Tag Archives: youth

Module 4- Aboriginal youth and health careers

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This video could be used within the classroom in relation to career options for youth. It provides vignettes and actual interviews of people from various aboriginal communities who currently work within the health care system. In doing so, the video also provides youth information on courses needed at the high school level and how one would go about attaining the necessary skills. A great deal of the focus is on attaining good skills within the math and science subjects.

Health Careers – Industry in the Classroom Series from First Nation Help Desk on Vimeo.

Academica Group

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Academica Group is a Canadian based research and marketing consultancy focused on post-secondary education. They conduct research, and highlight trends for post-secondary institutes to help them map out the changing roads ahead. They provide a free subscription service called Top Ten, a daily news brief. Many post-secondary institute leaders, managers and administrators subscribe to this service for daily updates. I have been scanning the daily updates of Top Ten for a while and have noticed since starting ETEC 521, that there is a fair amount of news related to indigenous education in Canada. Here are some recent news items that came up with the following search terms:

First Nations:

Aboriginal:

Indigenous:

Native:

Inuit

Metis:

My favorite part of the Academica site is the work of Ken Steele, Senior Vice-President, Education Marketing. Ken does a roadshow and if you ever have the chance to see one of his presentations on the future trends in post-secondary education, it is well worth the time spent. Ken has U-tube channel where he gathers higher education commercials and lip dubs including UBC’s LipDub. Many of these commercials are thought provoking including Ontario Colleges Obay commercial.

RedWAY BC News

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http://www.spiritlinking.com/products-services/redway-bc-news-e-zine

RedWAY BC News is a free monthly on-line magazine.  It has been published since 2003 by Spiritlink Communications.

According to the founder of RedWAY, Kristen Kozuback the mission of the publication is to build relationships based on respect and recognition and to celebrate the diversity of cultures, talents and strengths of Aboriginal people..

Many of the recent efforts by RedWAY focus on ways youth can build media technology skills and develop the experience necessary to start careers or businesses as writers, editors, videographers, and photographers.  RedWAY‘s YouTube channel and video productions (made by youth) can be found here.

Here are some of the regular sections from the magazine:

  • JPEN – Job Postings & Employment News
  • From the Streets and RHR: readers helping readers
  • Smoke Signals: a community announcements page
  • International Indigenous News: often self-governance items

Readership Demographics:  most of the readers and contributors are Aboriginal youths who reside in British Columbia – 85% self-identify as Aboriginal; 80% live currently in BC; over 45% are under age 30; 70% have their own social networking site.

Teaching Tip: In coordination with Spiritlink, RedWAY, and the First Nations School Net Program, 7 youths attended the 2008 Gathering our Voices Conference held in Victoria, May 17-20, 2008.  These youths were provided with hardware (laptops, cameras) + software + brainware (training) + spiritware (encouragement and empowerment) and the result was a significant ‘earning and learning’ experience.

Adele Alexander commented on her reflection the conference in a holistic way.  Her posts describe the influence the conference had on her:

  • intellectually
  • emotionally
  • physically
  • spiritually

I found this to be a very interesting way of having students look back at an experience. It transcends the mere ‘lessons learned’ and gets into a more authentic reflection of any experience.  Researchers looking into innovative, grassroots efforts to empower Aboriginal youth through media should definitely take a look at RedWAY.

National Film Board – Aboriginal Perspectives

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The National Film Board (NFB) of Canada has a web page devoted to high school and upper elementary students and teachers called Aboriginal Perspectives. It has NFB aboriginal documentaries from 1940 – 2004 with critical commentaries on the issues presented. The site has several themes including:

I viewed several of the excerpt clips under Cinema and Representation and found an interesting contrast in two clips about the Hudson Bay Company. In Caribou Hunters (1951) Manitoba Cree’s and Chipewan’s from the mainstream perspective, are shown happily trading with the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson’s Bay Company (1972), presents an honest view of how the Indians felt about the “value” they were getting from trading with the Bay. This is much different from the 1951 Caribou Hunter’s perspective.

CBC Aboriginal

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CBC has an Aboriginal portal called CBC Aboriginal. To start, the site has a listing of current top headlines, for example on June 17, 2011 here were a few of the listed news items:

The site also has regular sections such as Promote: Legends series started in 2002, Special features such as Truth and Reconciliation, Arts and Culture, Radio featuring ReVision Quest, the Legends Project, and Spotlight featuring Aboriginal Artists.

This site also has links to Learning the Path: for aboriginal youth, Ab-Originals: Aboriginal Music, CBC North: Daly programing in Aboriginal Languages, CBC Archives: Aboriginal related television and radio clips, the Aboriginal section of the National Film Board of Canada and In Depth features such as History of Aboriginal Canadians.

This is a great site to find out about Canadian Aboriginal issues both past and present.

FNBC – Youth Cafe

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http://fnbc.info/node/531

I saw another post shared by a ETEC 521 colleague that mentions the First Nations Technology Council. The area of the FNBC website that I found interesting is the Youth Cafe where young First Nations individuals share their projects. Many of these young individuals mix technology with traditional art. They also digitizing community stories and recording stories of their elders. On this page, there are useful links to explore. This website provides good examples of successful technology use by Aboriginal youth. In my area of interest, I would like to explore more about how aboriginal youth are balancing technology and cultural traditions. With a number of aboriginal children and youth being exposed to so much technology, I would like to explore the social implications.

Weblogs & Research interest – 21st century urban Aboriginal youth

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Canadian Aboriginal groups are experiencing rapid demographic change.  Presently, approximately 60% of Canada’s Native People reside in urban settings, and 60% of the overall Aboriginal population is under the age of 25 (UNYA, 2011).

These demographic trends pose a distinct opportunity and challenge.  Aboriginal youth are in a unique position to steer future directions in cultural preservation and development.  My research interest is to determine how urban Native youths, particularly those who reside in Metropolitan Vancouver, have responded to life in a city setting, and to see if this provides any insights as to how Aboriginal identity will evolve in a 21st century landscape that is characterized by rapid technological change.

Specifically, my weblogs focus on the following questions:

  • What currently shapes Aboriginal identity?  Is Native identity still rooted in references to geography, linguistics, and colonialism or has the notion of identity evolved?
  • How are urban Native youths responding to the challenge of defining themselves and being authentic in the realm of two sometimes competing cultures?
  • There is now great socioeconomic and cultural diversity in Native communities. Has there been accommodation for this growing heterogeneity in programming for urban Aboriginal youth?  Are urban Native youth still being treated as a problem?
  • Are Aboriginal educational efforts effective in helping Native youth to preserve cultural knowledge and build a sense of identity?  Is technology helping or hindering this process?

Urban Native Youth Association. (2011).  A brief history of UNYA.  Retrieved from  http://www.unya.bc.ca/about-us

Connecting Weblog to Research Interest

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I didn’t have a specific research topic in mind when I started by weblog research. However, I kept finding myself being attracted to documents and information pertaining to Aborginal children and technology. The five sites that I have visited come from Canadian as well as Australian sources. The first article I found discusses improving educational experiences for Aboriginal children in Australia. With technology being so widely used by many teachers around the world, I think that educators should invest time into examing how technologies could enhance the learning experience of aboriginal children. At the same time, educators can evaluate these technologies to ensure that they are culturally sensitive, and respectful of aboriginal pedagogy and ways of learning.

I find the second piece of information to be the most interesting. I have heard about the One Laptop Per Child policy before and learned that the Belinda Stronach Foundation was implementing it with Aboriginal children across Canada. However, I didn’t know that there is software included into theses computers that aboriginal children and youth can directly relate to. I want to see the outcome of the laptop distribution. I would like to find out what worked well for the aboriginal children, and what could be improved for the future.

Closely linked to the distribution of laptops is the Belinda Stronach Foundation. I looked further into this organization and found that they work to deal with global challenges and innovative solutions. They provide a presentation on their website that discusses the creation of a better future for aboriginal children using technolgy. Another organization called KTA works closely with Aboriginal peoples. On their site I found a document about aboriginal culture in the digital age. Both the Belinda Stronach Foundation and the KTA made me think further about the use of technology and how it benefits aboriginal children. The last document I found talks about a software for educating aboriginal students about place. TAMI is a program that elders can use with children. 

My weblog research seems to be linked by the idea that technology is being used by and for aboriginal children. I would like further research how technology worked (or did not work) for aboriginal children. I am interested in possibly narrowing down my topic a little more.

Software for educating Aboriginal Students about Place

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http://www.cdu.edu.au/centres/ik/pdf/HRV_for_Kritt_WinegarFINAL4-06.pdf

Written by an author from The University of Melbourne, this paper discusses how a software can contribute to learning about being in-place by Australian Aboriginal Children. The author identifies a software called TAMI which stands for texts, audio, movies, and images. TAMI was design with and for Aboriginal Australian teachers, parents and grandparents so that they have the opportunity to work with the children of their communities inducting them into the collective life the various places to which they belong and from which they derive their identities. The TAMI software sounds very unique and I would be interested in researching more about its applications and success in Australia. I also wonder if a similar software exists or has been used in North America.

Module 1: UBC Vancouver Aboriginal Portal

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The recently-launched UBC Vancouver Aboriginal Portal is a way to connect students, scholars, and the public with issues relating to higher education, Aboriginality and inquiry at UBC. I believe the Portal is coordinated by the UBC’s First Nations House of Learning. With a heavy focus on video, the Portal respects the tradition of orality and the “Feature Stories” provide relevant information through digital storytelling. The Portal contains information for for current and prospective Aboriginal students of UBC, links to the myriad of programs at UBC relating specifically to Aboriginal issues, an overview research and initiatives across the university relating to Aboriginal issues, and an overview of the university’s First Nation’s community and youth programs.

You can also follow UBC’s First Nations Longhouse on Facebook 🙂