Implementing Digital Video Movies for Teaching and Learning Sign Language Shigeru Narita, Ph.D. National Institute of Special Education, JAPAN The total communication approach can be enriched by using the sign language method as well as the oral-aural method and finger-spelling in the education for the deaf. It is obvious that hardcopy books, cards, and video tapes will be with us for many years to come in the education of the deaf. However, computer-based HyerText represents a powerful new idea. When combined with Macintosh, computer graphics, it represents an entirely new object with capabilities far beyond those of conventional sign language programs. There are problems with storage, distribution, lack of prerecorded video of sign langauge, cost and complexity of digitizing video, and more. Digitized video, photos, and graphics for the sign language program are storage-hungry elements. However, these limitations do not diminish the fact that QuickTime is an exciting enabling new technology worth learningand using. Three HyperCard based programs have been developed by this author and research fellows for use by students of sign language. The first was designated to be used in conjunction with a digitized video of sign language words and sentence construction for beginners. The second was built to be used in a class where learners need to know finger-spelling in a daily life situation. The third was made for helping learners to understand the background andorigin of each sign. Learners can take a step in the direction by starring in their own movies on the computer's screen using innovative technology dealing with video images and sounds. The new compression and decompression technology is affordable and versatile to make programs smaller and faster when a sign language video is being viewed on screen interactively. Using this new digitizing technology, learners can explore enormous amounts of visual information of sign language and become proactive visual learners. (This paper presented at 10th Anniversary International Conference on Special Education Technology January 21-23, 1993 at Hartford, Connecticut. )