Media.Knet.Ca

Fernando Oliveira is the program developer and instructor for the First Nations SchoolNet on-line Grade 8 Supplementary courses. Over this past year, he explored different on-line delivery methods to support Grade 8 students and teachers in their classrooms.

The teacher evaluation of the English Literacy course is now available on-line. Here are some of the comments from the teachers that took the time to complete the course survey ...

• I think this is a great program for the students to experience. It helps them with their English skills as well as provides them with practice with their computer skills.
• I think this is an excellent course, and if you are having these courses next year we would like to be involved again.
• It was refreshing to see our students so excited about a school program. I think the combination of games, videos and personal profiles, along with the regular assignments, made the program effective and enjoyable. Computer skills are way up. Thanks for bringing something new into our classroom.
• Overall, this was an excellent experience for my students. I noticed that many were more motivated, attended more regularly, and made more of an effort than they normally would have.

The Grade 8 course took on a new look for the English Literacy material. Fernando worked with a team of developers to adapt the open source Moodle e-learning platform to accommodate the different classrooms, students and learning materials.

The fall semester Fernando delivered a variety of Grade 8 Science supplementary units in 11 different First Nation classrooms. Click here to read his report and the comments from the teachers about this experience.

The winter semester saw 17 First Nation schools sign up for the Math supplementary on-line course that Fernando offered. Click here to read his report and the comments from the teachers about the Math on-line course.

This initiative was first piloted in the spring of 2003 working with the Keewaytinook Okimakanak community partners who are part of  the Keewaytinook Internet High School. Fernando, who use to teach with KiHS in the remote First Nations of Poplar Hill and Fort Severn, agreed to develop and facilitate the delivery of the first on-line science units for Grade 8 students in 8 communities. This pilot proved very successful (click here to read the results of this pilot project). This pilot was funded by the KO Smart Communities project.