Category Archives: MODULE 4

Second life is an online 3D virtual environment that has been used in some cases to teach language lessons in. The goal is to create real life scenarios that the students can interact with each other in the target language as well as with characters within the online game. In this video Scott Grant of Monash University speaks to his work of investigating the usefulness of using virtual worlds such as Second Life to teach languages. Having the 3D virtual world include gestures and cultural nuances of the target language was one of the focuses of Scott Grant’s work that at the time of this video, it was premature to indicate if the results were positive or not. Later on in 2012, Scott Grant along with Michael Henderson and Hui Huang published a study on The impact of Chinese language lessons in a virtual world on university students’ self-efficacy beliefs and concluded that a single collaborative language lesson using Second Life can result in a statistically significant increase in student self-efficacy beliefs across a range of specific and general language skills.

References

Henderson, M., Huang, H., Grant, S., & Henderson, L. (2012). The impact of Chinese language lessons in a virtual world on university students’ self-efficacy beliefs. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 28(3), 400-419. 10.14742/ajet.842

Loose Parts and Indigenous Perspectives

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-we-play-look-loose-parts-indigenous-perspectives-calum-waldegrave?trk=public_profile_article_view

Loose Parts Play

https://www.gowriensw.com.au/thought-leadership/loose-parts-play

Sustainability is a huge part of Indigenous culture and many communities focus on only using the materials you need. Even when I go to Indigenous feasts we are always asked to bring our own dishes. I think this is a practice that would be vital for many school communities to adopt. I believe this is valuable because many times when we have students building projects in our classrooms it leads to many wasteful materials. Imagine if students and all teachers considered their impact on Mother Earth. I think loose parts play is a way for students to design with purpose in a makerspace. It is a great way for all people be considerate of the materials we use. Many loose parts play also incorporates material from the outdoors. Students can consider micro habits and look at how they can reuse materials for additional projects.

Loose Parts play is a beneficial way to bring land-based learning into the classroom/makerspace.

Art Installation – Witness Blanket & Faceless Dolls

This statement is shared on the Witness Blanket site, “The Witness Blanket is a large-scale work of art inspired by a woven blanket.” These projects share stories of residential school survivors. It also shows how sites and digital platforms can be designed and created to allow authentic voices of Indigenous Peoples be shared in a purposeful way. This resources is important because it shares stories of our past and connects people to understanding the hardships and horrendous treatment of Indigenous families. It builds empathy.

Another eye opening project that involves meaningful connection to stories is the “Faceless Doll Project.” This is important as it can become a purposeful maker project. https://www.nwac.ca/assets-knowledge-centre/2012_Building_on_the_Legacy_of_NWAC_Faceless_Doll_Project.pdf

This was designed to talk about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Both of these projects can be used to speak about how making can be a way to share stories and to tell others about the histories of Canada.

I think these are both intentional projects that students could learn about within their classrooms. It also provides teachers with a deeper understanding of the impacts of colonization.

The University of Calgary has created an incredible library of resources that can enhance everyone’s classroom. This resource is valuable to my project as it shares a variety of books that relate to making and decolonizing classrooms. There is an additional area that focuses on digital storytelling. These resources have been vetted and compiled by the Indigenous Education department at Werklund School of Education. I have been fortunate to work with this team to help create video projects to help new graduates find places and spaces on campus that share Indigenous artwork or areas to connect to Indigenous culture. As mentioned on their site, “Decolonized education seeks to reconcile contemporary education with the past and with the peoples’ present ensuring that the ideological and self-interests within Eurocentric education are not imposed on Indigenous peoples and they build their own present with their own agency and power” (Battiste, 2013, p. 26). These are aspects we will be reflected about within our project.

If you are an educator and have not reviewed these resources I highly recommend it as this will enhance your resource collection and knowledge moving forward. Enjoy exploring.

https://werklund.ucalgary.ca/teaching-learning/indigenous-education-resources

As my final blog post, I decided to explore “Stolen Words” by Melanie Florence. 

I love this resource because it provides lessons and histories through storytelling, specifically addressing topics of language loss and revitalization. Stolen Words is a powerful story about the long term and intergenerational effects of Residential Schools on culture, identity and language. Through a young child interacting with her grandma, the reader is not only able to engage in learning about history but we are also able to witness how learning and knowledge is transferred through generations in Indigenous communities. The young granddaughter recognizes either (or perhaps a combination of both) her grandfather’s loss or a desire to revitalize language and provides him with a Cree dictionary. The grandfathers experience demonstrates the sorrow and sadness the grandfather felt with the loss of his language and experience at residential school. When the grandfather is exploring the Cree dictionary, you can truly feel a shift in the book as the reader can feel the grandfather receive a piece of something he thought was forever lost. 

I just absolutely love this story because it portrays the hardships and intergenerational legacy of residential schools but also provides space for hope, empowerment and rejuvenation through generations working together. This story also provides powerful illustrations that allow the readers to visualize and think beyond the text on the page. As a teacher, I like to project the illustrations and book on the document camera and then use a read aloud version in order to ensure there is proper pronunciation of the Cree words. 

The experiences of children at Residential school, specifically the attempt to erase and forbid Indigenous languages demonstrates the powerful connection that language has to our sense of being, our identity and our cultures.

Here is the link to the read aloud

In module 3 and 4 I used a lot of dense articles and resources to explore my paper. I wanted to round out my research by exploring stories and resources that I encounter on a regular basis, including stories. 

“I Am Not a Number” by Jenny Kay Dupuis is a powerful true story of Dupuis’ grandmother at residential school. It explores the deep connection of language, identity and culture and students were often stripped of their name and given a number. It explores Dupuis’ grandmother’s fear and arrival at the residential school, how she grasped onto elements of her identity and culture as well as the effects as she returned home. This story is a reflection on the powers of assimilation and forced erasure of the distinct identities and cultures of each individual and community affected. As I continue to prepare for my final assignment and continue to reflect and develop my own approaches as a teacher, it is important to not get caught up in only “formal” peer reviewed research essays and studies. It is critical to continue to explore the voice and knowledge of Indigenous communities through their way of sharing, often through storytelling. From the illustrations to the words chosen, this book was carefully curated to create a certain tone and atmosphere for the reader… it creates an emotional connection that makes our soul feel the history in a different way than an essay might. 

Although this book does explore the impacts of residential school, it also does a beautiful job of showing the connection of language, identity, culture and diversity.

I’ve added the youtube video with someone reading the book here