Strenghtening Culture Methodology - 2012

7/28/2019 Strenghtening Culture Methodology - 2012

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Forthcoming.Ed-Media2012

The One to One Model, One Laptop per Child,

On the Strengthening of Education and Culture

Aura Mora

Sandra BarragnClaudia Urrea

One Laptop per Child Association

Colombia

Sandra, Aura @ laptop.org

Claudia @ media.mit.edu

Abstract: This paper presents the methodology used and some initial findings on theimplementation of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) model within the project Edcate:Strengthening Culture through Education and Technology, developed among 11 publicschools serving the peasant and indigenous population (Sikuani ethnic group) from theCumaribo and La Primavera municipalities, in the Vichada, Colombia. The Edcate

project implementation includes a rigorous evaluation based on experimental

methodology, involving quantitative and qualitative information on the different actorsfrom the Educational Institutions (EI) and community in general. The baseline resultspresented in this paper will serve as reference for the annual assessment of the projectsimpact monitoring and evaluation, both in the control schools and in the beneficiaryschools. Preliminary results suggest a strengthening of the educational, cultural andcontextual processes at the intervened rural schools, based on the articulation ofeducational, technical and cultural components.

Key Words: Constructionism, culture, one to one (1:1), education, projects, indigenouspopulation, vulnerable population, methodology, evaluation, impact.

1. Theoretical FrameworkIn the 60s, the idea of a computer for each child seemed like something out of science fiction; nevertheless,Seymour Papert already imagined the possibilities and impact they could have on learning. This laid out thegrounds for the theory of Constructionism, inspired on the Constructivist theory of Jean Piaget, who propoundedthat learning is an active process, where the learners are continuously building mental models and theories abouttheir surrounding world. Papert argues that this learning is more effective when people physically construct intheir world (Papert, 1980). From then on, Papert devoted himself to promote his vision of the potential held bytechnology in the education field, and how it should penetrate the learning environments, idea often expressed byhim through the pencil metaphor.

It is precisely in the Constructionist theory where we find the most important difference between an ICT projectimplemented in the classroom and an OLPC One to One project (1:1), centered in the unique and personalrelationship with technology developed by each child, which allows them to develop what is known astechnological fluency. According to Papert and Resnick (1995), Technological Fluency can be understood as

the ability itself to possess the tool, using it to prepare meaningful things, and enabling them to go from theinception of an intuitive idea to the execution of a technological project. In this context, OLPC essentiallypromotes the development of this technological fluency in children, enabling them to integrate all the tools athand; from pencil and paper to the application of technology, to program, for instance, a robot. When childrenreach this fluency, they are able to design, build and refine their projects, through the application of conceptsfrom a diversity of fields: mathematical, linguistic, scientific, etc. What is even more important, throughout this

process the child develops other important skills, associated with design (problem solving, modularization,reflection, refinement, screening, etc.), computer science (sequences, variables, conditions, events, etc.), and thesocial practice of learning and teaching other children (sharing, helping each other, merging, etc.). This is howthe OLPC work is framed, and the potential for establishing a culture of independent learning and thinkingwithin the frame of technological fluency. In addition, and to ensure that the learning is relevant, children musthave access to the ideas that move their local culture, and those that are part of the global human legacy. Thischange in the learning culture, and not the technology that enables it, is one of the characteristics and strengths of

the Sugar interface (Bender, 2011), core of the OLPC project and of its implementation vehicle: the portablecomputer known as XO.


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If the concept of Technological Fluency shapes the process of learning with technology, the concept ofclassroom expansion places it at the time and space where such learning happens. This concept refers to otherspaces, informal and unusual, where the child learns, and to the people who will accompany them throughouttheir learning (family members and communityi). By facing situations in their surroundings and usingtechnological tools that allow them to understand problems, designing and suggesting solutions, children learn incontext about concepts that would be impossible to learn in an academic way. They learn, at the same time,

about their history and culture, together with their classmates, teachers and parents. A 1:1 project allows thereturn of the joint responsibility process to all the actors involved, increasing as well the learning potential of thestudents and their families.

The concept of classroom expansion becomes even more important with reports such as the one presented byDavid Barth, of the US Agency for International Development (USAID): Think Tank: Educational Innovationand Technology. Leveraging Technology to Enhance the Relevancy and Quality of Education, submitted duringthe Advanced Leadership Initiative conference at Harvard University.ii Barth points out that in some LatinAmerican countries, in isolated areas and rural areas in particular, when children finish their basic elementaryeducation they have practically learnt nothing, since they attend school just 2 or 3 hours per day, perhaps mostlymoved by nutritional reasons.

Finally, in its role as advocate of the 1:1 model, OLPC stands at the forefront on the subject of evaluation,currently defining a framework of the learning scopes for the 21st centuryiii in accordance with the progress of the

different OLPC programs, in the different countries and contexts. This framework will not only report on theevaluation processes, but also allows to redefine and rethink the meaning of learning, what is worth learning, andhow these learnings are measured.

Although academic results are important, international organisms such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank which recently launched the pilot project 21 st Century Skills in Costa Rica(Severin, 2011) consider the need to establish skill measurements different to those from the traditional areasof knowledge. This turns out to be important, for a child or youth good at math, history, science or other area ofknowledge, will not necessarily be competitive in the globalized world he/she will have to face. Far beyondacademic results, a 1:1 project develops skills for learning, changing the relationship dynamics between thestudents, their teachers, and even their families.

2. EDCATE

: Strengthening Culture through Education and TechnologyThe project EDCATE, Strengthening Culture through Education and Technology emerges from the public-

private partnership between the BHP Billiton Company which takes the initiative to develop a socialinvestment project in education in its area of influence , the Colombian government through its program RedUnidos (United Network), and One Laptop per Child Association, which join efforts to the purpose ofcontributing to strengthening the quality of education in 11 schools of rural and indigenous communities of theVichada Department, in the Cumaribo and La Primavera municipalities.

Several factors distinguish the EDCATE project:

It is the first time that a 1 to 1 Model is implemented in Colombia, with the objective of culturalrecovery and strengthening, in this case, of the Sikuani indigenous ethnic group.

Besides the provision of technology, the project aims to develop the local capacity, so as to strengthenthe project and make it sustainable in the long term.

The project is part of a research aimed at studying the social impact of technology in the developmentof autonomous learning skills among the different actors of an educational community.

The project is set out upon the following main objectives:

To enrich the teaching-learning processes within and without the classroom, through the reinforcementofEducational Skills in teachers and students involved in the project.

To contrive to make teachers and students use their XO as a daily work tool, through the developmentofTechnical Skills.

To guarantee the articulation of the elements that generate the projects impact and sustainability,through the development ofManaging Skills in the people participating as actors of the project.

To optimize the use of the technological resources provided by the project, through the installation ofTechnical Support Centers.


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To improve the performance in Language and Mathematic skills of 2 nd to 5th graders, through the designand execution of educational projects.

To strengthen the identity of the Sikuani ethnic group through participatory work with leaders andknowledgeable people, in order to develop cultural educational contents that may be uploaded to thecomputers, as a strategy to enable the sense of culture ownership on the part of the children andcommunity.

The project is developed in a context with very particular socio-economic and cultural conditions of theColombian territory, explained in depth below.

2.1. Intervention and Study Context:The Vichada, department where the project is developed, has had a history shaped by drug trafficking anddomestic armed conflict. As of the 80s to this day, cocaine processing and trafficking has transformed theregions economic, social and cultural dynamics. Cocaine dealing prospered at the beginning, promoting theopen trafficking through the Venezuela border, the repression of its residents by guerrilla and paramilitarygroups, and an economy that depended on drug trafficking. This situation held for more than two decades, untilthe advent of the cultivation eradication (by aerial and manual means) and the State military incursion in the

area. At present, the effects of these phenomena and the reorganization of emerging criminal gangs keep thepopulation in poverty, generating feelings of rootlessness slightly relieved by the arrival of private ormultinational companies, which represent the hope of reviving the economy. This situation is aggravated by twoother factors: state intervention, which submerges a large portion of the eastern part of the country intoobscurity, since the physical and administrative infrastructure for the attention of basic needs and rights in theregion is precarious; and the high level of corruption found among the departments public posts and institutions.

The Edcate strategy of educational and cultural intervention was launched in the low Vichada territory,specifically in the Cumaribo and La Primavera municipalities. This area is populated by peasants andindigenous communities of the Sikuani and Piapocos ethnic groups. Most peasants are direct descendants offamilies who emigrated to the Vichada at different times, driven by: first, the rubber exploitation in theOrinoquia area that started in the 1920s (since the Vichada represents 23% of this region); second, the two-partyviolence of the 50s, and third, during the cocaine boom of the last decades. The indigenous communities haveinhabited and moved across this area since times immemorial, at present, most of them belong to the Sikuani

ethnic group, members of the linguistic family of the guahibos and who represent 80% of the departmentspopulation (Gomez, 2003). We should recall that:

The name Sikuani means savage people; known as expert hunters and fishermen, due totheir continuous dynamic, for them, the past is still present. Their actions are expressedin relation with the cardinal points, in such a manner that there are some Sikuani wordsthat have no interpretation whatsoever in any other language.

Violence, drug trafficking and land exploitation by private and public companies have affected the indigenouscommunities of the low Vichada, disturbing their economic and cultural dynamics. Their lands have beenreduced, and they have gone from being nomadic groups with hunter-gatherer practices to being sedentary, bysettling at the territorial reservation areas assigned to them by the central government. During the cocaine

boom, they worked as raspachinesiv or possessed small farms, i.e., cocaine plantations; this caused them toabandon the looking after of the conucov, turning them into victims of terror and rootlessness brought about by

the armed conflict. As a result, the incursion of the western world and the displacement of some expressionstypical of the Sikuani culture. This process was also produced by the arrival of missionary brigades from theCatholic Church, since the mid 60s, and the Protestant Church, approximately 6 years ago, which consider someof their ancestral customs as inadequate and unfathomable with their new faith.

The Catholic missionary movement established the regions education structure. The Monfort missions foundedinstitutions of basic education, which later on became the mean and which operate as boarding schools; the

population of elementary and high school students still attend these institutions. Satellite schools or campusescan also be found amid the indigenous communities, which basically consist of a school that functions as asatellite of one of the larger secondary schools, under its management and supervision. Depending on thesecondary school jurisdiction, each satellite school is assigned to one of the larger educational institutions, andeach one of these is in charge of a specific number of satellite schools (Ramirez, 2003:36).

For these communities (indigenous and peasants both), the School represents the center of the community: thecommunities gather, make agreements, generate projects, and focus hopes for the future of their municipalitiesaround these schools. Peasant communities express the need to guarantee their childrens access to innovative


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educational resources, enabling them to aim for middle school and higher education, within the department or,mainly, on the outside world. Indigenous communities acknowledge the importance of educating their childrenand young people in areas that will allow them to become involved in educational, occupational and cultural

processes, within and without the reservation. Although they demand respect for their own upbringing, noconsolidated proposals for this kind of training exist among the Sikuani ethnic group: there are some approachesfor the inclusion of subjects involving the Sikuani language, both oral and written, but there is still a lack of

contents focused on recovering the memory of their cultural practices.The elements presented in this section make us reflect upon the relations between the peasants in the area(colonists) and the Sikuani indigenous members, most of which deal with work or education. Notwithstandingthe demographic context, colonist interests superimpose over indigenous interests. This moves us to wonderabout the educational processes capable of contributing to the social and cultural reanimation of the area, and onthe objectives for healthy coexistence among the regional population which should be pursued in anyintervention, especially when it refers to a school, the most important setting for this type of communities.

The project was developed in several stages throughout a period of 10 months, explained in detail in thefollowing sections of this paper:

Preparation Stage (January June 2011). This stage includes all the activities regarding awarenesscampaigns and information collecting prior to the intervention, which covers:

Characterization of the initial condition of the schools; Installation and technical adaptations for the power connection and Internet networking required by the

XO laptops; Raising awareness among the different actors concerning the distribution of the XO laptops, through

meetings where they cleared up concerns, expectations and future commitments; Compilation of cultural contents of the Sikuani ethnic group on the part of leaders and knowledgeable

people, for the subsequent construction of education materials and content to be uploaded to the XOlaptop;

Local launchings at each school and distribution of a laptop per student; and General launching of the project, which gathered all the beneficiary schools, the work team, and

national and regional authorities.

Intervention Stage, or Capacity Development (July to October, 2011). This stage focused on thedevelopment of local capacities, through different activities carried out with the different actors of theeducational institutions:

Development of a general encounter for teacher training, where teachers understood the differentdevelopment components of the project and the way to execute them;

Reinforcement follow-up sessions on the educational, technological and cultural components; and Application of output evaluation tools.

Research Stage (October 2011). The evaluation and monitoring tools for the first impact assessment wereapplied at this stage. Based on the validation and adjustments performed on the tools used at the initial stage ofthe projects characterization and baseline, these tools were applied to the beneficiary schools and the controlschools, in order to determine a first impact at the end of the school year.

The following sections of the paper present the details of the Intervention and Research, which correspond to thetwo last stages of the project, as well as the results of the preliminary analysis of the baseline, raised during the

initial stage of the projects preparation.

2.2. Intervention Stage:The project intervention aimed at the development of local capacities and at the projects ownership on the partof the educational community, to the purpose of generating changes on the proposed scopes for impactevaluation: managerial, concerning administrative skills, academic climate, project sustainability, relationswith the environment, directors expectations, and satisfaction of local needs; educational, in terms of skills ineducational management, performance and academic monitoring; technological, in relation to skills intechnological management, technological and infrastructure resources; and community, focused on the Sikuanicultural presence in teaching processes, accessibility and community projection.

A team of 5 professionals was set up for this purpose, in charge of the field work. By means of reinforcementfollow-up sessions at the Educational Institutions, the team supported the development of the project based onthe reality, coexistence and collaboration with the different actors of the teaching community. The team was


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made up by three teachers, one systems engineer and one researcher, who coordinated their efforts towards thedevelopment of each one of the project components.

2.2.1. Areas of Intervention:Three areas of intervention were defined in order to reach the project objectives, operated by the appointed team:

Educational: focused on the strengthening of the teaching-learning processes by means of the properarticulation of technologies, the development of educational projects based on constructivist principles, the

promotion of autonomous learning skills, and the improvement in the academic performance of students in thelanguage and mathematics fields.

Technological: aimed at the development of technical skills, to enable the schools to manage and resolve issuesrelated with the use of software, hardware and networks, through the setting up and endowment of technicalsupport centers.

Cultural: developed to the purpose of strengthening the cultural identity of the Sikuani nation through theparticipation of leaders and knowledgeable people; cultural educational contents were developed and included inthe laptops, as a strategy to promote culture ownership on the part of the children and community.

2.2.2.Methodology:

The project methodology focused on the formation of skills to generate abilities among the different actors of theeducational community, so as to enable them to manage and sustain the project. The following strategies andtraining activities were used:

Learn by doing: aimed at strengthening the understanding of the concepts, methodologies and skills requiredfor project implementation, from the practice or participation in real or simulated situations. To formulate aneducational project, teachers participated in projects especially designed for them; to solve technical problems,real cases were resolved, or damaged XO laptops were repaired, during the support center training sessions.Teachers and students alike participated in these sessions, learning in a collaborative manner.

Learning through Projects: the project methodology or Project-Based Learning (PBL) offers an alternative forthe involvement of new technologies. Teachers use XO laptops and networks as tools to suggest solutions orways to intervene specific situations or subjects: this allows the connection of skills and contents, aimed atachieving specific learnings. In this manner, teachers and students reach a high level of commitment andmotivation, focused on obtaining a specific product or result.

Autonomous Learning: the participation and formulation of educational projects was complemented with thedevelopment of independent learning skills, so the actors could learn to manage and put into practice the learning

processes, with autonomy. The following skills of autonomous learning were selected:

Attitude skills: abilities to work in different groups, taking on leadership roles and mutualresponsibility, to act in a collaborative manner.

Information management skills: abilities related with the access, evaluation and use of information inthe manner best suited for the problem or subject in question.

Executive skills: capacity to plan, control and evaluate different processes, depending on the context ofaction.

2.3. Research Stage:The research aims to determine whether the implementation of the OLPC 1:1 Model, together with the trainingof teachers and students, develops autonomous learning skills in indigenous and peasant communities, and if itdoes, at what level and what are the obvious contextual elements in this process. This is an experimentalresearch; mixed methods were used, which provided quantitative and qualitative results concerning the Projectsmanagement and impact on the beneficiary population, as well as the differences with the population not yet

benefited. Two assessments were made: before (March 2011) and after (October 2011) the introduction of thetechnology variable in the beneficiary population. Data analysis is based on the method of statistical differences.

Schools were evaluated in the Managerial, Educational, Technological and Community scopes, through four

actors: school principals, teachers, students, and community members. Autonomous learning skills were alsoevaluated in school principals, teachers and students, as well as the contextual conditions where the project ismore successful, and the relation between the defined variables. In addition, the performance quantitative


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assessments were combined with the context qualitative assessments, to the purpose of identifying the contextualvariables that strengthen or weaken impacts on the beneficiary community. This methodology proposaldistinguishes the project from the international evaluations and domestic evaluation carried out by the NationalMinistry of Education of Colombia in the year 2010, which evaluate technology impacts on teaching processesand/or social changes in an isolated way. The project aimed to propose and test an evaluation methodologycapable of measuring the comprehensive impact of the 1:1 projects, by their insertion in a specific educational

community.Each scope and contextual conditions depended on a set of variables and indicators analyzed in a scale of 1 to 5.This definition and use of indicators are based on the research work performed by Claudia Urrea, which consistsof the implementation and impact study of a 1 to 1 computer program at a rural single-teacher school (Urrea,2007). The different actors answers were classified in order to identify levels for each one of them, as well asthe means by indicator, variable and scope. Based on the theoretical review included in the design of thisresearchvi, and taking into account their roles, action framework, decisions and importance of their contributions,the groups of evaluated actors for each indicator would be the following: teachers, students, and communitymembers.

2.3.1.Research Scopes:Four scopes were determined for the definition of the research components, defined based on the evaluation

proposal of the National Ministry of Education, the indicators of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and theexternal factors that affect this kind of processes suggested by Kentaro Toyama, as follows:

Managerial scope: Considers the formation of management skills in school principals and teachers, toenable them to lead, articulate and coordinate institutional actions regarding the implementation,application and sustainability of the OLPC 1:1 Model at the beneficiary Educational Institutions (EI).

Educational scope: Involves the formation of educational skills related with the ability to teach and/orlearn using technology resources.

Technological scope: Considers the formation of technical skills related with the expertise in the use ofthe different applications of the XO tool on the part of students and teachers.

Community scope: Includes the evaluation of the presence of the Sikuani Culture in educationalprocesses, starting from the investigation on the manner in which the XO tool accompanies the

inclusion, systematization and diffusion of cultural contents.2.3.2.Methodology:

Design: Design of an experimental research, using mixed method tools to determine the impact in thebeneficiary population and the existing differences with the population not yet benefited.

Sample selection: The intervention group consisted of 11 schools, 800 students, 30 teachers andapproximately 40 actors from the municipalities of Cumaribo and La Primavera. The control groupconsisted of a mixed school and an indigenous school, which were simultaneously assessed using theexact same evaluation tools applied to the experimental group.

Procedure: The research was carried out in two phases: characterization, where the baseline for eachscope was defined, for both the beneficiary group and the control group; and evaluation, carried outwith the same tools as the former, enriched with questions concerning the changes and transformations

experienced with the use of the XO and the Project implementation. Analysis of Results: From the onset of the tools application, a matrix of multiple correlations was

used, based on statistical data (standard deviation, variance and covariance) and the SPSS program.The relation between the dependent variables was established, as well as between the dependent andindependent variables. Qualitative indicators were analyzed through answer categorizations.

3. FindingsAlthough the analyses of the impact evaluation tools are not yet ready, some initial advances or findings can beidentified. The best way to present them is from the perspective of each one of the project components.

As reference, visit the projects Blog at http://olpcvichada.blogspot.com/p/trabajos-y-proyectos-pedagogicos-de-

los.html, which includes some samples of the work developed by teachers and students, showing some of theachievements currently reached with the EDCATE project, with no formal results of the research submitted atthe moment.


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3.1. Community and Cultural ScopeRather than affect their cultural traditions and dynamics, the insertion of computers into an indigenous groupturned out to be a useful tool for the compilation, socialization and transmission of cultural contents. This isdetermined by the use of technology as an engine for cultural recovery. Some of the results obtained in thecultural recovery processes are presented next.

Information on the most important stories, musical instruments, games and rituals of the Sikuani ethnicgroup was collected, systematized and translated. For diffusion purposes, the information was uploaded tothe schools local servers and distributed among the students in USB memories, to be consulted and usedthroughout the educational processes.

The teachers prepared socialization guides of the cultural contents, blending in learnings from the languageand math subjects; in this manner, they discovered a way to approach the cultural contents in their classes.

The students began to take part on the production of cultural contents: they illustrated and adapted to achildrens version some traditional stories, prepared a version of the Sikuani alphabet with words in theirlanguage, animated their stories using Scratch, among other activities (see Figures 1 to 3).

The formulation and execution of educational projects focused on the cultural recovery of traditionalcraftwork, storytelling and traditional games, constituted one of the most important achievements reached

by the teachers of indigenous schools, for by doing this, the children started to get acquainted with this typeof contents.

3.2. Educational ScopeIn general terms, teachers working in these Educational Institutions handle a very traditional conception andmethodology of the teaching-learning process; the copying of information on different subjects, the

memorization of information in preparation for tests, the development of exercises or textbook guides with noreal meaning to the students, are all fairly common. In this context, the development of a project that includes

Figure2.Scratchanimationofatraditional

story.

Figure1.Storiesfromtheoraltraditionofthe

Sikuaniethnicgroup,illustratedbythechildren

andadaptedtoachildrensversion.

Figure0.Traditionalgame,compilatedand

reintroducedbytheschoolchildren.


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technology generates, at first, fear and resistance on the part of the teachers, since they must face a new tool,which they have to learn to use and include into their teaching practices.

Nevertheless, some progress was achieved concerning the teachers educational practices (see Figures 4 and 5).

Most of the teachers were able to formulate and execute educational projects with the use of technology,focused on the construction or procurement of specific results. This proves that there were changes in theway in which the lessons developed and the integration of learnings from different areas of knowledge.

Most of the educational projects formulated by the teachers centered on a variety of culture-related contentsand their relationship with the students environment, to which specific lessons in math, language, science,social studies, and arts and crafts were included.

Project participation generated an intergenerational dialogue of the children with their parents, families andelders, in order to investigate history issues, pieces of advice, interviews, customary means and ways, etc.

This circumstance allowed the family to get involved in the educational process. Teachers acknowledged changes and results in their students throughout the development of the projects,moving them to propose new activities and methodologies to be developed in class.

3.3. Technological ScopeThe initial characterization of the EIs determined that the computer average per student was 0.023, in addition tothe total or partial lack of electric power. At present, with the projects implementation, each student has his/herown computer, and as of the partnerships, the endowment of electric power plants was made possible

Figure6.LocalTechnicalSupportCenters. Figure0.Teachersandstudentsjointheireffortsatthe

localtechnicalsupportcenters.

Figure0.Studentsintheprocessofdeveloping

theirProject,workingoutsidetheclassroom.

Figure4.EducationalProjectformulatedbytheteacher.


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One of the main achievements of this component was the digital literacy of the projects different actors,most of whom had never used a computer before. They currently have their own user and electronic mailaccount, perform Internet searches, and use it to handle and save personal information (music, pictures, textfiles).

The installation of Technical Support Centers integrated teachers and students into the formation process,making them better acquainted with computer and network operation and maintenance problem solving.

This skill allows for the local resolution of decisive subjects related with the general operation of the project.

3.4. Managerial ScopeThe majority of the projects EIs are directed by a school principal who must also assume the role of teacher; this

promoted their involvement in the training and launching of the different aspects of the project. A managementand administrative plan of the technological resources was formulated at each EI. In this sense, one of theformation contents of the Technical Support Center was the administration, collection, storage, distribution,minutes and database proper handling of the computer equipment, task that must be done or updated every year,during the two vacations periods.

4. Implications and Future WorkYear 2 of the Edcate Project mainly aims at the sustainability and strengthening of its differentscopes, so that the Educational Institutions will gradually move forward in the development of skills,consequently evidenced in the annual progress of the projects impact. This methodology presents anintervention and evaluation model that involves learnings and some improvement issues, among them,the following actions requiring execution:

To guarantee the continuity and gradual expansion of the project to high school students, as well as theinvolvement of children just starting their schooling, in the first grade of elementary school.

To include the evaluation and development of other basic areas of knowledge, such as science, civiceducation, skills, bilingualism with emphasis on English, arts and crafts, among others.

To strengthen public-private partnerships managed by the local actors (school principals, teachers, localauthorities), to favor the projects continuity.

To guarantee the continuity of the annual systematic assessment to identify the impact and progress ofthe Edcate project, monitoring and qualifying the evaluation methodology used.

To validate in different contexts the implementation and evaluation methodology used in this project, sothat the relationship between skill development and contextual aspects may be identified, relationshipsthat could promote both the sustainability of this sort of projects and the proper and productive use ofthe technological resources provided.

To strengthen public-private partnerships managed by the local actors (school principals, teachers, localauthorities), based on local learnings, needs and projections.

To perform a revision of the variables included in the educational content, seeing that the teachersexperience and testimonies show transformations in their educational conceptions and practices, notconsidered when the component variables were formulated.

5. Bibliografic ReferencesBender, W. (2011). Cultura de comunidad - La experiencia de Sugar Labs. In Cyranek, G (Ed), Movilizacin

social para Ceibal: Miradas al contexto nacional e internacional de proyectos de un computador por nio(pp.165-173). UNESCO.Uruguay.

BID. One to one models in Latin-America and the Caribbean. Panorama and perspectives. Recovered from:https: http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=35989594.

Burrell, J. and TOYAMA, K. What constitutes good ICTD research? Recovered from:http://itidjournal.org/itid/paper/view/382/178.


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Gmez Morales, L. M.Diagnstico sobre las Condiciones de Vida de las Comunidades Sikuani de las Riverasdel Alto Ro Tomo, Vichada. Recovered from: www.visionchamanica.com/Medicinas_alternativas/Medicina-Indigena-sikuani.htm. Recovered on October 27, 2011.

Papert, S. (1980).Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.

Papert, S., And M. Resnick. (1995). Technological Fluency and the Representation of Knowledge.Proposal to

the National Science Foundation. City: MIT Media Laboratory.Ramrez Cruz, H. (2003). Diagnstico sociolingstico de Cumaribo, zona de contacto indgena colono,Vichada. Bogota: National University of Colombia.

Severin, E. (2011). Competencias para el Siglo XXI: cmo medirlas y cmo ensearlas, BID Educacin. Whenreferring to the 21st Century Skills Project in Costa Rica.

Toyama, K. (2010). Human-Computer Interaction and Global Development. Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, 4(1), 1-79.

UNESCO. (2009). Medicin de las tecnologas de la informacin y la comunicacin (TIC) en educacin -Manual del usuario.Montreal, Canada: Institute of Statistics.

Urrea, C. (2007). One to one connections: Building a community learning culture. Unpublished

doctoral dissertation, MIT.

i On the subject, visit http://www.olpcnews.com/files/olpc-ethiopia-groningen.pdf.ii Think Tank: Educational Innovation and Technology. Leveraging Technology to enhance the Relevancy and

Quality of Education, delivered at the Advanced Leadership Initiative conference, between March 31 and April 2

of 2011, at the Harvard University.iii Innovation in Evaluation workshop, advanced between April 4 and 5, 2011 at Cambridge, organized by

Claudia Urrea, Walter Bender, and Bakhtiar Mikhak.iv Term that designates the people who work on the harvesting of the coca leaf.v Small plot of land used for subsistence farming.vi GARDEAZAVAL, Andrea. Methodology and Research Project for Impact Evaluation. Edcate Project:Strengthening Culture through Education and Technology. May 2011.

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Strenghtening Culture Methodology - 2012