- How can educators use new media to better reach and teach Alaska's students?
- Why is an awareness of Place important?
- How can an awareness of Place create better learning for Alaska students?
ENGAGE
Click on this Google Earth map to enlarge it. Look around and consider the distances, both physically and culturally, between the members of this course and the students they serve.Place and Pedagogy
One of the special benefits of this course is the perspective we offer each other from our far-flung respective places.
Places where we live and teach. Places with unique landscapes and resources. Places some of your students' ancestors may have known for many centuries.
Place as a way of learning.
Taken in the context of Alaska's extraordinary environments and the students who live there, Place-Based learning is not merely an educational Trend DuJour. It is how many students live and learn every day, whether or not they are in school. And for Alaska Native students, it's how they've survived since they arrived.
It remains our challenge as teachers to learn how to better teach within the environmental and cultural context of the communities we serve. And it's a Win-Win when we do.
EXPLORE
Alaska Native Knowledge Network - ANKN
ANKN - is an important digital resource used in this course, and by educators across the state. We've provided a few links to some of the resources pertaining to this module. Please visit each resource and review the information provided.
Let's start our exploration of cultural resources by reviewing the valuable ANKN
Guidelines for Respecting Cultural Knowledge, offering guidance and wise advice for those hoping to better understand and respect Native ways. Specifically look for the sections that are most relevant in your context.
Let's start our exploration of cultural resources by reviewing the valuable ANKN
Guidelines for Respecting Cultural Knowledge, offering guidance and wise advice for those hoping to better understand and respect Native ways. Specifically look for the sections that are most relevant in your context.
ANKN is a resource for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing. We are pleased to create and distribute a variety of publications that assist Native people, government agencies, educators and the general public in gaining access to the knowledge base that Alaska Natives have acquired through cumulative experience over millennia.
EXAMINE
Consider the Alaska Native perspective provided in the Guidelines for Educators provided by the Alaska Native Knowledge Network - ANKN:
Classroom teachers are responsible for drawing upon Elders and other cultural experts in the surrounding community to make sure all resource materials and learning activities are culturally accurate and appropriate.
- How might this place-based principle apply to your work in your community?
EXPLORE SOME MORE...
Alaska History & Cultural Studies 
Alaska History and Cultural Studies provides students, teachers and others interested in the state access to a rich source of facts and viewpoints about Alaska and its history.As you will soon discover, the Alaska History and Cultural Studies website is central to this course. It's worth your time to explore this site anytime.
For now, let's take some time to visit and explore these two digital resources. Spend a few minutes on each noting the scope and range of perspectives by clicking on links of interest. Reflect on how the information fits in with your experience and how the information shapes your perspective.
EXTEND - Read Paul Ongtooguk's essay: Education and Cultural Self-Determination
- Look for ways to share culturally relevant digital resources you may find.
Click on Image to Enlarge
What's Next?
Now it's time to move on to the next segment of Module I - Teachers' Domain
