Digital Story: Science on the Land
My story tells about a week in the life of some 18 students who participated in an experiential learning camp out in the Barren Lands northeast of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Our school, Lutsel K’e Dene School, works in partnership with the Lutsel K’e Dene First Nation, the GNWT “Take a Kid Hunting and Trapping Program”; South Slave Divisional Education Council; Education, Culture and Employment of the GNWT; and several other local organizations to support the preservation of the Dene language and culture in our school programs. We organize on-the-land experiences for K-Grade 11 students in local areas around town, and longer trips to various traditional hunting and trapping areas around Great Slave Lake. This is a story about going out on the land for the Spring Hunt using photopeach:
How did I select this tool?
We were encouraged to explore and use any of the tools on the cogdogroo wiki site that Alan Levine has set up. He has a short story about his relationship with a lost dog which he proceeds to tell in 50 different ways using all the different tools on the site. Just looking at how that story feels through the different formats led me to several tools to explore more deeply – photopeach, slideshare, animoto, Xtranormal, Picasa, slideflickr, one true media, and google presenter. Experimenting with these different sites, uploading photos, trying cartoons, I decided on using my own photographs to tell the story, and wanted voice and/or text definitely, and possibly a music track. I used my own photographs and wrote the text in slideshare. In slideshare I found the uploading of slides from my own computer straightforward, although I had to go back and compress every photo to be under the 20MB limit. Based on feedback from my peers I redid my story in photopeach. This version featured less text and a music track. People felt this was easier to read and the music was engaging. Both photopeach and slideshare seemed like good sites that students could easily use, so for me that was a plus.
WHY IS THIS THE RIGHT TOOL TO TELL THIS STORY FROM A PEDAGOGICAL POINT OF VIEW?
I wanted to use photographs that one of my students and I had taken to illustrate this particular trip to Artillery Lake that I have not previously documented. The pictures give evidence and feeling to the quality of this kind of experiential education and its many dimensions – personal, spiritual, traditional and educational. I also knew that I wanted a program that could take my voice or text and ideally some music, so the feeling was represented in several ways – visual, textual, and musically. I wanted a presentation that would be compelling for fellow educators and colleagues here and up north, and equally compelling for students. The visuals are compelling for everyone, and they also show very clearly what ‘embedding science concepts and practice’ looks like in this ‘situated’ on-the-land context. I wanted a program that modeled how easy it is to create a presentation and story about my travels out on the land that students could also use to share their experiences.
For me this story was a chance to reflect on my experiences, and how I see our interdisciplinary curriculum in the authentic context. I see this could be a valuable tool for students to reflect on their learning as well, and in particular to explore the connections between the science they learn in school and out on the land with someone like Dr. Brooks, and all the traditional knowledge they have from the elders and the community on the land, animals and ecosystem.
These programs are also excellent tools for literacy development and providing opportunities for students to explain the main ideas in their photography, and their story, in a concise and engaging manner. I like the ‘storyboard’ concepts outlined on the slideshare site which could be a valuable tool for students to explore story structure and creation in a new and engaging format! The potential for collaboration, peer criticism and evaluation of story structure and presentation using these online formats – much as we did in this unit – can provide an excellent exercise for our students to practice peer criticism, editing skills, self-reflection, and acquiring more competence and familiarity with story telling, even collaborating on creating a group story! (Anderson, 2008)
Sharing stories is an integral part of the oral tradition of Aboriginal students, and I see the potential for expanding the skills of storytelling further using traditional stories, legends and myths, as well as telling the stories of community Elders and leaders as important role models and keepers of knowledge. Presenting these stories online and sharing them is becoming one of the critical and important practices for this generation to preserve and archive their language, culture and traditions (Jegede & Aikenhead, 1999; Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2005).
How does this story work within courses that are taught at the school?
“What is taught, after all, is at least as important as how it is taught” (Chickering & Gamson, 1987, p. 2).
My work is focused on First Nations students and the experiential learning camps that we organize out on the land. Integrating science, literacy, and other subject areas in a traditional knowledge context has been a focus of our work. We have explored supporting this learning with different technologies including digital video and photography for documenting experiences, journals, creating a web site with science and cultural information, and creating multi-media presentations to share with the community at special events. Students are given digital cameras for their own use while on the land and are encouraged to take photographs that they can then use to share their experiences with fellow students and with their community. We have mainly used movie maker and Powerpoint for students to create their presentations, but the potential for students to create presentations that can be shared online with a global audience, as well as students and classes in other communities, is an excellent extension. These online programs are easy to use, and they will definitely engage our students further. Students feel validated and empowered to share their work with their community, so I see greater confidence and motivation in sharing with a wider audience.
Our annual Heritage Fair that provides an opportunity for students to create projects that share cultural knowledge, and also integrate “core curriculum’ learning would also provide a good forum for these tools. In the past I have considered ways for our students to share their culture and projects with a wider audience, and transferring their projects – all or in part – to online story tools would be an excellent venue.
The Moodle course ‘Climate Change in the North’ I am designing fits broadly under the Experiential Science curriculum in the Northwest Territories. I see this short story as an illustration of ‘experiential science’, a story that shows students the many different dimensions of learning that are involved in our trips out to the Barrens. This story will serve as a model for the benefits of technology-supported learning, collaboration and communication (Anderson, 2008) for my northern colleagues to explore potential avenues for sharing between our schools and communities.
Using the guiding document ‘The Dene Kede’, all Northwest Territory schools have a mandate to make explicit the links between aboriginal knowledge and culture and the ‘western curriculum’ in our schools. This story is a vehicle for showing how students are making connections between their traditional experiences and scientific learning at school. To support this “cultural border crossing” (Jegede & Aikenhead, 1999; Battiste, 2002), we are developing ‘culturally sensitive’ strategies to engage our students. Stories are a big part of this. My story could be a model, and instructional tool, a motivator, and a self-reflection tool (encourage metacognition) for students from elementary levels to high school to engage in using stories in this way. And students in their turn, can confidently create stories to support and share these connections they make, for peers and community.
As a Principal, I am always looking to communicate our passion and commitment to the community, to other schools and to funders. We often share student-created work, and my story illustrates our essentially constructivist approach in our on-the-land work. The story clearly illustrates the socio-cultural context of knowledge, and the importance of community and ‘expert others’ in building knowledge – traditional and scientific! This camp was an example of ‘knowledge construction’ occurring with elders, community people, the scientists, and the students! Everyone was part of the conversations and collaboration. The story highlights the potential of the ‘authentic’ learning context – not only as the primary traditional way of learning – but also as a rich context for science learning (Posner, Strike, Hewson & Gertzog, 1982; Savery & Duffy, 2001). Dr. Brooks served as the ‘expert other’, as did the community members to him. Students had the opportunity to serve a “cognitive apprenticeship” with a real research scientist, engage with that ‘community of practice’ and its tools – situated in the actual research environment (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). There will be many more stories coming from the land!
I also did a slideshare version that I want to keep. Everyone really liked it, but some older people found there was too much text against photographs. I edited to improve this, and took out some text:
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Retrieved from: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf
Barnhardt, R., & Kawagley, A. O. (2005). Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Alaska Native Ways of Knowing. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 36(1), pp. 8-23. Retrieved from: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/curriculum/Articles/BarnhardtKawagley/Indigenous_Knowledge.html
Battiste, Marie, (2002). Indigenous Knowledge and Pedagogy in First Nations Education: A Literature Review with Recommendations. Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.usask.ca/education/people/battistem/ikp_e.pdf
Brooks, R., Caribou Anatomy Project, University of Calgary. Retrieved from: http://www.ucalgary.ca/caribou/
Brown, J.S., Collins, A., Duguid, P., (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning, Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42. Retrieved from: http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/museumeducation/situated.html
Jegede, O. J., Aikenhead, G. S., (1999). Transcending cultural borders: Implications for science teaching. Journal for Science & Technological Education, 17(1), 45-66. DOI: 10.1080/0263514990170104 /
Posner, G.J., Strike, K., Hewson, P., Gertzog, W., (1982). Accommodation of a scientific conception: Towards a theory of conceptual change. Science Education, 66(2), 211-227. Retrieved from: https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/RelativeResourceManager/Template/unit3/PosnerStrikeHewson.pdf