It has finally become time to wrap up my learning project! I started off this project knowing how to sign the majority of the alphabet and how to sign O’ Canada. I also started this journey thinking there were three main resources I could use to help me: Marlee Signs, ASL Bloom, and YouTube. I was very excited about learning American Sign Language; however, I will admit I was slightly overwhelmed with trying to find new resources. In the past when I had attempted to learn, the majority of the resources I was able to find were focused on teaching baby signs. While I can definitely see the benefit of…

In continuation with my exploration last week, I decided to see what other applications there were that combine artificial intelligence and American Sign Language. I found an article in Forbes written by Steven Aquino that discusses a competition held by Google. The purpose of the competition was to help increase the available supports for hearing parents of children that are a part of the deaf or hard of hearing community. It was also meant to help increase the accessibility of technology for people that are deaf or hard of hearing. One project that they were working on was developing a sign to text application using fingerspelling. Often times it is much…

Last week I looked into how American Sign Language can be used in coding. This, in combination with our in-class discussions got me wondering about how artificial intelligence has incorporated ASL. I will admit that I had big dreams, but low hopes when I set out to find out more. I was hopeful that there was an AI application out there that allows people to practice their ability to communicate using ASL. I really want to have more practice having conversations before I attempt signing with someone who uses ASL as their first language. Based on the videos that I have seen, I am not quite skilled enough to understand…

My other blog post this week focused on coding and its applications in the classroom. This got me thinking about American Sign Language and how it relates to coding. I was particularly interested because I have mentioned in my other posts ASL is its very own language separate from English yet, many coding languages are in written English. Some people who use ASL as their first language do not read English nor should they be required to considering that it is not their first language. This got me interested in what technology is out there for programmers that use ASL. In my search I was not able to find anything…

I started this project with a few resources in mind that I wanted to test out. This week was the first time where I was feeling stumped as to what resources I was going to use. Thank goodness for the internet! I found a website that lists and describes six resources to learn American Sign Language. As I was reading, I became interested in the ASL University, however as I continued to read, I realized that it may be a little too advanced for where I am at in my learning. Instead, I decided to try Start ASL because it teaches more of the basics in vocabulary and grammar. The…

Last week I felt like I made some tremendous strides towards my goal of learning enough American Sign Language to be able to have an introductory conversation with someone. This week I decided I would have a little fun and try to learn a nursery rhyme in ASL. I thought that this would be a fun way to engage a class in learning because I could make learning a song a tactile activity. This was an enlightening experience in my lack of understanding for ASL. I planned to utilize YouTube again this week because I felt it should be as easy as searching for ASL nursery rhymes. I tried this…

This week I used two new technologies. I used Movie Zilla to record my video. I loved this program! I found it very easy to use and I loved that you can record videos right through the application. Before this one I downloaded a couple other video editing programs and they are just meant for you to edit previous recorded videos. This might work for some people, but I found it nice not to have to transfer video clips from my phone to my computer. Another amazing feature was that you can record your screen, your webcam, or just audio.  My only complaint is that because I do not pay…

Hello! This week I explored YouTube to learn some more ASL while also exploring Zoom as a recording platform. In the end I also got to try my hand at uploading something to YouTube on my own as opposed to an editing app doing it for me. I originally planned to test a Chrome extension for screen recording, however I became hesitant to add it because I use my laptop for important emails and things like banking. It felt uncomfortable to add an extension that is meant to record your screen when I though about the fact that I would never really know if the recording has stopped when I…

This week I have utilized Instagram as the focus of my exploration into American Sign Language. I find this to be a really interesting resource, however one does have to be cautious when using this just like any resource. It is important to be weary about the people and pages that you choose to follow. There are hearing people that share information about ASL on this site. While this is not necessarily a bad thing it is important to note that these people may not completely understand the signs that they are sharing. They may not recognize the key features of a sign that go beyond just the hand movements.…

This week I started my American Sign Language journey by exploring the ASL Bloom app. This was interesting because I discovered that you only have access to three courses before you are asked to register for an annual subscription. This was extremely disappointing because the app opens by saying that its intent is to share ASL with a larger audience. I did expect that they would want you to subscribe to open more courses at some point, however seeing the number of possible courses there are to take it is disheartening to know that they only allow you to access three of them for free. With all of that being…