Multimedia Hearing Resources
By Judith Maginnis Kuster
The Internet has grown to include not only text information, but also numerous multimedia resources valuable to our discipline. To use these resources, extra (free) software may have to be downloaded to your computer, such as the following which have become pretty standard tools:
While searching for resources to augment my courses for spring semester, I uncovered many freely available online multimedia treasures about hearing and hearing loss which could be used as "assigned readings" or for classroom demonstrations. Clinicians working with clients who have hearing loss may also find many of these resources valuable. The following are a few of the many examples uncovered:Images
An online atlas of video otoscopy images by Roy Sullivan contains hundreds of full-color images that would be prohibitively expensive to include in a text
Powerpoint presentations
Lecture outlines from Rochelle Newman, University of Maryland are in .pdf format. The lectures related to hearing are Powerpoint outlines with accompanying pictures.
Francis Quinn's Grand Rounds archive is part of an Otolaryngology training program Scanning the submissions from 2001-2002 uncovers several hearing-related Powerpoint programs to accompany full-text articles.
Accommodating Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students is a Powerpoint program by Jennie Bourgeois that could be adapted for either classroom instruction or for educating teachers and parent groups.
The National Center on Deafness has several excellent Powerpoint training modules
Audio online
About the PRAXIS Exam has a series of short "audio lectures" by Bernard Russow including a variety of hearing-related topics.
Videos Online
BioInteractive.org is an amazing site housing is a series of lectures sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Check The Science of Sound -- How Hearing Happens, a lecture by A. James Hudspeth.
Jim Fitch's online course in Communication Disorders contains a video-streamed Modified Utley Lipreading Test and a video interview with a .
The National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Web site has several materials that can be used with children including three Quicktime videos:
The ASL browser from the Michigan State University Communication Technology Laboratory uses QuickTime to make available videos of thousands of ASL signs.
Interactive Sites and Free Software
The American Sign Language Fingerspelling site contains a Fingerspelling Dictionary, a Fingerspelling Converter and a Fingerspelling Quiz as well as a downloadable tutorial (for Macintosh) that will fingerspell whatever you type into the message box.
ASL fonts are available for both Windows and Macintosh computers.
The NIDCD Web site contains An Interactive quiz about hearing and an Interactive Sound Ruler - How loud is too loud
Clinicians could adapt listening activities such as Simon Says Deluxe (for Macintosh) which combines listening and visual clues and The Sounds Game which is available online or can be downloaded for Windows for auditory training.
Judith Kuster is in the department of speech, hearing, and rehabilitation services at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Contact her by email at judith.kuster@mnsu.edu. All of Kuster’s Internet columns are on the ASHA Web site in HTML format with active links although URLs change and there is no guarantee that links from previous articles are still functional.