DmM - Determination of modern Methods

All DRH Schools use an innovative system, called Determination of modern Methods (DmM). This is a modern method of instruction which puts emphasis on the student’s responsibility for his or her own education.

As a part of the training to become a Development Instructor, you need to acquire different kinds of skills. An important part of the training are all the experiences -  it can be learning practical skills, painting, cleaning, cooking etc; it can be learning how to work together with people from different backgrounds and who speak different language (a skill that some people have not had opportunity to practice before). The experiences are many and varied, and are an important part of the education at the DRH Schools.

But there is another part, as important as this one, and this is the studies. It is closer to the conventional way of learning, but still different. All DRH Schools use an innovative system, called Determination of modern Methods (DmM). This is a modern method of instruction which puts emphasis on the student’s responsibility for his or her own education.

DmM is a computer-based system, with tasks in a network that every school has available for the students. This system has a huge database, with a lot of tasks, which are the key unit of the studies. Depending on your past experiences and which project will you go to, you will have to make some compulsory tasks, and others that are completely optional. Every task has a certain value, a number of study points, that are in relation with the hours of study that it will take you solve it. For example, a task of 3 points, is scheduled to take you more or less 3 hours of study.

When you have completed the task, then you send it to your teacher, and he or she will approve it, or not. If it’s approved, then you get credited with the points; if not, then the teacher will write a comment, where you will see an explanation of why the task is not passed, but don’t worry, you will have the chance of changing the things that are not correct, or add the things that you missed, and you can send it again, to get the points.

During the 6 months training, you have to get 500 study points in order to qualify yourself to go to your project. There are approximately 1,800 tasks that you can choose to do, with almost 7,000 hours of study! So you have something to have fun with.

One important thing is that you are the driving force when it comes to doing the studies, you are the responsible, not the teacher; so, you need to be very careful, and organise very well how you are going to reach the target of 500 points, because it is very easy to “fall asleep” and then you find yourself in half-way and you have to make a lot of points…and there is no time. So a good plan is also needed when you start the DI Course.

Here are some examples of titles of study tasks:

· Africa - a continent with huge differences
· HIV/AIDS - The silent killer
· The Portuguese speaking world
· O meu projeto!
· Global trends of today and our near future
· Numbers and facts on fitness
· How to prevent diseases
· Teaching methods
· Human physiology in the information age
· Bio- and gene-technology
· Grameen Bank - a bank for the poor
· Plan a challenge for yourself
· Conquering space
· The tradition and history of fundraising
· Contribute to the economy of your future project
· Teach a group of people to sing together as an ensemble
· Make people enjoy art
· Training family coordinators
· Making a partnership application
· The computer from A to Z
· Planning and organizing - and something to go for Improvements at low cost

As you can see, you have many different kinds of tasks, involving a lot of interesting issues, and, as I told you before, many of them are optional, so you can choose the ones that you think are better for you and your project.

So, if you join one of our programs in a DRH School, you will study under this system, and you will learn a lot of useful things, that you can use in your project, and also later on in your life.

Pablo Serrano, September team 2008