Indigeneity, Technology and Education
I am not really sure what I think of this series. The Turtle Island Voices books, that are offered through Pearson publishing, have fans and enemies. Some proponents say, “Yay, look it is Aboriginal and there is a teacher’s guide.” Opponents complain the reading level is too low. It is, however, what many schools have in their collections to support First Nations content. You can check them out for yourself here.
http://ineducation.ca/ineducation/article/view/61/547
This document is written by a collection of teacher educators, including the perspective of a member of the Lil’Wat First Nation of Mount Currie. Their argument stems back to the teacher education programs and the lack of changes seen in traditional programs that are primarily based on Euro-American-centric values. Indigenous pedagogical principles such as,inclusivity, community building, recognition and celebration of individual uniqueness are not reflected or encouraged in Education programs. It is realized that to shift the mindset of preservice teachers it requires continuous effort and is met with various challenges along the way.
Module 2 post 4
This organization is focussed on education and more specifically on the use of information technology as a means to support and serve Aboriginal communities. The site contains information on how the organization promotes educational technology in Aboriginal communities as well as links the various related article links on native perspectives on education, integration, information technology et.
I feel this is an excellent site for those who want to explore First Nations Organizations who are advocates for technological advancement in aboriginal communities, understanding philosophies and how action is being taken.
Module 2 – Post 3
Ryan Silverthorne
Educational Technology for Aboriginal Youth
For those unfamiliar with the One Laptop Per Child organization, they are group that endeavors to empower the world’s poorest children through education. They operate all over the world and are active in Northern Aboriginal communities. The site is one example of how technology is being used with the intention of protecting Aboriginal culture and is therefore a great resource for my research.
http://www.olpccanada.com/#!goodnews/cfvg
The site is updated regularly and contains multiple articles and information as well as endorsements from famous Canadian Aboriginal people.
Module 2 – Post 2
Ryan Silverthorne
In an effort to create a new narrative for aboriginal peoples, the University of Saskatchewan has complied more than 25,000 digital artifacts for indigenous research. This portal originating in 2011, showcases a turtle housing research topics such as Indigenous law, spiritual knowledge, economic development and education (plus more). Once your selection is made, the portal provides articles, book reviews, e-books and additional digital artifacts on the selected topic. The portal also allows for collaboration, as community members are able to suggest digital resources for publication. In addition, the Maps section is helpful for visualizing locations of First Nations groups within specific provinces. This would be a great resource for school-aged children to add context to Aboriginal curriculum. This is a must-use website for Aboriginal research.
Ronaye Kooperberg – Module 2 Post 2
Recently released, the link is to an 40 page e-book which has resources/stories about the history of residential schools in British Columbia. There are videos, primary documents, and classroom activities. For those of you who like hardcopies, there is an internal email link to obtain your own recyclable paper copy. 🙂
photo taken from website http://www.bctf.ca/HiddenHistory/eBook.pdf 09 04 15
Have you seen the YouTube video of magnetic putty? One of them is here if you need a quick look (42 s. pt). To me Indigenous peoples are the magnet and the “new” K-7 curriculum is the magnetic putty. As you see in the video the putty is attracted to the magnet, but eclipses the magnet as it reforms itself over top.
My intent is not to disparage any of those nouns mentioned, however being on the inside I sometimes think it is still up to those in the trenches to communicate the royal commission ideals, and decolonized directives, and shared learning expertise. A great deal of which they don’t know.
My link isn’t the YouTube video, it is, in fact, the K-7 Curricular document.
This was a neat find, as it does not pertain specifically to Indigenous groups, but can apply to them very well. It seems like a generalized version of many of the curricula we looked at in the course, and emphasizes the need for everybody to have a bit of self-determination when it comes to education.
A Resource for Curriculum Developers, Teachers and Administrators
In searching for ways to integrate Aboriginal perspectives in the existing curricula for my project, I happened to stumble upon this excellent resource. The goal of the document is to assist Manitoba’s curriculum developers and instructors in incorporating Aboriginal perspectives, cultural components, historical contributions and achievements in the classroom.
What I liked most about this article is that it touches on many topics such as residential schools, traditional ways of learning (oral tradition, spirituality, Medicine Wheel, and Elders), and ways to include traditional ways of knowing in the current curricula. In addition, it provides an extensive list of learning outcomes for multiple subjects for the different age groups as well as examples of how Aboriginal perspectives have been integrated in schools. One of the examples demonstrates multimedia was used as a means to bring awareness to Type II diabetes in Aboriginal peoples. Finally, the document presents a historical timeline of significant events for the Aboriginal peoples of Manitoba
The Alaska Native Network had very interesting curriculum documents which incorporated Indigenous knowledge systems. I wanted to know if there were similar resources with the same ideas.
This article provides information about how to teach using medicine wheel principles. It elaborates more on the circular process of learning (introduce, explore, apply, generalize, etc).
http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/teaching-medicine-wheel
Four Directions Teachings uses audio-visual presentations to teach about Indigenous philosophies and teaching methods.
http://www.fourdirectionsteachings.com/
Catherine