The new network will remove the barriers to reaching students across the state and the country. With the upgraded technology and high-speed connection, they will be able to partner with other tribal colleges to offer their Comanche language modules online. The college has already begun to upgrade all of their technology to take advantage of their new high-speed Internet connection. “The technology will move us leaps and bounds beyond other colleges like us.” “We were so elated when we heard about the network,” said Dr. Lopez and her faculty learned about the network build-out, they began developing plans that would utilize the new network to create opportunities for their students and reach students in other areas of the state and across the nation. Comanche Nation College is one of the community anchor institutions, who will be directly connected to the network.Īs soon as Dr. The network also will connect 32 community anchor institutions, including state colleges, universities, hospitals and local libraries, to the state’s existing networks. OCAN’s fiber network will encompass 1,005 miles, reaching 35 Oklahoma counties. OneNet, a division of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, will operate the network once it is complete. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is overseeing construction of the network, and the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services is managing the financial aspects of the project. Three agencies have partnered to implement the grant. OCAN will offer high-speed broadband services to rural and underserved Oklahoma. This new network, the Oklahoma Community Anchor Network (OCAN), is a result of $74 million grant Oklahoma received in August 2010 from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. Currently the modules are only taught at Comanche Nation College, but their vision will soon be a reality thanks to a new high-speed fiber network that will enable colleges across the state to upgrade their technology and reach students they haven’t been able to reach until now. The college’s vision is for the modules to be taught at colleges across the nation. The modules incorporate everyday activities into the lessons to teach students words they can take back and teach their families at home. Todd McDaniels, a professor at the college, has designed innovative training modules to teach the language to their students. “Without the language, there is no tribe.” Consuelo Lopez, president of the college. If we can’t teach students the language, the tribe will lose their language altogether,” said Dr. With only 20 Comanche elders left to pass on the language, the tribe faces the real possibility that future generations will not learn the language.Ĭomanche Nation College in Lawton wants to ensure that doesn’t happen. Currently there are only about 100 people who speak the language, and the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger classifies it as severely endangered. They are slowly losing the Comanche language. The Comanche Nation is facing a challenge unique to the tribal culture.
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