9:00-10:30
Mastin Prinsloo (in Room 201, upstairs)
Lauryn Oates
Teachers as Publishers? Closing the Content Gap for Local Language Materials with ICT in Northern Uganda
This paper seeks to share ways in which computer literacy among teachers in Gulu (northern Uganda) can be harnessed to effectively support instruction in the mother tongue, and ultimately, to vitalize the local language and facilitate higher learning outcomes among students. This study approached teachers as partners in content production, as potential contributors and beneficiaries of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, and responds to the finding, from research carried out in Uganda, that the community is a significant but untapped source for the production of local language texts (Tembe & Norton, 2008). This study is part of a larger research program in Uganda, led by Dr. Norton and Dr. Kendrick, who have been working collaboratively with Ugandan and Canadian scholars to address language and literacy challenges in diverse African communities.
Marlene Asselin
Towards a Digital Research Collaborative: Examining New Literacies in Canada and Ethiopia
This paper presents a year-long conceptualization of a collaborative research project at UBC and two major teacher education programs in Ethiopia. This project was initiated in response to Ethiopian faculty’s request for support in developing a contemporary research culture in their institutions. Students and faculty in each university collaborate in relation to the following two topics: 1) What is the range of languages used amongst families with children entering school, and for what purposes are these languages used?, 2) How are digital technologies for communication and knowledge dissemination modifying and extending literacy practices in the Ethiopian context?
Kelleen Toohey/ Diane Dagenais
Video-making in Canada and India: How Children Represent Themselves to One Another
Thanks you again to the members of group 2 for your generosity and insight over the past 2 days.
Since many of you described research being conducted overseas, I am wondering what drew you to those locations? I spent seven years living in Pakistan, Kuwait and Mongolia and those experiences certainly led me to look at the world differently. Many of our studnets and their families were very keen to receive a seemingly superiour western style education but there was a palpable disconnect between what they received and how it could be used in their own cultural settings. Many looked for the academic rigour (i.e. High test scores) but were not as open to the social-cultural-philosophical underpinnings that came with it (mostly brought by the teachers and their approach to teaching). There was also a degree of resentment in the relationships formed because the foreign teachers always left. Before beginning my graduate work, I became keenly aware of the influence a western style education can have or, more importantly, be perceived as having. As researchers, how do you grapple with the tensions created as being outsiders in those international settings? Do you meet with resistance?
Marlene, and Kelleen and Diane presented international multisite projects. Marlene described a symmetrical research design in a project focusing on young children perception of reading/writing/literacy. Kelleen and Diane’s project focused on bi- and multilingual literacy practices and involved videomaking with children.
– In multisite international projects, there may be important differences in research ethic, as well as in the construction of the relationship between children and researchers. How may researchers handle research ethic when in some countries ethic is quite “loose”?
– In a project where children were asked to represent their life through a video, is the use of vernaculars a way to display identity? How can children be taught more about multimodal representations so that their products express their meaning well?
– The products (e.g. videos, photos, etc.) should have a clear social purpose…
– Who should see the product: Researchers only? Other kids in the group? Other students in other sites/countries? Family members?
– Is the use of digital cameras changing the literacy practices of children/teenagers?
– The importance of “process data”, of documenting the data collection itself: for instance by taking photos of kids taking photos or looking at photos, making a video of the videomaking process.