Exploring the opportunities of social media for Indigenous teaching and learning approaches

Your Name and Title: Dr Henk Huijser

School, Library, or Organization Name: Research, Teaching & Learning Division – Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education

Co-Presenter Name(s): Dr Jurg Bronnimann

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s): All Higher Education professionals, but particularly those interested in (digital) literacies for Indigenous students and students from low socio-economic backgrounds, as well as vocational education professionals

Short Session Description (one line): Exploring the opportunities of social media for Indigenous teaching and learning approaches

Full Session Description (as long as you would like): This session will explore the opportunities that online learning environments offer to address issues related to Indigenous pedagogy and Indigenous approaches to teaching and learning, with a specific focus on social media. Traditional teacher-centred approaches to teaching and learning have long presented particular difficulties for many Indigenous students in an Australian context, as they are largely based on individualist and pre-determined approaches to learning. In other words, the teacher presents content that he/she deems worth knowing (‘the sage on the stage’), and students are then responsible to learn this content, largely by doing a lot of reading by themselves. This type of approach contrasts sharply with Indigenous approaches to teaching and learning, which can be better characterised as ‘social constructivist’ on the one hand, and more hands-on (learning by doing) on the other. The first generation online learning tools contexts very much catered for individualist approaches to learning. However, Web 2.0 social media tools have created many opportunities for social approaches to teaching and learning. In this session we will argue that social media are much better suited to address the learning needs of Indigenous students in Australia, and at the same time we will use Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, and its ‘Both-Ways’ Philosophy, as a case study to explore some of the opportunities and potential barriers that social media present us with.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: http://www.batchelor.edu.au/