Developing Digital Tools for Language Revitalization: Demystifying Coding, Apps and Web Platforms

Mark Turin

Aidan Pine

From the field to the archive, and from notebooks to curriculum, analogue and digital tools and technologies are increasingly important components of community-based language documentation, conservation and revitalization projects. Learning about and understanding the practical and ethical implications of selecting one tool over another lies at the core of this workshop. In this workshop, we focus on hands-on, foundational skills for developing web, mobile, and desktop applications that enhance language revitalization efforts while at the same time situating these digital tools within their social and historical context. Participants will move between instructor-led presentations and facilitated discussions to practical technical training, and require no prior knowledge of coding. Participants will learn the basics of planning and implementing a digital project, and together we will build a mobile dictionary app in our four days together!