Foreword

ROBERT E. STEPP, JR., is Project Director of the Educational Media Production Project for the Hearing Impaired; Director of the Barkley Memorial Center ; and Professor, Educational Administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Previously, he was Project Director, Media Development Project for the Hearing Impaired (1977-1980); Director of the Specialized Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (1974-1977); Director of the Midwest Regional Media Center for the Deaf (1966-1974); Director of the University Bureau of Audiovisual Administration; and Assistant Director of the Extension Division, all at UNL. Dr. Stepp has an A.B. from Central College (Missouri), an M. A. from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has been active in both state and national audiovisual organizations. As an author, speaker, consultant, and media specialist, his involvements in the education of the deaf are numerous. FOREWORD Robert E. Stepp, Jr. The 16th Symposium on Research and Utilization of Educational Media for Teaching the Deaf was held on March 21,22, and 23,1983, at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education in Lincoln. This conference was sponsored by the Captioning and Adaptations Branch, Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, and the Educational Media Production Project for the Hearing Impaired, Barkley Memorial Center, Teachers College, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Captioning and Adaptations Branch is charged by law to develop and distribute educational media and to promote the use of educational technology in programs for the hearing impaired. The Educational Media Production Project for the Hearing Impaired, which cosponsors this symposium, is supported by this branch. Each year since 1965, except for the period 19751977 , the conference has been held at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The topics have been current with changing technology. The Captioning and Adaptations Branch, known by many different organizational titles, was founded in 1958 to caption films in the broad areas of education and entertainment. Over the years this role and assignment has changed and expanded. Probably the most significant characteristic is the fact that the Branch has been on the forefront in applying communication technology to the education of the hearing impaired. In the late 1960s Captioned Films was a recogA .A.D. / September 1983 511 Foreword nized leader in the use of transparencies for the overhead projector and 8-mm films in cartridges . Many of the materials developed in those years are still being used today, soon to be 20 years later. Another breakthrough came with the advocacy of closed-circuit television in schools for the deaf. This was followed by the schools' acquiring videotape recorders for ease of local production and captioning. Many schools are now able to produce materials in a wide array of formats. In 1979 a unique system for an exchange of programs and information by satellite transmission was demonstrated. Educators of the deaf in Washington, D.C., interacted with the project staff in Lincoln by means of two-way video. Direct communication was possible through both a visual and an audio track. Another example of the Branch's leadership was the funding of a project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop and explore the use of the videodisc in educational programs for the hearing impaired. In 1978, 10 discs were produced; at that time very few agencies in the United States had such capabilities and knowhow . One unique development was the marriage of a TRS-80 microcomputer to an MCA DiscoVision videodisc, which permitted the application of programmed learning branching techniques. More recently the efforts of the Captioning and Adaptations Branch have resulted in the development of a closed-captioned decoder that permits the deaf viewer to see captions of selected commercial television programs—long a dream of hearing-impaired people. From the first symposium, the program had been planned for administrators, supervisors, media specialists, and college educators. The plan was to reach the decision makers and, through the years, keep them abreast of the current and future applications of technology in teaching hearing-impaired students. The 1980 conference was a departure from this plan. The program was designed for supervisors , teachers, and media specialists. The keynote...