After reviewing the scenario, before even evaluating Lenora’s options I think the first step here is to clearly articulate her goals and evaluate her assets and of course her liabilities.
Goal: To create an online anti-bullying resource that is accessible to a specific audience of indigenous educators and an indigenous audience.
Assets:
- Experience a Pro-D day that could be used as a model for her program.
- Network of peers established through cradleboard.org, including stories for content
- Use of cradleboard.org resources
- Broadband access at school
Liabilities:
- Dial-up web access at home.
- Limited time to commit to project
- Lack of technical skills to create website to host content.
Any project needs to take these to be able to operate within these parameters in order to be successful for Leonora, but in order to properly assess any solution we also need to determine the same for any of her end users. For the purposes of this project, let us assume that her network is working under the same, or similar, restrictions. I have also made the assumption that Lenora has little to no budget for this project.
Using the SECTIONS framework we can construct the following ideal criteria (Bates, 2014).
- Students — Accessible to students with limited internet speeds.
- Ease of Use — Accessible to users with limited technical knowledge.
- Cost — No cost option.
- Teaching and Media Selection — Due to limited internet speeds, limited use of multimedia technology. Some pictures may be possible, but mostly limited to text.
- Interaction — Interaction of instructor and students through text.
- Organizational Issues — Limited time and resources to deliver training.
- Networking — Natural transition to and from existing Cradleboard network.
- Security and Privacy — Access is limited to participating individuals.
In terms of a solution for Lenora, I’m not sure I have it. I think that there are a few solutions that I would explore if I was working with her.
Text based website: With minimal tutoring Lenora could establish a wordpress site and create text only content. Privacy settings could have Lenora choose who has access to the site. Initially, she may need to access the site through her school connection, but should then be able to access the site from home.
Email list: This is the least technical option and may be the best both in terms of management and access. It may be difficult to manage the learning experience, however it would not be impossible.
Bulletin Board System (BBS): The original social networks could be a solution for Lenora, but she would have to find a way to create one specific for her, and security could be an issue with such a simple technology.
Ultimately, if she is able to secure some help to get started I would suggest the text based WordPress option. I think that it would provide the best experience for her and her users during her course. I think that even with limited experience either with some help, or through trial and error Lenora could be successful.
References:
Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a Digital Age (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework). Retrieved January 29, 2016 from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage