Tag Archives: technology

M4P5: AlbertaEd – Walking Together & Talking Together

Alberta Education created a very comprehensive and interactive guide called Walking Together that provides educators with the necessary resources needed to incorporate FNMI perspectives into the curriculum.

One of my goals in my final project is to create a teacher self-reflection tool to determine which Indigenous perspectives are addressed in a particular lesson. The self-reflection tool would be a circle, similar to the front page of Walking Together, with the perspectives around the outside divided into pie pieces and then specific keywords underneath each perspective, to help guide the teacher in really analyzing their lessons.

I think this resource could also be used as a student activity, perhaps with the student reflecting on how the participation in the activity aligned with Indigenous perspectives. The student version would have student friendly language and offer sentence starter prompts for each perspective/keyword.

However, before introducing this self-reflection tool, students and teachers would both need to have an awareness of Indigenous knowledge and these various perspectives before the tool would be used meaningfully. I plan on creating an interactive multimodal game where these perspectives will be explored as a part of my final project.

M4P1: The Bill Reid Centre

The Bill Reid Centre is located at Simon Fraser University, a forty-minute hike from my school, but I did not realize its website was so rich in resources. It uses digital technologies such as photographs, drawings, videos, and other visual media to highlight the depth and vibrancy of Northwest Coast culture. Each section is so plentiful in resources that an entire year of curriculum could be developed with the website as a starting point. Its stated mandated is to (1) encourage community and academic conversations regarding the visual culture of Northwest Coast First Nations, and (2) promote public understanding and respect for the First Nations of the Northwest Coast past and present. The digital village project, in particular, could be of particular value in my class when using Minecraft to showcase knowledge.

M3. P4

Jeremy Ratt is a half-indigenous half-caucasion 19-year-old. He created a podcast earlier this year in which he  “discovers his Indigenous roots and explores what it means to be Indigenous. Ratt finds strength in his Indigenous identity, leading to conversations with new faces in unfamiliar places, gaining wisdom and finding the missing pieces to his past and present along the way” (CBC, 2021.)

As someone who can relate to Jeremy’s experiences, I have found the first few episodes of his podcast to be both enlightening and emotional. He talks about how his lived experiences have influenced his identity and connection to land and his people.

You can listen to his podcast on CBC Listen, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify. You can also read more about him on CBC

M3P1: Indigenous Math Games

I came across this resource, and I plan on taking at least one of each type of game and incorporating it into the Alberta Program of Studies.

The game “Hubbub” caught my attention. Players take turns tossing the dice and collecting point values, represented by the sticks. The game ends when all of the counters are gone, and whoever has the most sticks at the end wins.

This is a very simple game that opens up lots of discussion about probability, at many different grade levels. I can see it being used in elementary for patterns and collecting data; in the middle school level for simple probability; and at the high school level for statistics and probability.

http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/RR/database/RR.09.00/treptau1/mathcontent.html

M2P5: Tua’ll (and then) I used math to tell a story

Tua’ll (and then) I used math to tell a story: Using think alouds to enhance agency and problem solving in an indigenous high school mathematics class

This thesis is an action-research project in a high school math classroom that focuses on student discourse and agency. I am excited that I found such a detailed and extensive account of someone’s journey of incorporating Indigenous culture into an Indigenous high school mathematics class.

Below are some findings, implications, and questions from the report.

M2P4: Indigenous Learning Preferences and Interactive Technologies

A research study conducted in BC that studied the impact of interactive technologies on math achievement of Indigenous students in Grades 4-7.

Kitchenham, A. (2017). Indigenous Learning Preferences and Interactive Technologies. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 46(1), 71-79. doi:10.1017/jie.2016.12

Module 2 – Post 2 Social Media as a resource?

I had never considered the possibility of posting an Instagram or TikTok account in a university discussion, but here we are 🙂

Peter NotSo White was introduced to some of my students with social media by a classmate. Since being introduced, his posts have sparked discussion and learning both in class and at home. He presents small but timely information bits on many different aspects of indigeneity, including where does knowledge on indigenous people come from and some of the stereotypes people are exposed to. He also uses story time to deliver messages about life that students in my class really connect with. His content is mostly age appropriate for grade 4/5 (scan first – I have not watched all of them) and his tone and manner are engaging.

His account, and others like it, is an important part of decolonizing my classroom. Relying on outdated texts that tell us a colonial view of history does not help move reconciliation forward. Neither does using texts or media created by non-indigenous voices. The Government of Canada, for example, has a plethora of information available but who benefits from its use?

Module 2 – Post 1 Colonial practice and Minecraft

While the days of Oregon Trail are well behind us, Minecraft has stepped in and filled the “exploration game” void. One of the most popular Microsoft games available for children, my school district has encouraged widespread use of Minecraft Education for socials and STEAM studies. And I happily jumped on the train: what a great way for students to be passionate about learning!

Like all technology, however, it requires a critical eye.

As we have discussed, technology goes not exist in a culturally neutral void and Minecraft is no exception. This infographic was shared by a colleague and, while simple, it effectively helped connect the game to our colonial history. There is a growing discussion about the use of Minecraft as a conquering game and who’s agenda is being pushed. Certainly, this infographic and the supporting documents I have attached have given me pause for classroom use of Minecraft. I do not believe the game itself needs to be thrown out. Rather, what conversations am I having with my students about the messages the game portrays? What activities am I asking them to do? What standard of behaviour is being set?

Further reading:

Minecraft: The Robinsonade of Creativity or Colonialism?

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1555412016655678

M2. P1

I’ve been spending a lot of time reframing my final project platform and topic to focus solely on developing a Unit that speaks to the First People’s Principle of Learning; How learning requires exploration of one’s identity

On my search for resources into how best to develop education around this principle, I came across a number of fantastic readings/videos, and sites. The first is from SET-BC which is a Ministry of Education Provincial Outreach Program which was created to “assist school districts in educating students who require or would benefit from using technology to access the curriculum.”

What I was most interested in was their Blog page which is where I found a post titled, “Classroom Technologies and First People’s Principles of Learning.” On this page, it provided a series of Modules that focussed on one particular principle. Each module includes audio, video, resources, and a breakdown of the content which can be used to fit your classroom. You can view the page by either clicking HERE or you can scroll through it below – EDIT (apparently iframes are not supported on this blog although I have used them many times before…so you can just see what the front page looks like instead or click above!)