Volume #2 Issue #4, AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1998
Volume #2 Issue #4, AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1998
Technology and Adult Literacy in the Arctic
BY STEVE WAKEHAM,
FACULTY OF EDUCATION,
MCGILL UNIVERSITY
In September 1997 McGill University, with support from the federal Office of Learning Technologies and in cooperation with Nunavut Arctic College, initiated a pilot project to examine the effectiveness of new learning technologies to support distance education courses for Inuit teachers living in Canada's High Arctic.
The distance education course aimed to help Inuit teachers in Pond Inlet, Northwest Territories, develop Web page production skills that they could then use with their own students. The course was offered via an innovative delivery format that combines face-to-face sessions and technology-assisted distance education. Face-to-face meetings were held in Pond Inlet at the beginning and end of the course. This gave the teachers a chance to get to know their Montreal-bound instructor and for the instructor to get a sense of the local technological and social environment. In between the face-to-face meetings, the teachers and instructor communicated by email and interacted on the Web.
Pond Inlet is one of Canada's most northern communities and is located on the northern tip of the Baffin Island, 3,100 km from Montreal. Over ninety percent of the town's 1,150 residents are Inuit and most speak Inuktitut as their first language. Pond Inlet was selected as a site for this study for three reasons. First, the coordinator of site based programs at Nunavut Arctic College
recommended Pond Inlet. She knew of a group of teachers in the hamlet with modest technical capacity and an interest in Web design. Second, we were looking for a "typical' Northern community that would adequately reflect some of obstacles northern online distance education designers face.
There is considerable variability in the size of northern towns, their technological infrastructure and educational opportunities. Pond Inlet's small size, geographical remoteness, poor infrastructure and limited educational opportunities made it an ideal sight for this type of research in that lessons learned here are valuable for a broad range of remote communities. Third, we wanted to work with a community that was excited about and eager to participate in the project. We have been lucky: from our initial contacts to the end of the project, we have found community members to be friendly, helpful and eager to explore online learning.
Communication technologies are not new to Inuit communities. People in Pond Inlet regularly use citizen's band radios (CBs) to contact family members or friends who are hunting or camping. Similarly people depend on the local radio for information needs of their daily lives. However, computer technology is not widely accessible. The community's two schools' supply of computers is minimal and access to the Internet is fragile and expensive. At present, accessing the Internet requires a long distance call to Iqaluit, the regional centre 1,000 km to the south.
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