Conectándos MEP-FQT, costarrican kids with digital tools

The main problem is the digital gap that Costa Rica has in public schools.The causes that generalize the problem are many, however,among the main ones we can mention are: The digital divide that existed in terms of internet access is reflected in Image 1,according to the "Study of Digital Gap Index "2016) The Ministry of Science,Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) announces that: Internet accounts for speeds greater than 512 Kbps,increased from 5 per 100 inhabitants for the year 2008 to 97 per 100  inhabitants in 2016,however,the problem of telecommunications in the social part (people) has greater access and coverage,however,the priority for the Public Education System does not have those who guide this process to develop it fully.Quirós Tanzi Foundation that also helps them as a guide for testing and validation of tools such as Apps and Programs and activity banks to develop in class.

Chucaz School, 7 students, One teacher model.

A social problem in Costa Rica is the lack of resources in the public schools of the country,in Image 2 we can see the map of MEP educational centers (2016) of our country,this shows us why we have the lowest illiteracy rate of Latin America, however,also reveals how difficult it can be to provide the necessary attention,in a personalized way and the courses in a more equitable way.Reviewing this couple of reasons we can guarantee the effort we make is timely but constant and makes a difference.

Those are the ODS´s that we cover with our project:

Children from these public schools doesn´t has technology programs, before the Quirós Tanzi Foundation made it,until high school,Conectándonos made it possible,in their homes according to our statistics their moms are the head of the family and have access to mobile devices but they use them to learn,they only use them according to their typical communication functions,the country interest according to the Report of the State of Education (2017) indicates that connectivity is a right of humanity,but in addition to being a right it is a necessity for the child to receive the best for their intellectual development. We benefit: 80 schools= 7208 people.

1- Diagnosis: assessment of technical and pedagogical needs (red and equipment of schools) and community and school diagnoses. Meet list of annual requirements.

2- Planning: Preparation of the Annual Plan according to the needs of the schools, meet each objective.

3- Execution: Compliance with expected activities, data collection and evidence.

4- Evaluation: Evaluation in the process (6 months) and Final Evaluation of each activity

5- Delivery of results: Annual reports and reports with the results.

We visit the schools in order to include technology in school classrooms as a basic and necessary tool to develop a model of education with technology, we are part of the work carried out by the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica,to include technological resources in a guided way, we need to grow much more, not only are they also workshops,regional technology fairs,robotics and many other initiatives.

Our objectives are:
1. Promote the development of technological fluency, skills of collaborative work and problem solving in changing learning environments in children.
2. Implement a continuous program of teacher training, which empower them to be mediators of the teaching-learning process, and pedagogical proposal.
3. Create and maintain face-to-face and virtual learning communities with families and the community to participate.

The MEP-FQT Conectándonos Project seeks to close the country's digital social divide and develop the skills that our citizens require for a full life in the knowledge society.

The Project allows elementary and preschool children to have access to technological resources for use in the classroom, giving them the opportunity to include,appropriate and personalize the educational process; It also benefits families and communities.

Our mission is: We are the educational project management entity that uses mobile technologies,to favor digital social inclusion, through the execution of social responsibility funds from public and private entities.

Our vision is: To be the national reference entity in the management of educational-technological projects that promote development opportunities in primary school children of the public education system of Costa Rica.
General Objective: Offer better opportunities for digital social inclusion to students and that their learning process is really significant and beneficial for their development, thanks to the potential of the technology offered in different changing educational spaces.

What is accompaniment?
We want all the beneficiaries and institutions of the Connecting Us Project to have more autonomy and be able to appropriate it,with the ultimate goal of forming proactive and investigating communities of their educational reality.
https://youtu.be/Xm-Y2ZwgcEM

Remote Accompaniment Plan
In selected schools, we provide virtual pedagogical support to teachers who are frequently left out of face-to-face coaching,due to the particularity of their schedule. Week by week,teachers receive in their email a strategy to work in class with the computer.Likewise, they keep updated of the activities of the Foundation and processes of their own school.

Coaching
We observe, question and offer suggestions that foster in the teachers, children, family and community,reflection and decision-making capacity in the use of the computer.

In our case children are the direct and main beneficiaries,completing learning cycles we know that they are the big bets of the education systems of most countries and being inclusive in tools is the dream of many schools. Children are the users of our teams and they are the ones who will change the world from their knowledge, abilities and future performance,reaching these generations through public education is only the way to achieve our goal with them:educate new generations with a vision for the future to emerge, grow and be better,no matter in the field they perform (engineers, moms, doctors, technicians,teachers, among others) they will be better if they know the use and application of technology for their professions.

Our solution is so innovative that schools such as those located in Limón (an area with serious crime and drug trafficking problems in our country) have had private schools that have questioned, why do they have technology and not yours?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Video of Moín School, Limón.

This marks a huge reference in the digital divide that we try to reduce, projects in areas such as the one mentioned above excite us and put us to work harder when we see the opportunity of children from Schools of the Sandalwood Zone (in the south of the country) They travel 1 full day to participate in technology fairs where they present their robotics projects and applications from other schools that are hundreds of kilometers away.

There are annual plans for the number of visits, objectives, tasks and expected achievements. It is an annual calendar in excel, each of the controls enables the results for each semester (June) as progress of the project and in December (annual reports given by the Final results generated by the instruments.

We manage 3 procedures to fulfill the objectives of the project: 

Procedure 1. 

Control of the Coordinator of Pedagogy and IT: The coordinators of each area are responsible for carrying out the control of objectives and compliance by the advisors who provide the information with each visit they make (through a report). 

Procedure 2. Evaluations made to schools: (Annex). These are semi-annual and annual measures to measure the performance of children, teachers and communities before the program. 

Procedure 3. Control of attendance, compliance and checklist of activities through minutes with each visit in the schools of the Project Connecting.

Our frameworks for action are as follows: Generate innovative ideas that modify traditional habits or practices, which have a positive and visible impact, as well as what is recorded through our Conectándonos program be transferable to other contexts. We also use the use of image with the consent of the parents at the beginning of the school year. We cover the direction of the Ministry of Public Education that is based on the country guidelines for the care and rights of students.

Now 6300 people

Next Year 7308 people

In 5 years Maybe 8500 people

Include: Teaches, Students and Family and communities.

Our specific objectives in previous spaces which are related to: students, teachers and the surrounding communities.

We benefit girls and their mothers with robotic projects in STEAM to empower girls and their mothers, learning this in ages from preschool, primary and secondary.

We have plans to implement workshops in schools with Fab-Labs, Drones and digital printing, create Maker Spaces in schools and make them innovation centers for community use and to be able to generate workspaces, prototyping and moving communities through microgenerators and enterprises.

We also train communities outside our project in partnership with municipalities, local government and educational entities.

Risks:

• Cultural: 

Strikes, congresses, unforeseen natural disasters and low attendance of students to schools, lack of interest or convocation by children.

• Financial:

Excessive growth in school enrollment and resources are not enough.

• Technical:

The team must be changed every 5 years to innovate in educational and technological issues, the methodologies must go hand in hand with the new (equipment, kits, apps and tools)

Risks:

• Cultural:

We will maintain the interactive dynamics with tasks that for our beneficiaries are agile to fulfill, keeping alive their interest and interaction with the objectives of our project.

• Financial:

Maintaining a budget that helps us sustain a project that grows too much, we can also generate a laboratory (with mobile tools) that the school can use on a rotating basis. And maximize the use and care of the equipment with proper maintenance.

• Technical:

The expiration of the team is inevitable, however we can use it and extend its use as much as possible through innovative educational methodologies with the same tools.

Our solution has practiced as nominee for good educational practices of Mobile Learning Week 2019, UNESCO, Paris. In the preschool education sector with our "Children Leaders" project, however, we would like to expand our practices to more countries in North and Central America, we know the need for "digital literacy" and the urgency to implement some opportunity for children and adolescents.

https://youtu.be/4EIzOGlooPg

We are a 21 team, the people who work at the Quirós Tanzi Foundation are in the following positions:

• Accounting assistant
• Administrative director
• Warehouse manager
• Miscellany
• Communication and volunteer coordinator
• Pedagogical Advisor
• Pedagogical Coordinator
• Learning Environments Designer
• Director of the Pedagogical Department
• Fundraising Coordinator
• Plant Technician
• IT Coordination
• IT Director
• Project analyst
• Project manager
• Executive Director
• Foundation Auditor

We have been developing our Project in the 7 provinces of our country for 8 years,that is why we have the experience and knowledge to carry it out with the necessary resources,it is our largest project in which we cover a complete population since it goes from children that fill the classrooms, teachers and communities that benefit from more trained children,more educated communities and families in terms of the use of technology and its functionality for day to day.This project is the monitoring of the life linked to the technology of children living in communities of relatively less developed areas in the country,the changes that we intend are based on the objectives of creating a proactive learning community and investigating their reality educational We begin with training and the speed of children by developing challenges and projects that are assigned according to the competencies achieved in empowerment and leadership programs that ask them to take responsibility for the results of their school,BACactively participate in interscholastic competitions and their level of knowledge.The speed of children in developing challenges and projects that are assigned according to the competences achieved in empowerment and leadership programs that ask them to take responsibility for the results of their school,participate actively in interscholastic Olympics and demonstrate their level knowledge with Other schools in the program. The best way to give continuity to a project is to get those who surround the main beneficiary to participate, talk about the topic and be part of the change actively.

A couple of months ago we signed an agreement with BAC Credomatic, with them we worked on a financial education project in all the schools of the project through manufacturer initiatives.

Our Foundation has a strategic planning that is developed, fulfilled and measured annually, this is done by departments, who obey a work plan with vision and direction towards the development of the model Conectándonos Proyect in alliance with the MEP and the guidelines of the entity by combat the lack of access to technology and its lack of implementation in the classroom. The document is a Manual of procedures that was prepared by position according to the needs of each space and its responsibilities. It has several parts that include: purpose, scope, references, responsibilities, procedures, annexes and tasks of each process. It shows the intervention is through visits to schools in order to include technology in school classrooms as a basic tool and we need to develop a model of education with technology, we are part of the work carried out by the Ministry of Public Education in Costa Rica, to include technological resources in a guided way, we need to grow much more, they are not only visits, they are also workshops, meetings, robotics and many more initiatives.

We work through 4 initiatives:

Sponsors of our schools: they finance 100% of each school or a group of schools through annual disbursements.
Donors: They are companies, people or organizations that donate funds through activities, events and benefits with monthly, semester or annual symbols that support many research and implementation projects in our schools (robotics, Fab Lab, Maker and Women's Empowerment)
Donation platforms: through donation platforms such as Global Giving and Amigos of Costa Rica, we receive funds for our project in general.
Sale of services and training: With the sale of this type of services we earn a percentage and invest in the purchase of robotics kits, pilot projects and re-investment of the profit in the project.

If our solution were selected it would be great news, we currently have many plans and projects with our schools, each of the plans is subject to the continuity of our sponsoring companies and we know the importance of continuing with this project after 8 years of starting , the areas they need are areas of less relative development and our motto is: education CANNOT stop, education solves many problems of the future, among them: violence, unemployment and above all more creative, agile minds with new ideas To undertake a world that demands more complete and efficient solutions in less time, it is inspiring to think that our project will be able to advance one more year with miles of children in it.

Those are the last year results of our projects in South Zone and Sarapiquí Zone:

We would like to partner with organizations that volunteer in the areas where we work directly, in this way we can integrate more to the sources of employment in the area to our schools and that the community knows a little more and has access to job opportunities by that proximity.

We would like to partner with more schools in the area to develop the project and the companies that support the schools that surround their operations, the children who study there will be their collaborators of the future.