I am studying American Sign Language interpreting and ASL is a very visual language. Last year was my first year at college and, due to Covid, all of my classes were online. I was excited to finally go to school with other people studying ASL and getting to socialize and do some proactive signing.
Quick Backstory
Two or so years ago, I took ASL classes at a community college during my senior year. Having ASL in person makes it easy and fun to socialize with other classmates, ask questions, and participate in class discussions.
When I went to college last year and had my first online experience of ASL over zoom, I quickly realized ASL in person and over zoom were very different. My class had around 10 people in it. Not too bad, right? Well, for the purposes of Zoom, that is very wrong.
the struggles of asl on zoom
On Zoom, you have the option of seeing only the person speaking. The “speaker” either takes up your screen or you can pin someone to stay on your screen. Or, you can see your whole class (with no one pinned) in small squares on your screen. In general, when a person is singing, the person watching needs to be able to see the upper half of your body clearly. Your “singing box” per se. Well, when you have 10 or so small squares next to each other, being able to see each person clearly becomes difficult because everyone is so small and you can’t see their hands easily.
Then, if the class is big enough and there is a second page, you have to scroll to see the whole class. Or, as I said, you can have one main person on your screen the whole time. This then means everyone is on the top of your screen in a line and you have to look through the students to find the next person signing to follow the conversation, and so on.
My experience
What I dislike most about ASL over Zoom was the lack of freedom to sign in groups, chat with other classmates, and easily talk with the teacher. In in-person classes, you’re able to turn to the person next to you, raise your hand to ask a question and the whole class can follow what’s happening. Over Zoom, you’re lucky if the teacher sees you raising your literal hand or you can put up the animated hand option that Zoom gives you, then you have to wait for the teacher to notice.
For class discussions, instead of just looking around the room like in a normal conversation, you have to search on your screen to see who is signing and hope you don’t miss part of the conversation.
Limitations
In my opinion, singing for an hour and a half each week online versus in-person is immensely different and can either benefit or harm your skill. Not being able to sign outside of class easily to others or having to meet up over Zoom limits your ability to practice. Last year, I only signed during my online class that was once a week then barely signed outside of it. Learning new material over Zoom with a PowerPoint has the disadvantage of not being able to easily ask questions, or help each other out.
Being back in-person for ASL classes has been such a breath of fresh air. We’re able to catch up with each other, socialize, and share our stories.