Supporting past workshop participants

Sh’mae pawb!

Two years after our Regional Technology Workshop hosted by the Seminole Nation in Hollywood, Florida, ILI and our worshop’s participants are still working together to ensure successful language revitalisation. It is one of ILI’s expressed goals to provide continuing services and support in the fields of language maintenance, education, and technology.

Back in the spring of 2007, ILI / Languagegeek prepared Native-language keyboard software for use by the participants at the regional workshop. Over the three day period in Florida, we consulted each of the (X NUMBER) language groups attending about the efficacy of the keyboards and fonts: were any letters missing, were any letters no longer part of the practical orthography, were some of the characters in need of re-design, etc. In at least two cases, the keyboards provided free by Languagegeek served as the springboard to developing the first experimental orthographies for those Native languages, and before the three days were up, all participants were quickly and easily typing in their preferred writing system.

It is always a pleasure to speak to friends I met as an instructor at the Regional Technology Workshops, so it was great to hear this week from the Elaponke-Ahfachkee language teachers from southern Florida. It turns out that ILI’s Desktop Publishing training in combination with the Languagegeek fonts and keyboards have made producing materials in the language so much easier than before, and that a curriculum including textbooks, worksheets, displays, and other classroom materials have been developed and will be implemented this coming school year.

There was also a question as to whether Elaponke-Ahfachkee language support could also be provided for the Mac OS X. The answer was, of course, yes. I designed the Mac-specific software soon after that phone call, and helped the IT department with the installation procedure two days later.

For all those who have been to an ILI workshop in the past, please don’t forget that part of the ILI experience is providing on-going support (technical or otherwise) to our fellow language teachers, students, and activists. Technology is ubiquitous in the world today, and the more Native language we can put onto modern media, the more immersed the learners and speakers can be.

Daliwch i siarad eich ieithoedd chi, a pheidiwch ag anghofio ei defnyddio hi bob dydd, os byddwch chi’n rhugl neu ddysgu!

Chris Harvey