Stories and digital stories in indigenous knowledge

"Building digital competance among Children in the circumpolar Area. An Empowerment and Mental Health Perspective"

Background

During the ArctiChildren inNet research project we have been looking into the digital world of schoolchildren from three project schools in Finnmark county, Norway; their own, their parents’ and teachers’ views. Building digital competence through activities from preschool to secondary school has however, been an important objective for all countries in the Barents region and the later included areas in the Northern Republics of the Russian Federation. One of the research themes from the Norwegian side has been whether this digital competence serves as an empowering factor in mastering the challenges in finding your place in an ever more digitalized future. E‑health is a question of staying healthy, reducing stress and avoid the development of learnt helplessness in relation to strong global economic forces shaping the digital future.

Research methods

A questionnaire common for all countries taking part in the ArctiChildren in Net project was distributed among the secondary schoolchildren, aged 13—15 in the three project schools in 2012.  Two teachers and two parents from each school were given a semi-structured interview. In 2014, 3 schools in Sakha Republic, 2 in Ekaterinburg and 2 in Moscow answered the same questionnaire.

Results

Our results give an overall picture of a mostly consumption oriented digital competence among children, parents and teachers. They know how to use Microsoft programs like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, using the preferred e‑learning platforms, surf on the net, using Social Media and Skype, download music and films and play games.  We found little, if any, computational competence, i.e. how to use the machine as a general-purpose computer, unconstrained by pre- made apps, as well as knowledge about the challenges of protecting the freedom of the Internet and how to take control of their own computing. To be producers instead of consumers.

Conclusions

We suggest that the goals set for digital literacy in schools should be reconsidered. From a health perspective, it is important to find one’s place in the world to lead a productive and healthy life, “the Good Life”. For young people facing a digitalized future, knowledge and understanding how to use digital tools and orienting themselves in the digital world as well as taking part in the development is important. There is a growing interest in reviving the early years of computational competence, development and exercising “playful cleverness”. To support such a development, re-thinking the digital literacy concept is needed. Empowerment through computational knowledge is an important in a salutogenic perspective. We suggest a variety of cross border activities to improve computational skills among school children.

"Videos for Change in Indigenous Communities"

The challenge facing Indigenous peoples in terms of controlling their culturally-based knowledge systems and processes is rooted in the contemporary re-enactment of colonial oppression by the state and its agents. The initiative uses digital videos as learning tools to transfer knowledge and transform understanding about the community costs of injury in suppressing the people and curbing socioeconomic development. Specifically, the Fourth Estate of the "e-world" of social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, text-messaging, and email serve as instruments for self-expression and the sharing of ideas and knowledge.  Digital videos empower community members to shape anti-oppressive content, which appropriately reflects their community's culture and visual-linguistic expression founded on traditional storytelling and cultural images. The theme of the videos involves creating community solutions to reducing the risk of vehicle injury. The project provides a fresh and innovative approach to learning and documenting how Indigenous ways of knowing lead to a changed narrative on the important part that safety and injury prevention play not only in safeguarding people at-risk, but in building community capacity. The use of web-based platforms created pathways to share and transfer knowledge within Indigenous communities and with the broader society. Changing perceptions held by the dominant society begins a process of moving the view of Indigenous peoples from one of oppressed victims to one of problem-solvers and capacity-builders whose work to reduce injury risk leads to community strengthening. Participants "voices" are heard via social media which moves the message to the masses and brings about change.

"Our World is held together by words"

Words shelter the Celtic world. How important then are the words shared in enabling supervision to shelter indigeneity and its invitation to humanise Social Work education? This research explored experiences of supervision practice as one place in which to come into our unique legacies of knowledge, these within the Social Work environment while in a Bicultural Degree in which I work. Through affirming cultural practices as centring respectful relationships so the development of placement supervision can open a landscape whereby to acknowledge traditions or patterning of us as part of the living relationships to land, people, divinity. This research explores how Social Workers in Aotearoa New Zealand felt supported to recognise, represent, inhabit enduring knowledge within workplace experiences and articulating their ongoing work lives with that which endures. This thesis provokes the revelation of a secret weaving of traditions of culture and spirituality within which people of this land, Māori, and lives such as my own Irish Celtic heritage are powerfully connected within the Pacific Rim. It is suggested that these traditions remain marginalised through assumptions that fail to recognise spirituality in knowing, knowledge, experiences. Similar assumptions may subjugate practices expressed within cross-cultural relationships. The researcher’s (Merrill’s) original PhD thesis identified supervision as one focus and has significantly developing this alongside Eastern Bay Māori; these shared learning and experiences hold presence in the work. This research furthers understandings of the concepts of spirit, shelter, and relationships and the patterns of spirit absorbed and held in enduring practice around our lives