 | Research |
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This topic will discuss the research which will be undertaken in conjunction with the NICSN satellite initiative. |
 | Re: Research |
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As a witness to the migration of broadband in the north, it's sometimes hard not to conclude its impacts are self-evident ... More and more people living in remote and isolated First Nations communities in Ontario's far north are using technology everyday in so many different ways... People are employed in jobs at the community level such as network technicians and community telemedicine coordinators which would have been unheard of ten years ago... Even those who are not specifically hired to work in IT use these tools as part of their daily work activities... People are using these tools to bank, shop and access information... They are using these tools to access better health care and better education and training opportunities... Video conferenced workshops are available for community members that give them access to professional development and encourage them to share best practices and lessons learned with neighboring communities... It may seem self-evident but it clearly is not... The NICSN project will document the impacts of the new technology both quantitatively and qualitatively... More importantly, this research will be conducted by community members who will be able to apply new skills developed in this project to other community needs... Brian |
 | Re: Research - Methods |
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It will be interesteing to see how the reasearch process and methods develop. KORI uses guides such as the KO Community Consultation Standards (draft) and tools from the NAHO group to honour the communities' Ownership, Posession Access and Control (OCAP) of the data. University and other research partners' ethics statements are aslo taken into consideration. |
| Re: Research - Methods |
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I've always taken the position that methods should follow objectives that is we should use the methods that help us (or communities) achieve their goals, setting out standards and ethical guidelines is a good way of setting the ground rules within which the research activity should take place. |
| Re: Research |
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Good observation Brian! One of the reasons it is important to do something like the NICSN research is because a lot of these changes happen so subtlely that unless we do some "time lapse" documentation we tend to forget how much has actually changed. It's only by trying to look back that we see how much transformation there has been. For the communities having this sense of the changes in the past can give them some guidelines for managing and directing those changes into the future (as much as this is possible). Mike G. |