APRIL 2007 ISSUE
aboriginal awareness
Computer Group Helps Piikani IT Flourish
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Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Jan. 27 Lethbridge Herald, with permission. APEGGA encourages members and permit holders to donate computers through Computers for School. This article makes a good case for why we do that.
BY NORM LEBUS
BROCKET — It’s a refurbished RCMP outpost with imitation log home siding: Call it a little house on the Prairie.
But inside the Peigan Board of Education’s Mii Kyyaa Pii Centre in Brocket,
a first-of-its-kind integrated information technology centre is allowing the
Piikani Nation to stand tall among native tribes in Canada.
While computers in classrooms are hardly unique, the dovetail fit of the series
of IT programs at Mii Kyyaa Pii creates a technology experience unprecedented
on Canadian reserves, organizers say.
What began as an Industry Canada-funded Community Access Program site has evolved
with the addition of a computer refurbishing program in 2003, online education,
and now IT apprenticeship and alternative education courses.
A pilot project rolling out free wireless connectivity to Piikani Nation homes in Brocket is perhaps the crowning achievement.
“To our surprise, in terms of the narrow perspective of our little pilot, here we see all these synergies we didn’t expect,” Alberta Computers for Schools executive director Lucien Villeneuve remarked.
CFS began refurbishing donated computers in the basement of Mii Kyyaa Pii as part of pilot project with an Alberta native community. Almost 1,000 computers have been refurbished and donated to schools in Southern Alberta.
Sunchild E-learning followed thereafter, creating the opportunity for online education upgrades. Meanwhile, alternative education courses have also been supplemented by the 11-station computer lab.
“I think to everybody’s surprise, it has led to a situation where one thing brings on many other things,” Mr. Villeneuve said.
Spurred by youth interest in computers, Mii Kyyaa Pii Centre is becoming
a much-needed focal point for band members across the 1,160-square-kilometre
reserve, centre director Ula Shirt said.
The program is “encouraging children to become more involved in a broader
community,” and it’s bringing people together, Ms. Shirt said. “We’ve
become a community centre where youth come and then their parents pick them up,
so everybody interacts and gets a little more acclimatized to using IT every
day.”
Now Piikani residents can access Indian Affairs support online, e-mail relatives and receive computer repairs at CFS that come at a 75 per cent discount to commercial rates. In addition, the lure of computers seems to be motivating some Piikani members to explore their culture.
“We’re using technology to draw people in,” Ms. Shirt said. “People might not otherwise be interested — ‘I don’t have the time to learn Blackfoot.’ Well, now they’re interested because they’ll be using computers.”
Moreover, local youth who work as CFS entry-level technicians gain valuable work experience. Seven young Piikani members have been paid about $12 per hour as CFS employees and another five have participated in youth internships.
How computer savvy Piikani band members will become remains to be seen. Ms. Shirt said she gets daily requests from members wanting to connect to the wireless project. She estimates about a quarter of reservehomes have computers.
Whether the centre will impact academic performance remains to be seen. Just
one Grade 12 student graduated with an academic diploma from Piikani Nation Secondary
last year, and computer labs already exist in both the high school and the adjacent
Napi’s Playground Elementary School.
Peigan Board of Education CEO Conrad Little Leaf sees his mandate as threefold:
to have students graduate with provincial diplomas, to instill native Blackfoot
cultural values, and to integrate information technology on the Piikani reserve.
“There’s a beginning to everything, and that’s where we’re at,” he said.