of Education. The goal of the meeting was to make preparations for the research component of the project.
The purpose of our research is to gather evidence on the impact that use of captions and video description in the classroom has on the acquisition of reading and writing capabilities of children with hearing and vision disabilities.
Dr. Juanita Rodriguez, María Teresa Velasco, and Dr. Jaclyn Packer joined us in this first meeting. Dr. Rodríguez, from the University of Puerto Rico, is the Research Director for the project. She is an expert on special education and has devoted her professional career to the advancement of the education of deaf and deaf-blind children. María Teresa Velasco is the Director of the “Discovery en la Escuela” program. She provides us with resources and guidance on the training of teachers using the tools offered by the program. Dr. Jaclyn Packer is a researcher and expert on video description, who provides advice on topics related to the use of video description for the blind. Jo Ann McCann, from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the Department of Education, participated virtually to gain more insight into the teacher training and research components of the project.
Special education teachers in Puerto Rico will receive training in the use of Discovery en la Escuela videos and resources as well as in the use of videos with captions and video description in the classroom. During the meeting, our Advisory Board validated the components of the training.
Discovery en la Escuela is a program from Discovery Channel where teachers are trained on the use of educational videos in the classroom environment. The training comes with teacher guides that suggest activities to be used to reinforce the learning of new topics and abilities by the children.
We look forward to working with the special education teachers in Puerto Rico!