The RISE UP Project hosted an online workshop on “How to Use Digital Tools to Support Minoritised Languages”, open to anyone interested in digital language activism. The event featured a select group of presenters who explored the intersection of language and technology in the form of digital language activism, minority language podcasting, digital language learning platforms, and more.

In November 2023, RISE UP hosted a workshop on digital tools to support minoritised languages. The workshop featured various presenters from different project and initiatives, as well as interactive sessions in breakout rooms,  where participants were invited to share their own insights and experiences.

The presenters

First up was Eddie Avila from Rising Voices, who presented insights into the emerging movement of digital language activism. Rising Voices is an outreach initiative of Global Voices and has supported indigenous language communities all around the world but especially in Latin America, in advocating for their languages in digital spaces for approximately ten years now.

After Rising Voices, Juan Vergara presented the Galician podcast Fóra de Mapa, which deals with European ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities. In over 40 episodes, they talked about diversity in Europe on various levels, each episode covering linguistic factors of interest, the history and politics of the chosen region, potential conflicts, and interviews with activists, community contacts, and researchers.

Finally, Elena Saricu Todica and Florentina Costea presented Anveatsã Armãneashti, an e-learning platform for Aromanian. The platform, created in 2015/16, marked the first time that any digital tools for learning and teaching Aromanian were made available online. It is aimed at three main groups of learners: kids from 6-8, kids from 9-13, and teenagers and adults.

The workshops

After the presentations, four workshop sessions took place in parallel in breakout rooms:

• Digital campaigning in the context of minoritised languages
• Role of networks in setting up digital projects
• Experiences from setting up an e-learning platform
• Language Map(ping)

Detailed notes on the individual workshops have been made available on the RISE UP Website.

Participation

With close to 100 participants, this first workshop in a series of networking events to be hosted by RISE UP was a great success. Participants were keen to learn more about digital tools to support minoritised languages, and were eager to share their insights from diverse perspectives.

Further online events will be hosted by RISE UP in 2024, which will be announced on the project website.