A Sampling of CIBER-Funded Curriculum Development

Fall 2003

Swahili Culture Online (Utamaduni Online)

Magdalena Hauner, professor of African languages and literature, UW-Madison Dianna Murphy, project manager for DoIT, UW-Madison Karin Gleisner, Ph.D. student in African Languages and Literature, UW-Madison

This three-year collaborative project, Utamaduni Online (Culture Online), will develop an innovative series of interactive, multimedia and Web-based lessons to improve advanced-level listening skills and cultural competency for students of Swahili, the most widely spoken African language. The project leaders have permission to use portions of the Tanzanian-U.S. produced film Maangamizi-The Ancient One (2000) by Martin Mhando and Ron Mulvihill. Lesson topics drawn from selected film clips include history, language and literature, religion, politics and social issues. Lessons will be made available to teachers and students of Swahili throughout the world.