Svetlana Gibson – ETEC 521

 http://www.e-library.ca/education/best-practices/pdf/Sunchild%20elearning.pdf

This is an article on Community-Based Learning Opportunities for Aboriginals, Winner, 2005 which provides details on a case study on the Sunchild E-Learning Community Model.  This is a well organized and easy to navigate article.  The bookmarks on the left hand side list each subheading in the article.  “In 1999, the Sunchild E-Learning Community was established to develop and deliver high-quality education aimed exclusively at the educational needs of grades 9 to 12 Aboriginal students in 12 First Nations communities across Canada.”

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/main.htm

This is a British Columbia Archives Presents the Amazing Time Machine site.  On the left hand side, the site includes a list of 11 links which include:  Families in BC History, Communities in BC History, First Nations’ Art in BC, The Cariboo Gold Rush, Mulitculturalism, Social Institutions, First Nations BC, Economy and Technology, BC Resource Development, and Art in BC History.  There is also a Teacher’s Corner link.  This is a very simple site but with some good resources if you have the time to spend looking at all the links since there is no search option.

 http://bctf.ca/bcssta/links/firstnations.htm

This is a very basic site prepared by the BCTF (British Columbia Teacher’s Federation).  There are no frills here, just a list of sites you can go to to find information you may be looking for.   It contains two basic categories of resources:  general resources and archival resources

Under General Resources you can find such links as Provincial Exams where you can find past provincial exams and keys and information on provincially examinable courses.  It still baffles me that the teachers work very hard to provide students with a well balanced curriculum where they are exposed to a wide variety of collaborative learning, storytelling and oral presentations, yet the provincial exams only test then on the written aspect of their knowledge.  The site also contains links to such sites as Canada’s Digital Collection with “400 web sites related to Canada’s history, geography, science, technology, and culture.” 

There is also and Aboriginal Cultures and Traditions: Storytelling (they actually misspelled cultures as cultures).  But if you go to the link, it will take you to the Digital Collections which they already provided a link for.  This should have been a link which directly took you to the storytelling and not another list of sites. 

Under the Archival Resources you have two choices:  the National Archives of Canada and the Hudson’s Bay Archives.

Overall, a good starting point but a cumbersome way of organizing information.

http://sd71.bc.ca/sd71/edulinks/firstnat/Lessons/storytel.htm 

This is a detailed unit plan for teaching storytelling entitled Discovering Yourself.  It was designed by Judy Wilson and Robyn Dickinson.  It combines the curriculum for Social Studies, English Language Arts and Personal Planning.  The unit can be adapted to any grade level.  It is well laid out and easy to follow with a list of useful resources.

http://www.horizonzero.ca/index.php?pp=29&lang=0

HorizonZero is an online site for digital art, ideas and culture.  It was created in 2002 as a collaboration between the Banff New Media Institute and the Culture.ca Gateway.  It is an interactive web production with 18 thematic issues.  However, it only lasted for 3 years so it is not currently being updated.  The objective of the project was to:  “to commission fresh Canadian new media content; to promote and disseminate Canadian talent in digital arts and culture, both nationally and worldwide; and to facilitate dialogue and innovation in the converging fields of science, technology, media arts, and research.” 

Issue 17 drew my attention because it deals with Aboriginal Story in Digital Media.  It tells the story of Iktomni the Trickster.  The story is narrated with simple animation.  The most engaging part is that you can select the language you want to hear the story in – English or Nakoda.

The site is well organized and provides a wealth of information on Aboriginal culture and art.  Many of the illustrations in the story are interactive and link you to other sites for even more info.

http://www.library.ubc.ca/xwi7xwa/educx9.htm

The UBC Library hosts a First Nations Website devoted to a huge variety of topics and organizational links.   Although the site is very simple in structure, it provides numerous links to British Columbia, Canadian and American First Nations Educational sites.   There are also links to various reports on Aboriginal education.  One of these reports is Guidelines for Respecting Cultural Knowledge by the Alaska Native Knowledge Network.  This site is geared towards educators and researchers and covers various aspects of cultural research with links to Indigenous Education Worldwide. 

The Curriculum Resources links are also are also useful; however, they do not provide any links to technology related sites.  The Programs links provide links to many post secondary Canadian educational establishments. 

Overall, this is a useful site if you are looking for teaching resources or information on various aspects of BC, Canadian or International First Nations Education.  Well worth exploring.

http://www.fntc.info/

This is the First Nations Technology Council web site.  The site is full of links such as Technical Support, Skills Development, Information Management, Community Applications, Youth Café, Tools and Resources, and News and Events.  Each of these in turn will take you on to other sites with a lot of useful information about everything to do with First Nations and Technology in BC.   The most useful links I found to be under the Youth Café which included such links as First Nations Schoolnet and First Nations Education Steering Committee. 

The site is well organized and easy to use.

www.cdu.edu.au/sspr/abracadabra.html

This is a Charles Darwin University (School for Social and Policy Research).  The article describes the Abracadabra multimedia software which is geared towards early childhood teachers and focuses on “reinforcing foundation literacy skills among emerging learners. “  They claim that the program is an “innovative addition to  the field of Indigenous education.”

The site provides information and links on all aspects of the University including research projects.

There is also a link to the Telstra Foundation which is providing funding to the Abra project by committing $750,000.

http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/nost202/aboppsru.htm

A site is designed by the Yukon College which contains an extensive list of Aboriginal Peoples of the Russian North. 

Stylistically, this site is very plain.  It is a very detailed list, sorted alphabetically instead of geographically or by language types.  However, there is a wealth of information here.

Each Aboriginal group has numerous links to sites with historical background, language history and origins as well as cultural and artistic links.  The links for each group are informative and engaging.

I particularly appreciated that there were links about languages as well as photographs and a thorough bibliography at the end.

http://www.openschool.bc.ca/features/bcfns12.html

This is an Open School BC web site which outlines the course content for the BC First Nations Studies 12.  The site provides a short description of the 4 course modules, as well as the text used for the course and the print material available from the ministry.  The module chart provides a useful outline for the course. 

The resources which support this course seem to be very expensive, especially if you want to purchase the Media CD which cost $699.  It seems to me that this cost may be prohibitive.

The most interesting part of this website is under Features which states that the course was “developed by BC teachers, instructional designers and multimedia experts.”  I wonder why they did not use any Aboriginal experts, or if they did, why they did not see fit to credit them as such.