Computer resources at Keaukaha are rather limited, but students in the kaiapuni program in all grades have at least one Macintosh computer in their classroom. Every classroom has at least one computer connected to the local area network (LAN), giving full Internet access. In addition, each class is scheduled regularly in the school computer lab, which has 24 computers (18 of which are connected to the LAN). Teachers also use two different brands of digital cameras that are available for taking pictures and can be imported directly into various computer programs. The Canon ZapShot camera has miniature removable floppy disks that can store up to 50 low-resolution pictures on each disk. Apple's QuickTake 150 camera can take a much higher resolution picture, but it has a more limited internal storage capacity (16 to 32 images).

These machines would have limited utility for our students learning Hawaiian if it were not for the innovations created at the Hale Kuamo'o on the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus. Fluent Hawaiian curriculum developers, technology coordinators, and linguists have worked together to translate and copyright major software applications such as Kid Pix and Claris Works, and to produce numerous online resources. Through engaging content-area projects and using technology, students have authentic reasons and numerous opportunities to develop language competence in meaningful contexts. Process writing is emphasized, so for most projects students have developed several drafts of each project. Students appear to be more willing to do additional drafts when the final product can be "published" on the computer in a variety of formats. Additional advantages of using an electronic medium, particularly in a language-development program, are that revisions are generally easier to accomplish, merging documents and digital images is easy, and the projects can frequently incorporate recordings of spoken language.

These two basic computer programs are invaluable components of each student's Hawaiian literacy development. Kaiapuni students not only have computer programs with all commands and menus in Hawaiian, but they are also given computer instruction entirely in Hawaiian, including all procedures and the use of translated terms for parts of the computer and the special keys on the keyboard. They also become adept at recognizing many of the menu items in English because the operating system menus and the menus for other programs (the computer lab is shared with the English language program students) are only in English.

Student use of computers is integrated as much as possible with the regular classroom curriculum. Through this type of instruction and access to technology, students are learning to use computers as tools to support their Hawaiian reading and writing development while developing conceptual knowledge and Hawaiian terminology for computers and their applications. This provides a rich context in which to develop not only technical skill, but linguistic development in technology and specific content areas. As the following examples indicate, kaiapuni students use these applications daily as tools to enhance their literacy in Hawaiian.

Language Patterns

In addition to the students' immersion in Hawaiian throughout the content areas and through songs and chants, storybook reading, and a wide range of other oral and written language experiences, a portion of the Hawaiian Immersion curriculum focuses on the development of specific language patterns. Rather than teaching these patterns through a repetitious drill and practice format, teachers have developed innovative ways to reinforce the correct pattern usage.

In one combination first- and second-grade class, students took a field trip a few streets away to the ocean shoreline at Puhi Bay. The teachers' objectives were two-fold: the students would gain background experience, concepts, and terminology for an upcoming unit on the ocean, and the teachers would reinforce a Hawaiian language pattern that specifies location. Using Kid Pix software and a digital camera, the students were able to draw what they observed in tide pools and were able to reinforce the locational language pattern using images taken with the camera. In this example, a child asks, "Where is the sea urchin?" and responds, "Kaikili has the sea urchin." The Hawaiian text was typed onto the page by the teacher from patterned dictation spoken by the student. This type of experience provides multiple opportunities to use and practice the target language pattern in a much more meaningful context. Prior to the excursion, the teacher explained what the students would be looking for and the pattern they would be using for describing what they found; during the excursion, the students and the teacher used the pattern frequently. Students and the teacher repeated the pattern again while creating a quick paper draft, all the students pages were printed in a book that was available in the classroom, and a Kid Pix slide show that included recordings of the teacher and the children speaking the text was developed.

In a second- and third-grade combination class, students created a book project as a part of a walking trip around the school. Teachers and other school personnel were interviewed, photos were taken, and students created illustrations to show the individuals in their work setting. This sample page from the class book developed using Kid Pix and digital photos identifies the librarian and what she does at the school. The final project was exchanged with a Kaiapuni classroom on Kaua'i that did a similar project. The teachers at both schools wanted to reinforce descriptive sentence patterns, and students experienced a functional, communicative use of written language. Because each class had done a similar project, the context and format of the books made them relatively easy for students from the other school to read and understand.

For a similar project emphasizing the students' families, a second grader interviewed her mother and created this illustration, showing and describing each person in her family. This example was created by cutting and pasting a Kid Pix illustration and captions (the top half of the page) into a Claris Works word-processing document (the bottom half). This process gives much more flexibility in composing and choice of fonts than Kid Pix alone provides. Students in higher grades find it easier to draw in Kid Pix, but they also find the lack of word-processing capabilities in that program limiting and sometimes frustrating.

Because most of the students come to school with English as their first language, they frequently make grammatical and usage errors in Hawaiian based on the structure of their first language. To help overcome these common errors, teachers in different grade levels focus their language instruction on developing the proper patterns in a variety of ways. The lower grades often develop specific lessons and materials (including songs and fingerplays) to directly teach and reinforce the patterns, while upper-grade teachers attempt to refine the students' language knowledge through a variety of other approaches, including both oral and written langauge. The curriculum is sequenced to develop patterns of increasing complexity and difficulty as the students progress through the grade levels. A third grader illustrates a more complex pattern using an adjective form (maika' i) and a particle (i), which links a noun and an object. (Roughly translated: "The cafeteria is good because the food is delicious.")

Content Connections

Fourth graders who were studying the scientific concepts related to food webs were able to create a slide show, including a digital recording of their voices using Kid Pix. As a culminating project, the teacher had her class exhibit what they learned in a unit of study on the food web. Students created a title slide, a concluding slide, and individual sequential illustrations, written texts, or captions for each illustration. They also developed written scripts for the accompanying oral narration. The separate illustrations then were loaded sequentially and merged into a single slide show, where each author then added the recorded narration to his or her own slide. Another unit of study on marine life and habitats required students to develop research projects. One student's shark slide show included interesting details about habitat, shark behavior, and eating habits. The advantage of capturing the work as slide shows is the capability for collecting samples of students' written and oral language, as well as their developing artistic capabilities.

Students also used computer applications to illustrate math concepts or to present problems with illustrations for other students to solve. One student chose to demonstrate the concept of bigger than, comparing the size of a pig's backside to that of his own. Another student chose to use a visual of a football field for a measurement problem. Although these illustrations also could be done on paper, the use of the computer allows the incorporation of audio for students who need the reinforcement.

Technology allows students to create projects to showcase what they have learned through their own research. Often, the quality of these projects is greatly enhanced compared to a handwritten paper. The projects have a very polished appearance: letter formation is perfect, spacing is consistent, and placement of illustrations is easy to control. Students also learn very important organizational and problem-solving skills, and the importance of saving important information. A final example of a student research project is a four-page brochure about the Hawaii state bird, the Nene Goose, which is an endangered species. (The first and last page and the tops of pages two and three are illustrated). A fourth grader researched the information and created the illustration in Kid Pix, which he then cut and pasted into a document created with Claris Works. To complete such a project, students learn how to change the document format margins and number of columns, and to arrange the pages appropriately so that when they are printed they appear in the correct sequence.

Older students become more sophisticated in their use of technology, their facility with the Hawaiian language, and their research skills using English language materials. Sixth-grade students used the database and spreadsheet portions of Claris Works to organize and process data from soil samples taken on the Island of Hawai'i and from Kaho'olawe, an uninhabited island that was formerly a bombing practice range for the U.S. Navy. This project is described in more detail in the Technology Beyond the Classroom section.

As illustrated by these examples, kaiapuni students become increasingly more sophisticated in their use of technology as a tool for expression, organization, and language development as they move through higher grade levels. The wide diversity and quantity of language developed through projects incorporating technology into the curriculum would not occur within a traditional textbook-centered curriculum. The technological skills that students develop through the Hawaiian language are easily transferrable to English language computer applications and projects.