Learning and Teaching Center (Old)

Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching
Ways of Learning Abroad,
Wednesday, January 20, 1999Ivana Fertziger, '99 Carleton in Morelia W96, Hamilton College in Madrid F98 Virginia Anderson, '00 Carleton in Pau S97, Carleton in London F98, + internship after Melissa Carlson, '99 SIT Madagascar Ecology F97 Chris Martin, '99 Sea Education Assoc., Carleton in London F98 Susan Jaret McKinstry, Professor of English, leader of Carleton in London F98

Comments:

"I felt transformed. I was tired when I left Carleton but there everything I did was part of our learning and exploring together in London; I felt enriched, reinforced. The closeness within the group was really powerful." Jaret McKinstry

"The course load was lighter but the work was the language and cultural immersion. It was exhausting." Fertziger

"The strength was the experience, a shift away from the classroom to where there was no shift at all between when I was learning and when I was not. I was always learning." Martin

"Independent study is required. One thing leads to another so you're using books, tours, workshops, people, museums, everything you can think of." Anderson

"We didn't have formal class time. The learning was up to us and language learning was all the time. Structured learning was more difficult after returning." Carlson

Difficult times:

Fertziger: "Being alone. The first week. The beginning was hardest, making a choice between staying alone in my room which was certainly easier and more comfortable, or immersing myself in the culture, which required lots of energy and risk."

Martin: "Living together in a community. It was the first time I felt community, the power of what it really means."

Carlson: "Returning to structured academia after being totally immersed in other realms of academia- namely experiential learning."

McKinstry: "Balancing the academic experience and the personal responsibility."

Benefits:

Carlson: "Cooperative learning, focus is on process (making it part of your life)"

Fertziger: "The idea that a professor can learn from a student is very powerful."

Carlson: "learning how to learn, how you think about things and how to apply that to your life"