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Preliminary Conceptual Framework to Support the Creation of the Proposed Hemispheric Projects New Technologies in Education NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION “We pledge to promote new technologies at the service of education.” Declaration of Punta del Este - II Meeting of Ministers of Education September 2001 The challenges of new technologies in education The heads of government and state, gathered in Quebec, stressed the importance of the use of technologies to support all educational processes, from basic education to secondary education, training of labor competences and higher education. They are fundamental tools to favor employment, personal development and social commitment.1 At the core of the “transformation” envisioned and expected from today’s educational systems are the processes that allow schools to transform into a community. The school is at the center of social change and societal transformation. It is the center of the community and allows for its members to take an active role in shaping the transformation process. The school allows the community to imagine, learn, and plan the role the community will take in overcoming the obstacles dictated by the social, natural, and physical environment, and in doing so, achieve a sense of well-being. Today, schools play a significant role in facilitating a community's learning, meeting, and interaction. Countries are coming to the realization that schools provide the community with unlimited sources for social exchange. In other words, school must be relevant to every social group, and to its social, economic and cultural objectives. Basic education has gone through different approaches within our countries to address diversity issues; such approaches have opened opportunities to review school administration, the relationship between teachers and students, the configuration of curricular content and the relationships with the community. In many cases, the incorporation of diverse communication and information technological tools within the educational system had the intention of supporting basic education diversification efforts to reconfigure relationships inside and outside of school, and between the school and the community. In such cases, the use of the radio, television, videotapes, satellite broadcasts, computers and the Internet is directed to sustain the reconfiguration of an educational system that often times resists change. However, sometimes the use of many of these innovations in basic education are meant only to justify low cost services provided at the periphery of the educational systems and as such dimly reflect the achievements of traditional systems. This situation opens up a debate on trying to identify the real capacity of technological tools in facilitating the development of alternative and revolutionary modalities in educational systems. In any case, the debate calls attention to the recognition that the fundamental goal of the relationship between school and technologies is to obtain effective transformations in all dimensions of school management. Chapter 13 of the Plan of Action of the III Summit of the Americas. Quebec – April 2001. __________________________________________________________________________________ Preparatory Meeting for the III Meeting of Ministers of Education Buenos Aires – April, 2003 1 1 Preliminary Conceptual Framework to Support the Creation of the Proposed Hemispheric Projects New Technologies in Education For some, a relevant school of today is an institution that: Does not separate and compartmentalize the curriculum’s reality, Does not exclude schools from facing social issues, Does not set the foundations that reproduce authoritarian relationships in society, Succeeds in transmitting visions of learning as a collaborative process for knowledge building, where errors are seen as both legitimate and necessary. Technologies have the possibility of supporting and strengthening relationships generated by schools or new forms of school management. Even when computers and the Internet cannot be considered as tools for low cost educational modalities, the puzzle in which they are now embedded is not much different from that of other media at other times in history. Clearly, their potential benefits are far greater, but the risk of representing an Internet hosts (per 1,000 people) expense or a significant debt becomes 300 even higher without an equivalent benefit 280 towards quality and pertinence in the educational system. 260 Relevant experiences and lessons Since the eighties, different countries in the hemisphere have engaged the use of computers in basic education. Lessons derived from their experiences are fundamental in designing a hemispheric cooperation program. 240 Taking computers into school to guarantee its pertinence may seem like an act of pure wisdom. After all, computers already pervade most realms of our lives industrial, commercial, administrative and cultural. And, they have become the main image for the knowledge society. Nevertheless, experience shows that even the most solid and comprehensive educational policies in this area fail to achieve their main objectives if they do not take into consideration qualitative changes in school relationships: 120 220 200 180 160 140 1990 2000 100 80 60 40 United States Canada Uruguay Argentina Mexico Panama Brazil Trinidad and Tobago Chile Dominica 0 Antigua and Barbuda 20 Source: Human Development Report, UNDP, 2002 The United States, the country with the highest number of computers per capita connected to the Internet, has implemented different strategies to support the __________________________________________________________________________________ Preparatory Meeting for the III Meeting of Ministers of Education Buenos Aires – April, 2003 2 Preliminary Conceptual Framework to Support the Creation of the Proposed Hemispheric Projects New Technologies in Education incorporation of computers and access to the Internet in public schools. According to James Guthrie2, despite great projects that have provided equipment and infrastructure in the country,3 teachers are not using computers in the manner that was initially expected. The new reasons range from the development of student’s basic typing skills and to give teachers e-mail access. "Dozens of thousands of computers underused, abandoned modems and television monitors accumulate dust in the classrooms."4 On other occasions, the fate of computers in schools in United States has been similar to that befallen other technological media in the rest of the countries of the hemisphere: resistance on the part of the institution cancels out the capacity of the medium to transform organizational and traditional practices. According to Seymour Papert5, “...school became a conservative tool when it could have been a revolutionary one”6 If US educational policy has not been particularly effective in increasing quality and pertinence in public schools by introducing computers and the Internet, then it would seem, especially given the abundance of resources they invested, that the lessons are not solely to be found in the provision, but rather how it is integrated into the schools. Hence, what is it that computers can specifically contribute within the framework of a restructuring of school management? Can computers redefine relationships across the school? Why is it relevant to introduce these tools into schools? Chile, Costa Rica, Brazil and Mexico have also gone through the process of introducing computers, the Internet and other media into basic education. The analysis of their experiences in terms of academic assessment, both successes and failures, should allow us to draw to some conclusions:7 Within the framework of school management, computers and the Internet, with its pedagogical, administrative and community linkages dimensions, can facilitate the integration of a world fragmented by the traditional curricular structure: 2 James Guthrie is professor of Public Policy and Education in Vanderbilt University in USA. Today 9 of each 10 public classrooms in the US are connected to the Internet thanks to the "E-Rate" , a tax paid by each telephone line user that generates 2 billion dollars per year to set up and connect computers in public schools. 4 James Guthrie, Computers idle in public schools 5 Dr. Seymour Papert is a mathematician and one of the early pioneers of Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, he is internationally recognized as the seminal thinker about ways in which computers can change learning. 6 David Bennahum, School´s out? A conversation with Seymour Papert, 2002 7 To respond to the II Meeting of the Ministers of Education's mandate, the Organization of American States, through the Unit for Social Development and Education and the support of the Inter. American Agency for Cooperation and Development, carried out knowledge sharing seminars in Costa Rica, Chile and Mexico with the purpose of identifying lessons learned in the consolidated programs of "Educational Informatics", Enlaces Network and the Secondary Distance Education Program for Adults. __________________________________________________________________________________ Preparatory Meeting for the III Meeting of Ministers of Education Buenos Aires – April, 2003 3 3 Preliminary Conceptual Framework to Support the Creation of the Proposed Hemispheric Projects New Technologies in Education With the support of teachers, students can turn learning into a constant process for building relevant models of reality, and then in turn apply these models within the various disciplines. The Costa Rican program, "Educational Informatics", is an illustrative example of the uses mentioned above. The Ministry of Education and the Omar Dengo Foundation have carried out the program since 1989 in a collaborative fashion. This program sets up a computer lab in each primary school and organizes children into teams of three and four to design projects that represent and explain a phenomenon of their particular interest, using multidisciplinary relationships to understand it8. In Mexico, the program, "Secondary Distance Education for Adults", provides another example of how technological innovations can contribute to reconfiguring the secondary education curriculum into relevant blocks that are pertinent to the social and working context of adults. The Red Escolar program (School Network) is another relevant experience from this country. It provides spaces to develop projects that reshape the organization traditional curriculum. The experience of Costa Rica also exemplifies the capacity of computers and the Internet to have a dual effect. The Internet provides access to resources required to construct a model of reality that can stimulate individuals' curiosity and research.9 It can also promote teamwork while teams work to actually build that model with the computer. This allows the school to establish the notion that knowledge building is a collaborative task where the expression of individual theses, errors and agreements become legitimate and necessary. In this sense, the Omar Dengo Foundation's determination for not just placing computers in classrooms but instead facilitating collaborative work through setting up teams of three students per computer is quite remarkable. Computers can stimulate and support the implementation of horizontal relationships based on consensus. In this sense learning results are the shared responsibility of teachers, students and parents. Teachers participating in Chile's Enlaces program, Costa Rica's "Educational Informatics," and Mexico's Red Escolar present themselves to their students in a different role. They are no longer the “authorized source of knowledge” but rather, they join with their students to select and interpret the information found on the Internet and explore the possibilities computers afford. Once the curricular canon is melded and opened teachers themselves recognize that they too are students. 8 At the core of this strategy there's a software package called Micro worlds that enables the student to program logic-mathematical and multimedia computer applications. 9 In Seymour Papert's words, "The most common element with all kids is that they start off as enthusiastic learners, but by the time they have been in school for a few years they have stopped being enthusiastic about learning. The learning instinct is strangled. That makes their lives poorer. It makes society poorer. it makes the economy rigid and inflexible. It makes for a more rigid society all around. For those kids computers could make a very big difference by shaping education to fit their approach to learning" in School´s out? A conversation with Seymour Papert por David Bennahum, 2002. __________________________________________________________________________________ 4 Preparatory Meeting for the III Meeting of Ministers of Education Buenos Aires – April, 2003 Preliminary Conceptual Framework to Support the Creation of the Proposed Hemispheric Projects New Technologies in Education These experiences also demonstrate that sustaining the abovementioned quality processes is a function of the flexibility provided by the educational system. Computers and the Internet can become just facilitators of "computer literacy" 10 when the school system does not provide spaces for teachers to constantly make use of computers to review their teaching practices and curriculum design. Thus, rural and indigenous schools in Chile and Costa Rica, with multi-grade classroom and curriculum integration, proved to be the best environments for experimenting in order to identify the transformative potential of computers in the classroom. Within these classrooms, computers and the Internet automatically become promoters of a multidisciplinary approach to teaching phenomena where children from different ages and levels collaborate in building a structure and foundation that is relevant to them. Other relevant lessons include the significant capacity for societal consensus building within the Chilean educational system. Due to this consensus ENLACES was able to harness many public and private resources. Likewise, Costa Rica's collaborative efforts to create “spaces for innovation” and improve the curriculum are also valuable lessons. Although, there are already many solid theories for understanding the benefits of incorporating computers and the Internet into the classroom, countries with vast experience within the hemisphere (as well as others at the early stages of this process), are aware of the long road ahead. All programs developed within the hemisphere are based on the belief that teachers’ daily experiences carry a wealth of lessons to systematize and share. Thus, horizontal cooperation is important to help extract the relevant lessons of success and failure from experiences and programs. Those lessons can guide the development of other programs in the hemisphere. In addition, horizontal cooperation is also useful for a collective, theoretical and practical exploration of the ways in which computers and the Internet promote the achievement of objectives in quality and pertinence within the classrooms. Along these lines, the Dominican Republic's Secretariat for Higher Education, Science and Technology started an initiative to develop a distance learning workshop on "New Technologies in Education", inviting teachers and school administrators from different countries in the hemisphere to participate. This workshop aims to use a theoretical review of Piaget, Vigotsky and Papert' s work on constructivist and constructionist notions to identify and build ways in which computers can be effectively incorporated into the classroom. 10 To reach computer literacy, understood as the acquisition of basic skills for using operational systems and basic productivity tools (excel sheets and word processors), has been satirized by comparing it with the achievement of skills to use a pencil, when learning how to use a pencil is the result of developing expression skills through the written language. __________________________________________________________________________________ Preparatory Meeting for the III Meeting of Ministers of Education Buenos Aires – April, 2003 5 Preliminary Conceptual Framework to Support the Creation of the Proposed Hemispheric Projects New Technologies in Education Recommendations for designing a Hemispheric Program on New technologies in Education To integrate those actions pursuing the incorporation of computers into schools with national programs aimed towards the transformation of the school management system, with all its dimensions. To strengthen, within such integrative efforts, those looking for the modification of relationships between teachers, students and the community. And, to allow schools to form individuals with the basic knowledge and skills to take advantage of the possibilities for interactions and collaborative work that make new information and communication technologies possible. To make use of the horizontal cooperation mechanism to identify relevant lessons from programs in the hemisphere and resources allocated to countries in the hemisphere, like the OAS’ Educational Portal of the Americas and the possibilities inherent in the use of the Mexican Educational Satellite System EDUSAT's for transmitting and receiving video and data throughout the hemisphere. The contribution that different international experiences make to enhance this endeavor is critical to those starting to face this challenge already experienced by many educational systems. Within this framework, a hemispheric project in the use of new technologies in education suggests an opportunity for a collaborative work with seemingly endless benefits. __________________________________________________________________________________ Preparatory Meeting for the III Meeting of Ministers of Education Buenos Aires – April, 2003 6