LLU Live #4: Making and Using Transcriptions

writing, by jeffrey james pacres (via flickr). available under a creative commons license.

The theme for this week’s LLU Live episode, taking place today at 4pm Eastern, is audio and video transcriptions: both how to make them, and how to creatively incorporate them into your activities. Many schools treat audio and video transcriptions as a necessary evil, just something that has to be done to meet Section 508 accessibility standards for students with disabilities. Transcripts are indeed an important part of making sure everyone has the same basic level of access to your multimedia content, but they’re also useful for everyone in gaining a deeper understanding of the content, and can help students make connections they might not otherwise.

Today’s topic is inspired first by a question our colleague Sharon Scinicariello submitted to the LLTI listserv on Tuesday; second by the suggestions my colleagues Tim Owens and Andy Rush made that I included in my response to Sharon later that day; third from a question sent to me on Wednesday by Sue Fernsebner, an all-star faculty here at UMW, about transcribing audio from an interview; and fourth by a presentation about accessibility and UDL principles that my colleague Tim is giving today to UMW faculty involved in our OLI initiative. With that many related questions converging into a span of two days, it seems only appropriate that we have this conversation today … as Andy commented, “sometimes these things write themselves.”

Instructions for participating and/or watching are available on the Live Events page; the recording of the session is embedded below: