Psychology instructor Dr. Carola Pfortner is another Madison College instructor who was recently volunteering abroad. Pfortner just finished a year-long training class on child development in Nicaragua. She originally started going to Juigalpa – a region in central Nicaragua – for a few days every year, to visit her sister, and to share some of her knowledge with professionals there. When she was asked by some of the people there to do a long-term course, she came up with a year-long course concentrating on child development.

Pfortner has taught a blended format class – partially in person and partially online. She used blackboard to set up a virtual classroom that her students in Nicaragua could use. She took three two and a half week trips to Nicaragua to teach them in person.
Her class was being taken by social workers, community leaders, and other professionals to aid them in teaching others how to raise and support children. There is a lot of negative reinforcement there, and the professionals wanted to learn better ways of raising psychologically healthy children.

In Nicaragua there is something called a brigadier who leaves their town to be educated, and then comes home to share their education and knowledge with their community.

One of the biggest challenges was the language barrier. When Pfortner began to plan her course, she started taking Spanish lessons, but was not fluent when she traveled to Nicaragua. Many of the metaphors she used in her classes also would not translate well to their language and culture.

Dr. Pfortner would like to go back to Nicaragua in order to establish teachers there who could continue working with people there. She has already seen how people in her classes have taken the information she has given them and taught it to other people in their community. The chain of learning continues.