Info Request

Tue Mar 7 19:05:38 UTC 2006

Andre, have you looked to see what the Western Band Cherokee are doing?
http://www.cherokee.org Recently, they added an interactive component to the
online courses with audio and video interactivity. I've been taking their
free online course for two terms now. The presentation is visual and
auditory, with slides. You can chat with classmates and ask the teacher
questions. The software is Avanacast from their end, and the learner just
needs Flash or Shock Wave. They support this with copies of lessons and an
online learning community at MSN. The class meets twice a week. Students can
repeat the class as needed. I've been enjoying the classes and have been
learning sounds, words and phrases as well as the written syllabary. I took
the class to see how this delivery method works. Email me if you see how it
works.  My next class is Wednesday 11:30 AM. I can access the archives to
see what I missed.

Students who are motivated have been creating materials of their own and
sharing. One student created two discs of the audio component of each of the
twenty lessons for Cherokee one, and the slides for the cost of mailing and
CD's I got a copy. This is helpful for review. I've worked on create a
support course for these lessons using Moodle free course delivery software.
If I had more time (currently teach six online courses in social science)
I'd have completed more resources that students could use between class to
practice. I do know about best practices in online learning and teaching for
asynchronous methods . I think if you could integrate the two class meeting
times that are synchronous with asynchronous learning environment for follow
up and practice, you'd a supportive learning environment with teaching and
practice opportunities tied together. Distance learning requires the
flexibility of any where any time learning, and a structure for moving
forward, not to mention peer to peer communication to promote mentoring, and
develop a learning community online. What I've created for Cherokee I is not
complete, it's a look at the capabilities of the software that is all. They
key to success in online teaching and learning  is to get a group of
students to interact, share their learning, and help one another with
engaging dialogue related to your subject matter as well as providing
practice in key areas for content mastery. Students need to feel part of a
learning community for this, thus online discussion of content becomes and
essential component of the learning tasks rather than just taking quizzes,
or listening to spoken language. Students need to talk about what they are
learning in ways that advance their understanding of the language or subject
being studied. Distance learning this way requires students to be able to
type and write what they are thinking, and be willing to share their
thoughts and learning.

It takes time to build an online course. You have to develop teaching
materials, lesson plans all based on your best practices. If you want to
look at some free online course delivery search for Moodle Course Ware on
the Internet, and sign up for their free course on How to use Moodle. Also,
they have a free course for How to teach language using Moodle. Course
delivery software gives you a structure for teaching and grade books, and
calendars, and resources, etc. Feel free to go to
http://nativepeople.net/moodle to see what I've done. I would be happy to
make you a shell to experiment with the course building software. I put up
the site to promote distance learning. If you like what you create you can
export the course it to your own server and use it after installing your own
copy of Moodle. There is a super community of instructors who support each
others and developers who support Moodle users. Moodle courseware is free.
They will also host and set up course deliver for you for a fee. I don't
work for them. I had to do a lot of learning to get started since I did all
this for only the cost of hosting the website.

Also I am wondering what would be the difference between best practices in
language teaching in general and best practices in indigenouse language
teaching from a distance?  I would think basic barriers that access to
technology would come into play, so choosing technology should be based on
what technology is readily available to your potential students. Maybe live
TV broadcasts would be the best method with call in questions? I found an
example of this on the Internet for teaching Hawaiian. I have the link
somewhere, and may have posted it already on ILAT.  Do you know what your
population of learners is going to need to access what you develop?

Jan

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]On Behalf Of Andre Cramblit
  Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 4:43 PM
  To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
  Subject: [ILAT] Info Request

  The Karuk Tribe received an ANA language grant and we are searching for
information on teaching indigenous languages through distance education.

  What are best practices, softwares, systems, models etc

  also what has not worked?

  .:.

  André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations
Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC
(http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of
American Indians

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fo

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