Global GrassRoots: The Barbados Experience

Leslie J. Cake & Dawn Rudder

lcake@beothuk.swgc.mun.ca & drudder@caribsurf.com

Sir Wilfred Grenfell College & The Learning Centre

The presentation describes the process by which the Learning Centre -- a Barbados school for learning disabled students -- became involved in a collaborative Internet project. The project ultimately chosen was a GrassRoots Project: Cross Canada E-mail. The route to choosing this project and the Learning Centre's participation in this project will be described. Useful Web sites for locating international Internet projects are presented.

Description of the Learning Centre, Orange Hill, Barbados:

  • 120 students with a learning disability or a behavioural problem.
  • Connection to the Internet and involvement in a collaborative project was a high priority.
  • Computers ranged from IBM PS2 to Pentium-based systems.


Establishing the Internet Connection:

  • Applied to BARTEL in December. A FREE Internet connection was up and running in late April (5 months later)!


Choosing the Internet Project:

  • We decided upon a simple (e-mail based), yet motivating (international) project in social studies..
  • One idea was to have the Barbados school and Newfoundland schools research and exchange information about lighthouses in their respective areas.
  • Correspondence via STEM~Net indicated that a quick start-up of the Lighthouse Project was not possible.
  • However, the "World Lighthouse Project" has since become a GrassRoots block project involving Newfoundland schools (visit www.k12.nf.ca/stpiusx/lighthouse/)


Search for an Alternative Project:

  • Several useful WEB sites and discussion lists for locating international projects were found. These are summarized in the Appendix.
  • A GrassRoots Project, Cross Canada E-mail (http://www.k12.nf.ca/stjosephselem/ccem/), was located through the Global School Network discussion list (Majordomo@gsn.org)
  • Cross Canada E-Mail was originally conceived as Canadian schools exchanging information about Canadian communities but participation of Learning Centre in Barbados was welcomed.


Participation in the Project:

  • First e-mail introducing the students and describing Barbados was sent in April, 1999.
  • Learning Centre has since sent and received several interesting e-mails from schools in Newfoundland and PEI.


Lessons Learnt: (maybe useful for other small, low-tech schools)

  • Notion to keep it simple is appropriate for initial project.
  • A simple cultural exchange e-mail project motivated the teacher and students and was easy for them to do successfully.
  • Allow sufficient lead time.


Problems Encountered:

  • Delays in getting hooked up to the Internet.
  • For certain projects (e.g., the World Lighthouse project) funding would be useful, but foreign schools are not eligible for GrassRoots funding.


Appendix: Useful Web Sites for Locating International Projects.

Worldbank (for International Projects)

Global School Network ( http://www.gsn.org)

I*EARN: International Education and Resource Network

Schoolworld Projects

GrassRoots Program: Project Centre