What if
What if Map
What if
What if Map
What if technology honored Our values and reflected Our culture?
Respond

Our youth will create things that we haven't thought about.

Imagine Fortnite in Iñupiaq, like where you dropped out on the middle of the tundra, you have to survive. Or it's animals, not other characters. Imagine you're the tuttu. And you have to go survive.
Aaron Leggett & Olivia Leavitt, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Aaron Leggett & Olivia Leavitt, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our youth will create things that we haven't thought about.

They'll be wearing LED light beadwork, and learning how to make clothing again.
Allan Hayton, Fairbanks kalaka
Fairbanks
Allan Hayton, Fairbanks kalaka
Fairbanks

Our youth will create things that we haven't thought about.

You can download onto your Google glasses things you would need for living on the land.
Allan Hayton, Fairbanks kalaka
Fairbanks
Allan Hayton, Fairbanks kalaka
Fairbanks

Our youth will create things that we haven't thought about.

We have our fab lab. We're just expanding our super Fab Lab, which is a maker space, right. So it's, it's STEM, it's basing instead of education, the kids are using it to learn about their culture. And we've been taking those and working with communities to launch the smaller Fab Labs within their community. So they're, we had one community that took it, and during the pandemic, [we] sent them 3D printers. They did all the stuff, and the kids all created these Christmas ornaments and it had, they have three languages that they speak in their area. And each ornament had a word or their name like, and it had all three translations on that. And that's one of the ways that they did language revitalization. It's like we didn't tell them what to do. The communities know what to do. We just provided the kind of platform and space for them to iterate, to be thoughtful, to be creative. The answers are here. They're just within the community. What are the, how does the community want to move forward? You know, how do we band together to support one another? And it's about knowledge sharing. Like we gotta know what's going on.
Josh Franks, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Josh Franks, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our languages will be learned through gaming.

I see it as not only fitting in the realm of entertainment, but hugely in the realm of accessibility. Where these kids who - oftentimes my struggle in the summer is getting kids to go on, you know, outdoor programs because they want to play their games in the house. The best thing I can do is go and knock on the door and say, “let's go for a hike” and drive through each village. So even if you don't succeed and they have that accessibility from their home, I'm not advocating to stay in the home and play a game but at least that might be a potential distraction for the good. Or even like the next level is, well, your next level is: you have to go on a rafting trip and you know, like, or you have to do a treasure or scavenger hunt event. Like just incorporate some outdoor activity into the game. If everybody, if you get a lot of people on the same page or like even at school, you could start there. So that'd be involving like Ahtna and then that'd involve the community and then that involved the school because all three of them you'd have to work together and then everybody, you know, like say a grant here and a grant there and then all that together and then you're all getting a piece of the pie.
Carson Tortorige & Amber Alexander, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Carson Tortorige & Amber Alexander, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our languages will be learned through gaming.

Like what if there was a Ahtna language app that they could somehow play a game and play a game even against peers from across town?
Carson Tortorige, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Carson Tortorige, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our learning will be at the tip of our fingers.

I have an Iñupiaq app, two Iñupiaq apps, on my phone, the Atchaġat, which is, Iñupiaq keyboard. And I can go to Iñupiaq Online and build sentences. These are within the last however many years that all of this is accessible on my phone. “Iñupiaq is loading.” And so I can build sentences on my phone.
Robyn Burke, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Robyn Burke, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our learning will be at the tip of our fingers.

One of the things I think about around video games especially is…how do we incorporate technology as our youth - that's the way that they're learning. That's the way that they're…they have iPads, they have access to that. So how do we leverage gamifying education?...It's no longer looked at like, you're just gonna stay home and play video games all day, but through the video games you are getting your education, getting, you know, a cultural education, a life education. It would prepare you for college. You know, what if there was that world that through video games…they decide to go to college or a vocational school and it will end up preparing them. It's not just entertainment anymore.
Josh Franks, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Josh Franks, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our youth will tell Our stories in new ways.

He drew a robot and so he knows how to introduce himself in Iñupiaq but he doesn't know how to write it. So he was just trying to write the robot introducing itself.
Frieda Nageak & Judah Nageak, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Frieda Nageak & Judah Nageak, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our youth will tell Our stories in new ways.

...with Never Alone, that game, my son plays it...he's four years old and he’s like, “Ah, a nanuq!” He jumps and he gets to learn those lessons too and hear - to just to be able to hear songs from our own culture, I think is really impactful.
Robyn Burke, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Robyn Burke, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our youth will be more engaged.

Because our youth are using technology in school, and they're in school for the majority of the day. Like, they would be able to connect more, or they'd be able to go home and be excited to tell their mom that they, like, were able to connect with something within their culture at school, on technology. Like, it's not just like a Cocomelon game. It's not just like whatever they're watching now.
Olivia Leavitt, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Olivia Leavitt, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our youth will be more engaged.

It would be great to see our Ahtna language, you know, and cultural stories recorded, you know, to be put onto a platform or an app. One thing that I've noticed with our high school students, they are sitting in our library trying to figure out stories about their Ancestors. We don't have any books in our library that are related to Ahtna whatsoever. And so it would be great to have some type of app that will tell you those kinds of things.
Ashley Hicks, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Ashley Hicks, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our learning will become more personal.

Our future ancestor...will be my grandchild. So, when I have a child, and then they have a child, this is what they will, this is how we will interact...education will be a combination of in-person and technological learning with the advancements made in technology, and the amount of information that we have available at our fingertips. It is so easy to learn anything you want, as specific as you want, whenever you want. And so right now we have in-person learning supplemented by technology. In the future...that will flip, and it will be learning through the internet, supplemented by in-person. Therefore, there will be a larger emphasis and more value placed on the in-person interactions that we have on storytelling, story sharing, just conversations around the dinner table, because you can learn anything you want online. Therefore, the connections that we make, these personal relationships that we have, those will be the most valuable parts of our education and also our culture. So our ancestor thinks that learning is universal, but it's the personal touch that will set us apart from other communities in the future.
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai

Our learning will become more personal.

It seems like technology, as it advances, it kind of begins to shape us in our culture. It should be the other way around. Technology serves us, not us serving it. But it seems like it's going other direction.
Allan Hayton, Fairbanks kalaka
Fairbanks
Allan Hayton, Fairbanks kalaka
Fairbanks

Our communities will further Indigenize.

You know, really big on the hoop houses instead of lawns, crop sharing, we talk about like communal living as well, you know, as a community. All the aunties and you know, but you all have your own house just come together as a community. You only have to cook once a week because everybody we're environmentally conscious, we have no waste. We upgrade on food security. Affordable technology was a big thing too, especially for our rural communities, and access to it. So that's a big thing. Sense of belonging, but we will have running water and electricity because we didn't wanna go too far. We kind of wanted to go back in time a little bit where phones and iPads weren't really like needed. We go too back where I didn't have no running water.
Cassie Keplinger, Kodiak kalaka
Kodiak
Cassie Keplinger, Kodiak kalaka
Kodiak

Our communities will further Indigenize.

As far as housing, there would be enough of it and it would be affordable and that, that we would start building around and with the environment instead of against it.
Warren Jones, Nome kalaka
Nome
Warren Jones, Nome kalaka
Nome

Our communities will be more localized and self-sufficient.

It's like empowering…Seemed like it kept coming down to is that positive identity. That we are secure in who we are and this is our culture. And so we've just found ways to, to create clothing that represents our culture. That people, they're proud to wear that. How typically Ahtna people, like they don't go away for four years, you know - we just stay, we stick to the land. And so like, there's virtual reality learning…we've just found ways to. And like it was mentioned that we were communal we, we lived. So it's just bringing that back and then like creating incentives to give people ownership of their, their home and their land. So like independent but not isolated.
Raedeen Neely, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Raedeen Neely, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our youth will be culture-focused.

Well I think we think of technology as a distraction from our culture, but if we were producing locally cool videos for kids to share, then they would be sharing the culture instead of bringing in an outside culture and pushing away from the local culture.
Robin Mayo, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Robin Mayo, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our history will be digitized.

...Our kids learn so much…that's what strikes their interests. And if we're going to get their interest, we need to start digitizing our history and stuff like that. So it's, so it's interesting for them.
Katherine McConkey, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen
Katherine McConkey, Glennallen kalaka
Glennallen

Our learning will connect us.

We could have a classroom in Utqiaġvik that is teaching students all across our Slope or all across Iñupiaq regions.
Robyn Burke, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Robyn Burke, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our stories will show growth and change.

When I was living in Unalakleet we had the old fashion phones. Our phone number was short, long, short. And it was just a phone out in the hallway. And our phone number would be, my phone number would be short, long, short. And then for movies it was four long ones. If everybody heard that we knew that there was gonna be a movie that night. So we listened for long telephone tone. You know, that was was our way of communicating with the telephone. That was our way of communicating, you know, that's how we did it. I like that idea of the timeline of technology. You know, like from what it was like when you were a little girl to you know, now. I don't know that young people know that. Like even my kids who are middle school age. They’re like, “You lived when there were payphones.” I'm like, “It wasn't that long ago. And it wasn't that archaic.”...Just to have that, you know, in a short amount of time. Look how far technology has come and our communication ability or accessibility to communications.
Laura Perri & Carol Conant, Seward kalaka
Seward
Laura Perri & Carol Conant, Seward kalaka
Seward

Our education will be multi-generational.

I've got a tablet, and I still gotta learn the cell phone and the tablet. There's an AVTEC student that's teaching us at the Senior Center once a week to learn how to do the cell phone. And then the tablet. The cell phone is new to me. I know how to make a phone call, but there's other things I don't understand yet. But, you know, it's in the, in there, there's a lot to learn that I don't know about. It's so, so brand new, you know. I’m so used the old ways of learning. And this is so, so new compared to life when I was growing up.
Laura Perri, Seward kalaka
Seward
Laura Perri, Seward kalaka
Seward

Our youth will be able to hear the voices of Our Ancestors.

...one thing I was thinking about that's changed so much with my own language journey of learning Dena'ina. When I first started learning in college, the only way that I had access to any of the recordings would be to physically get in my car, drive to Fairbanks, go to the Alaskan Native Language Center and request X, Y and Z. Now I can sit in Utqiagvik, I can bring up Dena'ina language in less than one minute. And you guys can hear a Dena'ina story because it's all been digitized and put online, not all of it, but a lot of it has been digitized and put online.
Aaron Leggett, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik
Aaron Leggett, Utqiaġvik kalaka
Utqiaġvik

Our communities will have a local focus and be self-sufficient.

In four generations, our communities will be more localized. So we're moving from the metaverse, knowing that's an option, back to more local, that people will be craving that. That because of it, that we'll want to become more self-sufficient...people will become more tribal, because the local community will become more important to them in their lives. We will have to become more natural as people, kind of going back to our roots...people will crave getting away from big cities, the metaverse. People will live longer. Spiritual wellness will become more important, as will relationships. Language capabilities will become higher. And language revitalization, that it is really important to keeping the culture alive. That you need to have a language as a throughput for story and culture as you move forward, while acknowledging that the primary language will probably not be Dena'ina, but that's what will keep people connected.
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai

Our education will engage all your senses.

We were talking about the perfume in the magazines and you can open it and smell the perfume and rub it on you. What if text books came with smell because a lot of the students can’t get out on the land but if textbooks had that smell, that part of the senses.
Jacqui Lambert, Nome kalaka
Nome
Jacqui Lambert, Nome kalaka
Nome

Our education will be decolonized.

Well, I think it's a more holistic approach. It's not, they're all there, but they're not presented as here's this spell lesson or here's the math test or here's the history or social studies or whatever government that's all integrated into one that they seamlessly blend between one and the other. And that it's connected. So when you're talking about the qayaq and you're talking about measurements and, and how they figured out without measuring tapes how to do things, and then what does the qayaq do as a representation of a community, an umiaq, you know, what does it mean to be a provider for your community? What does it mean to provide for Elders? Whatever it is. I mean, that's what I think of when I think of decolonized.
Aaron Leggett, Nome kalaka
Nome
Aaron Leggett, Nome kalaka
Nome

Our learning will be culture-focused.

Our Ancestor...is 150 years ahead, which is three generations, will be living in a megacity, enjoying digitally printed salmon. And because they retain culture, they are creative, vibrant, and powerful, and their education is more focused on culture. There's a larger, a longer, focus on learning about culture, rather than a unit in schools...yes, we are going to engage our Elders and our education with our youth and have multiple resources.
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai

Our learning will continuous and customized.

Our...future ancestor...went out 50 years...We're coming up on the 50th anniversary of ANCSA, so it'll be a 100 years after the passage of the Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act. Not that that's who defines us, but that's just our thought. So it's at least two generations out. If they were born in 2022, that means they're middle aged at this point. So how does their learning environment reflect the future? It'll start with hybrid models with technology and traditional learning. Learning is ongoing, and not just in the classroom...it would be exhibited throughout their day-to-day interactions in life. We thought that learning systems that they have would reflect the values and the mission statements of Cook Inlet Tribal Council...cursive writing would make a comeback. And most importantly...the learning is custom-tailored to the needs of the individual. And that it's not just the standardized testing and rote memorization that we've all been educated under.
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai

Our learning will value inclusivity and environmental awareness.

I had an ancestor that was two generations removed from myself, in terms of my grandchildren's generation...designed their learning environment as one with technology, inclusivity, understanding, and environmental awareness. With the opportunity for hands-on learning, potentially with AI being an option in some learning environments. And then additionally with culture and language included within the education system.
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai
CITC Board Retreat
Kenai