Wilma Mankiller who was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, sat down for an interview with Ian Record for the University of Arizona. The interview is really used to gain an in-depth and firsthand experience into many issues that faces Native Nations today, as well as an overview of Wilma's personal journey through life as a Native American women.
I believe that this particular resource was selected and put into this course because Wilma is a leading figure in the world of Native Americans and is also directly involved in the issues that face Native Nations especially the ones highlighted throughout this course. A quality academic website in my opinion is a website that gives legitimate and pertinent information on a subject while also not being biased in anyway. The Native Nations Institute website via the University of Arizona is the perfect example of an academic website.
The purpose of making a Native American focused journal into a blog is to promote free form expression as well as thinking, to critically analyze information while being able to compare your own views to that of others, without being held to strict and specific guidelines. I think that we as a class were asked to express our knowledge in this type of forum because it shows a direct working knowledge of the subject as well as immediate feedback from peers as opposed to constant feedback from the instructor. Which would promote an actual fun understanding of subject material in order to be used in everyday conversation and it also showed us different points of view about the same subjects.
Brennan,
ReplyDeleteGood point about blogging being fun, because it is! Being able to share ideas and talk outside of the virtual classroom is exciting. For me, it makes me feel like I have a voice and something to contribute to the world. And I think it is important to acknowledge that everyone has different views. We must respect and understand each other. I think that by blogging it is definitely achievable.