Deaf-sighted, deaf-blind, and hearing-sighted people have been interacting within a small community in the Bay Islands of Honduras for over a century (Ali 2023; Ali and Braithwaite 2020). In this article, we sketch the history of the community and the ways in which signers make use of their own and their interlocutor's bodies to co-construct…

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Fundamentals of Human Communication, Communication Theory, Public Speaking, and Intercultural Communication. Objectives: After completing this single-class activity, students will be able to (1) describe how meaning is created through symbolic interaction, (2) explain how the self is created through symbolic…

Purpose: Families and professionals often consider augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) a "last resort" for persons with communication challenges; however, speaking autistic adults have reported that they would have benefited from access to AAC as children. This tutorial discusses the history of this "last resort"…

Genuine instances of communication are multimodal in nature. Thus, important aspects of effective communication such as gestures, facial expression, visual context, or interpersonal distance, are usually present in listening events and participate in the communicative act, creating a given multimodal message. The Common European Framework of…

Communicating with students is one of the most important responsibilities for faculty in an online course. It can also be a puzzling process. Having a "communication plan" and understanding effective email strategies, along with proper timing and frequency of communicating with students, are all important pieces of this puzzle. We…

Students' relationships with their peers, teachers, and communities influence the ways in which they approach learning activities and the degree to which they benefit from them. Learning technologies, ranging from humanoid robots to text-based prompts on a computer screen, have a similar social influence on students. We envision a future in which…

In this unit activity, students understand that social presence-one's ability to project a personality through computer-mediated communication-is critical for creating an effective online learning environment (Christen, Kelly, Fall, & Snyder, in press; Jorgensen, 2002; Kehrwald, 2010; O'Sullivan, Hunt, & Lippert, 2004). Without…

Facilitating meaningful interaction among students is a significant challenge of teaching in the online environment. This paper presents a semester-long approach that enables quality interaction among group members within undergraduate online group communication courses while experiencing the challenges of working with geographically dispersed…

The Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) common data vocabulary supports the collection and use of information about virtual and blended learning. The data element "Virtual Indicator", introduced in version 3 of CEDS, supports a range of virtual learning-related use cases. The Virtual Indicator element may be related to a Course…

Electronic technologies are playing an increasing role in mediating patterns of social interaction within the classroom. This trend includes augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems like light-weight smart tablets. AAC in general has proven effective for many children in regard to decreasing challenging behavior, enabling…

A dual language learner (DLL) is a young child who is exposed to and is acquiring two or more languages. Multilingualism is common worldwide, and even in countries like the United States, the number of young children who are DLLs is rising rapidly (Goldstein, 2011; Toppelberg, Snow, & Tager-Flusberg, 1999). The purpose of this article is to:…

Children with complex and severe communication impairments often cannot meet their communication needs with their natural voice and may require the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). There are many communication and learning challenges facing children who use AAC; however, using AAC for social communication is especially…

In this article we outline our previous implementations of multilingual multimedia dictionaries and discuss possibilities for adding new functionalities and expanding their coverage. Independently developed sign language dictionary resources are further explored and considered for inclusion in an integrated multilingual multimedia dictionary with…

This article describes the formation of a pedagogy-focused online discussion group for middle school mathematics teachers. Advice is offered for those seeking to establish similar conversations among their colleagues.

Educators are continuously faced with a wide range of communication challenges. Only by self-examining one's own approaches to interpersonal communication and being willing to improve can one put better communication to work in meeting those challenges--whether they are part of one's personal or professional life. Four principles are addressed…