June 30, 2011

Getting mixed feed back about the Cultural-Historical pre-test. Some students like it; some say that it is long and boring. Also, it is looking like Aleut baidarka class may typically be a mixture of adolescents and young adults, possibly predominantly male. The young adults appear to perhaps be more interested and do higher-quality work. Some seem to feel that the model is somewhat complex to complete, suggesting that the model structure should be simplified for the online students.

June 22, 2011 ~ Wednesday

Some ideas about designing and implementing the on-line course.

In the traditional face-to-face class, the students typically do not do 100% of their own work.

They quite often need assistance in figuring out how to complete the tasks.

In ancient times, youth learned basic skills with some assistance.

I am wondering if, for the on-line class, students should be allowed to received some help from someone else.

Did demonstrations for 50 Ambassadors today. Met with John Baker, winner of this year's Iditarod. Painted the blue and yellow kayak.

June 16, 2011 Thursday

Well, students are beginning to test drive the on-line site. As expected, we have had some glitches and some gaps, but that is the purpose of test driving the online site. My computer keeps on crashing while I am trying to create the short video tutorials. Spending an hour or more with Dell technicians has not proven successful in repairing the crashes. Keep on getting the blue screen of death and the message, "The video scheduler has experienced an unexpected fatal error". Frustrating. Gaps include missing video tutorials in the process. Some lessons learned from students include better techniques for winding up the pump drill (winding the pump handle instead of the drill chuck). E.P. shared with the students today that the ancient Unangax word for "teach" encapsulates this exact concept. The word "teach" cannot be separated from the word "learn". As we working in Studio #5 today in the Hall of Cultures, I noticed that there was a large quote on the wall facing our work area. The quote is in the ceiling area, roughly looking down into our work area. The quote encourages readers to learn how to find food off of the beach and the land for survival purposes. The quote is from Sergie Sovoroff, the Aleut elder who taught me how to make model kayaks in 1978.

Some students have completed their gunwales, drilling all 70 rib holes. They are now working on the rib holes. We brainstormed this morning on possible new names for domain sites for on line instructional courses. We also went over the informed consent form, line by line, so that the students better understand this educational research project. We went around the table, each student answering questions that I posed, reading the sentences to find the answers.

We designed the bow piece and stern piece. Our first design were too small, and did not turn out looking very accurate. We redesigned the bow piece, drawing a template that looks sharper. I encouraged the students to take photographs of their progress so far; I don't think that any photographs were taken. I will see if I can find the bow pieces and take comparative photographs.

Some of the students are of Alutiiq descent, and they are designing bow pieces appropriate to their region. I am encouraging this diversity of approach. One of the parents of the students has volunteered to assist, and I am grateful for his help. He became interested in Alutiiq bow pieces today, and quickly purchased a book from the Kodiak region ("Looking Both Ways") which portrays a bow piece collected from elder Larry Matfay following the 1964 earth quake/tsunami. He will make a bow piece for his model representing the one collected by Larry Matfay.

Another artist who has been assisting in previous classes will not be with us next week because he will be at another museum, presenting on masks. He shared with us who he learned from (Peter Lind and Andrew Gronholdt). He also shared with us a couple book titles, one displaying the pump drill and one showing archaeological work done from the Alaska Peninsula. He was particularly intrigued with three styles of weapons which where archaeologically excavated showing variations over time (a flint point; a more recent slate point; and an even more recent brass shell casing). He shared verbally how he will make masks for younger student from paper, including a bit-place for students to hold the mask in their teeth. He said he will bring in an example of his mask next weeks for the students to view.

One student in our class is experimenting with rib holes which are partially drilled through the gunwales (as opposed to through-holes). This is a potentially beneficial experiment since the full-size kayaks are not through-drilled. For expediency sake in the past years, particularly with younger students who do not have advanced wood working skills or patience, the through-drilled gunwales has been utilized. But, after viewing the 1934 Atka kayak at the Phoebe Hearst Museum in 2010, a goal has been to incorporate more techniques of the full-sized kayaks.

Facebook Posting

In our iqyax group on Facebook, Wolfgang Brinck, author of "The Aleutian Kayak: Origins, Construction, and Use of the Traditional Seagoing Baidarka" as well as an iqyax instructor in Alaska, recently posted a quote from Suzawa Ikunori, an iqyax builder from Japan. The words of Suzawa-san, in my opinion, encapsulate what traditional sea kayak construction is all about. Mr. Ikunori has given me permission to read what he wrote to the students in the model iqyax class, saying this would make him "very, very glad". Below are Suzawa Ikunori's words:

Greeting from the author

I decided to begin a project of this Baidarka reconstruction in the new moon, because I believe, that Aleut of the ancient time lived as according with waxing and waning of the moon.

Building baidarka is, I believe, work to create surviving art. And also it is work to embody a wish and a hope, while making form of other creature a hint.

The person who watched a flying bird in the sky wanted to flap and fry like them, he/she might brought about art to fry.

Aleutian people watched sea-otter and seal, whales who passed away in the sea, and they created the art to go on the sea.

I think that reconstruction of baidarka is incorporating hearts and memories of ancient Aleut. We can not arrive at really important things if we were fascinated?by only the form and the appearance of them.

While paying huge respect to wisdom and history of Aleut, let’s begin the reconstruction of baidarka.

What I Really Need! June 13, 2011 Monday

What I really need is a computer lab where I can test drive my on-line course!

With new students, I need to sit them down before a computer screen (or a computer screen projected onto a screen), and I need to have them log on.

They need to open the instructional windows, and try out the instructions!

Hmm.... wonder where I can set this up.

Then, using instructions prepared by student #20, we need to actually test them.

See how they work.

Genius.

I wonder if I can set up a lap top, projector, and screen in the Unangan ula-x?

Monday June 13, 2011

Worked with student #20 from about 10 am until about 5 pm yesterday (hours are approximate; probably less actual hours). Worked on gunwales; drilled rib holes. Went home, expecting to take a nap, but too excited about the "Today Show" event. Finally gave up on the nap about midnight. Drove to the Heritage Center, wearing a wet suit Farmer John, wet suit booties, neoprene life jacket with wet-suit hat and gloves. Wore a chigda-x (simulated gut rain coat) over the wet suit clothing. Launched the 1999 iqyax (re-skinned just this Saturday for the third time) on the lake at about 2:05 am. Paddled the kayak on the lake behind the dancers and by the totem pole. Got out of the kayak about 5 am; got home at 6 am. Went back to the Heritage Center about 10 am. Fortunately no students showed up today, so I got to go back home and catch up on some of my rest. Some nice footage. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43379506#43379506

Will work with more students on Tuesday. One did show up today, but needed to complete the informed consent form. Started grading some of the pre-tests. Communicated with Bob about future kayak plans. Also contacted Joe about future sea kayak instruction.

From input that I have received so far, I think that the model kayak class is part of a larger picture, a picture extending back in time thousands of years in which the model was an instructional tool for teaching not just the wood working and the instruction, but also the use of the kayak, the launching of the skin-on-skeleton into the ocean, perhaps a process which might be described in ancient Unangax language as a breathing of life into the iqyax.

First Day ~ Sunday, June 12 2011

First Day of Official Research

Well, first day of actual research began today, June 12, 2011. Sunday.

I have one really great student #20. who is very patient, positive attitude, hard worker. He attended an Aleut culture camp this year, and helped out with skinning two kayaks today. We are just getting geared up with the class, and it may be a while before I start gaining in-depth insights to creating on-line classes.

But, so far, I am learning that students may (based on input from one student) have more technology skills and resources than I realized. Students may (again, small number) appear to like Facebook for communicating.

For the most part, we worked on introducing basic sea kayak terminology today. We worked on the gunwales, peeled off labels, sanded off the paint. Student #20 is a natural born actor, very relaxed in front of the camera. Student #20 catches on quickly, has good people skills, relaxed teaching style. A friend of #20 was in class today. One of her friends is envious of student #20 being a "star" for this upcoming instructional web site.