Kuiggluk Language Program
The situation and needs analysis was done collaboratively with my boss, my workmate, and myself last week.
Language program focus:
Our focus is to preserve and teach our cultural activities to our students and to strengthen and preserve our cultural knowledge.
Language situation:
There is a language gap between each generation in this community.
There is a gap between the elders (roughly between ages 90-65) and the ones after them (roughly between ages 64-40), the elder’s children. Then the ones after them (roughly between ages 39-27) and then the young adults (roughly between the ages 26-18), and then there is a definite language gap between the two age groups of high school and the elementary school age groups. The high school and elementary students are all mostly English speakers, but they all understand well Yugtun.
Cultural situation:
We are losing our culture faster than we are losing our language. We know that our language will follow our cultural loss.
Need Analysis:
We want to document (audio/video) the cultural knowledge from elders before they pass away and the knowledge is lost.
We want to use these documents to create:
- Curriculum components – language activities (K-12) books, stories
- cultural activities (K-12)
- Documentary videos
- Other archive necessary to make books, histories of families
We would like to do all these to protect and extend the knowledge base.
Technology component: We would need the following equipment
1. digital audio recording devices (4 of them)
2. digital video recording devices
3. 2-3 CCD or equivalent
4. 4 single CCD or equivalent
5. Computers
a. 4- work stations – audio/video processing
b. Classroom kits (6 laptops each) for 4 labs, total.
6. Green Screen
7. Inexpensive digital video camera
8. Still digital camera
9. Color laser printer (11X17)
10. Paper
11. DVD duplicator
12. Audio CD duplicator
13. Jason Ohler’s Digital Storytelling Books
14. An analogue audio to digital converter
15. An analogue video to digital converter
We would also need the following expense components:
1. stipends to pay local experts (4 person – regular people)
2. a budget for purchasing material for cultural activities
3. money to pay Jason Ohler to come out to train students and staff in digital storytelling
4. chest freezer
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Words As Big As The Screen: Native American Languages and the Internet
The first two pages about the important date being written in Navajo language reminded me of the topic we once talked about in the Policy class this past summer of why some indigenous linguists do not want their language to be written. The reason came to me, probably because they don't want their language to be "influenced" or "changed" or "diluted" by other languages. "...as the oral tradition is what safeguards the truth." (McHenry, p. 2) This is one part of the issue with "safeguarding the truth." The other end would be? What about our children? If the language isn't written, how and who would pass on this knowledge? For this reason, I am glad that our language is written for everyone to learn about and so that our children would also learn the language and the oral history of it.
Page 3: I agree with Dick Littlebear: "We must quit endlessly lamenting and continuously cataloguing the causes of language death; instead, we must now deal with these issues by learning from successful language preservation efforts" (1996, p. xv.).
The reason is because our language is disappearing at such a fast rate, there is no time to ponder why we are losing our language. Instead, we should deal with it the best way we can and move on to teach our next generation the language before all our elders are gone.
There is discussion about different language maintenance and preservation efforts in LKSD. I like what we are doing in this area. Although it is not enough, we can continue to do what we are doing and we can pass the word on to community members that our language is disappearing and that we, educators, need their help too. If the efforts to keep our language strong and going, we need to spread the word to "start speaking more Yugtun to all the community members.
If we used the computer technology to teach and use the Yugtun language, it would be good for our children because they are so much into using the computers and the internet. By creating websites and recording stories and recreating them through technology, then they would be forced to hear, read, write, and speak the language. This is a good tool to get the students to learn the language. Once a website or stories are created, then these could be used by the younger children as "aids" in teaching the language as well as computer-skills.
Page 3: I agree with Dick Littlebear: "We must quit endlessly lamenting and continuously cataloguing the causes of language death; instead, we must now deal with these issues by learning from successful language preservation efforts" (1996, p. xv.).
The reason is because our language is disappearing at such a fast rate, there is no time to ponder why we are losing our language. Instead, we should deal with it the best way we can and move on to teach our next generation the language before all our elders are gone.
There is discussion about different language maintenance and preservation efforts in LKSD. I like what we are doing in this area. Although it is not enough, we can continue to do what we are doing and we can pass the word on to community members that our language is disappearing and that we, educators, need their help too. If the efforts to keep our language strong and going, we need to spread the word to "start speaking more Yugtun to all the community members.
If we used the computer technology to teach and use the Yugtun language, it would be good for our children because they are so much into using the computers and the internet. By creating websites and recording stories and recreating them through technology, then they would be forced to hear, read, write, and speak the language. This is a good tool to get the students to learn the language. Once a website or stories are created, then these could be used by the younger children as "aids" in teaching the language as well as computer-skills.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sally Samson's Synthesis & Application
I really enjoyed reading Sally's paper.
Sound like, from her paper, she had a wonderful time putting the power point together for her students as well as her parents. It's easy to read and applicable for first time power point creators.
As I read the "Jeaopardy" game part, I thought that I could create a game for my students using the high frequency words as the questions and the words for the answer. Or does it go the other way around? This would be good for my students since they are older than the kindergarten students that Sally made for. This would be good for my students too for common Yugtun words that they need to know or should already know, but need more practice on.
She goes on to explain in detail the pros and cons of power points and their useful/non-useful features. The important thing to remember when making a power point presentation is to "engage" the students in what they will be interested in learning and what is useful for them. If the presentation is not engaging, just like in classroom lessons, the learners may become passive learners. That is one thing to be conscious about making these computer lessons for the language learners.
Computer technology can be a valuable tool to teach second language learners, if we make them engaging and fun for the students. This could be helpful for reading, writing, listening, and speaking for our second language learners in addition to human resources. These lessons, what we develop using the computer could be useful in many ways.
For example, if I made more computer task activities for our language learners, this could be helpful for a center activity.
It could also be useful as a positive reward activity. Since we have never used the computer in class, the students who are doing well in class, I could have them do an activity as a reward for speaking the language, for working extra hard, etc.
I could also use the computer to make more lessons for our Upingaurluta units, for speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities. If I learned more features on the computer, the lessons I make could be invaluable for our language program. This is exciting for our program. The more I learn using the computer as a tool for our program, the ideas multiply and the lessons will be fun and exciting for our technologically-inclined students.
Although our Yugtun language is oral, using technology to teach the language will be beneficial to our students because now a days, the students know more about technology than ever before. We could record our elders, record and present traditional stories and make them into shows and or interactive lessons using cds, etc. The possibilities become endless as we learn more and more about technology in the classroom.
Sound like, from her paper, she had a wonderful time putting the power point together for her students as well as her parents. It's easy to read and applicable for first time power point creators.
As I read the "Jeaopardy" game part, I thought that I could create a game for my students using the high frequency words as the questions and the words for the answer. Or does it go the other way around? This would be good for my students since they are older than the kindergarten students that Sally made for. This would be good for my students too for common Yugtun words that they need to know or should already know, but need more practice on.
She goes on to explain in detail the pros and cons of power points and their useful/non-useful features. The important thing to remember when making a power point presentation is to "engage" the students in what they will be interested in learning and what is useful for them. If the presentation is not engaging, just like in classroom lessons, the learners may become passive learners. That is one thing to be conscious about making these computer lessons for the language learners.
Computer technology can be a valuable tool to teach second language learners, if we make them engaging and fun for the students. This could be helpful for reading, writing, listening, and speaking for our second language learners in addition to human resources. These lessons, what we develop using the computer could be useful in many ways.
For example, if I made more computer task activities for our language learners, this could be helpful for a center activity.
It could also be useful as a positive reward activity. Since we have never used the computer in class, the students who are doing well in class, I could have them do an activity as a reward for speaking the language, for working extra hard, etc.
I could also use the computer to make more lessons for our Upingaurluta units, for speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities. If I learned more features on the computer, the lessons I make could be invaluable for our language program. This is exciting for our program. The more I learn using the computer as a tool for our program, the ideas multiply and the lessons will be fun and exciting for our technologically-inclined students.
Although our Yugtun language is oral, using technology to teach the language will be beneficial to our students because now a days, the students know more about technology than ever before. We could record our elders, record and present traditional stories and make them into shows and or interactive lessons using cds, etc. The possibilities become endless as we learn more and more about technology in the classroom.
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