Microworld-type Ethnoeducational Computer Materials

to Support the Teaching of Nasa-Yuwe

Recommendations from a Software Engineering Disciplines Viewpoint

for Constructing Microworld-type Ethnoeducational Materials Aimed

at Supporting Nasa Yuwe Language Teaching

Luz Marina Sierra

, Edinson Alfonso Solarte Camayo

, Jorge Armando Villegas

Tulio Rojas Curieux

and Erwin Meza Vega

Systems Department- FIET, University of Cauca, Calle 5 No. 4-70, Popayán, Colombia

Systems Engineering- FIET, University of Cauca, Calle 5 No. 4-70, Popayán, Colombia

Department of Anthropology- FCHS, Universty of Cauca, Calle 5 No. 4-70, Popayán, Colombia

Keywords: Nasa Yuwe, Nasa Indigenous Community, e-Learning Technologies, Unified Process, Educational

Software, Ethnoeducation, Microworlds, Educational Software Methodologies, Software Development

Methodology, Software Engineering Disciplines.

Abstract: The Nasa indigenous community has been promoting processes for the recovery and revitalization of the

Nasa Yuwe language. The language is at risk because the vast majority of the young people in the

resguardos use Castilian spanish. To address this problem, several IT-backed initiatives have been put in

place with the aim of developing strategies to restore and revitalize Nasa Yuwe. Among these is a combined

piece of research, innovation and technological development that seeks to propose a series of

recommendations for the construction of microworld educational software to support Nasa Yuwe teaching.

The recommendations come from a software engineering disciplines viewpoint. They take account both of

specific aspects of educational software development and of characteristics pertaining to the culture and

language of the Nasa community, and are expected to contribute significantly to the preparation of

ethnoeducational software with the Nasa community. This paper is an important contribution, because it

presents a way of use IT in linguistic heritage recovery, since an educational point of view with a high

scientific rigor and supports it in the disciplines of software engineering, from which specific guidelines

have been generated for the construction of educational software for indigenous communities,

contextualized to the worldview and the significant scenarios of nasa culture.

1 INTRODUCTION

It is estimated that the population of indigenous

Nasa totals 186,178 people, representing 13.37% of

the indigenous population of Colombia (Social

Action; European Union; CORDEPAZ, 2010). This

populace is primarily agricultural, with an economy

based on consumption and production for the

market. Most of its territory is comprised of

resguardos run by cabildes. The lands enjoy

inalienable rights and are not subject to land seizure.

This is fully recognized in the Colombian

Constitution. The indigenous laws draw on beliefs

and cultural traditions in addition to the recent legal

rulings (Uricoechea, 1968). Ever since their origins

these people have consolidated themselves as a

culturally rich people, securing their own identity.

The Nasa Yuwe tongue is one of 65 indigenous

languages that still survive in Colombia, and despite

the language being spoken by a significant part of

the Nasa population, a process of weakening has

been observed in both its valuation and social use.

Among the events that have brought it under attack,

three stand out: the process of evangelization in

which the use of Spanish was obligatory; the setting

up of official schools in which the Spanish language

was the hub for the dissemination of knowledge

(Colombian Institute of Hispanic Culture, 2000); and

the market economy, making the use of Castilian

inevitable. Another phenomenon that threatens Nasa

526

Sierra L., Solarte Camayo E., Villegas J., Rojas Curieux T. and Meza Vega E..

Microworld-type Ethnoeducational Computer Materials to Support the Teaching of Nasa-Yuwe - Recommendations from a Software Engineering

Disciplines Viewpoint for Constructing Microworld-type Ethnoeducational Materials Aimed at Supporting Nasa Yuwe Language Teaching.

DOI: 10.5220/0004568905260531

In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2013), pages 526-531

ISBN: 978-989-8565-60-0

 2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

Yuwe and other vernacular languages is

globalization. According to the sociolinguistic study

carried out by the Regional Indigenous Council of

Cauca CRIC, the University of Cauca and the

Ministry of Culture (CRIC-Program-Intercultural

Bilingual Education General Language Commission,

2008) less than 40 percent of respondents say that

they speak Nasa Yuwe on a daily basis. This

situation varies from one area to another within the

Nasa territories, but it shows the need to create and

support processes that facilitate the teaching and

learning of this language among the children and

young people of the community, who will be

responsible for continuing the oral tradition (Ibarra,

Mosquera and Zuniga, 2004).

The indigenous educational institutions in Cauca

have acquired for themselves a computer

infrastructure, which although fragile and far from

sufficient, is constantly improving thanks to the

support of projects and programs focused on

benefiting indigenous peoples (Ministry of

Information Technologies and Communications,

2013). The growing interest in the use of

Information Technology (IT) in these communities

is made explicit in its use as a tool to strengthen and

promote cultural identity (Ministry of Information

Technologies and Communications of Colombia,

2010), and suggests its use in education, presenting

the learning of indigenous languages in a way that is

innovative and attractive to the younger generation.

The incorporation of IT in education offers a

number of advantages and possibilities, as in the

case of educational software, which represents a

powerful medium that allows the combined use of

such elements as images, text, animations and sound

(Sanchez, 1995) to promote the teaching and

learning processes, to stoke interest, maintaining a

continuous intellectual activity, allowing individual

as well as group work (Marques, 2010).

Against this background and in an effort to

support the strengthening and revitalization of the

Nasa Yuwe language, the research question arises of

how to develop microworld-type ethnoeducational

computer materials that would present different

scenarios meaningful to the Nasa worldview and

support the acquisition of reading and listening skills

in Nasa Yuwe?

To provide an answer to this question, a series of

recommendations is put forward from the disciplines

of software engineering to build microworld-type

ethnoeducational computer materials designed to

support Nasa Yuwe teaching and that incorporates

aspects of the Nasa worldview. Through this article,

more will be learned about the different stages that

are being carried out in this research project, among

which are: establishing the methodology,

constructing the state of the art and the theoretical

framework, comparative analysis, recommendations,

construction of the ethnoeducational computer

material, future work, conclusions and contributions.

2 PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

For this project of research and technological

innovation, information was collected and graded

towards identifying the most important aspects

taking account of educational software

methodologies, software engineering disciplines, the

contributions of the state of the art, interviews with

the Linguistic, Pedagogical and Socio-Cultural

Studies group of the University of Cauca, and

exploratory visits to a number of communities.

Aspects to be considered in preparing educational

software with the Nasa community were identified

and the recommendations intended to supplement or

help in the teaching of Nasa Yuwe by means of a

microworld that takes into consideration relevant

aspects of that community were put in place. This

approach allowed technical and pedagogical aspects

to be taken into account to suit the cultural

characteristics and needs of the Nasa indigenous

community.

2.1 Methodology

To carry out the recommendations that would allow

the construction of microworld-type ethno-

educational computer materials aimed at supporting

reading and listening comprehension in Nasa Yuwe

while including aspects of the Nasa worldview, a

comparative study was necessary of methodologies,

in which common criteria were identified and

classified in the various software engineering

disciplines. After classifying the criteria, assessment

was made of their importance and how to implement

them. They were then complemented with the

cosmological features identified in the state of the

art analysis, in interviews with anthropologists and

from visits to the community, so that they could be

used in this context.

Through the development of the microworld, it is

sought to shape the use of the recommendations so

that they contain features identified from the

contexts, such as interfaces and symbols, important

features of daily life and the environment, etc. These

allow concrete and abstract concepts from the real

world to be represented, such as landscapes,

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ecosystems, natural, social or cultural areas, and

interact with the community, actively participating

in an experience that allows them to create and

reorganize previously possessed knowledge through

multimedia components, dialogues between

characters, videos and animations (Galvis, 1992)

(Valencia, Z. Riascos and Child, 2011).

Given the above features, we can see that the

microworlds are similar in a number of features to

educational video games, which are a good option

for improving outcomes in teaching and learning

(Valencia, Z. Riascos and Child, 2011). Such a

scenario indicates a need to select a game

development tool for the implementation of the

ethno-educational microworld for teaching Nasa

Yuwe, suited to the limited computing resources that

the community currently possesses.

With the microworld that results from this

project, testing will be conducted with members of

the community, involving them in their specific

teaching process, allowing feedback on the

recommendations made and to identify errors,

ambiguities or omissions and make necessary

adjustments to ensure that the objective of the

project is fully realized.

2.2 State of the Art and Theoretical

Framework

In order to carry out the recommendations, the

following work done with indigenous communities

has been used as reference: Teaching and

Revitalization of the Nasa Yuwe Language

(Unicauca & UNICEF, 2002) which takes up the

experience in teaching and revitalization of the Nasa

Yuwe language using Western games adapted to the

Nasa culture in the Canoas indigenous resguardo.

Ethnic Education Centers for Strengthening the Nasa

Life Plan: Weaving Resistance from Identity (Llano,

2010) where important aspects of ethnic identity are

identified, as are the collective actions of the

community and the construction of social subjects.

Zuy Luuçxkwe Kwe'kwe’sx Ipx Kwetuy Piyaaka.

Learning Workbook for Nasa Yuwe as a Second

Language (Rojas and Farfan, 2010) in which tasks

and cultural practices of the Nasa community are

identified. Süchiki Walekerü: An example of the

use of IT in Indigenous Schools. Wayuu Case Study

(Quero and Madueño, 2006), which sets out how

information technology and communication can be

used in support of bilingual intercultural education

projects. Yaak: Online System for Teaching and

Dissemination of the Otomí language of Querétaro

(Cardona, Ortega and Gutierrez, 2010) where the

reactions are seen of an indigenous community to

the use of computational tools to foster, restore and

teach their language, including the process carried

out in order to achieve this. Virtual Community of

Support for Ethnoeducation Processes for the Nasa

Community of the Corinto López Adentro

resguardo (Sierra, Rojas and Naranjo, 2007) which

makes use of prior studies, inputs collected over

time, and the experience of the staff who have been

involved for a long time in assisting the

ethnoeducacional support processes in this

community.

2.3 Comparative Analysis

Below is shown an example of the tables constructed

to identify common criteria in educational software

methodologies. The ellipses indicate the existence of

other methodologies that were reviewed before the

recommendations were proposed.

Table 1: Example of comparative table for educational

software methodologies.

Aspect

under

Revision

Educational

software

development

(DESED)

(Peláez and

López, 2006)

Educational

software

development

(Arias,

López and

Rosario,

2010)

…

Recommendati

on proposed

Aspects of

everyday

life are

identified

implement

them in the

educational

material.

A foundation

is put in

place to find

metaphors

that help the

student

understand

the

knowledge to

be imparted.

Metaphors,

guiding

principles,

icons,

buttons,

backgrounds,

text,

drawings,

etc. are

specified.

…

*. Identify the

particular life

situation to be

represented in

the microworld.

*. Collection of

Information.

*. Arrange

work dynamics

for meetings

and tasks

delegated for

the following.

Anaysis of

educational

needs

The need is

determined

covering

fundamental

aspects of the

area or field

of study and

teaching

techniques to

be used in

the course.

Each need

requires to be

specific to a

particular

learning

situation

…

*. Develop a

profile of the

student's

educational

needs.

*. Identification

of problems or

situations in

order to support

the material to

be developed.

Carry out a

technologic

al approach

strategy.

Does not

consider this

aspect.

If end users

have had

little contact

with

computers, a

way to train

them should

formulated.

…

*. Develop

strategy of

technological

approach

… … … … …

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2.4 Recommendations

The word recommendation means advice,

suggestion or warning in performing one or more

activities (Royal Spanish Academy, 2001). Each

recommendation lists the steps to be considered in

each of the phases of software construction

(engineering of requirements, modeling, design,

implementation, and testing), and when applied

these support the development of microworld-type

ethnoeducational computer materials.

The recommendations were constructed from the

comparative analysis of the most important aspects

of the educational software methodologies (see

Table 1) and software engineering disciplines, while

taking into consideration the characteristics of the

Nasa educational and pedagogical context and the

help of anthropologists and linguists who have

worked with members of the community. At the

time of preparing this article 31 recommendations

have been proposed, an example of which are

presented below:

RECOMMENDATION Nº 1: Identify the

specific situation to be represented in the

microworld.

What it relates to: This concerns identifying the

resguardo with which the work will be done,

highlighting its cultural and geographical

particularities in relation to the others.

Steps to be carried out:

 Arrange a visit to the community where the

microworld is to be used, to get to know the

details of the target community.

 Inquire about especially significant or

representative landscapes; identify elements of

cultural value that can be translated into the

microworld-type ethnoeducational computer

material; take pictures of landscapes, houses,

significant places, classrooms and inhabitants

of the region.

Why this is recommended: To represent

significant elements of the context of the community

and identify what is required and the important

objectives thereof, through images and contact with

the community.

2.5 Construction of Microworld-Type

Ethnoeducational Materials.

Beginning with the proposed recommendations, the

selection of a videogame development tool with

which to implement the microworld is made. The

recommendations considered are: Recommendation

Nº 0: "Identify the physical and logical features of

the community’s computer equipment" and

Recommendation Nº 27: "Select the appropriate

development environment to implement the

microworld-type ethnoeducational computer

material". The most important steps for this task are:

The technical specifications of the computer

equipment of the Nasa community into which the

micro is to be implemented must be taken into

account, so as not to exceed the limits of these when

using the application.

 Choose a development environment that allows

the microworld a good graphic quality,

attractive, innovative and in line with the

performance of the equipment the end users

have at their disposal. The price of the

development environment (preferably choosing

free tools to keep costs low and avoid licensing

problems).

 Performance and scalability.

Based on criteria such as the minimum cost of

getting a license, prior knowledge of the tool, and

scalability portability, it emerges that the tool that

combines all of the conditions for use in the

microworld-type ethnoeducational computer material

is Unity 3D (Unity Technologies, 2013). Unity is a

game engine that allows the integration of sounds,

images, character interaction, animation and dialogue.

Having as the game engine Unity3D and the

recommendations for applying the software

engineering processes, we proceed to the

construction of the microworld for the Nasa

indigenous community. Below is a screenshot of the

microworld that is being developed, which takes into

account the specific characteristics of the Nasa life

and which is still in the process of being

implemented.

Figure 1: Screenshot of microworld-type ethnoeducational

computer material.

Figure 2: A house in the microworld; and one in the Nasa

community.

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Figure 3: A microworld character; and a child of the Nasa

community (Oviedo, 2012).

Figure 1 is a screenshot of the microworld that

contains, among other items, a home with features

found on a visit to the Nasa community in

Munchique in Cauca Department, Colombia (Figure

2), and a character with whom to explore the

microworld, whose features are close to the

characteristics of the children of the Nasa

community (figure 3). Other elements that can be

seen in the image of the microworld are the context

in which the daily activities of Nasa community

members are carried out, characterized by trees,

plants, mountains and the typical ambient sounds of

a Nasa resguardo. On the left side of the screen shot

is one of the activities of the microworld, which was

designed with elements known to the children of the

indigenous community and which features Nasa

Yuwe sounds and writing based on activities

suggested in the workbook Zuy Luuçxkwe

Kwe'kwe’sx Ipx Kwetuy Piyaaka (Rojas and Farfan,

2010).

2.6 Future Work

 Complete some additional levels of the

ethnoeducational microworld.

 Design and implement a pilot project

involving the use of the constructed

microworld and that allows its usefulness in

the teaching of Nasa Yuwe to be evaluated.

 Deployment of the ethnoeducational

microworld in the Nasa community education

centers.

3 CONCLUSIONS

3.1 Final Conclusions

The comparative analysis of educational software

methodologies and software engineering disciplines

set against the cultural, pedagogical and educational

characteristics of the Nasa community, allow the

creation of a set of recommendations that are

complemented and strengthened taking into account

the cosmology and processes that pertain to the Nasa

community, towards a situation where in the

development of educational software in the Nasa

context is more relevant and designed from working

together with the respective Nasa community.

The development of this project demonstrates

the need to continue building educational materials

and go on supporting the processes of

Ethnoeducation of the Nasa Indigenous People and

recovery of the culture of the Paez community. For

this revitalization process every possible tool should

be used, in particular that of technology - not only to

contribute to the revitalization of the language and

its ancestral customs, but to close the technology

gap, taking action that will support teachers for their

teaching-learning and in a continuous process of

training in the management of resources and

motivation strategies to include them in the teaching

practice either inside or outside the classroom.

Finally, it can be concluded that it is possible to

develop a microworld-type ethnoeducational

computer material that presents different scenarios

that are meaningful to the Nasa worldview and that

support the acquisition of reading and listening skills

in the Nasa Yuwe language, in addition to having an

adequate methodological support (favoring the

pedagogical and didactic aspects and a formal

software development).

3.2 Contributions

The contributions of this project are:

 The development of microworld-type

ethnoeducational software, paying attention to

aspects of the Nasa context and applying them

to future software development processes,

thus aiding designers and developers.

 Specific recommendations for the

development of software that can be used and

adapted in the construction of other types of

software for this community.

 A continued strengthening of the use of ICT

as a support for the processes of culture

recovery in the indigenous communities.

 A teaching tool that supports the realization of

the teaching-learning processes by facilitating

access to information, encouraging the student

and enabling both the possibility of individual

and group work.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors of this article would like to thank the

University of Cauca, specifically the Departments of

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530

Anthropology (Faculty of Humanities and Social

Sciences) and Systems (Faculty of Electronic and

Telecommunications Engineering) for their help in

carrying out this intercultural and interdisciplinary

work, wherein knowledge and experience such as

that of this paper have merged, through the joint

efforts of the research groups The Southwest

Linguistic Pedagogical Studies Group - GELPS and

the R&D Group in Information Technology - GTI.

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SoftwareEngineeringDisciplinesViewpointforConstructingMicroworld-typeEthnoeducationalMaterialsAimedat

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