Posts from — October 2011

The Indigenous Education Institute is as a non-profit institution with a mission to preserve, protect and apply traditional Indigenous knowledge in a contemporary setting, that of Indigenous peoples today, around the world. Some of the the fundamental goals of the institute are:

-Initiating and maintaining collaborative research involving traditional knowledge holders,

-Organizing, articulating, and developing strategic and realistic application of the research to Indigenous education in order to provide cultural enrichment and empowerment to succeeding generations,

-Preserving and maintaining the diversity of Indigenous languages and cultures,

-Enhancing recognition of Indigenous science, in juxtaposition with western science, through processes that respect the honor and integrity of both ways of knowing,

-Researching and developing relevant systems of Indigenous strategic planning and evaluation, to enhance organizational effectiveness,

-Supporting Indigenous communities in the research of their own knowledge and needs, enabling responsible capacity building to effect transformational and sustainable change,

and promoting global networking among Indigenous communities to enhance the awareness and inter-relationships of Indigenous ways of knowing.

http://www.indigenouseducation.org

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/81-595-m2005034-eng.pdf

This website presents the findings of the 2003/04 Information and Communications Technologies in Schools Survey (ICTSS) that was designed to build a comprehensive database on the state of ICT infrastructure and access in elementary and secondary schools across Canada, including First Nations schools.  Data for the study was collected information from principals of First Nation schools and sought to mainly assess connectivity and ICT integration in the schools.

The report outlines:

• Profiles the First Nations schools that participated to the survey,
• A profile of the current ICT infrastructure in participating schools,
• A snapshot of connectivity within schools, students’ and teachers’ access to the available ICT infrastructure,
• The views of the principals regarding the ability of teachers to use ICT effectively for learning purposes, and
• Challenges to using ICTs in schools

http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/DigitalEducationRevolution/Documents/FinalICTReport.pdf

This report consists of the results of a series of action research projects with remote communities conducted by Charles Darwin University to determine how ICT and innovative learning technologies could help improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous students who are educationally disadvantaged.

The document focuses on teachers, community members and students in remote and very remote locations and highlights the work of previous researchers to obtain best practice in developing empowered learning environments as it relates to ICT approaches that are used to engage Indigenous in the teaching and learning process. The document also presents key factors to be considered for using ICT to engage remote Indigenous students in school-based learning.

http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/ablkc-k-12-literature-review

This website provides a literature review of practices and recommendations that have proven to be successful in improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal students in Canadian schools varying from systemic changes throughout an entire territory to individual teacher practices in one school.

The literature highlights barriers that are unique to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students. It also includes themes relating to integrating Indigenous knowledge into classrooms and schools, providing support to students through mentorship programs, learning about the on-going effects of colonization and racism, and building relationships with students, communities, and parents.

A community guide to protecting indigenous knowledge. This resource examines what encompasses indigenous knowledge, how it can be used (or abused), and how to plan for its continued use on a community-by-community basis.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/webarchives/20071115220931/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/ra/ind/index1_e.html

A site devoted to a project to help unite urban Aboriginal youth with elders, and in the process conduct interviews with the elders to document and learn from the stories. There is a list of links provided for the purposes of do-it-yourself-ers, who would like to engage in these projects on their own.

http://films.onf.ca/ourcityourvoices/index.php

A site devoted to featuring positive opportunities and ideas to aid in the success of Aboriginal youth. It is very wide-spanning, and aims to be a central location for anyone working with Aboriginal youth. There is information about educational opportunities, careers, workshops, news, partnerships available to name a few, and is set up in a blog format, allowing for a quick scan and RSS subscriptions. A great resource for Aboriginal youth and their supporters.

http://hopeforthefuture.ca/

A multimedia approach to exploring Native issues, particularly centered in Quebec. The layout is extremely user-friendly, with each topic represented thematically, and the people featured in each video being identified afterwards. This is an interesting overview of some pretty broad topics, and could serve as a nice introduction or springboard for further investigation into a topic or group discussion.

http://www.tshinanu.tv/accueil_en.html

A community-based project out of central Australia whose aim is to repatriate, archive and share media featuring their people. Part of the drive is to safeguard their cultural heritage through archiving for future generations. The site describes background on the development of the project, how the media is archived and displayed, and describes challenges encountered and foreseen. This site is a great specific example of how one Indigenous community is using technology to support the preservation of culture.

http://www.irititja.com/index.html

This particular webpage is from a collection of pages, from the Encyclopaedia of Canada’s Peoples/ Canadian and Ethnic Diversity, which consists of a collection of pages that have information about many different ethnic groups inCanada. This page highlights the history of aboriginal people inCanada; how they are an important part ofCanada; how they have been treated in the past; what contributions they made to Canadian society, etc. This collection of pages is a part of a database called Multicultural Canada. This website/database consists of a range of collections of artefacts and information for multiples languages and cultures. The site has different types of resources such as audio files, books, newspapers manuscripts, pictures and others documents form a variety of ethnic groups.

 http://multiculturalcanada.ca/Encyclopedia/A-Z/c2/1