For my final project I wanted to capture the struggles of the indigenous peoples of Fort McKay, Alberta while shining a light on one strategy often overlooked at engaging youth: videogames.
I believe that while there have been positive changes made to curriculum to become more culturally sensitive, there is still a long way to go. The environment of schooling needs to change, and one strategy which engages many youth, while immersing them in a different virtual landscapes, is gaming.
As First Nations people fight to retain their culture and traditions, we can’t ignore the impacts of white culture upon youth. Embracing technology, videogames could be one method to help draw in youth who struggle to be successful in western approaches to education. Dovetailing videogames with curricula focused on traditional and contemporary indigenous practices could help ensure that the next generation is sensitive to the challenges and pressures that dominant culture puts upon minority groups.
I hope you enjoy my documentary style movie. Due to it’s length (22 minutes) it is captured in two parts. Be sure to set the quality to high resolution to get the maximum experience from this viewing.
To view the full transcript of my movie, with complete set of references, click here.
Mel Burgess.
Interactive media is pushing the boundaries of contemporary film.
A few weeks ago, we were encouraged to visit several websites promoting indigenous culture. When visiting the “Unikkausivut – Sharing our Stories” webpage of the National Film Board of Canada, I noticed an “Interactive” link at the top and found myself engaging in an experience known as “Bla Bla”.
I dare you to try it. It is so strangely compelling. I couldn’t help being drawn into the animation and had to explore by clicking just to see what would happen next.
This is game theory in its purest form. No instructions. Just subtle clues and the knowledge that the user will become impatient and will try “something”. And when you do try something, you can’t help trying something again.
When art or knowledge is presented in such a way, the audience is compelled to continue to “play” and engage in “experiential learning” which I believe is one of the central tenets to First Nations culture – the belief that that which is worth learning can be accomplished through situational experience.
This week we read Faye Ginsburg’s “Rethinking the Digital Age”. Within this article was a detailed description of a website called “US Mob“. The site appeared to be loaded with good material for my final project – I was immediately interested in finding out more about it’s interactive nature, how it represents Aboriginee culture in Australia, what affordances it presents to its audience, how it allows the user to move through it’s game-like interactivity and bring about increased knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Australia…
Alas, my hopes have been dashed.
This site, while still active, leads to many dead end links. In fact, I have clicked every single link on their homepage and none work. I get….”Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to www.usmob.com.au”
This experience is a powerful one when reflecting upon Ginsburg’s article. We often describe the internet as a place to represent knowledge and perhaps influence culture, yet, the sites which hold information can be removed without warning and poof! – knowledge, representation, revitalization efforts, are all gone.
It makes me wonder if this move to break all the links from this site was…
1. Purposeful? Was the site just not attracting enough attention?
2. Driven by corporate interests? Was funding pulled to maintain and improve upon the site?
3. Temporary? Is my experience due to maintenance on the site with all links to be re-established in a moment?
4. Software driven? Is my device too new? Too old? Not supportive of the media necessary to run the interactivites of the site?
This experience also makes me reflect on the idea of “permanence” on the internet. Some believe that what is posted online lasts forever. Perhaps this example is just one of many that what is posted online is subject to change just like the rest of our natural world.
In an effort to find the truth, I have emailed the contact reported on the site. I hope for news, but expect none – another pre-determined conclusion from past experiences of attempts to get in touch with “contacts” reported on websites….
Only to find my communication has been put into the proverbial “e-bottle” and cast out into the cyber-abyss.
Dr. Sasha Barab is a professor of Learning Sciences at Indiana University. He offers some great insight into the power of gaming within education and how it can be applied to challenge traditional practice.
He is also the “principle investigator” of the Atlantis Remixed project [formerly known as “Quest Atlantis”] – a 3D educational experience (ie. avatar-style video game).
For my final project, I will be exploring the role of new medias, specifically gaming, and how it is being used by indigenous cultures and why it is important to engage today’s learner.
I believe that some of his most salient points regarding gaming and education are:
“Instead of treating these kids when they come in as people who are ignorant and our job in education is to get them smart enough to demonstrate some sort of high score on a test. Our goal is to position them as really empowered kids who get to feel what is it like to try on the role as scientist and to see themselves as people who could possibly have that future….in a game we can create a storyline where they are the hero. They get a chance to see why the stuff we’re learning in school could matter.”
“When we look at how kids are being positioned to engage, to tinker with, to explore, to represent themselves, to pursue their passions with these new media tools, and then we look at how disciplinary content of schools is being positioned – we have a real disconnect; and we wonder why when they finish school they run home, jump in these new media, where they have agency, they have consequentiality, they have people taking up what they are doing – they have a legitimate role for using these [new media].”
“What is exciting about this world [Atlantis Remixed] is ultimately what determines whether something is valuable is how the next community takes it up; not because a teacher gives me an F or an A.”
“Teachers have been really enthusiastic of finding different ways of meeting standards…the standards are set out in a way that is well-intentioned in their design; the problem is that the spaces…of the schools are very uninteresting for kids and very limiting.”
“In a game I am immediately positioned with a purpose. What are the rules of this game? When I do ‘this’ what happens?”
“In a game I am considered someone who has a really powerful role to do something significant with my time and that significance requires that I learn a bunch of things so I can do that thing even better.”
“I am told thank you for doing that.”
“Failure is motivating. I am allowed to tinker. I am allowed to try being something that I couldn’t normally be. And if we limit kids in schools to being just ignorant children – vessels to be filled with things – we’re not creating futures for them at all.”
Sasha Barab speaks about textbooks and current resources:
“We are in a different time. We are at a point where its not so much about getting information; it’s about using information to accomplish particular ends.”
“The tools that teachers are provided with are not the tools that children will use outside of schools…We’re setting the teachers up for failure. I think teachers are in a hard, hard space. Teachers need to advocate for themselves and parents that there are other literacies [new media literacies]…that will be determining these kids’ futures.”
“Getting information, memorizing facts is no longer part of our current process. I can grab my iPhone and within 5 seconds I can find more than you can remember in your entire High School career.”
“…50% dropout rate in school (Chicago)… is totally unreasonable. There has to be a point where we say, “You know what? It’s not all those kids that’s the problem. It’ sthe way that we are thinking about school. It’s the way we use textbooks, it’s the resources we give the kids and ultimately it’s the kinds of things that we are allowing the kids to do, and as long as they don’t care about those things then we are going to lose more kids in our educational system.”
“I would really like to see teachers start to appreciate the power of what game has to offer and then work with parents, administrators, and local companies to start to use that to develop resources that they can use to prepare kids for the 21st century.”
Dr. Judy Willis has some great material related to gaming and education. Traditionally, gaming has been seen as a “waste of time”. Now, research is showing that the skills employed during gaming can be valuable, and the positioning of the individual within a game environment is conducive to learning in radically different ways from traditional styles of learning. Particularly, I enjoy Dr. Willis’ approach to assessment through a gaming perspective. To learn more about the science of neurology and why gaming supports learning, click here.
This video of Dr. Willis sheds light on her views of how new media supports learning and constitutes “brain-based” strategy for education…
Dr. Willis takes it further on her blog and shows educators how to plan instruction and assessment techniques using a gaming framework. To see examples and learn more about her approach to game-centred assessment and instruction, click here.
The peoples of Fort McKay have a plan and continue to work towards a partnership with the dozens of corporations and mines which extract oil from the Alberta Tar Sands area. The tar sands completely surround the small town of Fort McKay, lying within 6 km of the town in any direction. They are essentially cut off by industrial development from their traditional lands. Rather than host violent protests, they are seeking to work with industry and have helped organize a panel discussion:
Aside from awareness and a sharing of aboriginal perspectives, I am unsure what goals this panel discussion hopes to achieve. I believe that awareness and sympathies from outside of Fort McKay will be needed to help persuade industry to hear the collective voices of the aboriginal peoples of Fort McKay. A path forward which includes honouring treaties with First Nations of the McKay peoples seems like a simple choice to me (an outsider and non-aboriginal person), however, the push to make money, whatever the political or environmental cost, is a powerful force that cannot be taken lightly.
As part of my research into methods of revitalizing culture, I am very interested in a game I was referred to by a friend called “Path of the Elders“.
This interactive game attempts to build interest in indigenous cultures through learning about treaties, history, and sharing of other media such as photos and video.
I registered with their site today and will take the time to further explore how the game is played and what there is to gain through interacting within this virtual environment. I can’t help think that this may be a great method to re-engage youth, specifically First Nations youth, who may be disenfranchised or simply uninterested in their past or traditional culture. I have many questions related to this learning platform and hope to shed some light on this game in my posts to come.
I have been researching the peoples of Fort McKay recently as I believe that their struggle epitomizes the struggle of First Nations people. It is a story of loss of language, culture, and many traditional ways of living to the economies of our nation. Their story shows how treaty rights are being ignored and I am keen to learn how the indigenous residents of Fort McKay are using technology to combat the quiet oppression they face every day by mass corporate practices.
This month’s “Teacher” newsmagazine, released by the BCTF, highlights the TRC Education Day and is complete with lovely pictures of the event as well as thoughts of some of the primary speakers such as Dr. Bernice King. Also included are several personal reflections from teachers, learning assistance teachers, and Aboriginal support workers. I only wish that they had interviewed and shared at least one experience by youth within their article; I like to hear the ideas and opinions of students during such powerful and highly organized events.
This week was a moving experience for many, both indigenous and non-indigenous. The level of technology that was integrated into the week’s events exemplifies the state of how ingrained technology has become within our cultures. Ilona Weiss, District Aboriginal Culture teacher from Smithers, BC commented, “The TRC Education Day included panels, displays, education activities, archives, film screenings, statement gathering, expressions of reconciliation, concerts, and even a hockey game. Thousands of students and their teachers came to learn about this important part of our history.”
Like a bad stain, avoiding the subject or covering it over doesn’t make it disappear. Many people are now coming to grips with how institutions have negatively affected entire communities and are now reflecting on how create positive change within current frameworks of education. Engagement through technology appears to be at the forefront of many such approaches as demonstrated during the TRC week.
