We specialize in software that bridges the digital divide - some days it looks more like a digital canyon. Many terrific applications, both web-based and stand-alone assume the users are rich in resources - that they have high-speed Internet access, extensive familiarity with computers, generous software budgets and years of college education. On the contrary, our customized applications are designed around limited resources. Our users almost always have limited funds for software and low-speed or no Internet access. We serve many areas of the country where telephone service reaches fewer than 75% of the homes. Some of our software is designed for direct care staff, parents or students who may have less than a high school reading level.

Much of our software has been used in computer-integrated training (not to be confused with web courses or training CDs.) One of our consultants designed the first Internet course ever taught by a tribal college, way back in the mid-1990's - ancient history in computer technology. In our pilot testing of this course, we found it was inaccessible to many students. Typical web courses of the time assumed flash = good. In the case of our students, who were sometimes accessing the course over a 28K modem, graphics, videoclips and similar bells and whistles were a continual source of frustration. Even worse were web pages that required plug-ins or applications that our students did not have and either could not afford or did not know how or where to download. Despite these obstacles, our Internet course had an exceptional completion rate. The first secret was to create a web page that was interesting, minimized high resolution graphics and other features that required megabytes to download and were stand-alone, wherever possible, without the need for other applications. The second key to success was to require students to complete the initial section of the course with a proctor. For the student who did not understand that the back arrow took him or her to the previous page, that highlighted text was linked to another page, the proctor was there to explain it all. When the student did not have any way to read a pdf file, the proctor was right there to help download Adobe reader.

A decade later, Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc. uses the method of computer-integrated instruction, combining a human introduction to software and ironing out all of the technical problems before leaving users to complete training in a room with a machine.

Current Computer-Integrated Training Projects

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