Earlier this summer, I attended a conference at the University of Warwick in the England on the topic of giftedness in education, and the role technology could, or should, play in modern education for bright students. One of the first things I realized was how controversial the term ‘giftedness’ is, particularly in the UK. If a student is described as ‘gifted’, it can be argued that students who are not considered ‘gifted’ are constrained in some way as they do not have the same potential – that sums up the argument I heard against the term. Of course, as I was sitting there in session after session, I couldn’t help but thinking our many interesting discussions in ETEC 521, and I wondered about how giftedness is addressed in indigenous education. I located this site: http://www.fnesc.ca/publications/pdf/gifted_students.pdf

This is a publication by the First Nations Schools Association (2002) – quite a dated document. Interestingly, it is based on British websites, and does not really mention any attributes of First Nations learners, specifically. I hope to show development in this in other weblogs in this Module.