The Gorilla Foundation's Education Program is the link that connects our interspecies communication Research Program with our Conservation Program, and thus helps manifest "conservation through communication." We have been focusing on thre main education projects this year—ZEST, KokoTeach and KokoFlix—all of which provide educational tools for others to join us in our quest to save, and improve captive care for, gorillas and other great apes. These projects also provide an archival mechanism to make our data and results available and conveniently accessible, far into the future. Following is a brief update on each:


ZEST (Zoo Enrichment Signing Technology) —— an interspecies communication database

The ZEST project started as a simple multimedia tutorial to help other organizations with great apes teach basic sign language (ASL) to selected apes, either to improve their care (it's easier when they can actually "tell" you what they need) or to collaborate on ape language research. Recent renewed interest in the "natural" gestural abilities of great apes caused us to expand the scope of ZEST, so that it has become a multimedia relational database that both captures our current knowledge of ape language through Koko's ASL vocabulary and provides a tool to study ape natural gestures — i.e., to learn "their" language(s). We are in the process of adding the capability to represent multiple versions of observed"natural gestures" now.

There are three audiences for ZEST: 1) Gorilla Foundation staff (to quickly learn Koko's most useful signs, and track her usage over time), 2) zoo partners (to teach their great apes what they consider to be the most essential subset of Koko's sign vocabulary, and track their learning and the benefits of sign language over time), and 3) the general public, especially schools and students interested in great ape conservation (or sign language), by allowing them to upload photo or video observations at zoos or sanctuaries of great apes communicating.

We are currently focusing on in-house staff and zoo partners, but gearing up to share with the public wihen ZEST is sufficiently robust and data-rich. If you work at a zoo that houses great apes, and you think that sharing a common language with them might be beneficial, then please email us at zest@koko.org to explore a partnership.


KokoTeach Update (Teachers' Panel Evaluation of Koko Content)

For the past several months, hundreds of teachers have been emailing us to participate in a new "Koko Teachers' Panel" that begins with them helping us evaluate a multimedia, multi-topic PowerPoint presentation that we have been evolving through presentations at local schools. The purpose of the Teachers' Panel is to tell us what works, and help us make it work better — where success is measured by how motivated their students become to become better students in order to be better friends to the "otherwise disappearing" great apes.

If you are a teacher who's aleady applied to be on the Koko Teachers' Panel, and get the free evaluation CD, then thank you for participating. If you are a teacher who's just learning about this opportunity now, there's still time to apply (by Oct. 31, 2007) — just click on the contactus link on the bottom of the KokoTeach webpage. And if you're just curious about new Koko educational materials being developed through this teacher-vetting process, then feel free to visit KokoTeach from time to time to check up on us.


KokoFlix Update (Online Interspecies Communication Video Library

Since launching KokoFlix on Koko.org just a few months ago, it has become the most visited section on our website. Initially intended to be a well-organized YouTube-like library of Koko video clips, with new ones added every month or week (eventually), it has become clear that KokoFlix can be a valuable educational and archival resource as well. For example, one of the Categories within KokoFlix is "Learn Koko's Signs," in which a growing dictionary of Koko's favorite ASL signs is demonstrated by Dr. Penny Patterson and an associate. Other clips within KokoFlix show Koko using these and other signs in diverse real-life scenarios, so that when you see the subtitles, you can use the dictionary to learn the sign. By adding links between the dictionary clips and the example clips, and making subtitles an "option" for many clips, one can immerse themselves in Koko's world, and learn sign language in a fun setting. Moreover, teachers can draw from these short clips to illustrate a variety of academic subjects (eg, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, primatology, biology and of course ASL), and thus inspire students to help save the great apes in the process.

If you have suggestions for ways to increase the impact and/or usefulness of KokoFlix, please email us at kokoflix@koko.org.

Visit KokoTeach (on Koko.org) regulary for updates on these and other Gorilla Foundation educational projects —— and share your ideas with us. Thank you!