Chile-Response of Using “Teaching Essentials Course”

A Presentation To Incorporate Into The Somerset Public Schools

Raymond Nekrasz, Director of Technology

University of Maryland, University College

November 19, 2013

Dr. Tamara E. Blesh

How the Teaching Essentials Course Can Help Chile and The Somerset School District

• We are going to review the Teaching Essentials Course introduced by the Intel Corporation and researched by Dr. Daniel Light in several countries including Chile.

• We are going to show how the shift to student-centered learning can shape educational programs to increase student achievement.

• One simple piece of ICT usage in schools made the difference in increasing student performance.

• Project based learning has positive outcomes on achievment.

UNESCO Data Center for Chile

• The next few slides give some baseline information on where Chile stands statistically as it relates to Education

Graphics Source:http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/document.aspx?ReportId=121&IF_Language=eng&BR_Country=1520&BR_Region=40520

UNESCO Data Center for Chile

Political vs. Pedagogical

• What we cannot focus on from Somerset but should know: The Politicso Chile is succeeding in moving from an “elite” to a “mass” …education

system (OECD and World Bank, 2009)

o Chileans value education. They see education as the ticket out of being a developing nation to a developed nation (United Nations, 2013).

o The issue of access and equity define policy efforts and moving toward more reforms.

o Wealth families still have better opportunity to gain the education to success.

• As you can see in the statistical tables, Chile is on the right path as it relates to enrollment.

Political vs. Pedagogical

• What we can focus on:o Dr. Daniel Light’s work and research on Intel Corporation’s Essential Course (Light,

The role of technology in developing country classrooms: ICT-using schools in Chile, India, and Turkey, 2010)

o Pedagogy as it relates to ICT integration.

Light’s work on implementing the teachers Essential Course, incorporating the four dimensions(these will be covered in a later slide) has moved the pedagogical paradigm to shift toward more student-centered learning in using technology efficiently(Light, The role of technology in developing country classrooms: ICT-using schools in Chile, India, and Turkey, 2010).

Chile, where are they and what have they done about it?

• Enlaces: “National Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and education initiative designed as part of a series of programs to overcome inequity and quality issues of public education in Chile, by integrating teachers and learners into the knowledge society” (Sanchez, Salinas, Contreras, & Meyer, 2011)

• Formed in the early ninety’s to improve teaching and learning (Joiko, 2013).

• Run by the Ministry of Education, a network of organizations assuming active roles in advising and implementing ICT in schools.

How is Enlaces similar to what Somerset deals with?

• E-rate:o The E-Rate program is run by a private company

(Universal Service Administrative Company, USAC) under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to collect and distribute funds for telecommunication infrastructure connections for rural areas, eligible consumers, rural health care providers, schools, and libraries (Universal Service Administrative Company, 2013).

o Like the Enlaces program in Chile, E-Rate in the U.S. provides schools with funds to connect classrooms to the internet.

How is Enlaces similar to what Somerset deals with?

• Massachusetts DESEo Along with Federal programs for grant funds, the DESE provides

opportunities for local programs to tap funds for technology programs.

• The latest grant we have received is for a Kindergarten program related to student data and assessment.

• In this program, we applied for and received funds to purchase new computers for all the Kindergarten classrooms in the district.

• These computers are used by the teachers for this data collection and for students to explore outside their classrooms.

Professional Development: Using Intel’s program

• In Light’s work, he focused four dimensions of Intel’s program with great results (Light &

Pierson,2011).o 1. Teacher knowledge, beliefs, and attitudeso 2. Students’ relationship to the material they are learningo 3. Relationships among students, teachers, and parentso 4. The use of ICT for student learning.

In our interview with Dr. Light, he states that the issue with integrating technology in the classroom deals with “teacher training and good tech support. The central challenge is always pedagogy—finding meaningful use for the technology in ways that truly support teachers and students and build off of existing practice and move them toward new practices “(Light,D, 2013).

ICT & learning in Chilean schools: Lessons Learned

Jaime Sanchez and Alvaro Salinas

Sanchez, J., & Salinas, A. (2008, April 8). ICT & learning in chilean schools: Lessons learned. Computers and Education, pp. 1621-1633.

• Enlaces: Designed to improve teaching and learning, integrating ICT into curriculum and thus teachers and learnings into the knowledge society to overcome inequity and poor quality in publicly financed education in Chile.

• Assuming that ICT integration into pedagogy is right and appropriate, which it is, let’s look at some success in Chile and how we can incorporate these practices into Somerset to help increase student achievement.

ICT & learning in Chilean schools: Lessons Learned (Cont.)

• Reform in Chile involved:o Changes in regulatory frameworkso Increased school coverageo Changes in school curriculumso Increased pedagogical resources and infrastructures for schoolso Professional development for teacherso On-the-job training scenarioso Increased time teachingo Increasing student attendanceo School management changeso An increase in the educational budget

• The results of Enlaces was to decrease the gap between the layers of schools (municipal, semi-private and private).

• As you can see in the graph below (Sanchez,Salinas ,2008), the higher socioeconomic class performed better than the lower classes:

ICT & learning in Chilean schools: Lessons Learned (Cont.)

• The Enlaces is in a stagnation mode of improvement for quality of education

• Looking at the results of Dr. Light’s program, a renewed approach of pedagogical practices of ICT usage has a positive affect on outcomes.

• Hinostroza et al report that strides are made in High Performing schools by simply having students present their work.

ICT & learning in Chilean schools: Lessons Learned (Cont.)

ICT & learning in Chilean schools: Lessons Learned (Cont.)

Graphic:(Hinostroza, Labbe, Brun, & Matamala, 2011)

16

Intel Teach Program

Essentials Course •The Intel® Teach Program is a worldwide initiative to provide teachers with the skills to effectively integrate technology into existing curriculum to improve student learning.

•Since 1999, the Intel Teach Program has helped over 5 million educators in more than 40 countries.

•The goal of the Intel® Teach Essentials Course is to help classroom teachers develop student-centered learning through technology integration and project-based approaches.

Page Source: http://engage.intel.com/welcome

Professional Development

• Teachers need focused training on ICT practives.o Professional Development:

• Use of technology• Pedagogy• Curriculum

• The teachers will have buy-in of using ICT when they are sure outcomes will be worth the effort. Otherwise they will use traditional methods (without the use of ICT in the classroom.)

Conclusion

Positive aspect that we might want to consider

Area’s that would not benefit Somerset

A centralized system from the Minister of Educationo Funding is Centralizedo Training is homogenous

for all teacherso Project based education

lessons

Voucher systemo Stratification of studentso Loss of equity

Chile and Somerset have positive aspects of use of technology in their respective school system.

The ultimate goal is student achievement. Somerset should increase the amount of professional development as it relates to ICT integration.

A policy should be established for equitable distribution of technology across the district. The current practice of having PTO groups purchase ICT items is as counter-productive as the voucher system is in Chile.

Interview Participants

All Interview Responses can be read at EDTC645.yolasite.comDr. Daniel Light

Light, D. (2013, October 31). ICT integration project, Chile. (R. Nekrasz, Interviewer)

Dr. Juan Enrique Hinostroza

Hinostroza, J. (2013, October 29). ICT integration project, Chile. (A. Migliore, Interviewer)

Dr. Patricio Rodriguez

Rodriguez, P. (2013, November 2). ICT integration project, Chile. (A. Migliore, Interviewer)

References:• Center for Children & Technology. (2013, October 30). Dr Daniel Light, biography. Retrieved from

Center for Children & Technology: http://cct.edc.org/people/light-daniel• Hinostroza, E., & Brun, M. (2010). ICT in education policy and proactive in Chile: Does it correlate?

Retrieved from IEA: www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/IRC/IRC_2010/Papers/IRC2010_Hinostroza_Brun.pdf

• Hinostroza, E., Labbe, C., Brun, M., & Matamala, C. (2011). Teaching and learning activities in chilean classrooms: Is ICT making a difference? Computers & Education, 1358-1367.

• Joiko, S. (2013). School choice: Demands and expectations of chilean families according to how much they pay for education. Ejournal of Education Policy, 1-10. Retrieved from http://nau.edu/COE/eJournal/_Forms/spring2013/Joiko/

• Light, D. (2010). The role of techonology in developing contry classrooms: ICT-using schools in Chile, India, and Turkey. Presented at Comparative International Education Society 2010 annual conference. Chicago.

• Light, D., & Pierson, E. (2011). Increasing ICT use with ... New York: Intel Corportation.• Mizala, A., & Torche, F. (2013). Bringing the schools back in: the stratification of educational

achievement in the chilean voucher system. International Journal of Educationial Developoment, 132-144.

• Sanchez, J., Salinas, A., Contreras, D., & Meyer, E. (2011). Does the new digital generation of learners exist? A qualitative study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(4), 534-556. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01069.x

• U.S. Department of Education. (2013, November 9). Infrastructure: access and enable. Retrieved from Ed.gov: http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/infrastructure-access-and-enable