How do highly syllabic languages work on smartphones today? This is a bigger research effort than I have time for right now so I asked ChatGPT. This post begins with ChatGPT 4’s summary, suggested videos, and then a more detailed breakdown. The videos highlight system level custom keyboard implementations for syllabic languages including Japanese, Korean …
A new release of the Ancient Maya App is available for iOS and Android. Release 2.4.0 allows the user to change the Long Count calendar origin date. It defaults to August 11, 3114 BC. Just click on the origin to change it. You can choose any date for the origin between -3200BC and -3100BC. This release will …
A feature that needs to be added to the app is a trilingual dictionary – classic Maya, Spanish, and English. Currently, the dictionary in the app includes about 600 entries in classic Maya and English. These entries are from Kettunen and Helmke’s 2020 dictionary (used with permission). Una característica que debe ser añadido a la …
A new release of the Ancient Maya App is available for iOS and Android. This release, 2.3.1, doesn’t add any new features. The source code has been cleaned up to make it easier for Tommy to work with. Also, this release should fix any problems with the Android App Store delivering an old version. There …
Steve and Tommy walked through the app’s code and talked about app development for about an hour. Tommy will set up an app development environment on his Windows laptop. This is non-trivial. The app’s source code resides in a cloud-based repository called GitHub. One must create an account on GitHub and from there fork the …
Hello there! This is Tommy, with his very first blog post. I was introduced to Steve and Deb recently through Karla (my old spanish professor and a very good friend). We have decided to work together on a new function for the Ancient Mayan App. This feature will act as a complimentary second half to …
Within the last week, we’ve had two very informative Zoom sessions with Maya educators and community organizers in Mexico and the U.S. We demonstrated the Ancient Maya App, and discussed how it can be used and expanded. One of the suggestions is that the app provide a full Spanish interface. Currently, only some menus are …
While at CoA, my friend Tommy developed a very interesting proof of concept program that allowed users to create glyph blocks from latin text words. For example, the user could type in “Maya” and program would combine the three glyphs for “ma”, “ya” and “a” into a glyph block. This capability could be added to …
The Ancient Maya App incorporates data from four different sources: a drawing by Schele, glyphs and definitions from Carter, glyphs and definitions from Tokovinine and definitions from Kettunen and Helmke. I only ask researchers for permission to use their material. I never ask for data a specific format, I use what they have previously made …
The role of technology in education changes over time. On this blog I write about the role of smartphones in learning ancient language and culture. And I also think about AI system like ChatGPT. Can they be used as an expert docent in a museum or as an expert tutor for the individual learner? Here’s …