Scattered across cyberspace or not, my identity as an educator has been held together by a number of threads, however tenuous. Since taking a job teaching high school English in Frobisher Bay, NWT (now Iqaluit, NU) in 1982 one of those threads has been the importance of the first language and culture of minority students for academic success. Since about 1987 another thread has been the potential of computer networks to support indigenous language and culture in the remote communities of Canada's arctic. In 1990 the idea of a computer supported intentional learning environment (CSILE) became the third thread. I guess you might say we have a braid here.
In the 1990s CSILE evolved into Knowledge Forum® and its underlying concepts coalesced into knowledge building. The relationship between CSILE/Knowledge Forum, knowledge building, and education that builds on the culture and language of Inuit students became the basis for my doctoral dissertation. Knowledge Forum continues to be integral to much of my teaching.
If you're interested in issues of education in a global knowledge society you owe it to yourself to find out more about Knowledge Forum and knowledge building.