Parent Information and Consent Form

eDescription Project: Parent Information and Consent Form

Date: ________________

Dear Parents,

As a parent of a visually impaired child and coordinator of the eDescription Project I am writing to you to tell you about an exciting opportunity to develop a better awareness of what your child gets out of the classroom materials. If you should decide to participate, your child's teacher will learn methods to refine their verbal description skills, and learn more about new technologies and their potential use in the classroom We expect your child and their teacher will enjoy the opportunity to help develop methods that will eventually impact educational opportunity for all students who are blind and visually impaired.

The purpose of the eDescription project is to evaluate new description methods and determine how well they help children who are blind and visually impaired learn concepts, content and vocabulary. The eDescription project is funded by a grant from the federal government, which is especially interested in technology innovations to help children with disabilities in school. We hope you will join us in this Project.

eDescription

Many of you may have viewed television or movies with description included. Through its National Center for Accessible Media, (NCAM), WGBH is seeking to expand and refine audio description techniques. This will make it possible to adapt curriculum materials to serve students who are blind and visually impaired more effectively. NCAM will build on the current research on cognition in children who are blind and visually impaired to create "eDescriptions."

eDescriptions will offer richly detailed information about visual content and will also provide supplemental information about context and explanation of concepts. Using new Web-based technology developed by NCAM, it will be possible to create and append long audio descriptions to portions of video or multimedia materials. In the near future this research may also help to guide descriptions used for the new digital talking book format.

The Curriculum: National Geographic

For testing eDescriptions effectiveness we will be using parts of Geokit- Human Body I, produced by National Geographic. The curriculum unit that has been chosen promotes a better understanding of how the systems of the body work together. We will be learning about the skeletal, muscular, digestive and respiratory systems, through the use of visual materials supplemented with audio eDescriptions.

Your Permission

We are seeking your permission for your child to potentially participate in helping to develop the eDescription methodology. In order to evaluate if your child meets the research protocol at this first stage of testing:

We need your permission for your child's teacher to fill out a student screening form that includes information on your child's vision and medical history, educational background, and learning strengths and areas for improvement.
If your child meets the protocol criteria, we need your permission for your child to view the eDescription materials and be tested on the content. This will take approximately 2 hours and will be held at a time and place that accommodates your child. The sessions will be video taped to better document your child's reactions and the effectiveness of the e-description materials on your child's understanding and retention.

Information collected here or in later stages of the project will not be identified with specific students. Use of identifying information would only be done with the written consent of the students parent or guardian. After the project ends we will present the results of eDescription research to other researchers and educators and we may want to show some of the video of lessons as well.

If you have questions about the project, please talk to your child's teacher or contact me directly.

Terry Maggiore M.Ed. COMS
eDescription Project Coordinator
(617) 300-3469
Email: terry_maggiore@wgbh.org

Rick Ely E.Ed. TVI
eDescription Project Manager
(617) 300-3401
Email: rick_ely@wgbh.org

Funding for this Project is provided by the U.S. Department Education through the Steppingstones of Technology Innovation for Students with Disabilities Program.

Return to teacher:
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I, __________________________, parent of ____________________________,

permit my child's teacher _________________________________ to fill out the student screening form in its entirety and submit it to WGBH for review. If my child is chosen, I permit WGBH to test my child before and after viewing the National Geographic unit, to videotape my child, and show video of my child at meetings of interested professionals. Selected segments may be used in promotional materials that include print, video, digital media, and on the NCAM Web site. All information will be confidential. Names will not be used.

Signature: ____________________________________________

Date: _________________________________________________