First Nation Student Success Program

Hello,

My name is Fernando Oliveira. I've been working with K-Net for the past 10 years, mostly on eLearning related programs and software. Brian Beaton invited me to drop a message here to let folks know about some of the projects that I'm involved in, so here's a quick summary:

1. Ned Supplementary Courses Program (www.ned.knet.ca) - This is an eLearning program that delivers supplementary courses in Math, Science and English Literacy to grade 7 and 8 students in First Nation schools. The basic aim of this program to help students transition into high school. I recently received approval from the Ministry of Ed to deliver a grade 9 "reach ahead" credit for the Learning Strategies course (GLS10). This will allow grade 8 students to acquire a grade 9 credit while still in grade 8. I'm quite excited about this prospect and I`m currently in the throes of developing this course for the coming school year.
2. MoodleFN (www.moodlefn.knet.ca)  - Moodle (www.moodle.org) is an open source eLearning program. In 2003, we started customizing Moodle to better meet the needs of First Nation educators and learners. We call this project MoodleFN (Moodle First Nations). More info about this work can be found on the MoodleFN website. We are currently in the middle of a MoodleFN "coding round" - this is where we try to implement the "wish list" that has been articulated by educators in the participating First Nation schools. Currently, MoodleFN is used by a number of organizations in a handful of countries, but more locally it's running on the following sites:
   • K-Net Meeting Place (the site your on now) KiHS (www.kihs.knet.ca)
   • Masinahikana Online School (www.edcentre.ca)
   • NED Program, K-Net (www.ned.knet.ca)
   • Oshki-Pimache-O-Education and Training Institute (www.oshki.ca)
   • By the way, I created a KERC demo site this past winter here: http://demo.moodlefn.com/kerc/ (login as guest to see the demo courses)
3.  7Stones Project (Project Description: www.7stones.knet.ca Demo: http://www.7stones.knet.ca/index2.html) - This is a digital online educational repository that is meant to promote and support an Indigenous view of knowledge. The current demo has a basic prototype that shows all the First Nation communities and languages in Canada. One of the central ideas for this project is to organize knowledge in concentric circles, rather than just a hierarchy of subjects and topics. Here's an example of some concentric circles for Fort Severn: Fort Severn Elementary School, Fort Severn First Nation, Swampy Cree, Cree Communities, KO Tribal Council, Treaty 9, NAN, Ontario… each of these circles can act as a "peg" for hanging knowledge, thereby helping educators locate knowledge that is more meaningful and relevant to their students. In the next development phase, we will create the repository system that organizes learning objects by Language Group, Location and Subject. We were unsuccessful in our latest attempt to secure funds from an INAC education fund, but looking forward to finding other sources this school year.

I'll leave it at that for now. Please feel free to post a message or drop me a line if you have any questions or if you think there's an opportunity to work together in some way... I'm always open to that .

Thanks for all your efforts in this great project!

Fernando