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-Home- || = = **Welcome to the Learning is Out There Wiki **  media type="custom" key="23525648" align="center"
 * [[image:pebble circle.jpg width="175" height="128"]] || Learning is Out There

We as humans are all searching for knowledge. In the west we have believed... "The bible's Abraham, in the land of idol worshippers, thought knowledge is what you see beyond what is before your eyes. The Athenians thought it was an opinion that is true and that we have good reason to believe. Descartes thought it was that which you could not under any imaginable circumstances be wrong about. Scientists have thought it is that which is well-designed, repeatable experiments enable us to have confidence in. There is no shortage of definitions of knowledge. And there is no overall agreement." (David Weinberger, p. 43) “ It seems that in our contemporary world, our kids, if that’s who we are trying to teach, their minds are so full of trivia, you know with all the modern tech, modern technology, whether it’s TV, IPods, movies, games, etc. Their minds are so full. They are so preoccupied so that if we’re going to learn with Spirit it means…we have to find a way to empty some of their minds out.” (Leroy Little Bear)

“I was thinking about the many ways that Creator comes in for me and it is through suspending, quieting the mind there are multiple ways that that happens. And sometimes that happens in ceremony, in prayer, in meditation, and sometimes it happens when, you know, just before I go to sleep.” (Marie Battiste)

“I think we have to decurricularize the curriculum and develop it in such a way that the Spirit is the center of that curriculum, and not have Spirit as a piggy-back to what is already there.” (Delvin Kanewiyakiho)  "The new way of knowing is just now becoming apparent. Although we can't yet know its adult form, some aspects are taking form. Networked knowledge is less certain but more human. Less settled but more transparent. Less reliable but more inclusive.Less consistent but far richer. It feels more natural because the old ideals of knowledge were never realistic, although it's taken the networking of our culture to get us to admit this." (David Weinberger, p.xiii)

As the title of the wiki suggests, the learning is out there - and always has been. Rather than look for new ways of doing things and reinventing the wheel, this wiki attempts to examine the connections between Indigenous knowledge and Learning theories like [|constructivism] and [|connectivism]. Specifically, I will examine the integration of indigenous knowledge in current emerging pedagogical practice like place-based learning, inquiry based learning, adventure learning, community learning and networked learning. How does digital literacy fit into the picture? What are the opportunities for alternative assessment?
 * What is this wiki about? **

If we as educators, can stand back and see the big picture and consider opportunities to encourage indigenous knowledge and emerging pedagogy - what does that kind of teaching, learning and knowledge look like?

My name is [|Verena Roberts] - or@verenanz on twitter. I created this wiki as an ethnographic research project to help me discover indigenous knowledge. My research question revolves around how I can integrate educational technology and cultural integrity, to promote alternative learning programs with provincial high school credit in Canada.

This wiki is s a seed to start future dialogue and to act as a platform to start a collection of ideas, resources and examples. The primary objective is to offer an alternative perspective to "how to teach" any learner based on indigenous knowledge.

No learning is "better" than any other learning. This wiki is about exploring alternatives and options from many different perspectives. It was created to follow my learning journey, from an ethnographic perspective, as I explore how to create a "Learning Spirit Framework".

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">The Indignenous Knowledge page is an attempt to clarify and find meaning around indigenous knowledge based on documents, research and literature reviews.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Many of the pages on the right hand side give examples of how educators are currently integrating indigenous knowledge into their current pedagogy while integrating technology. These examples are a representation of some program examples I discovered during my research.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">The Models page offer examples of indigenous knowledge learning models, pedagogical learning models, pedagogical theory comparisons and comparisons between indigenous knowledge and pedagogical practice.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">The Evidence of Learning page considers if we, as educators and learners, are changing our learning design, we must also change the was we consider assessment. This page offers some examples of alternative assessment strategies.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">The Work in Progress page describes the "Learning Spirit Framework". I included a current program as an example of how I am trying to rethink indigenous knowledge.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Nippissing Univeristy President Michael DeGagne describes misunderstandings between non-native and native leaders:

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 180%;">"Aboriginal people are not saying, 'Give us control of our education,' because they want control," he said in an interview later. "They are asking for control so they can have better outcomes." DeGagne stressed repeatedly that doing so did not mean lowering standards, something he said is feared by non-native policy-makers. "It just means educating in a different way," he said in the interview. "The way aboriginal people look at the world is not second-rate, and we have to give ourselves credit for that." // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 160%;">Retrieved from: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 90%;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 180%;">Following the learning spirit to develop the spirit of learning.....

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">References:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Barrett, Mary Jeanne (2010). Nourishing the Learning Spirit: Dialogue on Learning through Spirit. University of Saskatchewan, Aboriginal Education Research Centre, Saskatoon, Sask. and First Nations and Adult Higher Education Consortium, Calgary, Alta. Retrieved on.30/07/13 from

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Weinberger, D. (2011) Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now that the Facts aren't the Facts. Experts and Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room. Basic Books: New York.