Media.Knet.Ca

"… Conventional policy evaluation approaches may not capture the reality of life on the ground especially when one takes into account how much time it may take for change in livelihoods to become evident. Surveys, questionnaires and quantitative analysis designed for more homogenous urban and rural communities cannot meaningfully address the nature of change that policy decisions have in these disparate remote communities. This research focuses on developing new tools to enhance the evaluation process in order to provide policy makers with a better understanding of the local impacts of their decisions while simultaneously allowing the communities themselves to become active participants in the policy process by giving them the tools to tell their own stories. …

… As part of the SMART evaluation process, Industry Canada agreed to allow the use of video recordings and short documentary video productions into the evaluation process. New digital video technology allows remote communities, typically overlooked in the policy development process, a medium in which to collectively communicate their experiences with policy makers. …

… Video is a valuable tool for remote communities because it provides a means for contextualized, locally tailored messages in the absence of lobbying influence or access to mainstream media and advocacy. Video also offers a unique way of capturing interim changes in the context of long term policy-driven changes that are in progress yet defy quantification in the short term. For example, a survey may reveal that a certain proportion of households in a community is connected and go on to describe the types of internet applications being used. However, conventional methods fall short in their ability to predict medium and long term changes that will occur as a result of that particular practice. The SMART case in northwestern Ontario took place over three years in which time aspirations and future plans changed dramatically as applications due to connectivity, in virtually every sector of community life, were revealed and explored. Video, with its ability to record and relay contextualized human experiences allows policy makers a more tangible understanding of the real-life impacts of their decisions and initiatives.

… in the KO communities, a more community based, bottom-up approach is being pursued. In addition to the gathering of local stories around the connectivity experience as they relate to such subjects as health, education, economic development and community development, a training component was included so that the capacity to manipulate the medium was left in the community. Workshops in video production were conducted in each community’s e-centre with participation open to any interested community members. In addition, KO provided video cameras and multi-media editing stations to the communities to foster the ongoing production of video material by and about the communities. Communities have already begun producing their own stories and an online video archive site is presently under construction to provide them a global distribution system. …

The research design set forth is inherently constructivist. Key to the constructivist approach is an acknowledgement that no single research question can guide the research without being modified as the researcher uncovers layers of previously hidden reality. The research question ensures that with each learning cycle the abstract conceptualizations contained therein remain within the realm of co-generalization.

Research Question: How does the introduction of ICTs to aboriginal communities empower them to change relationships with policy-makers, other aboriginal communities and each other?

Collectively, the objectives seek to describe the implications of ICTs and video as a tool for interactive policy making. The conditions required for participants (from the community level up to and including policy-makers) to view the use of video, not merely for the delivery of a pre-determined media product, but as a catalyst for community capacity building and interactive policy development will also be explored. The implications of locally directed media on the self-perception of aboriginal communities in relation to the larger dominant culture and policy-makers whose decisions rarely take into account the reality of life in these communities is particularly significant.

Objective 1: Determine the conditions under which of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), in particular video can be used to develop capacity in aboriginal communities

Objective 2: Identify the processes that aboriginal communities develop and engage in order to produce communication materials to build capacity.

Objective 3: Determine how access to and control of ICTs and new media tools change the self-perception of remote aboriginal communities

Objective 4: Determine how access and control of ICTs and new media tools change relationship between remote aboriginal communities and urban policy makers.

Objective 5: Explore how policy makers identify the significance of new media tools and products to change their relationship with remote aboriginal communities.

The Ontario Native Education Counselling Association
YOUTH ESSAY CONTEST

CRITERIA:

Age 4 – 9 years: Create a poster showing things we can learn about our culture.  Give a brief description as to why we should learn about our culture and the message your poster is trying to project.

Age 10 – 12 Write a one page essay double spaced on how you can be a positive role model to those around you.  Why is it important?

Age 13- 15 Write a one page essay double spaced on someone who has been a positive role model in your life.  Be sure to answer the Who? What? How, and Why.

Age 16 – 18 Write a 2 page essay double spaced about someone who has been a positive role model in your life.  How has this person/persons influenced your life.

Special Needs Write a one page essay about someone who has been a positive role model in your life and how have they influenced your education.

Essays must be submitted double spaced and typed.

LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS:  JUNE 11, 2004

CASH PRIZES OF $100.00 FOR FIRST PLACE IN EACH AGE GROUP

Please send submissions to:  

Essay Contest
Ontario Native Education Counselling Association
38 Reserve Road, Box 220
Naughton, Ontario  P0M 2M0

For more information, contact ONECA at (705) 692-2999 or check out our website at www.oneca.com

There was a total of 56,467,159 hits occurring on five of the monitored K-Net servers over the month of April. The six servers generating this amount of traffic include myknet.org, knet.ca, webmail.knet.ca, highschool.knet.ca, and photos.knet.ca (just click on the server to see the traffic monitoring chart for each server). These hits were made by the 734,007 visitors to these servers during the month.

ATTENTION YOUNG WOMEN!

The Decade Office is sponsoring a "Girl Power" Train the Trainers symposium in May in Thunder Bay.  If you are a young woman, between the ages of 18-29, residing in a NAN member community we may be looking for you.  If you are interested in creating communities that are concerned with women's issues and are willing to organize activities in your community that will enhance women's status in our society, then you should apply to participate in this training.  

The theme of this training is prevention of violence against women through leadership development.  Participants will learn how to become proactive in breaking the cycle of young women's oppression.  Upon completion of the training you will be able to speak up against social injustice and you will encourage other young women to do the same by organizing a Girl Power camp in your home community.  

All travel, meals and accommodation are covered for the 10 young women chosen for this training.

If you are interested in participating please send a cover letter, a current resume and a statement outlining how you will organize a camp in your community to the symposium planner, Nita Quequish, at NAN by fax (807) 623-5819, email: coordinator@nandecade.ca or call 1-800-465-9952 for more information.  The deadline to submit your application is May 7, 2004.

More info is also available on our website at www.nandecade.ca

Melanie Goodchild,
Decade for Youth & Development Coordinator
Nishnawbe Aski Nation
ph. (807) 623-8228
fax (807) 623-5819
email: mgoodchi@nan.on.ca
www.nandecade.ca

Please post this announcement. It is very important.

Osnaburgh (Mishkeegogamang) had the annual Hydro Settlement Payout in February of 2004. A lot of people have not come forward to claim any of their pay out and this needs to be taken care of as soon as possible.

If you or anyone you know belong to Osnaburgh band please contact Jeff Loon or Jeff Neekan at 807-928-2414 or 2148 during work hours. Thank you very much.

The NAN Decade Youth Council have their own web site up and running check it out!

www.nandecade.ca

Be sure to submit your community events and share your youth activity stories.

Team Ontario North (male) Gold medalist at the National Aboriginal Hockey Champions 2004 in Prince George BC which took place April 18 - 24, 2004.  www.nahc.ca

MAKING IT WORK FOR VOLUNTEERS - 2004 SHOWCASE ONTARIO VOLUNTARY SECTOR IT AWARDS
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* Deadline is May 14, 2004 at 5:00 P.M. *

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS!

Does your organization:

• recruit and support volunteers?
• build networks and lines of communication with other voluntary organizations?
• create partnerships with the public or private sector?
• use information technology (IT) to improve the delivery of your services to Ontarians?

Apply for the 2004 SHOWCASE ONTARIO VOLUNTARY SECTOR IT AWARDS!  Be recognized for your organization's innovative use of the Internet and information technology.

Go to http://www.volunteersonline.ca/apply to download an Entry Form and Release.
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THE SHOWCASE ONTARIO AWARDS will be given out in September 2004 at SHOWCASE ONTARIO, a forum where information technology expertise from the public, private and voluntary sector is shared with the goal of improving the delivery of services.

THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR IT AWARD recognizes and acknowledges the excellent work many community-based organizations are doing with information technology. This award is part of Making IT Work For Volunteers, a partnership between Information Technology Association of Canada for Ontario (ITAC Ontario) and the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration of the Government of Ontario.

The top winner will receive the Diamond Award of Excellence. Three Merit Award winners will receive a medal.

Last year's winners were:

* CanadaHelps - Diamond Award of Excellence
* CanadaInfoNet (JVS Toronto)  - Award of Merit
* ACTEW - Award of Merit
* Digital Eve Toronto  - Award of Merit

Winning projects will be featured as a case study in the Lac Carling Governments' Review Magazine in addition to being highlighted on the Showcase Ontario website, the IT World Canada website and the
Ministry of Citizenship and ITAC Ontario websites.

Go to http://www.volunteersonline.ca/apply to download an Entry Form and Release.  Organizations that applied in 2003 are encouraged to resubmit.

Please contact info@volunteersonline.ca with any questions.

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VolunteersOnline.ca - Information Technology For Canadian Communities http://www.volunteersonline.ca

An article in IT Business features Lakehead University's new Advanced Technology and Academic Centre and its "smart classrooms". It also provides a good example of the capability of broadband (in this case using the ORION network) to change the way education is conducted in Ontario.

"A distance educator learns its lesson"

4/28/2004 5:00:00 PM - Lakehead University's first attempts to connect with remote students had some glitches, but a $44 million project has turned it into one of Canada's first truly multimedia schools. Find out how they moved to the head of the class.

Lakehead University has overcome its physical distance from the rest of Ontario with "smart classrooms" and an Advanced Technology and Academic Centre.

The Thunder Bay, Ont. university has eight undergrad and graduate programs available through distance learning, and runs a private IP network between it and a number of regional school boards whose classes are used in distance education.

ATAC director Bob Angell said the project started three years ago when the university was looking for ways to make better use of learning technologies ...

Click here to read the entire article.