Native American Alaskans Make Transitions With TEL.A.VISION

Dustin Madden is a teacher at Bartlett High School in Alaska where he strives to teach Alaska Native students in a culturally responsive way. Dustin is excited to learn new ways to help students. One new way became apparent when he learned how to use TEL.A.VISION, web-based software that is designed to help students clarify their personal goals.

Dustin states, “I decided on this project for myself because I felt that the students in my Transitions class would really benefit by doing a project that encouraged them to reflect on how they want to live their lives.” This Transitions class is designed to help the Alaska Native / American Indian students that are currently going through a “transition” in their lives. From class discussions it seemed that many of these students felt uprooted.

Dustin believed that “by helping them to clarify their goals, it would help to think about the life they personally wanted to live, and to start working towards that ideal.” Using this TEL•A•VISION website, students used media tools included text, music/audio, video, and special effects to create a vision of their future, writing down their goals as if they have already happened.

“The benefit of the Tel-A-Vision software is that it the basics can be learned relatively quickly,” says Madden, “Using excellent built-in tutorials, a large number of stock photos, music, and video effects. This allows students to focus more on the “meat” of the project- their vision for their future. The projects turned out so well that Dustin took his class to the Alaska Native Charter School across the bridge from Bartlett and had them present to elementary students.“