martes, 28 de junio de 2011

Education and Technology for strengthening culture

 AUTONOMOUS LEARNING SKILLS:
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY FOR STRENGTHENING CULTURE


What is EDÜCATE project?

With the image of the "Tree of Life" or Kaliwirinae in language of ethnic Sikuani, we wanted to represent the project EDÜCATE, which has as its slogan: "Education and technology for strengthening culture", is possible by public-private partnership between BHP Billiton Company, Colombia government through the its program "Red Unidos" and One Laptop per Child Association, which have the objective of contribute to strengthening the quality of education in 11 schools of rural and indigenous communities on Vichada Department, Colombia, this area has been recovering from internal armed conflict.







What makes this project remarkable?
There are several things that make particular the EDUCATE project:

ü  It is the first time in Colombia that a Model 1 to 1 is implementing with indigenous communities  for culture recovery and strengthening of  Sikuani ethnic group located in this area.
ü  It complements the delivery of technology with training on autonomous learning skills in order to contribute to the sustainability of the project objectives and increase the social impact in the long term.
ü  The project is part of a research which inquires about the social impact of technology on the development of autonomous learning skills


Whic are the main objetives?
ü  To contribute to strengthening the quality of education in 11 schools of rural and indigenous communities in Vichada, Colombia, an area  that has been recovering from armed conflict.
ü  To develop learning skills in students through the use of technology, improving their ability to learn how to learn.
ü  To contribute to strengthening the culture through the recovery of cultural material to generate contents and software activities for the laptop XO.
ü  To offer training for technical and administrative management of the project.

Who are the beneficiaries?

11 schools, 930 indigenous and rural students, 30 teachers and directors from elementary schools. This schools can be classified into 3 groups:

Indigenous Schools: in one classroom there are students from 1º to 5º gradeof primary school and their teachers and students belong to ethnic Sikuani. There, the XO work with solar panels.
Small Mixed Schools: small schools with a course for  each grade from 1º to 5º, some courses are integrated into a single classroom, their population is rural and indigenous and,  the students are internal and external.
Mixed Large schools:  large schools with more than one course by grade, in each classroom they have approximately 40 indigenous and rural students. Of this type, there is only one school in the region.

Which are the key points of autonomous learning skills in the Model 1 to 1 implementation?

Which are the achievements of the early stage?
ü  School’s server installation and configuration.
ü  Teacher’s trainee on the use of the XO laptop and its pedagogical possibilities.
ü  Launch of "Clubes Sabedores XO", a complementary strategy for learning and development projects.
ü  Sense of belonging towards the project. Now the actors recognize it as a key point for the transformation of their educational reality.

How is the research designed in order to measure the social impact of the project?

An experimental research will be conducted through the use of mixed methods which will provide quantitative and qualitative results regarding the impact of the EDÜCATE project. Two measurements will be taken, before and after introducing the technological variable in the beneficiary population and the data analysis will be based on the statistical differences method. Educational settings will be evaluated in four dimensions (Directive, Pedagogical, Technological and Communitarian) and through four main actors (Directors, Teachers, Students, Community Members).
Which are the main results of the baseline research?
Directive dimension
ü  In general, schools have weak relationships with private and public companies in the region that depend on specific projects and interests, with uncertain results.
ü  On average, students are satisfied by attending schools.
ü  Schools perform extracurricular activities, but there is no continuity, backup for resources or incentives for participation.
ü  Most of the directors and teachers identify conflicts over the use of technological resources but they do not have effective tools to solve them.
Pedagogical dimension
ü  In general, the actors develop collaborative learning activities and they are able to elaborate plans that guide the research, analysis and synthesis of relevant information to answer their questions.
ü  Teachers identify students with learning difficulties but they don’t have additional activities to help the students.
Technical dimension
ü  Evaluated schools do not have the infrastructure in technological resources that they need.
ü  The average number of computers per student is 0.023 and the lack of electricity makes more difficult the current processes.
ü  As for skills, on average the actors are not able to manage the basic operation of software, they consult with others to address concerns about activities with technology resources and don´t use it daily in the learning process.
Communitarian dimension
ü  Although most recognize the existence of some tools for teaching Sikuani culture (dictionaries, for example), they are not used frequently in classrooms.
ü  On average, there is no formal presence of cultural patterns of language, customs and traditions in educational projects.

lunes, 13 de junio de 2011

Edücate en Imágenes


Proyecciones y logros Educate II Semestre 2011

A continuación se presenta un breve resumen de los logros obtenidos en la primera fase de Instalación y Adecuaciones, así como  la propuesta de fortalecimiento encaminada a:
Fortalecimiento Pedagógico:
Estará enfocado al desarrollo de clases integrando el XO para el fortalecimiento de competencias en las áreas de Lenguaje y Matemáticas, la formulación y desarrollo de proyectos de aula que promuevan el desarrollo de competencias de aprendizaje autónomo.
Clubes Sabedores XO:
Son espacios extracurriculares a los que los estudiantes se vinculan a temas de interés como la comunicación, la ciencia, la cultura, entre otros, en torno a los cuales desarrollan actividades, trabajos colaborativos, construyen productos usando el XO, a la vez que se divierten y generan aprendizajes significativos. Los clubes estarán liderados por jóvenes educadores, estudiantes de secundaria de las escuelas quienes recibirán formación en pedagogía y en las temáticas de los cubes para que se conviertan en los tutores de los mismos.
Centros de Soporte Técnico XO:
La administración y la solución de problemas técnicos es fundamental para que el proyecto funcione, por tal razón en cada escuela se va a dotar un Centro de Soporte Técnico liderado por jóvenes quienes recibirán una capacitación adecuada para que estén en capacidad de poner a funcionar el dicho centro y responder a las demandas técnicas del proyecto.

Sobre One Laptop per Child

Sobre One Laptop per Child:


One Laptop per Child es una entidad sin ánimo de lucro, creada y dirigida por el profesor Nicholas Negroponte, co-fundador y director del MIT Media Laboratory, reconocido visionario del mundo digital, quien ideó la creación de la computadora conocida como la laptop de bajo costo.

La misión de la organización es crear oportunidades educativas para todos los niños y niñas del mundo de educación básica primaria, especialmente de los países en vía de desarrollo, para que puedan tener su propia computadora portátil, de bajo costo, conectada a internet para tener total acceso a la sociedad del conocimiento.
La Fundación OLPC busca estimular el crecimiento de iniciativas locales comunitarias diseñadas con el fin de incrementar y hacer sustentable en el tiempo, la efectividad de las laptops XO como herramientas de aprendizaje para niños y niñas con tres pilares:

Equidad: ofrecer las mismas oportunidades a nuestros niños y niñas como las de aquellos de los países más desarrollados para  acceso al mundo del conocimiento.

Competitividad: Formar a nuestros niños y niñas con las herramientas adecuadas para que puedan competir en un mundo globalizado.

Aprendizaje y Tecnología: Permanente desarrollo de herramientas para el aprendizaje mediante el uso y apropiación de la tecnología.

“OLPC es un proyecto educativo, no de laptops.”  — Nicholas Negroponte 

Conozca los detalles de los países en donde está presente OLPC visitando :
Conozca las iniciativas OLPC en Colombia visitando nuestro web map en el siguiente link: