First Nations community looking to preserve dying culture using Odyssey Learning System's Nautikos.

Vancouver BC, Canada, June 26, 2002 - Tsuu T'ina, which means "a great number of people", is a First Nations reserve located adjacent to southwest Calgary city limits. Of the 1,250 residents in this unique community, only 40 speak the aboriginal language known by the same name. In fact, in everyday use it's already almost extinct. A few people still use it with their parents, but when those people are gone, it could vanish. As part of an initiative to save their endangered language and culture, the community is looking to use the multilingual, multimode features of the Nautikos learning and content management platform to deliver Tsuu Tina language educational programming.

The fact that the Nautikos software interface can be translated into Tsuu Tina so that students and teachers can be experiencing their own language in the delivery of both the interface and the content is of huge value," says Brian Smith, Principal at Tsuu Tina. When we consider how few people speak the Tsuu T'ina language today, this significantly adds to the potential for the survival of Tsuu T'ina culture in the future." Nautikos also makes it easy to build multimedia into courses, so sound and video can be used to make a really interesting, engaging cultural learning program. And once the introductory course is in place, further courses and enhancements can be developed in-house at minimal costs.

Nautikos is not new to the Tsuu Tina community. Back in September of 2000, Nautikos was fully implemented in the Tsuu Tina Adult Learning Centre (later renamed the Bullhead Adult Education Centre). In the following year, the communitys high school has also adopted the system. The results were highly encouraging. At the Adult Learning Centre an increased number of students successfully completed more courses than ever before. And this year two students will receive high school diplomas. They are the first two to do so since the high school was built 6 years ago.

"At Odyssey we are exploring the potential of Nautikos to help preserve First Nations language and culture," remarks Odyssey CEO Tanya Northcott. Because of Nautikos capability to deliver courses in any language at the same time, it would be possible to have First Nations learners of any age receive instruction in their local language and dialect for courses that help preserve their language and culture. At the same time, they can also receive instruction in English for academic and business courses that help to make them competitive in a global world."

About Odyssey Learning Systems Inc. (www.odysseylearn.com) --
Odyssey Learning Systems Inc. is dedicated to developing, delivering and supporting cutting-edged computer-managed learning products and services, enabling educators to design and build integrated learning systems to meet the unique needs of their learners. The companys flagship product Nautikos is the most versatile computer-managed learning platform on the market. Nautikos delivers effective eLearning onsite or online, with or without the Internet, and simultaneously in any language. The company also offers a multitude of both educational and corporate courses operating on the Nautikos system.