I’m not entirely sure how I’d like to focus my research yet. Generally, I’m interested how educational technology is being used to support language education/revitalization indigenous communities. One topic I’m considering is whether or not learning through technology might promote language use in authentic settings (home, community). I’m also curious how indigenous groups involved in language revitalization/education are using language learning through technology to complement in-person language lessons in the classroom.
1.Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program. (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2017, from https://www.chickasaw.net/Services/Chickasaw-Language-Revitalization-Program.aspx
The Chichasaw Language Revitalization program includes in-person activities such as a language club and in-person language classes. However, the Chickasaw people have also engaged technology to preserve and teach their language. The Chickasaw Language Revitalization program has spearheaded the creation of a Chickasaw language app. They have collaborated with Rosetta stone, a well-known language software company, to create online language lessons, which are free to all Chickasaw citizens and their immediate family members.
2. Hermes, M., & King, K. A. (2013). Ojibwe language revitalization, multimedia technology, and family language learning. http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/24513/Hermes%20King.pdf?sequence=1
This is a study describing 2 urban indigenous families using language software to learn Ojibwe at home. It was found that the software could be a helpful tool to using the Ojibwe at home, and could help motivate youth and families to speak Ojibwe in authentic settings outside of the classroom.
3. How technology and education can help preserve aboriginal languages. (2016, August 23). Retrieved May 25, 2017, from http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/shared-values/how-technology-and-education-can-help-preserve-aboriginal-languages
This article is about the work down by the Seven Generations Education Institute, a 30 year old organization run by 10 First Nations in Ontario, in collaboration with Ojibwe communities in North Western Ontario. They are working together to preserve indigenous languages. For example they have created a series of children’s books in Anishinaabemowin, a local indigenous language. The cover of the books can by captured by iPhone and the children can hear an oral version of the story. This allows children to learn heritage language through technology that they are used to using in the 21st century. The Seven Generations Education Institute has also produced books in Maliseet, Mi’kmaw, and Cree.
4. McEwan, T. (2017, March 09). Preserving an Indigenous language? There’s an app for that. Retrieved May 29, 2017, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/cree-athabasca-app-mobile-language-1.4016553
This article is about the ATC Cree phone app, created by the Athabasca Tribal Council with the aim of preserving the Cree language dialect of Norrteastern Alberta. The app plays pronunciation of Cree words, and also translates them into English. Cree students take language classes at school, but the hope is that this app will appeal to them as technologically savvy young people, and encourage them to speak Cree at home and generally outside of the classroom.
5. 21st century tools for indigenous languages. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2017, from http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/
The Alberta Language Technology Lab at the University Alberta creates a variet of tools such as dictionaries, language, teaching and Learning software, and text to speech synthesizers. They are using Plains Cree as their spearhead language but aim to produce resources for other indigenous languages as well. Through the production of these technological tools, the Lab aims to help people speak minority languages in all aspects of their lives.