An interactive discussion on the topic of land-based learning will be happening in the Queen City Wednesday afternoon via live video.
But organizers of the event hope it will garner participation from across the country.
The National Centre for Collaboration in Indigenous Education (NCCIE), a project that was created by the First Nations University of Canada in 2017, is putting together the digital forum which will be shown on Facebook Live.
The event will feature a panel of experts sharing their knowledge and experience on connections to land that are grounded within Indigenous knowledges and examples from the programs they run.
“Mainstream education is moving towards where land-based education already is,” said Terry Massey, one of the organizers handling the technical side of the presentation. “That’s why we wanted to use it for this forum.”
By using Facebook to broadcast the forum, it will allow people from anywhere the opportunity to ask questions and hear responses from the panel during the one-hour event.
Massey believes this format works for their guests because people are familiar with Facebook and use it on a day-to-day basis.
And the best part: you don’t even have to be a Facebook user to participate.
“You do have to go to the Facebook page. But to interact with the forum, you can still text in or send an email and it would be considered in the forum itself, depending on whether they have already answered [the question].”
He also believes it’s the best presentation technology to deliver the results they want to deliver regarding this subject.
“People are used to seeing live video on their Facebook more than if we were to use something proprietary. They are used to throwing in their two cents when they see something they’d like to respond to, and I think that’s the advantage of using it this way.”
The hour-long forum is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
People are asked to visit the NCCIE Facebook page and RSVP to the event if they haven’t already. More information can be found at their website where they can also access the live feed.
Massey hopes they can host six forums before March. He considers Wednesday’s event as sort of a beta test to see how it runs, and they will assess their options from there.
