I am fascinated by the concept of getting validation for your learning, wherever it happens and whenever it happens. I struggle with the idea that high school students can only “get credit” once they meet traditional “credit giving” regulations. Traditionally, to attain credit, a student has had to take a course in a school during a set time, in a set place, meet set course objectives as well as curricular objectives mandated by the provinces in Canada.

What about the kids who are learning outside of these traditional credit giving constraints? What about students who are passionate about learning in their own way, are meeting provincial curriculum objectives, but are not learning in traditional ways?

Over the last year, I have been trying to develop alternative programs to “track” student learning and figure out options to provide students with programs that still offer credit for learning- in a different way. My work has primarily been examining connectivism and open online projects.

Sean Lessard has been doing similar work trying to track indigenous learner stories. He has been developing alternative programs for FNMI youth  to create solutions for course credit.

Sean’s passion stems from finding retention strategies to not only keep Aboriginal kids in high school and identifying that education (learning) is more than something they are obligated to achieve. In previous summers, Sean has developed, “pow wow camps” where students spend time on the reserve learning through an interdisciplinary program to achieve course credits. He has focused on CALM 10 and PE 10, with CTS options like Leadership and Mentorship in combination with summer work programs on the reserve. The programs are full of authentic cultural learning experiences that can applied to real life learning situations.

This summer I am going to collaborate with Sean to integrate digital literacy into a pilot alternative camp project.

Based on my open online projects, where I have encouraged students to document their learning in a wide variety of digital formats, I will help create a digital platform for students to track their own learning. I will also help develop the pedagogical model, using social media and digital skills, to help encourage retention strategies. With Sean, I will be developing the digital framework pilot for the “4 E Camp” http://www.metisemployment.ca/looking-for-training/upcoming-projects

For my project, my goal is to create a website that will be separated into four parts:

Learning Design and Framework (pedagogy and assessment)

Technology ( Tools used, how I used them and why)

Cultural Considerations

References and ResourcesI look forward to the opportunity to learn with Sean and to collaborate on a project from different perspectives with a common purpose.

Verena 🙂