High-Tech Classrooms Reviving Aboriginal Languages (fwd link)

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HIGH-TECH CLASSROOMS REVIVING ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES
[image: AUSTRALIA-NATIVE-ABORIGINAL-LANGUAGE]<http://dawn.com/2012/12/18/high-tech-classrooms-reviving-aboriginal-languages/australia-native-aboriginal-language-3/>

In this picture taken on October 4, 2012 participants give a presentation
in an Indigenous Languages Education Programme course at Sydney University
where teachers and other people involved in the Aboriginal community learn
to teach Aboriginal languages to school children, in Sydney. Australia’s
Aborigines once spoke 250 to 270 different languages but best estimates now
suggest less than 70 are still being spoken on a daily basis, with even
fewer passed on to younger generations. –  AFP Photo

*SYDNEY: In a high-school classroom in western Sydney, teacher Noeleen
Lumby is asking her pupils to recall the Aboriginal name for animals that
indigenous Wiradjuri people have used for hundreds of years.*

As she holds up stuffed toys representing some of Australia’s native
wildlife, including a kangaroo, an emu and a cockatoo, the class of about
25 – many from Vietnamese and Cambodian backgrounds – come to grips with
the ancient tongue.

“I like this because you get to learn new skills and you can speak some
indigenous language,” said 12-year-old Tien Nguyen.

Lumby, who oversees the students as they use their new knowledge to create
projects on computers and iPads, is passionate about filling a gaping hole
in Australian education – the study of Aboriginal languages.

“I think it’s important that the kids learn language and culture at the
same time,” she told AFP.

Access full article below:
http://dawn.com/2012/12/18/high-tech-classrooms-reviving-aboriginal-languages/
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