Flight Path
About Me
As I’ve mentioned before I’m a professional writer. I have been a writer for nearly 20 years. As part of my work I’ve been involved in some very large web projects, including setting up and managing a global network of web publications for the somewhat evil world of online gaming. I am also partly responsible for a very influential early online literary press called Forget Magazine which has published the likes of Yann Martel and Lorna Crozier, to name a few great Canadian writers. And of course there has been much, much more in between these two projects.
What Brought Me to Teaching
At some point people started asking me to teach. I was reluctant but since I owe just about everything in my life to education, think it is one of the only things that can truly impact the trajectory of cultures, and have finally conceded I might actually have something to teach, I now work partly as an educator.
My project involves finding a way to help a respected First Nations elder (Ken Hall, Chief of the Eagle Clan of the Haisla people) to preserve both his traditional and life stories and pass on his knowledge of his native language. As part of this project, we have determined that it would be very useful to involve 3 to 5 students in the process. We also want to carefully consider how the stories we end up producing are utilized in an educational context in the long term. And that is what has brought me here to ETEC 565A and the doorstep of the MET.
My Goals for ETEC 565A
As for my goals in ETEC 565A and how to get there I don’t think there is an easy, linear flight path because it is a complex project that is likely to involve many twists and turns to add to the dozens we’ve already encountered. I do, however, strongly believe that the implementation of a Learning Management System will be essential to working with the Haisla community on this storytelling project. This is in part because we are dealing with distance (I don’t live in the community) and in part because I think that the online realm is going to be tremendously useful to the learning process and fit to respectfully tackle this challenge.
In the past I have seen successful examples of First Nations storytelling projects that have utilized both digital audio and digital video technology and I feel like the groundwork has been laid by the efforts of skilled and diligent academics such as UBC’s Dr. Charles Menzies. However, I think it’s my responsibility that the framework for this project carefully considers the needs, limitations and possibilities for this specific community. And that is a tremendous opportunity and honor. Already I know that technology cannot replace traditional storytelling methods, it can only hope to support them and pay respect to the tremendous knowledge contained within them. As I prep for the work ahead I came across these two quotes by Teprine Baldo and Bryn Holmes:
“Traditional and semi-nomadic lifestyles are glued together through bonds of family and community and so learning environments designed to succeed in such environments need to replicate as much of the closeness of the communities as possible.”
“In very small and isolated communities, the DE and Instructional Design must reflect the district demographic. If the virtual classrooms are not welcoming and warm, if they do not reflect the closeness the native people already have in their communities then such environments will not be successful.”
These make me realize that it’s going to be important to develop further respect and understanding of the Haisla’s intricate community in order to build an online learning framework to support the project. And because the course only lasts 13 weeks, I have to be realistic about what I can hope to accomplish related to a larger project. I also have to keep in mind that it’s important to my own practice to build an understanding of educational technology that will be effective in multiple contexts, not just this particular one. So for the purposes of this course I hope to build a technology framework capable of supporting rural students interested in learning modern non-fiction storytelling techniques, with a strong focus on online media. In particular, I hope to examine how to set up and use an LMS to support aboriginal learners in this area. In order to do this I believe that, among other things, I will need to pay careful attention to the Bates & Poole SECTIONS framework and to:
- Establishing how to evaluate whether or not using an LMS will be useful as part of a digital storytelling project within an aboriginal First Nations community and how to build support for that within the community.
- Finding examples of similar learning technology projects with First Nations/ Aboriginal peoples and carefully examining which tools have been useful and which have not.
- Reviewing and evaluating digital video editing platforms (ease of use, cost, access)
- Exploring relevant creative writing/ multi-media production courses or projects in other fields and considering how to best utilize there success and avoid there pitfalls.
- Evaluating what type of technology has been used, could be used to support this particular storytelling project.
- Assessing the level of access to technology and support for that technology witnin the community (eg. What capabilities are there in the Village of Kitimat, particularly in the Counsel Office and the Haisla School?)
- Developing an understanding of potential students
- Developing learning outcomes/ goals for the project.
- Developing a potential assessment framework.
I suspect this may be somewhat ambitious as it stands, that there might be significant gaps and that I will have to refine along the way, particularly as we explore new technologies and there benefits and shortcomings. But as our early readings show, it’s important to set the bar high.
Sources
Bates, A. W., & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 75-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Baldo, T. & Holmes, B. (2006). Meeting in the Middle: An Exploration of Distance Education and First Nations in Canada. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (pp. 770-774). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Evil Unicorn: Courtesy of Wikicommons and LegalEagle666