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Ceibalitas, teachers and teaching of new technologies: an open discussion

Dear, let me share a story published by journalist Porley Carolina in the weekly Brecha ( www.brecha.com . uy , edition of Friday 23 April, p. 16 and 17) which addresses the discussions that have been generated in the field of secondary education teachers on Ceibal Plan and its implementation in the educational level, sharing Throughout the text the views of Professor Carlos Rivero (permanent bureau member of the Technical Teachers' Assembly) and the writer of these lines (in particular, focuses on the signals contradictory educational policy level are being taken on Informatics in secondary education).
I invite you to read the note and discuss the issue. It is one of the central themes in the current education agenda and certainly requires the input of all.

support teachers discussed
Ceibal

Porley

Carolina was the first time the Teaching Technical Assembly (ATD) addressed the issue of national Ceibal. Delegates from teachers around the country gathered between February and 7 March and discussed the arrival of the XO to secondary education: the result was criticism or less hard and a lot of skepticism.
The discussion took place without previous material handling, picking only the views that brought teachers from their experiences. In some departments (like Florida), and since 2008 first year students had the XO that they had received at school. Interior In the rest of this occurred in 2009 and in 2010 Montevideo and Canelones. He explained to
Gap Professor Carlos Rivera, a member of the Permanent Bureau of the ATD, the discussion identified two positions: " a critical but accepting the proposal, taking into account that already exists in software tool secondary years. It was a critical acceptance of the tool with challenges to Ceibal the country subject to international loans, and ideological aspects associated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he works Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC , for its acronym in English), adopted in Uruguay for the first time in the world.
The other position was harder still, and it was "absolute rejection ." "Roughly arguments were of type 'is a new form of imperialism', 'means more debt for the country', 'at high schools are missing important things than computers for students', among others "said the teacher.
These positions were reflected in the final report of the ATD, in about five pages of his chapter on Ceibal.
The text was approved in general but in particular, ie it does not follow the position of the ATD on the issue, but the positions managed by its members.
On Thursday 27 May, the discussion is "lower" the faculty of each school. That day he made the ATD high school students.
When asked whether, beyond ideological arguments, there pose on the pedagogical aspects linked to the inclusion of the laptops in the classroom, Rivera explained that teachers who come from high schools whose students have the XO their experiences. The stories were varied and depended largely on the experience of students in school: "There is a range . In some cases the teachers worked very well with the machines, were up, and even coordinated with teachers transition and continuity of this work. In others, the teachers established that the machine was brought in twice a week and was used for things like search the Internet or do homework. XO In many cases, the child used it for little games and led to virtually no school. Now also leads to the Liceo "he told the teacher that emphasized the training they had virtually no teachers in the use of" ceibalita. " " do we incorporate it into the classroom if we do not know how to use? "he said.
So far the training they have had high school teachers on the subject is restricted to a few days in some high schools, and a body that was organized before the start of classes was mandatory for first-year teachers, which explained
operation of XO. Teachers who participated in that instance Gap told that there was from those they did not know how it lit up the machine to those with a greater knowledge of the tool, they can capture the uniqueness of this type of computer.

signals. Ceibal Plan land in July in grade school, where in fact there is already an experience of 15 years including the computer as a subject. The story, say the experts, shows the contradiction has been the official discourse regarding the recovery of this resource.
Since 1996, settled the first rooms equipped and joined the computer as a subject in the CBC, its use has not been easy given the "cultural bias" and " stigmatization" of those has been said to Gap Pablo Romero, professor of philosophy and computer science.
In recent changes incorporated in the curriculum (Rethinking 2006) High Council cut the school day of the course (five hours per week to four courses in first and second year basic cycle). Also halved computer teachers per group (formerly two, now one), and recently dropped by 50 percent of seats allocated to teachers in charge of computer labs.
In an article published in the March newsletter Association of Teachers of Secondary Education (ADES), Romero denounced this situation and the lack of updating of programs and the contradiction between this policy and the extension of Ceibal.
" aversion is not free you have with computers, both from the educational authorities themselves left as teachers unions (which in all have gone or will to denounce this situation), to the extent that the discipline suffers 'double stigma': a) is 'direct daughter' of the 'reform Rama' (...), so that teachers unions have seen very little sympathy, and is considered a subject 'instrumental', away from the budgets 'humanists' and 'enlightened' that dominate the educational imaginary. Its political fragility is such that there is no need to even notify the authorities or explain why he reduced hours. What if those procedures are give to subjects like history, mathematics, literature or any other matter 'strong'? he asked.
In fact, today is a discussion on Secondary installed on whether it is worth continuing with computer classes.
is argued that it is making matters very little to students. Learn how to use the Word to a student of 12 years using the computer at school does not make sense. Even states that many times, especially with regard to Internet use, students usually have a larger domain than the teacher in charge of the course.
In this situation there is a proposal to transform the computer courses in a workshop designed in a cross-or multidisciplinary, so that the tool is used in all subjects.
This would be something like the concept of "computer labs", created for teachers of different subjects can use in their classes or for students to use the machines in their spare time to find material or do home work .
However, Romero explained to Gap, this is not the case and computer labs are underutilized in almost all schools. Not only because of scheduling problems, students can only enter them with a teacher or when the teacher assigned to the room, and it has a charge time of 24 hours per week, or four hours a day, but because in fact there there is demand, the teachers do not take their groups and students do not use them for their
account.
" Similarly, today's students first and second ceibalitas are failing the class. This has several explanations. On the one hand, the battery lasts two hours and that is a real complication. But Teachers also do not know what to do with them " he said.
Romero put emphasis on the existence of an underlying problem with the computer and can be explained by "intellectuals judgments or prejudices that dominate the educational system beyond the official discourse on Ceibal, new technologies and reducing the digital divide.
" Nor is it surprising that English is the other stuff that lost hours in the new reformulation driven in this period. It is part of a vision of education. It is considered that English and computers are merely "instrumental" or "minor" according to some conception of "enlightened and humanist." Meanwhile, the world is going elsewhere, "said Romero.
This teacher cautioned that if you bet on the teaching of computer science rather than its elimination as a subject and do not strengthen the resource teachers, students
will not really learn something about the discipline, because they will not have ceibalitas a " magical effect."
For him, information should be present throughout the six years of secondary education, with updated curricula and the creation of a computer in secondary school, as having UTU. According to this pose, not enough to teach " Office package, or how to navigate the Internet or create a blog. Rather it would be necessary to introduce teenagers to the world of computing as a science, incorporating knowledge of programming, so that as a basis for careers tertiary propaedeutic related to information technologies and communication technologies (ICT), now in full zero growth and unemployment.