Osage Nation STEAM Resource Coordinator Brandi Malaske has focused the resources of a grant from Apple totaling $130,363 on Daposka Ahnkodapi, where students will receive new iPads and other Apple products.
Malaske said she wants the students of Daposka Ahnkodapi to have “the best,” and that is what Apple represents. “The best in technology,” she said.
Apple will also provide teacher training for educators at Daposka Ahnkodapi. This November, four teachers from the private tribal school will attend a conference in Austin, Texas where they will be able to choose from sessions on curriculum they can bring back to students.
Malaske, who works on-site at Daposka Ahnkodapi every Tuesday, has attended the Apple educator trainings herself and learned how to code although she had no prior knowledge.
“I went to training for coding, specifically, and taught the kids how to make an icon with a face – so they can make the icon look like themselves,” she said. “I’ve also been to a training for machine learning, which is AI. I will be able to teach the kids how to design an app.”
With the new iPads, Malaske imagines the students making stop-motion videos for the annual Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair. To this end, she asked Apple for money to buy green screens, microphones and headsets for the students. Apple responded by awarding the Education Department $15,000 to meet this need.
Malaske has also been communicating with the Osage Nation Language Department and Osage Nation IT to potentially get Apple Vision Pro virtual reality (VR) headsets to allow students to participate in new immersive language learning curriculum forthcoming in 2025.
“Apple Vision would be our highest hopes – for the new [language] VR stuff to be compatible … I think it is for sure going to happen, I feel good about it,” said Malaske.
This August, the Language Department presented their new digital learning environment to the Congressional Culture Committee.
Language Department Director Braxton Redeagle explained that students can navigate through spaces in 3D or 2D. “There are objects you can pull and manipulate and grab,” said Redeagle, describing an immersive learning environment with games built in, including a model of Daposka Ahnkodapi itself, the Hominy Roundhouse, a theater space where teachers can show language and culture videos, a lobby space similar to a museum atrium, a rock climbing wall, bow and arrow game teaching orthography, a digital drawing area, a setup where learners can dress in Osage clothes with Osage language accompanying, a game for setting the table, and more.
In the future, non-player characters (NPC) may come into classroom environments too, said Redeagle.
“We don’t have any NPC interaction in there right now, but we have developed a concept for what that could look like and what we could do if we get more time and more money to do that,” he said. “If you have a VR headset, you can be immersed, but you don’t necessarily have to do that.”
While Apple has not yet committed to additional provisions such as VR headsets, Malaske said she definitely sees them continuing their relationship with the Osage Nation Education Department.
After Redeagle’s presentation, Congresswoman Jodie Revard said she was excited about how the new curriculum would affect the school. Other members of Congress, including Billy Keene and John Maker, expressed excitement and the possibility of supporting VR headsets.
Cameron Pratt, the Osage language teacher and language curriculum specialist at Daposka Ahnkodapi, said headsets could provide a dynamic option for an occasional change from the current curriculum.
“If I give them a down day they could have a headset … if they all have headsets,” he said. “We need to try to make language more fun. Would it be fun for the children? Yes, it would be fun. There’s days where it’s just hard-core drills and it’s day after day after day after day. So, once a while they need a break and to do something different,” said Pratt.
The school’s current language curriculum is based on Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) and Pratt noted it is not particularly adaptable to iPads although videos or app usage might fit into lesson plans.
“The students,” he said, “are advanced because they’re smart. Some of them know more than they know. The class has immersion capacity,” he said, and noted the students deserve a fun break involving language if they can get it.
Given the increasing size of the school, which will have a middle school building to accommodate larger class sizes by 2025, both language curriculum from the Language Department and from Pratt have the potential to contribute to the school’s mission of focusing on language and providing quality general education to children.
And if the students aren’t able to get VR technology, they can still engage with the curriculum on desktop, said Redeagle. “It just won’t be immersive … they will not be completely surrounded and can look in every direction.”
For now, new iPads, MacBook pros, STEAM accessories and Apple TV setups will ensure the school has up-to-date equipment.
“It’s like getting a new car. It’s exciting, and everyone gets one,” said Superintendent Patrick Martin. “I think if the iPads talk to the curriculum, it will be great.”
 program at the Osage Nation and it will also provide teacher trainings with Apple’s community education initiative.){kind=link}