De School

We've begun our info campaign on co-operatives to initiate De Co-op and De School. Our focus remains the same - to build a creative home for sustainability with you involved hopefully.

Q.How?

A. Through blended learning.

Is online learning any different than blended learning?

Learning can be fun if it is useful and my experience teaching in the Caribbean is that we are still caught up in the perception of knowledge retention rather than the skills necessary for problem-solving.

Although online learning allows us to learn when it is convenient there's nothing useful about that if it deteriorates our health from endless hours of screen time.

Whether we prefer online or in-person learning, there's a way to blend as is necessary.

Blended Learning is simply using real life experiences to improve how we navigate online resources for relevant information. This works best in group classes where class partners can validate that information with hands-on experiments. Depending on where you are or what you search for the most - your online searches could yield differing and misleading results. You may have heard of buzz words such as communities of practices or wondered how effective online communities really are. Well, classes have always created communities of practice however where we follow-through is the key to sustaining either those practices or that community.

So, we are starting De School - based in Deacons, St.Michael Barbados available to you whether online or in-person.

So far this includes - Eco-club for children 3-11 years, Green Solutionarys Program for anyone 12+ years, Classes, Courses and Workshops@de_lab_outside for adults via our co-op members website.

Stay tuned to our social media - IG + Facebook for samples on what we do with blended learning and join us anytime by emailing bettercaribbean@gmail.com or register here .

- Ariana Marshall Ph.D., Fan of learning. Fan of educational fans :D