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Learning from D2L Brightspace
Learning from D2L Brightspace
Indigenizing D2L, a Learning Management System
Indigenizing D2L, a Learning Management System
Chris has always been fascinated by what a Learning Management System, such as D2L (meaning, 'Desire 2 Learn'), can accomplish in its role in assisting with teaching and learning.
Since starting at MRU in 2022, the same time MRU started using D2L, Chris has set out to find ways to Indigenize D2L. In 2023, he developed a motto, 'Desire to Indigenize' to capture his indigenization efforts at MRU. He imagined the phrase being presented alongside the MRU logo. That way, it would look like it is saying, 'Desire to Indigenize MRU' – which would become a title of a future presentation of Chris and Joe's!
Creating a 'Blackfoot Odyssey' Brightspace Course
Creating a 'Blackfoot Odyssey' Brightspace Course
Screenshot from D2L Brightspace course. Tipi images: Joe Eagle Tail Feathers © 2024, used with permission.
Chris was wondering how D2L Brightspace could help him with the courses he teaches and the goals he is trying to achieve – especially as they relate to Indigenization. In 2022, Chris was successful in his proposal to start an eLearning Project through MRU's Academic Development Centre. He would be able to work with an eLearning designer to develop digital learning material specifically for his course, ENGL 3353.
MRU's eLearning designer, Khethwen Woo, has put a significant amount of work into the digital creation of the Blackfoot Odyssey Brightspace course located within ENGL 3353. We regard this design work as transforming Brightspace into Sacred Space. This work was shared in Toronto at D2L Fusion 2024.
After completing the Blackfoot Odyssey course, students are asked to reflect on the parallels and connections between the two forms of Indigenous storytelling – the novel and the videos.
Khethwen consulting with Joe on the Brightspace design for Chris' course (ENGL 3353).
Joe and Khethwen (March, 2024)
Seven Goals for the Blackfoot Odyssey Course
Seven Goals for the Blackfoot Odyssey Course
Here are seven goals that emerged when developing the Blackfoot Odyssey Brightspace course:
To transform Brightspace into sacred space
To take learners on an Indigenous journey
To create an Indigenous literary lodge
To learn from place – by visiting Six Blackfoot Sacred Sites
To offer experiential learning
To hold space for the buffalo
To indigenize D2L
An Excerpt from the Blackfoot Odyssey
An Excerpt from the Blackfoot Odyssey
The following piece of information is content from the final page of the Blackfoot Odyssey Brightspace course. The page serves to inform the students of our vision behind juxtaposing the novel and the videos.
Note: The design of the final page can be seen only on Brightspace.
Below are four main parallels that can be drawn between Joe Eagle Tail Feathers' life experiences and the novel Fools Crow:
Both Joe and the novel:
Offer incredible life journeys (odysseys) and lessons from which one can learn and gain knowledge.
Involve the endurance of a series of significant challenges and obstacles, ones requiring courage and bravery.
Involve a strong cultural and spiritual connection with the land (then & now).
Tell stories in different ways – one is in print (literary) and told in the past, and one is oral and told in the present (take note of the irony).
Ii kii pii sah tahp pii: Experiential Learning from a Blackfoot Odyssey
Ii kii pii sah tahp pii: Experiential Learning from a Blackfoot Odyssey
Ii kii pii sah tahp pii is a Blackfoot term that translates to something mystical – a mystical experience. Ii kii pii sah tahp pii captures so well what Joe's stories attempt to describe.
According to Joe, ii kii pii sah tahp pii applies to all things on a human level that cannot be explained. As humans, though, we strive to make sense of the mystical, making use of the various forms of storytelling available to us.
In the Blackfoot Odyssey course, students complete a series of reflections based on their experiences with the content. After submitting their reflection, they receive a custom-designed badge pertaining to each experience as illustrated in the following montage.
Their reflections illustrate how they have been informed by the Indigenous knowledge Joe Eagle Tail Feathers shared with them through his tipi video, his sacred sites video series, and his in-person class visit. Students also reflected on how his Indigenous knowledge and experiences connect not only with the study of the course novel Fools Crow but also with the overall course design.
If the students complete all 10 reflections, they are issued through D2L Brightspace a custom-designed ‘Journey of Completion’ certificate signed by both Joe and Chris.
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