First Nations Pedagogy

for Online Learning

http://firstnationspedagogy.com/portfolio.html

This is a efolio site for June Kaminski, BSN MSN PhD. June is currently a PhD Candidate in Curriculum Studies and Technology Education at the University of British Columbia. She is also a Metis

The site is built to raise awareness of First Nations pedagogy – the ways knowing, learning, and teaching inherent to the traditional methods of aboriginal education.

I was fascinated by the learning theories of this site. The resources lead me to exploring the pedagogy of the First nations. Although not completed it does offer a list of theories that I will explore more deeply. This site got me thinking about learning theories and how some Western theories, mainly constructivism is very similar to First Nation learning Theories. This site will prove useful for my paper.

It connects well with our reading in Module 3 Education Indigenous to Place: Western Science Meets Native Reality

I must admit I have felt a little discouraged in my web trek to find an unbiased opinion about the use of technology in Indigenous education. I came across the following site:

http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/indigenous/

and there are a lot of links, but once more I found that there is very little information of the sort I am looking for. What I did find at: http://www.cdi.gob.mx/

was a link to a video: http://www.cdi.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=278

in which I found a mention of the boarding schools, which sound similar to the residential schools in Canada. The difference I suspect is that the children do not seem to be mistreated, however they are being taught in Spanish rather than their indigenous language, and so they are being gently persuaded to leave behind their language and customs so that they can fit in with the majority.

I began by searching for an indigenous website about the use of technology, as most of the sites I have found dealt only with the benefits of educators and governments points of view. I found this website (http://www.nativetech.org/) and to be honest I was discouraged as it seemed to be a commercial site. I was checking out its links when I came across the http://nativeweb.org/ which seems to be the mother site. I was impressed with the quality of the links especially (http://www.mns-firstnet.ca/) I got sidetracked from my research and in fact the information and video about the residential schools horrified me (http://www.mns-firstnet.ca/). I remember children being strapped, when I was about 7 years old, in my primary school and the terror it would cause us as we heard it happening. Our parents would always tell us they probably deserved it, but I never agreed and vowed that when I was a teacher no student would ever have reason to fear me.