Category: edci568 Assignment 1a

When reading the article, The Five R’s for Indigenizing Online Learning: A Case Study of the First Nations Schools’ Principals Course by Danielle Tessaro, Jean-Paul Restoule, Patricia Gaviria, Joseph Flessa, Carlana Lindeman and Colen Scully-Stewart, my immediate reaction was that the findings would prove that technology was useless in education along side First Nations studies. The reason is because I’ve always found it challenging to teach Indigenous content. a European teacher, one must be careful to be respectful and correct in what they are teaching. This doesn’t only apply to teaching about First Nations but about any culture. It is a daunting task to teach about a culture you do not know. It makes you question “what right do I have to teach this to students when I myself have a lack of knowledge around the subject?”. Not only did this concern arise for me but to integrate technology into the study of a culture that is knowingly based around learning about connection to place, how could this possibly work?

Tessaro et al. states that “[b]y applying each R to the course design, structure, and delivery, it was found that the challenges of bridging Indigenous and online education could be effectively mitigated and these could act instead as opportunities for new types of learning” (Tessaro et al., 2018, p. 132). This directly demonstrates that technology is not necessarily at odds with Indigenous teaching but that it can consequently provide avenues of accessibility. Incorporating technology into indigenous teaching could allow for Indigenous learners to be apart of everyday classes even when they are unable to be there in person. They are still able to be apart of both cultures.

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The “Five R’s of respect, relevance, reciprocity, responsibility and relationships (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001; Restoule, 2008)” (Tessaro et al., 2018, p. 126) provide an understanding of how educators conduct their teaching. These ideas were developed towards Indigenous learners yet, all teachers could adopt this way of thinking about teaching in general. These are not just outlines of a way that we should treat one culture but how humans should treat other humans. The Five R’s are a perception that should be allotted to all students. Without respectful relationships students may struggle to learn, without responsibility and relevance students may struggle to connect to content and without reciprocity the reciprocal learning between teacher and student may be compromised.

Tessaro et al. highlights an important aspect of Canadian university culture of “Power and Profit” (Tessaro et al., 2018, p. 133). I have never heard of this before but it reminds me of the teacher as the holder of knowledge. When the teacher perceives that they are meant to shovel content into students brains it provides an environment where students ability to critically think is stunted.  This concept has been changing throughout the elementary, middle and high school realms of education. Yet, this article points at the lack of change within the post-secondary system. It points to fundamental disconnect between the varying stages of education and how it affects Indigenous learners.

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In the article, DeGroot, Young, and VanSlette (2015) discuss the student perception of instructor credibility when it comes to using social media by using a mixed method approach. To do this they created “[t]here hypothetical instructor Twitter profiles” “(1) an account with only social tweets, (2) an account with tweets pertaining only to academic and professional messages, and (3) an equal blend of the tweets from the social and professional tweets” (DeGroot et al., 2015, p.424).

It is known that social media is a place in which educators must be extremely careful about what they post. However, DeGroot et all. make an important point that often seems to be forgotten, educators lead by example. We model and then allow students time to interpret and imitate. Thus, although it is imperative for educators to be mindful of what they are putting on social media, it is also a way in which we can demonstrate proper social media use for our students. Moreover, it is important that students view educators as a professional but also as human. “Brookfield (2006) posited that an instructor’s self-disclosure increases their personhood (the students’ belief that their instructor has a life outside of the classroom) in the eyes of the their students” (DeGroot et al., 2015, p. 421). It is paramount that teachers are open with their students. In being an elementary teacher, so often students want to know what your favorite animal is or what sports you play. They want to connect with you and feel as though they know who you are as opposed to simply being the holder of knowledge.

Within this article credibility is measured using “Source Credibility Measure (McCroskey & Teven, 1999; Teven & McCroskey, 1997), comprising three separate subscales: competence, goodwill/caring, and trust” (DeGroot et al., 2015, p. 425). It’s interesting that these three measure credibility online. These are attributes that create a good teacher and educator. These attributes remind me of a video I once watched during a staff-meeting. Rita Pierson on a TED talk called Every Kid Needs A Champion, spoke about how important student connections are she said “students don’t learn from people they don’t like”. This has stuck with me and I believe that this is a contributing factor to this study as “[o]ften times when a teacher seems more approachable, it makes the students feel more as ease while in their class. Thus, they’re more likely to approach them with questions…” (DeGroot et al., 2015, p. 429). To me, the ability it is one of the most important jobs of a teacher to creative an inclusive and safe environment to learn. It is a pedagogical belief of mine that students should constantly question. They should question what they hear, what they see and question what they already know as that leads to better definition of prior knowledge. In BC’s New Curriculum it is a requirement of teachers to teach Core Competencies, one of them being specifically to question and investigate.

My pedagogical belief is that social media, when used properly, can be a model to students on how to behave and conduct themselves online. We are living in the age of rapid technology, where communication availability has increased and as educators we need to embrace our present condition for the benefit of our children’s futures.

This article took the position that Problem-Based learning (PBL) is ineffective since “all problem-based searching makes heavy demands on working memory. Furthermore, that working memory load does not contribute to the accumulation of knowledge in long-term memory because while working memory is being used to search for problem solutions, it is not available and cannot be used to learn” (77). Although this may be true I think the article misses the key understanding of what PBL should be used for. When I use PBL, I use it to give students the opportunity to physically work with content they’ve already learned. It allows students to make their learning meaningful because they are forced to struggle through real life problems that do not have one specific answer. Clark states that “everything we see, hear, and think about is critically dependent on and influenced by our long-term memory” (76). I interpret this as the idea that if students are only given content through directed instruction then their knowledge simply becomes a regurgitation instead of their own understanding. However, in my pedagogical belief, students need to be given the opportunity to think critically about what they have learned. We are not simply creating learners that can understand content but instead, we are creating learners that are global citizens who (in their future) will be forced to think outside the box of what they are simply told. I believe that PBL can be an effective tool if the content is properly scaffolded before hand. In scaffolding, I believe that we are to teach students at where they are at instead of where we believe they should be. This idea allows for differentiation of all learners that isn’t dependent on which type of teaching you are doing. Overall, PBL allows for students to learn skills that go deeper than simply content but allow them to sink their teeth into practical problem solving where they can be supported in their struggles. Too often students attempt to fit into a box of like-minded thinking, as an educator I believe that we need to push our students outside the box and make learning possible. That is why PBL is a critical part of my pedagogical practice.

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