Module I - Introduction

No matter where you are, we're glad you're here!

Fortuna Ledge class portrait -- ASL-MS146-03-15B

Essential Questions:

• 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

Let's begin our exploration of this geographically immense and culturally diverse state by reflecting on the very nature of this course; Though we are all different people in vastly different places at different times reading these words, we are also connected by them, even if only fleetingly.

Throughout this course, we will make use of the power of this technological connection to illustrate, time and again, how everything is connected in nature and in history, and how we are all connected as Alaskan educators.

First Place

This first module is primarily designed to introduce you to the main digital resources for the course, as well as get you started on your own blog. But the beginning of this first module is also the right place to talk about Place. Place as a way of understanding. Place as a way of being. Place as a way of learning.

Whether you're an Alaskan Native, a native Alaskan or a Cheechako, most of us know what it means to come from a place or to know a place. Place provides context in our lives. Place provides identity.  Place provides security and sustenance for many Alaskans.

As educators making our way into the classrooms across Alaska, effective teaching often means learning about the places and the people who live where we teach.

EXAMINE

Consider this quote taken from Alaskan anthropologist Thomas Thornton's book on people, place and cultural identity, Being and Place Among the Tlingit.

These lands are vital not only to our subsistence, but also to our sense of being as Tlingit people  - Gabriel George

• How does the connection between people and place appear in your community?

What's Next? 
Now it's time to move on to the next segment of Module I - Place and Pedagogy.
 

Module I - Place and Pedagogy

No matter where you are, we're glad you're here!

Essential Questions:

• 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.

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.  

• Guidelines for Respecting Cultural Knowledge

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.

• History of Alaska Native Education
• Culturally-Based Curriculum Resources 

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

Module I - Teachers' Domain

No matter where you are, we're glad you're here!

asphaltclassroom.com

Essential Questions:

• 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 

Introduction

What information media do you use in your daily life? What media do you use in your classroom? 

In a rapidly changing world, digital technology creates amazing new possibilities for learners across this enormous state. As educators, we want to find digital media that provides high information value for students and ease of use for teachers.

Teacher's Domain

TD is an enormous digital library of free, quality educational media resources produced by public television and designed for classroom use. 

We will be using TD throughout this course to explore specific content. But TD resources reach much further than the scope of this course. You'll find that TD hosts many great resources from Art to Science to Social Studies, including:

• Lesson Plans
• Special Collections
• Teaching Strategies
• State and National Standards

EXPLORE

Teachers' Domain  

Go to the TD website and register if you are not already a member. It's quick and easy! Just go to http://www.teachersdomain.org/. After you have registered, take a few minutes to explore some of the TD features and collections.  No matter what or where you teach, there's something there for you.

Cultural Connections
Let's revisit our connections theme by viewing a brief TD video exploring the Spirit of Subsistence Living. Note how Chevak residents present a worldview that has many connections to themes we're exploring throughout this course.

EXPLORE

Teachers' Domain

Spirit of Subsistence Living

EXAMINE

• How are teaching roles portrayed?
• How are newcomers or outsiders regarded in your community?
• What are the values of engaging the various cultures in your community?

EXTEND

• What are the population dynamics in your community?
• What educational cultural connections can you make in your community?

Miss Something?

Take a minute to go back to TD and explore some of the support resources you'll find right there. For the video you just watched, you'll find an abstract, background essay, questions for discussion, links to standards and other related resources. Besides saving you time, these aids can be used to help better  prepare viewers for learning. Click Here.

EXPLORE SOME MORE

Teachers' Domain

Teachers often choose their career for noble reasons--to make a positive difference in the lives of students. The same is true for Iñupiaq science teacher, Dustin Madden. Madden's decision to become a science teacher in Alaska creates a powerful example of the advantages and strengths of knowing both ways.
Watch this TD video:

Dustin Madden: Science Teacher

 

EXAMINE

• How do you think students may regard the importance of education or science careers as a result of teachers like Dustin Madden?
• How can non-indigenous and indigenous teachers help students to embrace both ways?

EXPLORE SOME MORE

Teachers' Domain

Click Here for more great culturally relevant TD resources. Spend a few minutes exploring TD's Alaska Native Ways of Knowing, where you'll find helpful lesson plans and lots of other related digital media.

Some Helpful Hints for the Media Minded

•  If you'd like use media more skillfully, try these TD Classroom Tips.
• In order to watch TD videos, you may be prompted to either View or Download, or both. The choice is yours, depending on the speed of your Internet service. 
• You may want to preview resources in View, and later Download resources you select.
• If a TD video is an important part of a lesson you're teaching, it's a good idea to download videos directly to your computer desktop.  Besides assuring you have the video when you need it, you also get larger and better image quality.

EXTEND

• What is the role of pedagogy when applying new information media?
• How do you presently apply media-smart methods in your classroom?

EXPLORE SOME MORE....

There are many more features and resources available at Teachers' Domain than we'll master in this first module.  It's worth your time to take a minute to learn how to use the folders to save and share your favorite materials - even organize entire lessons linked to standards all at the click of a finger. It's easy and it's free!


EXTEND

• Try creating a TD folder category
• Save a few related favorite resources into the folder.
• That's it.  Now those TD resources are right there. Just a click away.

What's Next? 

Now it's time to move on to the next segment of Module I - Setting up your blog using Blogger.

Module I - Blogger Introduction

No matter where you are - we’re glad you’re here!

Essential Questions:

• 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    

If you're reading this, you're reading a blog. If you're taking this course for credit, your assignment each week is to respond to each module in your own blog, created just for this course.  

You may already be a blogger and use another blog program or service. Feel free to use any other blog program or service you like. Otherwise, try Blogger. It's quick! It's easy! And it's free! 

Naming Your Blog   

It can be a surprisingly difficult task to reduce the scope of ideas in this course to a few helpful words. Feel free to be creative and personalize, but please choose a title that is informative, professional and directly relates to this course. 

Choosing a Design Template 

You will be prompted to select your basic template for your blog. You can change colors, add gadgets, and move elements around to suit your style. Take a little time to play with your blog design. Strive to make it unique, appealing and easy for others to use and read. 

A Note on Privacy 

While you are not required to provide personal information on your blog, you are asked to include professional profile and contact information. Here are some tips:

1. Recommended: Only provide information that is already public (school, name, professional email, etc.) .
2. Recommended:Include only professional information in the personal profile section of your blog.
3. Required: Use Comment Moderation under Comments in the Settings menu, and only post the comments you approve. Click Here for a YouTube Tutorial.

Bottom Line: Treat your blog as a professional portfolio.

EXPLORE   
Start by clicking on this blogger link. Follow the prompts to set up your own blog for this course.    

• You'll also find a helpful Quick Tour and Video Tutorial along with other useful features - just a click away.
• YouTube hosts a variety of helpful tutorials at the Blogger Help Channel.

Your first test blog post:
For your first test post, please include an image of a favorite place along with a paragraph or two describing your connection to that place.

Linking your blog to the course blog
After you save your blog, send an email to the course instructor at explorealaskablog@gmail.com - including the blog title and its URL.

• It should look like this: 

1. Your Name
2. Your Blog's Title 
3. Your Blog URL (looks like this: http://your-blog-name-here.blogspot.com)

• The instructor will include your blog as a link in the Course Participants menu on the main page of this blog.

EXAMINE 
 

Put Your Best Foot Forward 

The Web is a very public place where it's a good idea to always put your best foot forward. Many of you are already skilled using new media. Some of us could use some help.

For some guidance in creating a better blog, read Sailing the C's to Better Blogging. It's a summary guide I created to help students when posting their first blog. 

Designing a blog that rewards the reader for the time spent there begins with understanding how humans respond to design and function features. We recommend using the Contrast-Repetition-Alignment-Proximity method. 

Learn more about these easy, useful, powerful principles for creating a better blog. DailyBlogTips.com posts a good overview of these concepts.

Or explore what Dr. Jason Ohler has to say about using the Seven B's of Visually Differentiated Text.

The Good News is that you'll also have plenty of opportunities to learn from each other as we start visiting and commenting on each others blogs.


EXTEND
Good Is Good News

Speaking of Good News and Good Blogs, here's a favorite blog with links to other great education-themed blogs. It's design is engaging and it's features are easy to use. You just may like Good Is

Module I - Blog It!

No matter where you are - we’re glad you’re here!

Musings:

applicant.com

Congratulations on making it this far.  From Place to Pedagogy; From Teachers' Domain to Blogger, we've covered a lot of digital territory. And we're just getting started. 

We hope you've discovered some good ideas and useful resources along the way.

And by setting up your blog at this time, you're also setting the table for the rest of the course, of course. 

But before we move on to Module II, it's time to Blog It! 

The Basics 
 
EXPLAIN
This is where you take a few moments to review the various sections of Module I and select two questions to respond to in your blog. One Essential Question and one Examine Question.

 .

• CLICK HERE to see a basic template for your blog response.
• CLICK HERE to review the Basic Weekly Blog Assignment.
• Be sure to include the question you are responding to at the top of each response.  
• Please also include the Module number in the title of your blog post

Beyond the Basics

EXTEND
For an extra challenge and a stronger score, select one of the EXTEND questions from Module I, or choose one question from below to respond to in your weekly blog response. 

• What Essential Question(s) would you include for this module? Why.
• How might you use content from this module in your professional practice?
• What other useful information, insights and/or resources have you discovered?

EVALUATE

• Please write a brief paragraph reflecting on the content, style, and usefulness of this first module.
• Take a minute to look your blog over for any problems before you post.

When your blog is complete, professional and posted, please send an email to explorealaskablog@gmail.com, including a link to your blog post.

Module II - Natural History Introduction

No matter where you are, we're glad you're here!

Click to enlarge this Google Earth image.

Essential Questions:

• How are Alaska's natural systems interconnected?
  
• How have Alaska's natural systems changed over time?
• How does digital information change our understanding of natural systems?
  
• How does knowledge of natural systems inform our understanding of cultural systems?
• How does knowledge of natural systems relate to the roles of educators?

ENGAGE

Natural History

Long before humans showed up on the scene, the planet's landforms, life-forms, atmosphere, and climate had been changing and evolving, and still is - in some cases at faster rates than previously experienced. 

This is not to imply that humans aren't an integral part of Alaska's natural history - just a fairly recent part.

To better understand the cultural history of Alaska, we're going to first develop a basic understanding of the natural pre-history of the places in which human cultures have comparatively recently taken root since the last ice age.

Naturally, we'll be looking for connections.
 

Inua II -- Van Zyle, by permission

Cultural Connections  
You don’t have to be a Zen Buddhist to recognize that, somehow or another, everything is connected. However, such understanding may come from widely divergent perspectives, depending on your cultural point of reference. 

For example, an Iñupiaq or Inuit elder living in a small village on the northern coast of the Arctic Ocean, everything is connected may be understood as Sila or Inua, the Spirit within everything that connects all life, time, energy and the physical world.

Such a view is not far removed from the geoscientist's understanding that everything is connected in the earth system; that the biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere are all interconnected and interdependent.

Living in Both Worlds

Perhaps you have students who live both world views right now - Sila and Science. As we begin our too-brief journey through Alaska's Natural History, we'll be looking for opportunities to explore the natural world in the context of where students live and explore some of their connections to places. 

EXPLORE

Click on this Venn diagram adapted from Sidney Stephens' Handbook for Culturally Responsive Science Curriculum.

It's a useful illustration of many of the meaningful ways in which Traditional Native Knowledge and Western Science diverge as well as the common ground they share.

EXAMINE

• What are some differences between traditional Native knowledge and Western science?
• Describe some of the common ground shared between these two world views.

EXTEND

• What are some of the values of knowing both ways?
• What are some educational challenges and opportunities presented by applying both ways?
• What other resources may be useful in integrating both perspectives?

What's Next?

Let's take a look at what Alaska History and Culture Studies can teach us about the Geography of Alaska.

Module II - Geography of Alaska

No matter where you are, we're glad you're here!

Petroglyph patterns emerge in the dappled light near Juneau, AK. 

Photo by C. Good

  

Essential Questions:

• How are Alaska's natural systems interconnected?
• How have Alaska's natural systems changed over time?
• How does digital information change our understanding of natural systems?
• How does knowledge of natural systems inform our understanding of cultural systems?
• How does knowledge of natural systems relate to the roles of educators?

ENGAGE

Ever since humans started scratching maps in the dirt and etching stone markers, it's been in our nature to understand the nature of our surroundings. Naturally, we named this study of our place, Geography. Literally - Picture of the Land.

How else could tiny humans begin to grasp the scale and extent of this Great Land and the processes that shape its contours? 

Fortunately, now we have more than drawings in the dust or carvings in stone to inform us in this rapidly changing world of digital information.

EXPLORE

Alaska History and Culture Studies

Now is a good time to visit one of the keystone resources for this course, Alaska History and Culture Studies.


CLICK HERE to access this great collection. Then click on the Geography link right on the top of the page. There you'll find excellent summaries, maps and other information about Alaska's places, regions and physical geography.

For this exercise, review please follow the first four links found on the Geography of Alaska page.

1. Introduction
2. Alaska's Location
3. Places and Regions 
4. Physical Geography

EXAMINE 

1. Relative Locations vs. Absolute Locations

• Where on Earth is Alaska?
• What are the physical dimensions of Alaska?
• Furthers points East, West, North and South?

2. Places and Regions

• Distinguish between formal, functional and perceptual regions.
• What roles do physiographic features play in delineating regions?
• What roles to cultures and languages play in delineating regions?

 

3. Physical Geography 

• What are the major spheres that constitute Alaska's landscapes?
• How do the spheres interact to create the landscapes of Alaska?
• How does the geography of Alaska influence its cultures?

EXTEND

• Describe the geography of the place where you live.
• How is the culture of that place influenced by its geography?
• How does the geography of place relate to the roles of teachers?

What's Next?

Now that we've a taste of what Alaska History and Culture Studies has to offer, let's move on to a more detailed view of Alaska's Lithosphere.

Module II - Lithosphere

No matter where you are, we're glad you're here!



Essential Questions: 

• How are Alaska's natural systems interconnected?
• How have Alaska's natural systems changed over time?
• How does digital information change our understanding of natural systems?
• How does knowledge of natural systems inform our understanding of cultural systems?
• How does knowledge of natural systems relate to the roles of educators?

ENGAGE

Blue Mouse Cove, Glacier Bay - C. Good

It's Just a Matter of Time
Massive mountains hunkering down under the weight of colossal glaciers, or the annual migration of wildlife along our shores and across the expansive northern tundra may give an impression of permanence or timelessness. 

However, the landscapes, climate and ecosystems of today's Alaska are fairly new on the Big Clock of geologic time, and have changed dramatically over the vast sweep of time. 

Perhaps the best way to begin our understanding of the natural history of Alaska is to first look at Earth as a large, complex, dynamic, interconnected system that began some four and a half billion years or so ago.

EXPLORE

Teachers' Domain 

To help visualize Earth as a System, watch this brief TD video by the same name.

Earth as a System

EXAMINE

• What are the different pathways for the flow of matter and energy on Earth? 
• Which change slowly?
• Which change rapidly?

EXTEND

• How has our growing understanding of Earth as a System informed our view of the world and our place in it?

ENGAGE

Geology Rocks!

You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a rock scientist to appreciate the basics of plate tectonic and mountain building forces that have shaped Alaska since the break-up of Pangaea a couple hundred million or so years ago.

Of the several discrete components that make up the complex natural systems of this planet, we will begin our exploration of Earth's lithosphere and the geological forces that have placed Alaska on the map, both literally and figuratively.  We'll explore Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and even its cryosphere, a little later in this module.

Landform Forces -Mountain Building  

We all look up to mountains. But how did they get there? And why are they so tall? Not to say that all of Alaska has towering mountains.  Far from it. There are also vast  plains sweeping for hundreds of miles between Alaska's great mountain ranges. But why? How did the mountains and plains and all the rest of the myriad smaller feature of our landscapes come to be? What's their history?

It’s easy enough to figure out how a volcanic mountain forms because its processes are visible and rapid on either the geologic or human time scale. But what about other features that form more slowly, like Denali (Mt. McKinley), or Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest), or Uluru (Ayer’s Rock)? Clearly, these mountains are not volcanic, so early geologists struggled to piece together the puzzle of how these mountains were formed and in turn are worn away.

Little did early geoscientists realize the answer to the mystery of mountains was directly related to other important questions, such as the curious puzzle-fitting shape of the Atlantic continents and the similar fossil record and geology on opposite shores across the ocean.

EXPLORE

Teachers' Domain

Let’s use these select TD resources to take a closer look at the geologically recent discovery of plate tectonics and how it explains the origins of Alaska's mountains, volcanoes and even how entire continents drift apart.

Plate Tectonics: An Introduction

Tectonic Plate Movement in Alaska

Volcanoes in the Infrared






Explore Alaska's Volcanoes





EXAMINE 

• What is the relationship between tectonic forces, mountains, volcanoes and earthquakes in Alaska?
• How active are geologic forces in Alaska? Where?

EXTEND

• What local geologic structures and/or processes are evident to your students?
• How may knowledge of such be important for you or your students?

• Teachers' Domain has many great non-video, interactive resources if you want to delve into the subject a little deeper, or if you are looking for teaching resources for your class.

Mountain Maker, Earth Shaker

Tectonic Plates, Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Rock Cycle Animation

EXPLORE SOME MORE....
Sometimes it seems like everything about Alaska is super-sized. The biggest mountains. The biggest earthquakes.  The biggest tsunamis.  Let's jump way ahead in our geologic timescale and take a look at the causes and effects of geologic upheaval in a few videos about some big geologic events and some bad days in recent human history.

1964 Alaska Earthquake






Alaska Tsunami



 

EXAMINE

• How are tectonics forces responsible for earthquakes and tsunamis?
• Why are tsunami inevitable along the gulf coast of Alaska?

 
EXTEND

Surviving the World's Biggest Waves
Some of the most dramatic Alaska Tsunami stories in Alaska are the result of the seismically active Fairweather fault that runs hundreds of miles along the coast of southeast Alaska--right through the head of Lituya Bay south of Yakutat on the Gulf of Alaska. 

Tlingit oral tradition tells of one such earthquake and resultant tsunami in 1853 or 1854 that devastated a village in Lituya Bay. The story, as told in Francis Caldwell's Land of the Ocean Mists, says that most of the men had left their village to hunt and returned later that same day to find their village was gone and only one young girl and her dog were spared because she had been on high ground picking berries. 

Another tsunami visited the same bay in 1936, wiping out the garden and shed of the Bay's sole inhabitant, Jim Huscroft. He, and his little cabin on Cenotaph Island, just barely survived that wave.  

But the most dramatic story in Lituya Bay tsunami history occurred late in the evening of July 9, 1958. Fishermen in their boats anchored in the sheltered waters of Lituya Bay for the night awoke to the terrible shaking and groaning of the earth. The result - a wave more than 1700 feet high.

Some fishermen lived to tell the story....

BBC Nature, MegaTsunami

What's Next?

Well, that was quite the journey. From plate tectonics to giant tsunamis, we've explored the BIG picture of the forces and processes that created Alaska's lithosphere. 

Now, we're off to explore how water in its various forms works to wear it all back down in the next section Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Cryosphere.