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The history of Canada's educational offerings for Indigenous students was based in colonial and assimilative practice. As such culturally responsive pre-service teacher education needs to respond not only by moving away from historical practice but with a moral and social imperative through programming that aids reconciliation. Current literature outlines the challenges that both Indigenous and mainstream teacher candidates have in developing efficacy towards transcultural skills development. In an effort to respond to both types of students, during the design and development of a 16-month community-based Bachelor of Education program, that was offered in parallel to a campus based program, a model of blended-education for cultural understanding was developed. Using the "elementary science methods" course as design case, this paper will outline the development of the blended model which paired campus- and community-based students. The challenges and successes of the design were determined through a thematic analysis of instructor observations of the pilot during the 2014-15 academic year. Four key themes emerged as important in fostering transcultural understandings within blended learning practice: student efficacy, relationship building, recognition of cultural bias, and legitimizing traditional ecological knowledge. Each of these will be discussed in the context of the course as well as transformative post-secondary educational experiences.

This paper describes our implementation of digital storytelling within a First Nations community elementary school in eastern Canada. Our aim with this project was to support community engagement in the school, while promoting literacy development, by inviting Elders to share their stories, both traditional and modern lived experiences, with children in a grade 4/5 split class. Positioned as a participatory action research project, anchored in Indigenous methodologies, the project was developed through meetings with community members to build on the strengths of the community. Reflections from students illustrate that working with Elders gave deeper meaning to the stories they heard and performed, and fostered greater engagement in literacy development.

In the winter term of 2016, Cape Breton University launched a revised version of a second year Mi'kmaw Studies course entitled Learning from the Knowledge Keepers of Mi'kmaki (MIKM 2701). This course was designed to be led by local Elders and Knowledge Keepers with facilitation support from university faculty. It was designed by course facilitators as a dual-mode course, with the opportunity for students to participate face-to-face and online, and the excitement it generated quickly went "viral." In this paper, we describe the experiences of the participants in the course through an analysis of their own reflections on the 13 weeks of instruction. The aim of this analysis is to share course design considerations for post-secondary institutions attempting to "Indigenize the academy" at a course level, but also to evaluate the process of co-learning as it was evidenced in the course as a means to address educational complexity and decolonization efforts in the classroom.

The education systems of Inuit Nunangat (the four regions of the Canadian Arctic that are the traditional homes of Inuit) have undergone significant change and continue to experience transitions in terms of purpose, curriculum, administration, and control. A key part of this transition is ensuring that the assessment of student learning is culturally responsive. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore Inuit educators' culturally responsive assessment practices. Five case studies were conducted in four regions of Inuit Nunangat (Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, and Inuvialuit) which resulted in a sample of 180 participants. In-depth interviews and focus groups were held with teachers, students, administrators, and Elders. Data were synthesized and resulted in themes related to the challenges and achievements in developing assessment practices that were grounded in Inuit culture, values, and worldview. We conclude recommending that more support and attention are needed to focus on developing culturally responsive assessment tools and understanding the impact of such tools on student success and engagement.

Sustainable pre-service teacher education is needed to encourage academic success for under-represented populations, through both culturally responsive and alternative programming options (Carr-Stewart, Balzer, & Cottrell, 2013). In 2013, the Western Canadian University that served as the basis for this case study, implemented a blended learning pilot course in multicultural education for its existing cohort of pre-service teachers, within their Indigenous Focus Teacher Education Program (IFTEP). The aim of the blended pilot was to increase flexibility in participation for the IFTEP students, who were all employed full time as teacher assistants within a local school board. The author examined the design model through qualitative analysis of student interview data, contrasted against observations of activities on the learning management system (LMS). Five themes emerged as important in effective and culturally responsive practice for blended learning design, in this case related to: institutional challenges, student autonomy and the complexity of commitments. This research presents a critical review of the feasibility of adopting blended learning for Indigenous students.

Grassroots organizations have a critical role in supporting learning within many urban communities (Sobeck, Agius, & Mayers, 2007). Unfortunately, many informal organizations are short-lived as funding disappears and volunteer participation wanes. The Unspun Heroes, an informal fibre arts group committed to learning and developing skills related to local fibre arts culture, has been in existence so long that when queried, the members could not easily determine its origins. Through an exploration of 16 Heroes' experiences over the course of one year, it was determined that the Heroes community is sustained, supports learning, and survives at least in part because its organization mirrors that of an informal community of practice (CoP), which supports local community cohesion, intergenerational learning, and positive community action. In this research, the roles and responsibilities of the members within the CoP, as well as the characteristics of the CoP, are discussed with the aim of presenting key factors that support sustaining CoPs for informal learning and well-being. We identified six factors characterizing the CoP that contributed to its longevity: adherence to tradition, stress-busting, social connections, mentoring space, belonging to something bigger, and sharing. Each of these is discussed in relation to the current literature and community context. Finally, from these factors, we share three important considerations for adult learning design for well-being.

The Periodic Table of the Elements (PTE) is arguably one of the most central topics in chemistry. This article provides a critical review of current teaching practices of the PTE to high-school students and undergraduate university students. It also provides a new teaching model, the "periodic universe", for understanding of the PTE through building on its foundational periodicity. Students learn through a guided re-creation of the PTE from simple periodic simulations and interdisciplinary processes. The periodic-universe teaching model directs students to conceptualize, rather than memorize, relationships between the elements by predicting patterns in progressively challenging simulated worlds. This mixed-method research project consists of both quantitative (n = 58) and qualitative (n = 15) responses from university undergraduate students, demonstrating the utility of inquiry-based learning of the PTE for novice chemistry students. Herein, we position the periodic-universe teaching model in the current educational literature of inquiry and interdisciplinary studies by outlining the function of the model and illustrating its effectiveness on the basis of empirical analysis with undergraduate students in a postsecondary-education setting. The results indicate that knowledge of the PTE increases after instruction with the model, and that nonchemistry-major students have increased engagement, understanding, and appreciation of the importance of periodicity to chemistry when presented with the periodic-universe teaching model.

This paper presents a discussion around the question of data protection, privacy, liability and the resultant policy that has developed both in public K-12 education and post secondary education in Canada. With no central regulation of online protection in Canada educators in some provinces face a digital divide caused by more restrictive policy of one province in contrast to another. To set the stage for the discussion I address the nature of social media and it's use, institutional response to social media in schools with specific reference to the Canadian context. I then propose a potential solution in the form of a social media field trip and analyze three different types field trips I have conducted with graduate students against Moor's (1999) just consequence theoretical framework. Finally, I present implications for practice and possibilities this model could offer K-12 educators to work within current policy, stay safe but still open the doors to social networking and the world.

Gene editing in the brain has been challenging because of the restricted transport imposed by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Current approaches mainly rely on local injection to bypass the BBB. However, such administration is highly invasive and not amenable to treating certain delicate regions of the brain. We demonstrate a safe and effective gene editing technique by using focused ultrasound (FUS) to transiently open the BBB for the transport of intravenously delivered CRISPR/Cas9 machinery to the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genetic linkage map was constructed in a backcross family of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, based largely on sequences from bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) ends and untranslated regions from random cDNA's. In most cases, dimorphisms were detected using heteroduplex or single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis after specific PCR amplification. The map incorporates a total of 424 markers, including 190 BACs and 165 cDNA's, as well as 69 genes, transposon insertion sites, sequence-tagged sites, microsatellites, and amplified fragment-length polymorphisms. Mapped loci are distributed along 571 cM, spanning all 10 linkage groups at an average marker separation of 1.3 cM. This genetic map provides a framework for positional cloning and a scaffold for integration of the emerging physical map and genome sequence assembly. The map and corresponding sequences can be accessed through BeetleBase (http://www.bioinformafics.ksu.edu/BeetleBase/).

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Copyright of International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education is the property of Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)