Taking it a Step Farther

As I said yesterday in the "live" class, I loved this course. And I adore our colleagues the instructors. So... not wanting to let go of the opportunities the course presents, I return.

Looking for new areas of enlightenment and new ways to provide educational opportunities, I have been exploring Moodle. It is a Blackboard-like environment wherein course may be offered. I thought to make it my project last semester, but it was a little more daunting than I thought.

Let me backtrack. Occasionally I think of course I might like to teach independently of the college. People often want Photoshop for earlier versions, for instance. I have anthropology courses I don't have the opportunity to teach here, etc. Moodle is a way of offer educational material for profit or for free. Might try that in the future.

But for now, as I work at Yavapai-Apache Culture Center, I wish to develop courses for tribal members. It is a continual surprise to me how sparce is the knowledge of their history, traditions, arts and crafts, and most importantly, their language. It is critical for the tribal communities to maintain these elevents of their culture to maintain sovereignty. Should they lose sovereignty, they lose the power to govern themselves, to provide critical services, and far more (yes, casinos too).

I propose to create a Moodle University for the Nation. At the moment I have planned courses in Southwest Indians, Yavapai and Apache History, Yavapai Language, and Apache Language. Who knows what the future may hold.

So I begin with the shell of the "YAN University" that I created last semester. Each week I will add another week's worth of material: lectures, animations, movies, etc. The material I begin with comes from a defunct Yavapai course I no longer have the opportunity to teach.

This opening course is a prototype to inform the Culture Managers, language instructors, and YAN community about my project. Within the next few weeks I will have a guest enrollment (username and password) where you can visit. I have yet to figure out how students actually enroll. All things in good time, I guess.

In the meantime... have fun with this course.