January 2010

One of our farmers lost his mom in the Haiti earthquake. We did some fundraising here so that he could travel down and help his family. Adisson is originally from Haiti and started our program here at NESFP in 2008.

http://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/farmer/haiti.html

On a happier note, the distance learning aspect of my assignment is heating up. We found some software that will allow us to capture screen videos. One important element in the small business course is the use of spreadsheets. Our educator is creating the bulk of the distance learning material on her computer. She wanted the ability to record the screen and talk at the same time, basically walking a student through the use of financial planning spreadsheets. In comes CamStudio. This open source software is awesome! You can assign a specific area of the screen for recording. It captures both audio and screen video. Moving spreadsheets are just one element in the distance learning course. I feel like these classes will be very exciting to take as we are incorporating a lot of visual elements to help people learn. Another element of distance learning is the posting of seminars that NESFP hosts. Yesterday we held a day long seminar on how to run a Mobile Poultry Processing Unit (MPPU). This unit is essential in the production of free range poultry. Organic bird farmers can hire this unit to arrive at their site and process their poultry. Through recording these seminars, NESFP hopes to create a virtual lending library on their website so that students will have access to additional resources. I have been using Dogooder.tv to host long format videos. It's a free video hosting service for non-profits.