Meet Dr. Brad Baker!
Dr. Brad Baker is the Associate Superintendent of Indigenous Education for the BC Ministry of Education, District Principal of North Vancouver School District, Adjunct Professor at UBC within the Faculty of Education, member of the Squamish nation, resident of Vancouver’s North Shore, a husband, a father to 2 stepchildren, and a grandfather to 3 grandsons (Miller and Baker, 2021).
Brad received his ancestral name Tsnomot from his late grandfather (UBC, n.d.). Brad’s father is a Residential School survivor after spending 8 years at St. Paul’s Residential School which was located in North Vancouver. As an advocate for Indigenous education, Brad encourages everyone to understand “Truth Before Reconciliation” and to “Go Forward With Courage”. He was also appointed trustee for Squamish nation, and oversees land claim issues (Miller and Baker, 2021).
Dr. Baker has been involved with the North Vancouver School District as an educator for over 27 years. He oversees Indigenous education program and sits on the anti-racism committee that implements anti-racism initiatives within the school district (Miller and Baker, 2021). According to UBC (n.d.), for the past 8 years, he has been District Principal with the portfolios of Indigenous Education and Safe Schools. Last December he also began as the Associate Superintendent for Indigenous Education for BC’s Ministry of Education.
According to UBC (n.d.), Brad has also recently been nominated/selected for several awards and titles including:
- Selected for the Governor-General of Canada’s Leadership Conference.
- 1/250 leaders that developed strategies to move Canada forward in the next 150 years.
- Recipient for the Indspire Guiding the Journey National Award for Leadership in Indigenous Education.
- Candidate in the Doctor of Education program at the University of British Columbia.
- Enhanced the awareness and the values of Indigenous Education; led to increased dialogue across Canada and the United States.
Themes of PLNs in Professional Capacities
Personal Learning Networks are the group of people and resources that an individual intentionally connects with to learn and reflect, and share ideas, questions, reflections, and suggestions – either in professional or personal contexts, or both simultaneously. A PLN is not limited in-person interactions; the online, global interactive aspect of PLNs make them especially useful in professional settings. According to Baker from Miller and Baker (2021), some important aspects of PLNs (in professional capacities) are:
- Support system and improved wellbeing –Allows individuals to support and acknowledge others
- Growth of a healthy community
- Relationship building
- Healthy and respectful dialogue – allows us to hear from voices that otherwise may have been distorted or not shared. The knowledge base of PLNs allows Indigenous voices to be shared from an authentic source!
- Advocacy – can be used for storytelling; gives a platform for individuals to tell their story. One use Dr. Brad Baker has for his individual PLN is to advocate for Indigenous education and anti-racism in the North Vancouver school system.
Beneficial Social Media Platforms in Education
As mentioned above, online interactions are useful to develop PLNs. There are many different social media platforms that individuals use for education – each has its own benefits and detriments. According to Restifo (2022), some prominent platforms, non-exhaustively, include:
| Platform | Benefits |
| Facebook and Instagram | Prominent social media sites that have been popular for a long time. Free for educators to network with others, keep up-to-date with the latest education news and issues and share ideas for lessons and curricula. The popularity of these sites also make them useful to showcase lessons, educational ideas, and student work. |
| TikTok | Comparatively, a newer social media site, and thus newer to its use for educational purposes. Tiktok has exploded in popularity as a relative newcomer with 2+ billion downloads worldwide. This app is free, easy to use, and familiar to most students. Similar to Facebook and Instagram, educators can create private groups for sharing fun and educational video projects and assignments. |
| Twitter is very common, even outside of the education realm. This social networking site can be employed for education: educators can teach children about digital citizenship and connect with fellow educators for uses similar to Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok. Additionally, hashtags such as #edchat, #edtech, and #elearning will guide education users to relevant tweets! | |
| TED-Ed | Provides free educational videos and pre-made customizable lesson plans, and the ability to share educators’ own videos. There’s even a lesson activity page for monitoring student progress! |
Implementation of Social Media Teaching in the Healthcare Field and Social Media Professionalism and Regulations within the Vulnerable Sector
Social media is becoming more prominent as a tool for education in the health care field: have you ever Google-d your symptoms of a *potential* malady? I assume most readers can agree with this statement. Social media platforms including networking sites, blogs, etc., can be used to improve professional networking and education, organizational promotion, patient care and education, and public health programs (Ventola, 2014).
However, the implementation of social media can pose risks with the distribution of poor-quality information, breaches of patient privacy, violation of personal professional boundaries, and licensing or legal issues. For example, using the prompt from the paragraph above, what is actually a simple issue could be incorrectly suggested to be a greater problem according to Dr. Google – in such a case, it is best to visit a licensed physician for proper identification and treatment.
So, what can be done to mitigate some of these risks? Many healthcare institutions and professional organizations have issued guidelines for prevention (Ventola, 2014). Both teachers and learners need to be mindful of their actions, demonstrate professionalism, and follow any implemented regulations, especially when working with vulnerable populations (e.g. minors and underrepresented voices) in education and healthcare.
After hearing from Dr. Baker and reading through some of his online posts, I’ve gained a greater understanding of the importance of Indigenous knowledge, education, contribution, and wellbeing, as well as these aspects applied to healthcare.
References
Miller, J., & Baker, B. (2021). Brad Baker EDCI 338. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z8iHxW2n4&ab_channel=MILLER
Restifo, D. (2022). Best free social networks/media sites for education. Tech and Learning. https://www.techlearning.com/news/best-free-social-networksmedia-sites-for-education
University of British Columbia (UBC) Faculty of Education. (n.d.). Land acknowledgements – why do we do them? https://educ.ubc.ca/land-acknowledgements-why-do-we-do-them/
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: benefits, risks, and best practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7), 491-499. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103576/
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