This site provides a New Zealand published report on Virtual Learning Environments and e-Learning in the Context of Te Reo Māori and Kaupapa Māori Education.  Emerging themes include:

• The Learning Environment
• Relationships and Communication
• Collaboration
• Pedagogy
• Quality Tools

Barriers and benefits to effective eLearning are also identified.

This paper discusses ways to use Moodle to support the learning strengths of Indigenous Australian university students.  It looks at the ways that ICTs can be aligned with Indigenous ways of learning and presented in ways that are culturally relevant.  The paper identifies ways in which Aboriginal learning styles differ from non-Indigenous learning styles, and provides strategies for using Moodle to support Aboriginal eLearning.

www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/duggan.pdf

This report report (2008) was prepared for the Canadian Council on Learning’s Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre by Ningwakwe Priscilla George.  It is a literature review on Aboriginal literacy.  Some of the emerging themes include community-based (one-on-one, small group), institutional, workplace,
family, health/well-being, oral history, working with Elders and seniors, and Aboriginal language programming.  While focusing on adult literacy, the report emphasizes the importance of family literacy and lifelong

learning.www.nald.ca/library/research/ccl/nourishing/nourishing.pdf

Laurel Dyson published “Constructing Shared Online Learning Environments for Indigenous Cultural Inclusiveness” (2003).  It looks at some of the challenges for online learning for Aboriginal students and identifies several conditions for effective delivery.  Some of the key conditions include:

• Flexibility
• Interactivity
• Minimal text
• Cultural appropriateness
• Indigenous-specific virtual space
• Optional customization for individual learners

The paper looks at several previously completed studies to support these conditions.

Presented by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, this document is a great resources for preparing eLearning resources for Aboriginal students.  Some of the topics included are:

• Cultural Protocols
• Indigenous Partnerships
• Technology
• Cultural Inclusively
• Delivery
• Other Useful Resources

I liked the documents preface:

“It is important that the developers of Indigenous online learning resources acknowledge that Indigenous Australians are part of diverse nations. There are approximately 90 surviving languages and 20 of these with distinct associated cultures. Because of this diversity, any resources that are developed for Indigenous users should be developed in partnership with local Indigenous communities to ensure that the resources have been tailored for the specific community in which they are based as well as being able to be used by Indigenous communities in other areas. Cyberspace itself has a culture and is not a neutral or value-free platform for exchange.”

A colleague of mine emailed me a report titled “Aboriginal Postsecondary Education – Formal Instruction for the Adult Aboriginal Population“, written by Bob Cowin from Douglas College (2011).  The focus of the report is on British Columbia institutions (public and private) who deliver formal education which is intended to enroll adult Aboriginal students.  Services and programs are discussed (not individual courses).  It identifies different approaches taken in Aboriginal education, including assimilative, integrative, affiliated, and independent.  The report gives a history of the practices, focusing mainly on BC.

While watching the interview of Dr. Lee Brown, I was intrigued with his concept of making the classroom a healthy place by creating an emotionally competent person. His thesis “Making the Classroom a Healthy Place: The Development of Affective Competency in Aboriginal Pedagogy” goes into detail regarding the inclusion of proven educational methods in modern classroom environments.

The concept of technology being considered as something negative, i.e. something that may eradicate a culture, instead of helping preserve it, is a foreign concept to me. This is due to the fact that I’ve seen the impact technology has had on the atypical student with a learning difficulty, how it has enhanced their lives, allowing them to learn so much more through the assistance of educational technology. I can’t help but question if it is the technology, or the educational experience, that is negatively affecting aboriginal culture. It also makes me think that there must be a way to use technology to integrate aboriginal culture in a positive manner to help students learn. Thus, I would like my research to focus on how aboriginal values and beliefs are being integrated into the educational curricula and how technology can be used to enhance a student’s educational experience.

Throughout this term my weblog will allow me to connect my research interest to websites, articles, videos and different types of technology that I discover. It will be important to find information regarding aboriginal beliefs and values, the education system in general, and how technology is being used to teach students.

Aboriginal Educational Contexts

This site is a rich collection of “school-developed context-based teaching and learning projects collaboratively developed by teachers, Aboriginal education workers and local community members”. It presents projects dealing with Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal Languages, Aboriginal Art, Quality Aboriginal Languages Teaching (QALT), School and Community Partnerships, and support material to assist secondary school teachers in delivering Aboriginal and Indigenous cross-curriculum content.

New Learning: Transformational designs for Pedagogy and Assessment

This website focuses on eight aboriginal ways of learning, a set of ‘interconnected pedagogies’ that take different forms depending on the surrounding context including: story sharing, learning maps, non-verbal skills, symbols and images to understand concepts, land links (place-based learning), non-linear thinking strategies, deconstruction/reconstruction of concepts and community links though the use of new knowledge.