Technology
The technology program at Bruce Street School has been recognized throughout the State and has been featured on television, as well as in national publications. No other program servicing the hearing-impaired in New Jersey offers the technology education and advantages of Bruce Street School for the Deaf. Bruce Street School students are immersed in technology from the minute they enter the program. Since the world these deaf children will inherit will be based in technology and since technology is a prerequisite for success even in our society today, Bruce Street's goal is to enable all of its students to utilize all the tools of technology to explore and widen their world and to become successful adults in the 21st century.
To that end web-connected computers are available to all students in all classrooms, as well as in the multimedia computer lab. Computers are networked and each station allows students access to the Internet through a high-speed connection. Student-to-computer ratio is almost one-to-one. Students are involved in Web 2.0 projects and routinely use the Internet for research. Students produce multimedia projects in subject areas across the curriculum, including television news shows and digital story-telling. Students are actively involved in telecommunications projects and communicate with other students from across the United States and in other countries.
Students also have access to high-speed video relay services provided by Hands-On Video Relay Service, Inc. (HORVS). Hands On Video Relay Services, Inc. (HOVRS) provides new communication tools that allow the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community to communicate through American Sign Language. HOVRS uses the Internet to provide an audio/video link to a qualified, certified Video Interpreter who interprets between the visual language of ASL and the auditory language of a hearing person. HOVRS can contact hearing people anywhere through a standard dial-up telephone number.
Students participate in piloting Signing Avatar software in the area of Science. Students use the Signing Science Dictionary, as well as participating with non-disabled peers across the country in online science studies as part of the EnViSci Network.
Students graduate from Bruce Street School for the Deaf prepared to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.