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How do I build a community-owned conservation tech research project?

Our fourth Tech Tutors Season 2 episode featured Doug Clark, Joseph Haluksit, Erica Gillis and Cyril Fredlun in a panel to answer the question: How do I build a community-owned conservation tech research project? Watch it on the WILDLABS Youtube Channel! You can also ask our panelist Tutors questions, discuss this topic, and collaborate with other participants in our episode forum thread, and see our collaborative notes doc here.

Online Event

About the Series

Introducing the second season of WILDLABS Tech Tutors, our series that focuses on answering the "how do I do that?" questions of conservation tech. Launched with the support of Microsoft AI for Earth, this series will give you the bite-sized, easy-to-understand building blocks you'll need to broaden your conservation technology horizons, enhance your research, or launch a new collaborative project.

Taking place every Thursday, each Tech Tutor will present a 30 minute tutorial guiding you through an aspect of conservation tech, followed by a 30 minute live Q&A session with the audience.

 Tech Tutors is made for conservation tech beginners of all knowledge levels (and yes, even experts can still be beginners when it comes to tackling a new aspect of conservation tech or starting a new project!), and because we know that there's always more to learn in the #tech4wildlife world, that's why we're so excited to bring you a brand-new season of WILDLABS Tech Tutors! With presentations that will take you even deeper into those tricky "how do I do that?" questions of conservation tech, we hope you'll discover new perspectives and ideas to bring to your own #tech4wildlife work.

For participants, the outcome will be an increased sense of confidence in their technological skills, the ability to actively build off of the skills discussed in these tutorials, and an opportunity to learn and collaborate with other members of the WILDLABS community. Read about the first season's community highlights here.

Our goal is to customize these tutorials to fit the needs of the community and address your needs, so let us know what you want to see in this season and beyond.

Can't make it? You can find every tutorial after it airs on our Youtube channel.

Meet your Tutors: Doug Clark, Joseph Haluksit, Erica Gillis, and Cyril Fredlund

We're kicking off our 2021 season of live events with a special Tech Tutors episode, which is going to be a slightly different format to normal. In this epsiode, we're going to be learning from our tutors about working together with local communities on conservation tech projects. Our tutorial will be in the form of a panel discussion, and we'll be joined in conversation by three panelists from northern Canadian communities, Joseph Haluksit, Erica Gillis and Cyril Fredlund. Their conversation will be facilitated by Doug Clark, a researcher who has conservation tech projects underway with each of the panelists’ communities.

We will be joined by: 

  • Doug Clark, Associate Professor, School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan.
  • Joseph Haluksit, Inuvialuit elder from Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories
  • Erica Gillis, Science Manager for the Churchill Northern Studies Centre
  • Cyril Fredlund, CMO Technician at the University of Manitoba and trapper

We asked our panel...

What will I learn in this episode?

The audience will be introduced to important principles and ideas about working together with local communities on conservation tech projects, and features three panelists from northern Canadian communities. Their conversation will be facilitated by Doug Clark, a researcher who has conservation tech projects underway with each of the panelists’ communities. In these projects, local community members have defined the research questions and undertaken the fieldwork, continuing important research despite the current pandemic.

How can I learn more about this subject?

This open-access paper is a great example of how Indigenous knowledge, community efforts, and conservation tech can work together:

What advice do you have for a complete beginner in this subject?

Just start talking to people who live where your work takes place. Be respectful, of course, but be yourself. Listen to what people have to say and what they hope to see happen in those places. Working together can accomplish more than any of us can do on our own.

Learn more about our upcoming Tech Tutorials

Visit the series page on WILDLABS to find the full list of WILDLABS Tech Tutors.

season 2 lineup


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