"If they don't have access to learning a sign language that's already in existence, then a community of deaf people will find a way to communicate, " said Leanne Hinton, a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley.

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An additional 12, 000 or so sign up for distance-learning courses.

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So I hope that that's just the sign that the Senate majority leader is still learning the ropes of his new job.

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If it wants to work with multiple content providers on the other hand, there is a good bet it might work with a company like Education Elements, which is emerging as a leader in helping schools move to blended-learning models and offering a single sign-on software solution for schools so they can easily work with multiple content vendors.

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