My name is Isreal Shortman and a Navajo originally from Shonto, Arizona.  I graduated from Monument Valley High School in Kayenta, Arizona in 1992.  Currently, I’m a software engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems.  I’ve been working in the IT field since 2000 with various companies in the greater Phoenix area.  I have been working with various web technologies but recently I have been working with latest technologies such as Cloud based systems within the Amazon EC2 infrastructure, realtime web communications, web technologies and mobile devices.

Recently I co-founded a company named tinkR’ Labs in which we specialize in educational software for children on mobile and tablet devices.  One particular application we’ve developed is an iPhone/iPad application called the Navajo Toddler.  The Navajo Toddler app is an interactive application intentionally built for children between the ages of 2 to 9 years old.  This application introduces the Navajo language and culture to the toddlers.  Currently, the application has lessons for learning Navajo words within the numbers, animals, phrases, colors and food categories.  Our next release will include our first game that will be a memory based game with future enhancements such as point reward system for children to become actively involved in learning.

The intention for building this app was from a culture perspective.  A lot of cultures are becoming lost these days and even the language itself.  Many different Native American languages are becoming less spoken and a gap is widening with the current youth generation.  What will the language/culture be like within 20 to 40 years among the Navajo people?  Even my daughter does not speak fluent Navajo and she is currently 11 years old.  I wanted to help teach my daughter and little niece to get familiar with the language, so I decided to help bring the language to the most modern technology being used today by children which is the iPad and/or iPhone.

So far, nothing but positive feedback and very inspiring to expand this application for Adults as well.  A bigger initiative is taking place to add more features that will leverage the capabilities with today’s technologies.

Currently, the app is available in the iTunes store for free for the iPad, iPhone and iTouch devices.  Developments are in the works for supporting other devices such as the Android, Amazon Kindle and etc…