 | YICT Updates (from Angie!) |
|
Hi all, Okay well to give you an update on what I've been doing on the YICT end of things. Once I was approached back in November, I had a little meeting with Adam to clarify what was being sought after from our end and how we could go about in moving forward with the Youth ICT Workers. I held a meeting with the YICT workers to introduce this project and asked them to talk to people in their workplace & community to see if this is something a) That they'd be interested in doing b) If this is feasible for them (meaning time wise & man or woman power) I did a little write up and asked them to share it with their supervisor. I have also started a discussion forum & invited participants from this project to go in and do a write up to introduce themselves. The following is what I wrote up in introduction to this project. ************************************************************************************** On-demand book service Project: An opportunity to develop a digital library for our communities. (U of T mean University of Toronto) Who is involved: YOU & your community, 4 or 6 groups consisting of students from University of Toronto, Project heads: Adam Fiser & Nadia Caidi When does this project start?: February 2009 exact date to be yet determined How long does this project run for? Four months exact duration to be determined What are we looking for in the YICT crowd?: First we need to know if you are available to help in this project. The university is looking for 4 – 6 communities to work with. Please talk with your supervisor to see if this is something that your community would be interested in participating in. If you have an existing librarian please talk with him/her to see if this is something that could be done and used within your community. Or just show them this print off and let them know they can call or email me if they have any questions. What’s going to happen or what do we want to happen? One group of U of T students will be paired off with ONE Youth Worker & his/her community. They will work together on gathering information from the community via surveys/questionnaires etc. From the information gathered, the U of T students will then compile the content and create these book resources. (Either on-line or in print) We are aiming for on-line content so save on costs of shipping. You as the Youth Worker will be the one going around with the surveys, maintaining contact with your U of T group and forwarding them with your findings. There will be a series of video conferencing meetings set up. If you community does not have video conferencing then you can be connected to these meetings through a phone line so don’t be discouraged to participate. The end result we are looking for is for our communities to have easier access to information/content needed in our schools, libraries & communities. And for the U of T students to get their credits…*L* just kidding or no? But this is a course that the U of T students did sign up for so let’s show them how community research is done. Please contact me after you’ve spoken with your peeps. Thanks again Angie NOW MY QUESTION IS...are you interested? Please let me know in this discussion forum if you are and I hope you discussed with your supervisors & co workers because we need to identify someone who can carry on this work after March 13/09 (your last day of work BTW) *L* much thanks ************************************************************************************** I have been spending as much time as I can on promoting this project, trying to get the youth engaged and trying to explain this project to them and how it would work but in the end I have other things to do. I am the main on-line support for these youth and my time gets stretched pretty thin as I am managing up to 40 people not including keeping their supervisors in the know with what is going on with their youth worker's training & other opportunities (such as this project) that come up. My main priority is the youth workers and the communities they live & work in. I do really get excited when possible partnerships such as these do come a knocking though so I really do try to do what I can to make these intiatives a success but in reading Brian's comments I think I need to point some stuff out too... As Brian mentioned.... "Most of discussion seems to be among yourselves, trying to figure out what is the best way to develop this service. Another way of "seeing" this exchange is how the world/environment where everyone involved lives and works (ie. Toronto) might best be imposed upon the folks who live and work in an entirely different world/environment (ie. the remote and rural First Nations)." *****First off finding this meeting place was kind of a search, it is not listed under the Active Meeting area. I did find it and posted a link on the YICT site and encouraged & invited the youth workers to register & participate. I also asked them what they thought of this initative. I think the suggestion that Dominika is a good one. I can talk about this project all I want but in the end this is not my project. One way to go about this is to show that you are interested in the youth's way of living on their communities. I encourage you to go into the YICT meeting place, read their activity reports and I encourage you to ask questions, come log on to the Breeze room (link in the middle section of YICT site) and come chat with the youth workers that are in there. The more you log on the more I'm sure they'd become interested. It's one thing to "SAY" or mention in a write up that you are interested in their way of living or in their work but in the end you have to show it through actions. You have to understand that you are not "talking" with fellow students, just imagine you are talking with a younger neice or nephew. I know the introductions kind've scared off some of the youth as the language is "different" which leads into the next thing Brian pointed out... "There is no doubt in my mind that everyone involved in this work is doing something very important both for themselves and for others. But as one discussion thread highlighted, language is so important. Writing and thinking in plain english is critical especially if the folks in the north are ever going to get involved in this initiative." Did you notice how I wrote up that little introduction of the course? This introduction was geared towards the youth workers and in their language & mindset (so to speak) It was only until then the youth workers understood what I was trying to get across. So with that being said...I hope this helps. I am putting an option on this where I can be emailed the replies to this forum. Angie |
 | Re: Community Research Forum |
|
Hello Angie and everyone else, I am glad to hear from you, except for Brian, no one else from outside U of T has posted on this site yet and I wish they would. I share your concerns, because I am getting a little frustrated with how things are going as well. I was really excited when two YICT workers said they were interested in the project. Several people, including myself, posted introductions on the YICT page inviting those two and anyone interested to come to our page. We never heard anything again from them on Moodle. Since some of our posts were in their forum, I assume the messages were emailed to them (is this wrong?), but that they did not have any comments or were not interested. From the teleconference with the head librarian from Big Grassy, I could tell the YICT worker there never looked at our page after we invited her. In the end it is their choice. I can post comments until I am blue in the face, but I cannot force anyone to answer if they do not care. That is why many of us have been thinking about trying myKNET and FaceBook, not because we think it is better, but because we think other people will become more interested in the project through those media. My classmates have really been getting into Moodle, but many wonder if the YICT workers think Moodle should only be used for work and education, and that is why they don't want to talk to us on Moodle. I try to keep my language as plain as possible short of being slangy. I would like to know what it is about us or the way we write that is scary. Is it the accronyms, or writing styles, or is it something more than that? How do I have to write to get people to understand what I am saying? I have been criticized (constructively I've asked about starting a new thread on the YICT page, as a kind of conversational icebreaker, where we could talk together with the YICT about what books we like to read, but I was told that was not possible, we just have to tell them to come to the ODBS page. I don't like how we are trying to make people come to us instead of the other way around. I've also been debating with myself if I should be posting in the Breeze Room, or if this would be seen as invasive. I have certainly been reading it. If you are alright with it Angie, that is what I will start doing. What I really wish is that we can have some place that we can share together and talk about the project or other things the YICT workers want to talk about. I think my community research group will talk about pairing off with different workers when we meet on Thursday before class. Thak you for being interested in us enough to talk with us. I like it when you and Brian respond to our messages, it helps me understand things better. |
) for being too explicit and wordy because it sounds apologetic, but I am struggling and learning too. I don't want to be talking down to anyone, assuming they only understand small words, because I know they are better than that. I've noticed that a lot of the YICT workers are not "youths", many of them are the same age or older than me, and some have children of their own.  | Re: Community Research Forum |
|
Hey Fiona, Quick response to the question about forums. Users can choose to subscribe to forums, and creators of forums can 'force' people to be subscribed. So this is all decided by the administrator of the YICT meeting place, whom I presume is Angie. It looks like on their forums you actually have to subscribe yourself to get emails, so it's possible that many of the YICT workers are not aware that we have posted there. =) I wouldn't gage their lack of activity on our meeting place a lack of interest, we really haven't make any connections with them. I think this is a good learning opportunity, to try and step back and see whether our marketing and out reach efforts are actually working. I'm a musician, so I'm going to use a music analogy... what makes a good performer is someone who is able to listen to what sound they are making. We all what know good music sounds like, but am I helping the audience 'hear' it as well? We know what our intentions are, but are the people we are trying to involve on the same page as us? Or do we presume they know what we know? You bring up some good questions though, Fiona. Now I'm going to go and find out what this Breeze room is all about... Margaret |
 | Re: Community Research Forum |
|
Hey, I wanted to let you guys know that I've contacted a YICT fellow named Walter, from Wasauksing. I just introduced myself and am hoping he'll be interested enough in the project that he'll let me ask him some questions... |
 | Re: Community Research Forum |
|
Good stuff Dominika ... Wasauksang has a GREAT public library. That is where K-Net has their local Point-of-presence. From the library we put a DSL circuit over to the Band Office - School - Health Centre. Hopefully Walter will speak with the local Public Library to share some of the work your team is doing. I think it goes beyond "hoping he will be interested enough in the project" ... I think any sharing has to be a two-way street if it is going to go anywhere. This is especially so within an online environment among strangers. The nice thing about Wasauksang is that it is just a short drive north of Toronto [smiles] ... go and visit him. I just read that a group of university students were visiting Walter's community yesterday to learn more about the First Nations in this province. That might make for some interesting stories to be shared with all of us [smiles] ... Brian |
| Re: Community Research Forum |
|
Margaret Thank you for pointing this out. I have never really used this feature myself...and I cannot think why? this force subscription option information also helps answer some questions I've had when I ask the youth workers if they've seen my latest posting and a get a less than favorable response  |
 | Re: Community Research Forum |
|
I feel everyone's concern with wanting to have community members involved in this site, esp as Brian points out, to facilitate OCAP principles. In outreach though, I wonder, should we also be trying to facilitate ties b/w YICT workers and Prof Caidi and Adam? School is done in April and relationships created need to extend beyond us and beyond that deadline. Ideally, I think we would like to give community members the information needed to take this project into their own hands so that the project doesn't fall through after the semester; how can we help support this shift (e.g. can we use tools other than Moodle?) |
| Re: Community Research Forum |
|
Good stuff Erica ... I am not clear why you would want to switch to a different web environment since so much work is going into developing this web space. Some thoughts for everyone's consideration:
There are lots of ways to move this work forward. All it takes is work [smiles] ... so let's get to work ... Thoughts?? Brian |
| Re: Community Research Forum |
|
You raise some really good points, Brian. Instead of spreading ourselves too thin, it is probably better to focus on the Moodle and make it a really good, well organized resource for the people who continue with this project. Did you hear back from Adam about how people might remain involved? It's one of the questions has come up in class too (actually, the project's sustainability beyond the class was something I asked about in the first class lol). |