Sustainable Blended Learning Summer Workshop

It was by far one of the most successful and constructive events that I have attended. DUring the period between August 5th and 9th I attended the Workshop for Sustainable Blended Learning at Carey Insitute (the Refugees Educators Academy) in one of hte most beautiful outskirts of NY: Rennesevilla. 

The event was amazing, due to the unbelievable calm and tranquille surrounding but also due to the diverse participants, from whom there was a lot to be learnt. THe hostility of Diana and Julie and the well-planned session were admirable. Below is the briefing of the event that came out from Carey Institute. 

Fighting off jet-lag and the chronic exhaustion that is common among educators, a group of six dedicated, inspired teachers came together to explore Sustainable Blended Learning and build courses utilizing tools and templates developed by the Center for Learning in Practice on the learning.careyinstitute platform. Participants included an international consultant from the ICT and Education in Emergencies fields and a network of Bard College professors from Bard NY, Bard Berlin, and Bard Al-Quds in Palestine.

Topics being developed into blended learning courses ranged from designing and teaching in Accelerated Education Programmes to writing and activism, mid-20th century British history and pop culture, and  programming for DNA sequences. These dynamic educational leaders seek to foster the intellectual engagement and promote the well-being of the refugee students they serve and the refugee educators they support.

We learned a great deal from each other and from the process of working together over an intense three day period. Chief among our learnings is that less is indeed more and that given space, time, support, and appropriate tools and resources, educators work wonders!