Author Archives: ljstott

I am enrolled in the Masters of Education Technology at UBC. I have just begun the program and am currently working through my second course ETEC 565A. It may be a long journey through the program as I am taking it 'one course at a time' but I am enjoying the courses and the opportunity to once again be a student. I have a varied background - my path is a windy one! I studied International relations and economics, worked briefly in international development, studied resource management, worked in the resource management field and now teach a few courses at BCIT in geographic information systems and digital mapping. I run a small website and multimedia company with business partner Rick and we have a lot of fun dreaming of all the things we can create and do in the digital realm. I am married and have one daughter and live happily at the foot of mountains near fields and streams and woods.

Module 1 | Post 2 Education and Research into understanding post secondary indigenous student perspectives

Derik Joseph is an Educational Advisor at the British Columbian Institute of Technology.  He has recently completed a Masters of Communication at Royal Roads and his thesis work is titled “How Are the Aspirations of British Columbia Institute of Technology First Nations Students Defined by Their Indigenous Perspective?”.   I met with Derik last week at BCIT to discuss a possible project with the aboriginal services department and was fascinated by his study and his perspectives on education, technology and the experience of First Nation students at BCIT (Joseph, 2014).   He has shared his paper with me and I look forward to reading it in the next week or so.  I also have attached a link to his talk at BCIT as part of the aboriginal speaker series that is ongoing at the institution.

Many of the ideas and perspectives presented in his talk and in my meeting with him are in agreement with the articles and ideas we have explored in Module 1.  In particular, I found the preeminence of place as discussed in Micheal Markers paper “After the Makah Whale Hunt” (2006)  of First Nation discussions or stories to relate to a place first and localize experience to be true in both Derik’s talk and in his discussion with me.  There is also an emphasis on local indigenous perspective.  While this may not comply with critical theory, it seems better suited to deal with the issues at hand and to truly connect and construct a solution that will be meaningful and of interest to the students that Derik introduces in his talk.

To view the talk, visit https://youtu.be/zL-2hrlmwMk

References

Joseph, D. (2014, May 8). Aboriginal Speaker Series [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/zL-2hrlmwMk.

Marker, M. (2006).  After the Makah Whale Hunt: Indigenous Knowledge and Limits to Multicultural Discourse. Urban Education,  41(5), 482-505.

Module 1 | Post 1 Digital storytelling – An example from the Fraser River

I want to add another example of digital storytelling as a means of sharing ideas and building bridges between communities.  Several years ago I was lucky enough to be the researcher for the BCIT “Explore@ the Fraser River” project.  One of the key objectives of the project was to look at First Nation communities  who live along the river and to try and include their story and perspective in the website.   Willie Charlie from the Sts’ailes band in Harrison was given permission by the Elders of the community to share several of their stories.  I visited the community and was allowed to record Willie as he told me many stories of his people and their history on the River.  The stories are now online and can be accessed by anyone who is interested and wants to know more about the people who have lived on the Fraser for thousands of years.

One of the things that I think this project did very well was to present the information about the Fraser River as a story and it mixed many forms of media in the telling of the story.  The site is also not as structured as some others….it does not conform to a rigid info or education site as Flash was used to build the pages.  Sadly this means it is not accessible by iPads but at the time of its creation, it focused on the story and the visual and audio presentation of the content.  These options for novel web pages are fading as compliance with search engine optimization, security and coding has created a rigid structure for design and options for presenting and sharing stories.  I think the challenge in the future for websites and online media will be the allowance for creativity and alternate ways of relating to both content and the telling of tales.

The link to the site is at http://commons.bcit.ca/explorethefraser/  and the link to the pages for http://commons.bcit.ca/explorethefraser/people_river.html.  For information on Willie Charlie and his reason for sharing the stories is under Contributors in the About section of the site.