language apps

[Mary Hermes]

We (Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia) have been working on a mobile app for Ojibwe with Transparent Language, it will be out in January, and free.  It is a nice looking electronic flashcard system with pronunciation practice etc.
We are making it from content in our software (Ojibwemodaa)  but just finished recording a very good Elder from Ft. Frances (Nancy Jones) to make lists that come from real conversations.. very interesting!

I am pretty sure this process could be repeated for other nations/ tribes.
In fact, the Menominee are doing the same things - we worked with them initially, 
they make their own content, and now going through Transparent to get the Moblie App released on Itunes
and then distributed. ( I think they keep their's private though).

The downside?  It is still translation/ literacy based-
it does have a place to put in short videos or images, instead of English translations-
this is is our next step. So it could be just Ojibwe audio to image...but how do we get that kind of precision
in images? "They are helping him" With a verb based language this seems to be the hurdle for a really effective App.

Sorry to go on so long! Can you tell I have papers to grade???
Thanks for asking! Interested to see what others are doing too! So nice to skip the computer.


Mary












On Dec 16, 2011, at 12:01 PM, Forger, Garry J - (gforger) wrote:

> Excuse me that I don't have extensive knowledge of this but thought this may be of interest.  
> 
> Many of you are probably familiar with Voice Thread http://voicethread.com/  web based system that lets you upload images and annotate with voice and text.  So you can have language learners annotate in the language of their choice. 
> 
> This is now available as an app for the iPad.  Not sure about android.  I think only for iPad2 since it has the camera, but works nice and worth checking out.  This is a generic language tool and of course not customized for a particular language. 
> 
> Garry Forger
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Phillip E Cash Cash
> Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011 12:52 PM
> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> Subject: [ILAT] language apps
> 
> Greetings ILAT folks,
> 
> A tribal community language teacher made an inquiry today and is asking the following question...
> 
> "Are there any language apps that can be used on Ipad 2 and Iphone?
> What are the names?"
> 
> This would be a good time for experienced ILAT members to provide a kind of informal up-to-date review of what is currently being used.
> Too, the question can include Android users as well. :)
> 
> I do wish to suggest that each response would be helpful if it can provide some insights on user experiences (either as an individual or
> group) and/or the language is it used for.  Much thanks in advance!
> 
> Phil
> UofA
>