Weblog 4.3

The Digital Songlines (DSL) project was a digital storytelling project, using a 3D gaming engine. The project  funded by the Australasian Cooperative Research centre for Interaction Design. Unfortunately funding ceased some time after 2007 and it was difficult to find other projects.

Leavy et al (2007) in their article Evaluating the Digital Songlines Game Engine for Australian Indigenous storytelling outline the project. The aim was to use quality gaming to allow users to experience Indigenous virtual heritage in high fidelity simulation with culturally appropriate tools. They describe the importance of Aboriginal collaboration through each project and outline a protocol to address IP and copyright issues that is entirely community focused and driven. The depiction of ‘country’ in each project was not just a backdrop for the game but was the largest ‘artefact’. ‘Country’ is both a receptacle and it actively participates in the telling of the story. (p.164)

The feedback about the game varied with age of participants. The younger participants used to commercial games were either disappointed that it wasn’t the same, or delighted because it was! Older participants appreciated the language, tradition and stories being ‘brought to life’.

Users and developers saw it as a way technology can assist in the empowering of cultural identity.

YouTube example of a Digital songline project

Aboriginal Language and Culture Programs
Common Curriculum Framework for Aboriginal Language and Culture Programs
Kindergarten to Grade 12
Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education

Storytelling as a Foundation to Literacy Development for Aboriginal Children:
Culturally and Developmentally Appropriate Practices

Metamorphosis of an Oral Tradition:
Dissonance in the Digital Stories of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada

When Aboriginal and Metis Teachers 
use Storytelling as an Instructional Practice

Storytelling in a Digital Age:
Digital Storytelling as an Emerging Narrative Method
For Preserving and Promoting Indigenous Oral Wisdom

Storytelling and Web 2.0 Services: 
A Synthesis of Old and New Ways of Learning

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
University of Houston

Digital Storytelling
Tools for Educators

Digital Storytelling
Tips and Resources

Web 2.0 Tools to Support Digital Storytelling
27th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning

Web 2.0 Storytelling:
Emergence of a New Genre

Web 2.0 Storytelling: Introduction
NITLE Workshops – Bryan Alexander

Web 2.0 Tools for Storytelling
Central York School District

Storytelling and Audio
Public History and Web 2.0 – Mapping the Past in the Future

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
Microsoft in Education Teaching Guides

Looking into the connection between oral storytelling and the Alberta Language Arts curriculum, I have found my way back to the “Walking Together” First Nation, Metis, and Inuit resources – this PDF document provides details about the history of oral storytelling tradition in an excerpt from Aboriginal Perspectives.   The role of Elders in oral storytelling, teaching stories, and themes and values are expanded upon.

The Walking Together site delves far deeper than just the importance of oral tradition.  Also highlighted are:

– Traditional Environmental Knowledge
– Kinship
– Aboriginal and Treaty Rights
– Healing Historical Trauma
– Well-Being
– FNMI Worldviews
– Culture and Language
– Indigenous Pedagogy
– Connection to Land
– Symbolism and Traditions
– Elders

Library and Archives Canada provides the Our Voices, Our Stories site which celebrates Inuit, Metis, and First nations oral stories, which document history, language, traditions, and beliefs.    The site provides stories from the past and present of the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, as well as educational resources and additional media.  Most significantly, in my opinion is the in-depth educational resources – storytelling background, hints, lessons, activities, and assessments.  Social Studies connections are provided for all provinces/territories and grades 4-8.

Storytelling is important in Metis culture as a means to pass information from the Elders to the youth of society.  This Virtual Museum provides archived collections of Metis history, interviews, conferences, transcripts, learning resources, artistic expressions, and multimedia files honouring Metis music, dance, and storytelling.

This Aboriginal Storytelling site provides detail about the importance of storytelling – as something more than entertainment.  Storytelling is a means to communicate culture, ceremonies, and spirituality.  Storytelling acts as a bridge to teach an audience a way of life – the history and culture of indigenous peoples.  Specifically, this site focuses on the Aboriginal people of Saskatchewan and provides useful information and links to other relevant sites.

When I first began contemplating a final topic, I was torn between pursuing my interests in the environmental and indigenous issues surfacing in Alberta and the way in which we are finding balance between the Language Arts curriculum and meeting the cultural needs of indigenous peoples.  I have been equally balancing my pursuit of resources up to this point.  I am officially making the choice today to take a look at the relationship and interaction between indigenous storytelling and the Language Arts curriculum.  Oral storytelling plays a fundamental role in culture, and I want to look into how we can address that within the confines of the Language Arts curriculum and how technology can help us tell stories.

Here is a Learn Alberta resource, Walking Together – First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Perspectives in Curriculum.

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/index.html#/oral_tradition

Of particular importance to my topic is the information presented on oral traditions – the background information behind oral storytelling, and a few case studies as to how teachers can incorporate technology in the classroom to facilitate storytelling tradition.

Four Directions Teaching

Module #2

Site #4

The BC Ministry of education offers a rich resource for aboriginal education of youth. Found at this site, http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/documents.htm, it includes a First Nations map of BC as well as a First Nations Language map. The site has native content lesson plans for grades 7,8 and 9 in language arts, science and socials math and P.E. and a resource guide for integrating aboriginal content from K-10. Finally, the site includes a framework for questioning resources for indigenous people’s in a respectful manner.