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More books, more readers

The South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC) is betting that investing in some new technology will mean it can put more books in more people’s hands – digitally.

The SSDEC put out three versions of its First Nations Storybook app on June 5 – one each in Bush Cree, South Slavey and Chipewyan – and posted 45 books to each language version. The apps can be downloaded onto any smartphone or tablet for free. For example, they’re available both in Apple’s App Store and on Google Play.

Cedar Vogt, left and Annistyn Daniels listen and read along to Fish for You and Fish for Me on the Bush Cree version of the SSDEC’s new First Nations Storybook app, earlier this month. Both girls are Grade 2 students at Joseph B. Tyrrell Elementary School in Fort Smith. Sarah Pruys/South Slave Education Council photo

“Everyone has a story to tell and this just gives us another avenue by which we can share those stories,” said retired assistant superintendent Brent Kaulbeck, who headed the project.

The books are narrated by fluent speakers in the three languages, so people who are eager to learn the languages can follow along.

“The whole idea was the fact that we have published over 300 books through the (SSDEC),” said Kaulbeck, “and we realized that even with this massive amount of publications that we had, we still weren't getting the books into the homes of our students.”

Kaulbeck said that even when some students brought them home, their parents were not able to read the books.

“We (set the app up) so that parents and children could have a nice interactive story-reading session together,” said Kaulbeck.

He said there is also capability for downloading books through the app and sending the book to others through email or social media.

Beyond the broader reach available with the app, Kaulbeck said the project also made sense from a budgetary point of view.

While it cost between $5,000 and $10,000 to develop each of these three apps – mostly funded by the GNWT – it would cost the SSDEC $7,000 to $8,000 to print 500 copies of one full-colour children’s book.

The SSDEC will now be able to publish more books, paying local illustrators and translators and get more of its existing stock onto the app.

Kaulbeck, though retired, couldn’t resist staying on to see this project through.

“These times are so exciting in terms of Indigenous languages in the North and even throughout Canada,” he said. “So even though I retired a year and a half ago, or more now, I still had a yearning to stay connected with some of the projects that we're working on this, this being one of them.”