By Kym Elderkin

Creating my digital learning resource, Living, Learning, and Leading as Indigenous Youth, has been transformative, blending cultural storytelling with innovative digital tools. The most surprising lesson came from exploring generative AI tools with my peers. I initially underestimated AI’s potential to amplify Indigenous voices authentically, but tools like text-to-speech and image generation, when guided thoughtfully, created culturally resonant content. Peer collaboration revealed ways AI can be tailored to avoid misrepresentation and ensure respect for Indigenous knowledge systems.

Building on these ideas with AI, feedback from my peers on my learning design was very helpful but had different effects. Some suggestions included making the resource more interactive, such as adding games or quizzes about Indigenous leadership, which I incorporated to help engage young learners. One suggestion I did not expect was to add more accessibility features, such as subtitles for audio parts. I had not realized how important these are for including everyone, especially learners with disabilities in Indigenous communities. Another idea, to add live online workshops, led to some discussion. While I think it could help build community, it might be challenging to implement due to technological issues in remote areas, so I need to investigate this further. I plan to explore ways to combine online and in-person options to make it both accessible and engaging, and I may seek advice from community elders to ensure it aligns with cultural values.

With these changes in mind, I look ahead and see Living, Learning, and Leading as Indigenous Youth as a platform that evolves and adapts based on user feedback. My next steps are to test the resource with a small group of Indigenous youth to get feedback on how easy it is to use and how well it fits their culture. I also want to add more types of media, like short films about Indigenous leaders, to inspire learners. Working with Indigenous organizations could help provide more support and help more people use the resource. I am also interested in using AI to help translate the content into Indigenous languages, to help keep these languages alive. This will require careful testing to ensure the translations retain their cultural meaning, and I will collaborate with language experts on this.

While advancing the platform, I am also focusing on my own personal growth and learning. For lifelong growth, I prefer reflection channels beyond blog posts, which can feel static. I’ve found value in video diaries, which allow me to articulate my thoughts orally, a practice aligned with Indigenous oral traditions. Collaborative platforms, such as shared digital notebooks (which is still so foreign to me), also appeal to me, as they enable real-time dialogue with peers. These methods feel more dynamic and community-oriented, fostering ongoing reflection that blogs alone can’t capture. I’d like to experiment with podcast-style reflections, inviting peers to discuss our learning journeys, which could model leadership for youth audiences.

Reflecting on these experiences and the lessons learned in the course, I am excited to apply design methods for digital learning in other teaching contexts. The process of developing, testing, and refining ideas was effective and could be applied in various ways. I would like to try this approach for training workshops for teachers, focusing on teaching that respects diverse cultures. Using AI to create example stories or pretend classroom situations could make these workshops better, which I had not thought of before this course. I also think this design ideas could help with community projects, like working with youth to create online collections of Indigenous knowledge. This course showed me that mixing cultural traditions with new technology can make learning more meaningful, and I want to keep exploring these ideas, always putting community voices and good practices first.