I am presenting two workshops at the RID Region V conference in Hawaii June 13–17: Lend me an ear. And a hand. And a black shirt: What you need to know about deaf-blind interpreting. Have you ever had consumers who asked you to “sign small” and “wear a black shirt”? If you have done video interpreting, chances [...]
President Barack Obama congratulating legislators and Stevie Wonder (Photo credit: theqspeaks)
Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro introduces former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney (R) at CEA HQ in Arlington, VA. 5/28/2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Don’t let the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Entertainment Software Association (ESA) persuade the FCC to exempt them from closed-captioning Internet video. Read the article below and click the links to read the actual petition; then, write to the FCC to uphold the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) that President Obama signed into law.
Trade groups hunt for online-video exemptions from disability-access rules – FierceOnlineVideo.
Teachers … are particularly beset by the temptation to tell what they know. … Yet no amount of information, whether of theory or fact, in itself improves insight and judgment or increases ability to act wisely.
—Charles Gragg, “Because Wisdom Can’t be Told,” 1940. In Wiggins, Grant; McTighe, Jay. Understanding by Design (Expanded Second Edition). Alexandria, VA, USA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. p 227. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/westernoregon/Doc?id=10081770&ppg=239
Google Inc, 谷歌美国总部 (Photo credit: Yang and Yun’s Album)
Naomi Black at Google headquarters invited Willie King, Jared Evans, Ben Rubin, Richard Goodrow, me, (and maybe others who couldn’t make it) to a Hangout On Air so she should show JAC Cook how Google’s videoconferencing technology works. We talked about some of the plusses (no pun intended) and minuses of Google+ HOA’s (Hangouts On Air, not Homeowners’ Associations). On the plus side, you have an attractive service and you don’t have to deal with firewalls; on the minus side, it is hard to have group talks in ASL when only one signer is in a big pane and all the others are in “thumbnails” in the “filmstrip” along the bottom of the screen. We discussed ways of moderating multi-signer videoconferences, such as having people hold up their hands when they want to talk and waiting to be called upon. Naomi reminded us you can select the thumbnail of the person you want to watch in the big pane, and a few of us recommended doing away with the screen-and-filmstrip layout and going to a more equally-sized multi-pane layout (or one where you can control the size of panes). Jared Evans & Willie King work at ZVRS and they said they would like to give Google some tips on more effective multi-point videoconferencing for signed language users.
The Brady Bunch opening grid, season one (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am glad that Google keeps seeking the opinions of the signing communities; I just hope they are willing to change the layout of Hangouts to a “Brady Bunch” grid format– or at least offer it as an alternate layout.
How about you? Does the current implementation of Google+ Hangouts work for you, or would you like to see changes made? Please leave your thoughts in comments below and/or send your feedback to Google! 
In response to The Professional Interpreter’s post Are professional conferences and organizations valuable? I replied:
I think that, in general, professional conferences are great! I don’t go to them all the time—one a year on average—but I always make some valuable personal/professional connections, and I always learn more about how to be better at what I do. For example, at the Conference of Interpreter Trainers in 2010, I met Miako (Villanueva) Rankin. We happened to chat at a lunch table, and now she is one of my master’s thesis committee members. Another example: I attended a Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf regional conference in 1998 and learned some life-changing lessons about participant-presenter interactions that have stayed with me both as a participant and a presenter of workshops.
I also think it helps to find more than one reason to go to a conference. When I attended the 2006 CIT conference in San Diego, it was a chance to visit my parents and friends in the city I had moved away from two years before. When I attended other conferences, such as the National Association of Black Interpreters (NAOBI), I was there as a presenter but I reveled in the warm welcome I received even though I am not black and I loved the festive atmosphere and cross-cultural exchange.
A conference is what you make it. If you can network and make friends and/or academic/professional relationships, combine both learning and teaching, and enjoy the city you’re visiting, I think a conference can be a great boon to one’s career.
P.S. I didn’t put all these links in my comment on The Professional Interpreter; I added them here.
Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Mystique by digitalnature.
