PROJECT BACKGROUND

The PIER/Brain Spaces relationship began in 2007 when Brain Spaces organizes a group of teens to come from the US to Honduras with supplies and helping hands to set up the first e-Learning center in Sandy Bay. In the years that followed, Brain Spaces supported the efforts of PIER by providing advice and support on materials selection, fundraising and administrative support. In June of 2011, Brain Spaces brought a new program to the Sand Castle Library: a collaborative learning center.  The goals:

  • develop learner-led, hands on projects
  • build higher order thinking skills & literacy through gaming and internet exploration
  • receive encouragement and support from online mentors.

Brain Spaces and PIER are a wonderful and somewhat rare match up. We both believe that education can help people overcome the conditions that keep people in poverty. The reality is that Roatan doesn’t have the teachers, the schools, the libraries and the community centers to support learning in our communities. We aren’t willing to lose a generation of learners while we try to fix that. We need something that can provide the students, their parents and their teachers with the opportunities and support they need right now in the environment as it exists right now.  PIER staff is more traditional, so our learning curve is big.  Letting go, letting the children find their way to education, is an exciting but scarey  experience -- but here we go!

Volunteers make this center come alive.  They can introduce experiments, help kids create projects, and provide that "atta boy" support to the kids. 

Brain Spaces Center, a Self-Organizing Collaborative Learning Environment

Known to the kids as "Computer games & some fun projects" Center

     

   

This Center is a little different than the rest of our project. It was established by Patti Beaumont, president of Brain Spaces, Inc. who is researching the validity of collaborative learning environments. The theory is that children will teach themselves, if provided the tools, support, and gentle guidance. In countries where schools are non-existent, this is a potentially powerful strategy.

HELICOPTER EXPERIMENT
Another component of the program is the "Granny Cloud" where volunteers from around the world can Skype into these centers and lead group activities. A California mom and her son "meet" with our kids every Wednesday leading them in building helicopters, water wheels, origami, and other science-based experiments.

   

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
We are still in the testing stage. The kids definitely form groups and collaborately teach each other the skills required to complete the computer games or projects. The walls are covered with shortcuts, once discovered, shared with all.  Preferred computer games this year were Mind Spaces, every form of motorbike racing, bridge building, and other games that teach sequencing, planning ahead, and creative problem solving.