We Are Alaska vs Elder Stories

KIWA Digital and Alaska Join for First Worldwide KIWABook Slam! 15 high school students and 7 adult advisors from four school districts gathered in Anchorage to participate in the KIWA SLAM™ project. Students were tasked with creating an entire 20 page illustrated book in just 48 hours. With an overall theme of “We Are Alaska”, each district team worked collaboratively to create a storyline representative of their communities through telling a local story or myth. Teams were allotted five pages to present their story in 100 words or less, illustrate each page, and record story narration. Finished files were sent electronically to New Zealand where Kiwa Digital developers constructed the book overnight. The next day, "We Are Alaska" was presented as part of Kiwa's founder Rhonda Kite's keynote address to the Association of Alaska School Boards annual conference. The Association of Alaska School Boards' (AASB) Consortium for Digital Learning, in partnership with KIWA Digital of New Zealand and Apple, Inc., sponsored the first ever "KIWA SLAM™" as part of AASB's annual conference November 1-4, 2012 in Anchorage. The KIWA SLAM™ project offered students a unique opportunity to participate in the emerging field of digital publishing through the hands-on production of a digital book from start to finish. We are thankful to Rhonda Kite, Zohar Marshall, Jordan Koziol-Repia, Josh Preston and Bryan Field of Kiwa Digital and Pete Vraspir of Apple, Inc. for their initiation and support of this exciting project. Supporting adults also included: Northwest Arctic School District Jeri Eck - Art Teacher Raymond Woods, Bicultural Coordinator Kodiak Island Borough School District Vickie Kelly, CIO Bonnie Dillard - Art Teacher Lower Kuskokwim School District Vicki Nechodomu, Technology Specialist Tommy Bayayok, Technology Specialist Kashunamiut School District Matt Good, Principal Rebecca Nayamin, Cup’ik Instructor We hope you enjoy We Are Alaska as much as we all enjoyed creating it! Dr. Robert Whicker, Director Steve Nelson, Project Coordinator AASB Consortium for Digital Learning Features: • Swipe-to-Read™ the words to hear and playback the story at your own pace. • Auto Play to enjoy the narration. • Use the My Narration function to read and record the story yourself and customize your book. • Touch pictures to hear different sound effects. • See special animation effects bringing the picture to life. • Use the Color Palette to paint each page! KIWA SLAM™ offers a true multi-language experience and is a great tool for learning new languages for both young and old. This book includes the narration, text, and user interface in these languages: English Kiwa Digital produces multi-language digital content, creates IT solutions and develops products and services for the digital publishing and entertainment industries.

This app is a compilation of interviews with Elders in various villages across Southwest Alaska. Stories were recorded in the spring of 2019.