Online education provides opportunities to students

Page 11

First Nations online education ventures are emerging across the country, each with their own approaches to solving issues like geographic isolation, poor student performance and a lack of cultural diversity in standard education, and giving students more choices.

Students in northern Ontario have the option of completing their high school studies through the Keewaytinook Internet High School (KiHS), launched in 1999, which is operated under the auspices of Keewaytinook Okimakanak, a non-political chiefs' council serving several First Nations in the vast northern region of Ontario.

Traditionally, children from these First Nations have had to leave their communities after Grade 8 to attend school in larger centres such as Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout or even Winnipeg.

"What KiHS was established to do," said principal Darrin Potter, "was to try to meet the needs of parents and community members who wanted their kids home longer than Grade 8, because a lot of students are not ready to leave."

A lot of these children, not yet emotionally mature, end up getting overwhelmed by the experience of being far away from home, facing academic challenges all alone and, said Potter, "they end up quitting and coming back to their home, and that sets up a cycle of failure for them."

KiHS offers these youth another option: earn Grade 9 and 10 credits online, while still living at home, going out on the trapline and continuing to learn from their Elders.

"It's trying to give students a choice, to give them a better educational opportunity based on whatever their needs may be."

Under the KiHS teaching model, one teacher is hired for each of the program's 13 communities or "classrooms." These teachers then develop and deliver lessons to students in all of the communities and also serve as support personnel for their local students. Students are expected to be in class from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., but their lessons are posted online and students work at their own pace.

Potter feels that having fully qualified teachers in each community is one of KiHS's strongest assets, because it gives students access to multiple teaching methods and sources of knowledge.

In its first five years, KiHS has given students a strong base, not only academically, but technologically. Basic literacy skills such as reading and writing have been reinforced through the constant use of computers, and students are no longer fearful of the technology. Students are also building relationships across geographic boundaries.

Attitudes are changing as well.

"In the North, you're dealing with decades of students leaving their community after Grade 8. That's a rite of passage for a lot of students ... For years the community members were taught that you had to leave the community to get a good education," said Potter.

What they're learning through KiHS is that that is not the case, he said. "The education of the children is not separate from growing up in the community."

Emerging out of KiHS is another program that also taps the needs of a target group of First Nations students. "G8", as it's called, targets the needs of Grade 8 students who have been pushed through the elementary school grades because of their age, despite weak skills in the core areas of English literacy, math and science.

Started in early 2003, G8 is now freely available to First Nations schools across Ontario. The lessons are developed and co-ordinated by former KiHS teacher Fernando Oliveira, and are intended to build up academic skills that will allow students to succeed in the more academically rigorous world of high school.

As at KiHS, lesson content is tailored to the experiences of First Nations students, said Oliveira.

"The context is always tailored to their environment ... It's important that they see themselves and their own culture reflected in the curriculum."

The G8 program is intended as a supplement to regular classroom work, and in mos cases, an entire class will be participating, with the regular teacher booking computer time and assisting students as needed. Approximately three hours a week are set aside for students to work on lessons for the current course, usually independently on their own computers, but occasionally as a group for science experiments such as building a crane.

Approximately 200 students are currently enrolled in the program, along with 40 teachers. Each student has a photo and biography posted on the G8 site, and students in different communities are encouraged to make contact and get to know one another. There is also a virtual "staff room" for classroom teachers.

But northern Ontario isn't the only place in the county where technology is being used to increase educational opportunities for First Nation students. One of the newest projects has been launched by the Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) in Saskatchewan. The PAGC is made up 12 bands, with a geographic reach that extends from the plains through the boreal forest, all the way to the border between Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

Credend is the name chosen for this initiative that gives Grade 12 students an opportunity to take specialized courses, such as psychology and chemistry, that are not offered in the PAGC's regular high schools. It's a name that carries a lot of weight, explained principal Vince Hill.

Not only does Credenda encompass the names of all three First Nations groups within the grand council-CREe, DENe and DAkota-it is actually a very old Latin word meaning "a thing to be believed", or "to believe in something."

"It just naturally fit together," said Vince Hill. "There's nothing I want more for our students than to believe in themselves, to believe in their potential, that they can achieve excellence ... It conveys such a strength and such a unity. It's bringing the three groups together under one approach and really addressing all their needs together."

"And, as ducators, we have to believe in our students," added teacher Kristine Dreaver-Charles, who will offer the humanities courses while colleague Nancy Carswell teaches the maths and sciences.

Credenda will be starting this August in five of the tribal council's 26 communities. Credenda's students will, by and large, be students still enrolled in the local high school who want to pursue careers or university educational opportunities that require specialized courses.

Credenda was a concept first championed by PAGC Grand Chief Gary Merasty, who recognized that in many of the tribal council's small schools, a course such as Biology 30 couldn't viably be offered to the one or two students who wanted to take it, yet those same students would then end up spending a year away at university simply upgrading in order to get into the programs they wanted. With this approach, students will have more career options, and they will be able to return to their communities sooner and share what they have learned.