Potential Project #1: Thesis/Project

I am thinking of doing community action research reporting on the process of the set-up of an adult learning centre in Lax Kw'alaams, (aka Port Simpson) a remote First Nations community in Northwest BC. I worked in the community for sixteen months, then moved away for a bit, and I have just been asked to return to resume the adult literacy program, and lead the innovations to modify the program more in line with their local needs.

I will report on the process for determining technologies and implementing ICTs (information and communications technologies) that will enhance delivery of adult literacy courses run by the College. The emphasis would be on blended delivery, combining F2F instruction, classroom enhancing technologies, CBT, and online instruction. It would describe the process of introducing a number of complementary technologies such as a WLAN, laptops, pen computers, and Palm PCs into classroom instruction, and develop and pilot run courses based more on the indigenous paradigm of learning, using online technologies such as blogs, wikis, etc. The previous eighteen months I taught I had limited access to technology, and many issues were encountered, so I want to conduct an adult learner survey about previous learning experiences, and determine technology readiness by interviewing different groups in the community. There would need to be open houses (pizza and coffee essential!) to invite adults to watch technology demonstrations, and have participants fill out response cards about the technology, and indicate if they are willing to participate in product trials.

The students plus Education Chair and Commitee members from Band Council would discuss what factors would make technologies appropriate, and what factors would disqualify them from being used. There would then a series of focus groups and summative assessment tools used to determine effectiveness and usefulness.Initial Research Questions (Option 1 - community action research)
What ICTs are useful for adult literacy learners in First Nations communities? What ICTs are compatible with indigenous pedagogical principles? Would ICTs in a blended learning environment improve learning, and increase learner success? Would flexible learning delivery of instruction increase learner retention? Would social networking software contribute to increased learner self-efficacy?

How do native learners perceive self-paced instruction? What barriers to learning contribute to a student’s decision to drop out? Which DE instructional strategies improve learner self-development skills? Do learner assessment/evaluation tools negatively impact native learners’ decisions to enroll and persist in adult upgrading courses? Would designing instruction based on connectivist principles increase success rates for native learners? What are instructors’/parents/Elders/adult learners' perceptions of native learners’ needs, goals and challenges? What do instructors/parents/Elders/adult learners feel are key reasons for some learners’ failure to complete courses? What do learners think are the most critical reasons for not meeting course requirements? What do they think might improve their completion/success rate? Would these questions be applicable to a comparison of the positivist and critical pedagogical paradigms? Are the objectives outlined in the curriculum of literacy/upgrading courses biased towards a positivist approach? Do courses designed based on behaviorist learning theory deny validity of indigenous ways of learning and knowing?

Still working out ideas on this.