Issue link: https://takingitglobal.uberflip.com/i/1542824
R. Adeboye, C. Flewelling,V. Ogbole, E. O'Sullivan 6 not principally a curriculum delivery model and should not be compared to, for example, virtual learning environments like massive open online courses (MOOCs) or even the remote learning approaches that were employed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. As its name suggests, Connected North is meant to complement the traditional, in-person model, with the objective of providing access to specialized expertise; and inspiring and motivating students to benefit maximally from their overall educational experience. Connected North sessions can reasonably be described as analogous to the field trips and in-person guest presenters that schools have traditionally used to augment regular classroom activities. In addition to its core work to deliver interactive educational sessions, Connected North offers a number of related programs. Although these are beyond the scope of the current evaluation, they are described below for reference: 1) Future Pathways: As well as interactive sessions included in Connected North's regular session menu, Future Pathways includes the Future Pathways Navigator, which is a freely available collection of resources for Northern students to support their postsecondary and career planning. Resources include collected advice, free apps, and videos. These videos include more than 500 Fireside Chats, which are pre-recorded video interviews with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit role models who share their knowledge and experience with youth. These videos are available to anyone for free online, with associated lesson plans. 2) Samuel Connected North Leadership Fund, which provides grants from $500-$2,500 to Indigenous youth in Canada to support various types of projects implemented by Indigenous community leaders aged 15-35. 3) Create to Learn, which is a free online learning resource comprising over 100 instructional videos to help students to develop digital media production skills. 4) Your Voice is Power, which is "a national competition for middle and high school students designed to teach the fundamentals of computer science, entrepreneurship, and social justice." 5) Whose Land, which is a web-based app to assist in identifying and learning about Indigenous Nations, territories, and communities across Canada. As mentioned above, in addition to offering student-oriented sessions, Connected North offers programming to support teacher professional development. This includes interactive sessions that are part of the regular Connected North session menu (e.g., "Strengths-Based Approaches to Teaching Residential School History"), as well as professional networking and mentorship opportunities. Schools can apply to participate in Connected North through their website, although access is sometimes negotiated on a larger scale (e.g., the government of Nunavut worked with Connected North to provide access to all Nunavut schools). To use Connected North, schools are required to have an internet connection with a minimum speed of 5 Mbps. Initially, Connected North sessions were delivered via a specific CISCO Telepresence Video Conference unit, but schools are increasingly connecting with a wider variety of technology.