Tag Archives: digital equity

M3- POST 4

I found the following article on digital equity and intercultural education are related to each other:

Resta, P., & Laferrière, T. (2015). Digital equity and intercultural education. Education and Information Technologies, 20(4), 743-756.

DOI 10.1007/s10639-015-9419-z

I would like to share some of the quotes which I found interesting:

“Digital equity and intercultural education both share the goal of promoting opportunity for all people.” (p. 744)

“Traditional intercultural education, with its focus on educational issues concerning communities and their diversities, does not refer explicitly to technology, let alone digital technologies. However, as individual and classrooms get access to the Internet and its tools and resources, opportunities for intercultural education arise.” (p. 744)

“Both digital equity and intercultural education are social reconstructionist in nature, and represent a movement to identify and eliminate the inequities and injustices that plague our schools, societies, and world.” (p. 744)

Authors believe that “The lack of access to the Internet is here considered not only a challenge to digital equity but a lack of opportunity to support intercultural education.” (p. 749).

And digital equity is especially needed for Indigenous communities to empower them through intercultural education:

“Information and communication technologies may be used to empower indigenous communities to learn about other cultures, to share their own culture with others and to create their own cultural content and curriculum resources. For technology to be a tool for empowerment, there are a number of conditions that must be met: native peoples must have access to digital devices, connectivity to the Internet, teachers who are skilled in using the new technologies, technical support, ongoing professional development, and high quality, culturally relevant digital content. Under these conditions, the digital technologies offer the potential for Native peoples to create
their own cultural content and curriculum resources Bat their own speed, in their time, under their own conditions, using their own knowledge and judgment that defines equity/equality” (Delgado 2003: 98).” (p. 750)

M3- POST 3

As it was discussed earlier, limited access to high-speed internet and its proper infrastructure is one of the elements in the digital divide. Overcoming Digital Divides workshop series is looking at this issue to invite policymakers from the education and industry sectors to look more closely at these issues and how they would lead to digital inequities in Canada. According to their report, “the groups impacted and disadvantaged most by Canada’s digital divides include Indigenous peoples, people with lower incomes, older adults, people with disabilities, and rural and remote Canadians.”

Source: Overcoming Digital Divides Workshop Series

That impact was more obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic as many people (according to Statistics Canada, approximately 5.4 million Canadians) were working remotely, and those who did not have a reliable internet connection at home had lower chances of working from their homes safely. In addition, almost all k-12 and post-secondary classes were switched to an online or hybrid mode which again caused problems for students without or with limited interact connectivity.

“With the possibility that remote work and learning may play a larger role going forward and even past the pandemic, digital inclusion has become increasingly imperative — a necessity that a large number of working families cannot afford to forgo.”

Based on this report, many Indigenous communities feel digitally isolated and excluded. The report asks two important guiding questions:

Are recent public investments and policies sufficient to achieve digital inclusion of Indigenous, rural and remote communities?
What Indigenous-specific needs must be addressed to secure digital inclusion?

Federal and provincial governments must get in touch with Indigenous people to properly answer these questions. “Moreover, First Nations communities have cited barriers to building and independently owning their own digital infrastructure, including the federal government’s tendency to overlook Indigenous-specific concerns and self-determination during infrastructure development negotiations.Indigenous communities have also called for greater data sovereignty over information collected from internet infrastructure networks.”

M3- POST 2

I highly recommend watching this video.

M2- POST 2

One of the fundamental requirements to achive digital equity is the access to reliable internet connection. According to this article, many Indigenous communities in remote areas do not have that connection and therefore their access to online services and resources is limited.

“Recent events, including the pandemic, fires and severe flooding in B.C., have highlighted the inequalities for Indigenous communities that don’t have access to these online services. Without connectivity and the ability to travel, relationships were challenged. Youth were unable to attend online academic and cultural teachings. Communities lost the ability to maintain their social and mental wellness and safety.”

“This lack of connectivity exacerbates socio-economic inequities, including business opportunities, employment, education, and physical and mental health.”

The current policy is for major telecommunications companies to participate in an auction and the job of providing internet with the proper licensing would go to the highest bidder. These companies are mostly focused on improving the internet services in urban areas rather than rural or remote areas. That results in disadvantaging Indigenous communities by leaving them digitally disconnected.

Indigenous leaders in Canada requested a change in the policy for providing internet to remote communities and demanding a seat at a table where decisions are made by sending a letter to François-Philippe Champagnein, theMinister of Innovation, Science and Industry in December 2021.

“At an Assembly of First Nations meeting in December 2020, 98.5 per cent of First Nations Chiefs in attendance from across Canada passed a resolution requesting access to high-speed internet for remote Indigenous communities. The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs also passed a resolution in February 2022 in support of a spectrum policy change to urge Indigenous digital equity. The federal government has an opportunity to not only close the digital divide, but to take another meaningful step towards truth and reconciliation by updating its spectrum policy.”

M2- POST 1

I finally got to start to do a bit of research on my topic: digital equity for Indigenous people. This actually needs more time than I anticipated at the beginning since you can find many similar terms are used to express the issues around digital equity. For example, digital inclusion and the digital divide.

So, I decided that the first step for me was to understand all the different terms and their meanings.

Using the definitions in this link, I created the following concept map for myself.

In the nutshell:

Digital Divide is the issue.

Digital Equity is the goal.

Digital Inclusion is the work.

A better version can be found here.

First Nations Technology Council

Module 1 – Post 2

The First Nations Technology Council (FNTC) is an Indigenous-led organization in British Columbia aiming to provide equitable access to equipment, training, and support to Indigenous communities to further nationhood goals and self-determination. The skills training they provide links directly with the vision, goals, and needs of Indigenous nations.

Their Indigenous Digital Equity Strategy is particularly interesting. Here is an excerpt, but I would recommend reading the entire project plan.

“We know digital equity is more than just access to computers and the internet, it is about influence over the trajectory of technology and its impacts on society. Digital equity is a prerequisite for innovation, self-governance, entrepreneurship, education, economic and cultural wellbeing, and nearly all aspects of rights implementation in the digital age.” – FNTC

From the organization’s YouTube channel, they highlight that Indigenous peoples have always been technical, and that progression into digital or tech innovation is more of an extension of who they already are. I think this perspective should be explored more when we talk about educational technologies.

A fun personal note is that my partner took the FNTC’s Drone Stewardship Program a few years ago and has been an incredible contributor to his Nation’s community projects. Here is drone footage he and his colleagues produced for the Musqueam Canoe Races.