Multiliteracies

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Aboriginal Students Engaging and Struggling With Critical Multiliteracies, by Fatima Pirbhai-Illich (2010) discussses her study involving at-risk First Nations adolescents in Canada.  She explores the concept of Multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996) and attempts to increase students’ literacy level using a video project to address the students concerns about racism and fairness.   This reminded me of an article I read for a previous course that lead to discussion of what is literacy and how technology is leading us towards a sense of Multiliteracy.  It is true that our sense of literacy has been entrenched in text entrenched in Western Christian culture, the printing press and the industrial revolution.  This focus has disenfranchised a great many students and perhaps technology will allow us to rethink and expand our concept of literacy.  As I continue to seek out best-practice for Aboriginal students in elementary school, I will definitely keep the idea of Multiliteracies in mind.

Fatima Pirbhai-Illich, (2010) Aboriginal Students Engaging and Struggling With Critical Multiliteracies, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 54 (4).  http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3c527a0a-6c50-43fe-9d15-bb835dff5d68%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=106  (use the vpn connection to the library)

The New London Group (1996) “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures” Accessed 05/07

National Network for Urban Aboriginal Economic Development

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The National Network for Urban Aboriginal Economic Development project was developed as a partnership between the University of Northern British Columbia and the Prince George Aboriginal Business Development Centre with a goal of fostering economic development in urban aboriginal communities.

Their website includes a vast amount of research on urban aboriginal issues (education, economic development, traditional practices, etc) as well as links to other organizations and community groups working in this field.

This is a good starting point for anyone interested in doing research on urban aboriginals.

First Voices – nłeʔkepmxcin

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I realize First Voices has already been introduced but this section of the site is specific to my region.  The nłeʔkepmxcin Community Portal deals with the language of the people of the Nicola Valley in British Columbia.  This section (similar to other language an people group sections in First Voices) serves as a language, historical and cultural archive for this region.  To help students learn basic terms and phrases there are games and vocabulary lists available.  These vocabulary lists include audio archives to help with how to pronounce the word.  This archive is driven by Aboriginal contributors in an effort of cultural preservation.

Media Indigena

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Media Indigena: http://www.mediaindigena.com is an interactive online magazine where indigenous issues and ideas are raised and discussed. It describes itself as both “curator and creator” in that it collects stories but also leads conversations on a variety of cultural topics such as art, politics and education.  Media Indigena uses new media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) extensively itself, but also showcases examples of indigenous groups who use technology to support cultural revitalization.

There are also a number of academic papers and reviews posted on this website, including a debate on the controversial book written in 2008 by Frances Widdowson called “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry”, which first led me to the website.

Here’s the link to the debate: http://www.mediaindigena.com/agenda/debate-disrobing-the-aboriginal-industry#hide

This website will be useful for those researching cultural revitalization projects, technology, aboriginal identity issues and historical materialism as it relates to indigeneity.  From what I can tell, the content fits nicely into both module one and two.

Module 1: Mi’kmaq Online

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http://www.mikmaqonline.org/

This website serves as a language preservation site whereby individuals can listen to and read various Mi’kmaq stories and words.  In addition, it also serves as a dictionary.  I believe it could act as a good resource for students and educators who are interested in the language.

This is an initiative that was created in 1997 as an electronic tool for Mi’kmaq language preservation.  Originally the goal of the non-profit organization was to create a CD-ROM that contained audio and text of songs, historical stories, and a dictionary of the Mi’kmaq language.  Advances in technologies have enabled the project to go entirely online.  The website hosts audio, image, and text files.

Module 1: Chief Atahm School

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Located on the Adams Lake Band reseve in the Sepwepemc Nation, BC, Chief Atahm School is a parent-run language immersion school and educational program. The program began in 1987 as a language nest modeled in the Maori style of “Te Kohanga Reo” by a group of parents hoping to stem the loss of the Sepwepemc language. Since that time, their program has grown into an internationally celebrated example of successful tribally controlled education. Their Vision Statement reflects a deep respect for the values and traditions of the Sepwepemc.

The school provides full immersion from nursery through grade three, partial immersion for grades four through nine, and adult language courses. As the success of their program has become evident through the students that progress through the school and the revitalization of the Sepwepemc language, they also provide yearly Teacher Training institutes and adaptable curriculum development tools. Building on a tradition of continuing refinement of their programming, Chief Atahm School holds an annual language conference that is well attended by language activists, teachers, and enthusiasts.

Indigenous Peoples, Recording Techniques, and the Recording Industry

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Here’s a link to an online journal produced by the Department of Ethnomusicology at the University of Bamberg in Germany.

http://the-world-of-music-journal.blogspot.com/2007/11/wom-49-2007-1.html

Many of the posts are related to indigenous music.  This particular link is to an edition called “Indigenous Peoples, Recording Techniques, and the Recording Industry” and the articles provide ethnographic information on a wide range of aboriginal musical initiatives from many countries – the Sami in Scandinavia to Fijian societies to North American aboriginals.

The website provides summaries of each article but full copies are not available on this site; some can be found on the web and others I was not able to track down.  However, it is a great place to get ideas about ethnomusicology and to get exposure to aboriginal cultures that you may not have been familiar with before.

Indigenous Cultures – Wade Davis

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For me, the more I learn about Indigenous cultures and their values, the more I understand and can critically analyze technology’s role in education. 

Wade Davis, someone I admire and have been fortunate enough to listen to live at UBC, explains Indigenous cultures, language loss and the value and connectivity of the land/ geography incredibly well. 

Wade Davis 1

Here, Wade explains that the world contains much more than just Western ideas.

Grameen Bank

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Throughout this Module, I have been thinking – how can Indigenous Groups be empowered to incorporate technology in their communities?

I think the Grameen Bank: http://www.grameen-info.org/ is a fantastic organization and if a system were set up (like the Grameen Bank) to help empower Indigenous groups to create their own solutions to their specific issues that would be the ideal route and most likely yield the most success.

Imposing Western Educational Goals on Indigenous Groups

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This week we have discussed how Indigenous communities have different educational goals than Western cultures. 

I have found two online articles that critique the One Laptop Per Child program based on this foundation that Indigenous educational goals are different:

An article titled, “It’s Time to Call One Laptop Per Child A Failure” was published online in Bloomberg Businessweek: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/09/its_time_to_call_one_laptop_per_child_a_failure.html

Another article titled “OLPC: a different type of disaster altogether” was published online at humanitarian.info: http://www.humanitarian.info/2008/05/19/olpc-a-different-type-of-disaster/