Smart Cities Challenge Final Proposal


You will be required to submit a video summarizing your final proposal, due at the same time as your final proposal submission. This video should capture the main elements of your final proposal and highlight the features that make it unique. It should be no longer than five minutes.

You will be required to post the video on your website following the submission of the final proposal. Infrastructure Canada will link to the video. The video file should also be submitted to INFC for use in promotional material.

This requirement will not be evaluated by the Jury.

 

[Duncan Michano – Chief, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg:]

Hello, world. Our kids need to understand who they are. So, we will try to use technologies to help them understand who they are. We’ll try to use technologies for them to understand their language. We’ll try to use technologies to help them understand better the concept of land-based learning. And, how do we do that? Do we do that through videos? Do we do that through online courses? But, we have to balance that off with the need for high-tech learning and STEM learning… with computer science… understanding, I guess, how the different concepts of computer science work… Because, if they don’t understand how these things work, they’ll always be users. And, we don’t want them to be just users. We want them to actually understand, and build, and fully participate in the whole creation of programs and applications.

[John Paul Montano – Language and Mythology Consultant:]

[Nishnaabe-language version:]

Aapdeg go wewendam wii-mno-daapnaanaawaa noongom waasmowni-mkakoons’kewnendmownaadziwaad Biigtigong weshkniigwaad. Aapdeg ge wii-gkendaaswag wwe nagkeyaa miinwaa wii-gshkitoonaawaa wii-nendmowaad wwe nagkeyaa wii-gshkihewziwaad noongom yaankoobnidyang moozhag. Aapdeg ge go wii-Nishnaabewendmowag epiichi-waasmowni-mkakoons’kewnendmownaadziwaad. Aapdeg n’da-Nishnaabemwinnaan wii-n’sidtaanaawaa miinwaa wii-gshkitoonaawaa wii-dshiwni-nawendiiwendmowaad. Miinwaa dash aapdeg geyaabi Nishnaabeg wii-aawwag.

[English-language version:]

They must healthfully embrace modern technological society, Biigtigong youth. They also must possess that type of education and be able to think in that manner in order to succeed in today’s always-connected society. They must also be able to think like Nishnaabe people while living in this technological society. They must understand our Nishnaabe language and be able to think mathematically. Additionally, they must still exist as Nishnaabe people.

[Lisa Michano-Courchene – Education Director, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg:]

As a mom, you can’t help but feel… you can’t help but feel that love for all children. If something isn’t good enough for my own kids, then it’s not good enough for the rest of the community kids. So, when we embarked on this journey to write this proposal… this is something that’s going to help us do some of the things that we’re already doing in order to give our children the best shot in life… to give them the tools they need without forgetting where they’ve come from… and without forgetting what being a Nishnaabe means to them. They’re going to be able to walk with their identity intact. And, they’re going to know that their community was behind them 100% in looking out for them in their future.

[Ocean Cherneski – First-Year University Student, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg:]

Through this grant we can have indigenous students like myself living hours away from home have access to their language. And, that’ll give them a strong sense of who they are.

[JoAnne Michano – Band Manager, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg:]

So, this whole party, we’re going to house it inside of the Open edX Learning Management System. There are four main parts. The first of the four is the eLearning functionality part. And, that includes the K-12 augmentations to our current K-12 curriculum, such as Code.org, block-based programming for our kindergarten to grade fives; the Python programming language for grade six students; and, Robotics 1 and 2 in grades seven and eight. And, it also includes the CompTIA A+ IT (Information Technology) certification curriculum for high-school students. And, all of this will take place via blended learning and Growth Mindset approaches. The second of the four parts is eAcquisition. And, this includes 2,000 hours of immersion video, the content of which is our core aadsookaanan, our basic building blocks of our Nishnaabe worldview of the cosmos and the universe. The third of the four parts is the meetup functionality of Open edX – basically, the online mobile-enabled forum. And, this will enable real-world connections of our students with not just the digital community, but with the real-world community and the Land and the traditional Nishnaabe activities taking place inside of our Biigtigong territory. And, the fourth of the four ways wraps the previous three, and that’s bilingual STEM video. And, this is 1,000 hours of course video that’s part of other STEM courses. It discusses in both Nishnaabemwin and English some possible ways all of this can be understood within our Nishnaabe worldview. And, this is how we hope to transform our youth into better educated, more employable, better-grounded, and more holistically Nishnaabe people.