How has the learning styles of Maori learners and their Tangata (people) allowed them to gain access to e-learning?

“Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology are, and always will be compared to them, Digital Immigrants”.(Prensky, 2001, p.1). Pressures from TV purchasing new technology and pressure from Māori social groups, produces the urge to learn and be informed in e-learning.

Technology and its appeal to adults, offers the potential of Māori gaining access to e-learning. Today’s teachers have to learn to communicate in the language and style of their Māori students. This mind-shift that is required should not lack imagination, world approaches, meaning-making relevant to the learners own experiences, success in what the learners are doing, and socialization. By doing this, it could create dynamic learning environments for Māori, the educational practices and approaches to instruction.

A change in methodology is by understanding the two types of content. “Legacy” content includes reading, writing, arithmetic, logical thinking, understanding the writings and ideas of the past, “Future” content is to a large extent, not surprisingly, digital and technological. (Presnky, 2001, p.4). It not only includes software and hardware,  it also includes the ethics, politics, sociology, languages and other things that go with them that relates to Māori.

Constructivism is a philosophical perspective where individuals arrange their own knowledge so that the individual becomes an active participant and organises experiences with prior knowledge and does not learn facts in isolation and I this ties in with my philosophy where collaborative learning is part of my pedagogical values of constructive learning.

Engaging with new technologies provide adult Māori learners with knowledge and skills but these “genres of technologies such as Social Networking, Digital Gaming, and Simulations are more than just entertainment”. (Klopfer, Osterweil,Groff, & Haas,2009, p.1).

There are different learning styles that learners use to engage in learning, for example, kinesthetic, reading and writing, aural and visual. The Māori people are the indigenous people of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the marae is important in their way of life. Their culture is rich and varied with a fascinating mix of traditional and contemporary arts. Traditions such as carving, weaving, kapa haka (group performance), whaikorero (oratory) and moko (tattoo) are practised throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand. The older generation pass on the history and traditions to their children and the children to help the adults to learn and integrate tradition with new technology.

By using artefacts it evokes the adult learners’ learning styles. It gives adult learners opportunities to apply what they experience in their daily lives to their learning that is “purposeful, goal-oriented, rule-based activity that the players perceive as fun” (Klopfer, 2008, p.4). The artefacts include: weaving exemplars, photographs of mokos taken with a digital camera, newspaper cuttings, mobile phones showing kappa haka taken at Pasifika festivals, iPods, post cards, emails, social networking sites, the use of calculators and story-telling (whaikorero).

The adult Māori learners can then exchange information with the peer students and show each other how to go about accessing data and information via computers and other forms of online material by using the artefacts as starting blocks. This is a form of collaborative efforts by adult Māori learners forming social constructs and ways of communicating using technology. It builds up their computer confidence and competence and allows Māori adults to gain access to e-learning. Google has also presented the interface in Māori language and by integrating tikanga and te reo  Māori,  it makes e-learning more accessible and understandable. There is also a Māori language pack for Moodle which is a system for teaching online and that assists teachers in their presentation of lessons to Māori adult learners.

You Tube Maori Ako

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNIh7no5BFk

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REFERENCES:


Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Groff, J., and Haas, J.  (2009). The instructional power of digital games, social
           networking and simulations and how teachers can leverage them. The Education Arcade.
           Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 Klopfer, E. (2008). Augmented learning: Research and design of mobile educational games. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
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New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). (2004). Critical success factors and effective pedagogy for e-learning in Tertiary education. Ako. Aotearoa updated Feb, 7, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012 from: http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/node/344

New Zealand Culture – Maori . Retrieved on March 20, 2012 from
             http://www.newzealand.com/int/article/new-zealand-culture-maori/

Pihama, L., Smith,  K., Taki,  M.,  Lee, J.  (2004). A literature review on kaupapa maori and maori education pedagogy. The International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 9, 5. MCB University Press, October 2001.Retrieved March 18, 2012 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf