Things are looking up...

Well, things are better this week. Solved one of my three problems with Skyping: the DVI connection to the projector. Next I must decide on upgrading the operating system so I can use the latest Skype features, or going with a legacy version. Maybe buy the Mac I plan on for the library sooner.

Things are also progressing on the Social Networking aspects of the Intergenerational Digital Storytelling Project. I have set up a blog for it and updated it again today. Will add more information tomorrow.

Along with that I have created a new gmail account for the team members to share. Wish I had done that prior to setting up the blog. Oh well. Still have not been able to set up a Facebook account separate from my own. I thought the new gmail would fix that.

Spent some wonderful "quality time" with Todd. He is a wealth of info and ideas. I always leave his office full of hope and excitement. He helped with some basic problems with blogs, wikis, Facebook and more. The going is far less muddy now.

For the class, I also worked by my wiki, adding more resources than I had in previous years.

It has been a busy and exciting week at Yavapai-Apache... first the Pageant last Saturday where this years royalty was chosen. And yesterday was the Exodus Commoration, where the tribe celebrates the return home from 25 years of incarceration at San Carlos at the turn of the century. At the end of the day we raffled off a bronze sculpture to help fund a nine-foot monument at our Cultural Resource Center (where I work).

A few more things....

Well, the projects are slow going, but I forgot to mention I am tip-toeing through the 100 best online apps slideshow. I was most intrigued by the idea of putting all my bookmark links onto a page. So I play all day with delicious... then today looking at Diigo. Still want to look again at igoogle and maybe glogster.

While it does put all my bookmarks, I am a little dissapointed with delicious. I can organize by tags, but can't put important things at the top, etc. Will have to explore further. Perhaps Diigo has more control.

I did find (finally!) how/where to put my tabs on my project blog. Then was dissapointed to learn it is a static page. Oh well, I can adapt. Did a couple of posts for tests.... can't figure out where/how to delete them.

I also revisited by Wiki for indigenous storytelling. It was a little rough last time, so I plan to revamp it... maybe Friday.

Well, nough playing for now. I need to do some work today.

Slow going....

Not so happy with my progress....

Inter-tribal Skyping...
Well, promised to outline my projects for you. I began with one and expanded it to two new projects: Setting up a Skype network between several Yavapai speaking tribes and building a social networking system for a digital storytelling grant project.

First the Skype Project. In many American Indian nations, language loss is at a critical juncture. Here in Camp Verde, Yavapai language loss is serious, with few fluent speakers. Apache is in a slightly better condition, but speakers are diminishing. In both culture areas, there are advisory committees, study groups, and coalitions intended to moderate the problem. Yavapai Culture belongs to a coalition that included Camp Verde, Prescott Yavapai, and Fort McDowell Yavapai.

While at a conference in November, the culture managers were impressed with speakers who were Skyped in from various countries. They want to do it. In this way they could have study groups without the extensive travel they now exercise.

I began to set it up and immediately encountered some problems.
* Low bandwidth in the immediate area of our offices
* Skype for the MAC only works on the latest operating system (don't have it)
* While I planned to operate from an iMac, it has no VGA or DVI output.

While I worried about tribal computer policies disallowing Skyping, this turned out to be OK. Still working on the problems.


Second Project...

I am currently working on a National Endowment for the Humanities grant project with NAU. In this project we will be working with eight Indian Nations in Arizona: Navajo, Hope, Yavapai-Apache, Zuni, and two others. The project will work with youth and elders to create digital stories related to oral history, and share them between Nations.

The grant proposal was close last year and has recently been resubmitted. One suggestion from the reviewers was to disseminate the stories through social networking. Thus, we will likely be using uTube, Facebook and other systems of communication. The first stage of this will be a blog... see link at right for "A Basketful of Stories. My intent is for tabbed pages, like our course blog (Havn't figured that out yet) with an over view of project (its there), comments from the project manager, project director George Gummerman, and myself, the storytelling facilitator.

As Todd and Thatcher are laboring their way out of the Grand Canyon, I will just have to wait to figure out about those tabs.

Another year... Another set of projects.

Greeting to my fellow students
As you will learn, this is my third time taking this course. It works great for me, I dedicate a project to it each time. That sort of gives me the impetus to "get it done." Along the way, I get to "play" with the others students, learn lots more tricks, contribute when I can, and "enjoy" the ride.

As you will learn, I am sort of a Jack of all Trades. I am an adjunct instructor for Yavapai College and teach art classes and occasionally anthropology. I work for the Yavapai-Apache Nation and have a wonderful job administering a department known as Preservation & Technology, part of the Cultural Resource Center. There, I record and archive events, activities, oral histories, digital stories and more.

Each time I take the course, I dedicate the semester to a project. More about projects next time. This is just to say Hello.