ColabIA

ColabIA tackles a pressing issue: the technological gap and the shortage of pedagogical resources that are tailored to meet the specific needs of argentine teachers and students. This challenge significantly hampers educators’ ability to effectively and culturally integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into their teaching practices. In Argentina, as well as in many other Latin American countries, educators face structural constraints including inadequate technological infrastructure, sporadic internet access, and a lack of suitable hardware. Additionally, most AI tools available are predominantly in English and designed for non-Latin cultural contexts, making their direct application in local settings challenging.

Moreover, as new tools and software emerge, they predominantly require paid subscriptions, which are often not budgeted for in regional educational finances. In Argentina alone, there are more than 1.400.000 teachers. Guidelines on AI policies in education are being published by international bodies such as UNESCO and the OECD, along with new collective initiatives like the European Union's AI Act. However, in the Latin American region, and particularly in Argentina, there are still no policies or guidelines to help teachers tackle the enormous challenge of critically integrating AI into their teaching practices.

Furthermore, the scarcity of appropriate technology and internet access poses a significant obstacle in many areas of Latin America. ColabIA aims to mitigate this through the development of offline AI solutions and low-bandwidth adaptations.
Many AI tools are not designed with the linguistic and cultural context of argentinian users in mind. Our platform focuses on creating and providing content that is linguistically and culturally relevant. There is also a noticeable lack of specific training on how to effectively integrate AI into education. ColabIA will offer forums and resources for the ongoing professional development of educators in this area.

ColabIA is an innovative initiative designed to enhance the capabilities of educators in Argentina by fostering a collaborative environment focused on developing contextualized knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for educational purposes. This forward-thinking project aims to harness the collective intelligence and creativity of teachers, enabling them to effectively integrate AI into their curricula. This initiative supports teachers by providing tools to integrate AI into classrooms with meaningful and contextualized teaching proposals. Through workshops to promote and build capacity, we will co-design AI content that resonates with local cultures and communities. Subsequently, this content will be used to develop an AI bot so teachers can access a variety of unbiased content and resources, and not translated from other languages and cultures.The chatbot will be designed with filters to prevent bias and misinformation and tools to help teachers validate sources. Participants in the workshops will form a robust learning community, allowing them to continue sharing their instructional guides and experiences with AI in schools, thus continually optimizing the AI bot according to local community interests.

We will begin focusing on Argentina and plan to expand our impact to other countries in Latin America.

This solution serves teachers in Argentina by providing them with specialized training through workshops tailored to their needs. These workshops will enhance their understanding of key AI concepts and offer guidance on how to integrate this knowledge into their curriculum in meaningful and contextualized ways. Equipped with this knowledge, teachers will be able to adapt their pedagogical approaches to address the demands and opportunities presented by the current digital and technological landscape.

Furthermore, ColabIA impacts, indirectly, the lives of students while attending to culturally relevant and meaningful resources. This personalized content will increase student engagement and promote a deeper understanding of how AI affects their lives and surroundings. Access to an AI bot providing unbiased educational content tailored to the specific needs of Spanish-speaking communities will further broaden the reach of this initiative, democratizing access to AI knowledge and eliminating geographical and socioeconomic barriers. The University of Oxford and the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington DC commented to New Scientist on how anglocentrism could reduce diversity and impose a limited view of the world on linguistically and culturally distinct regions. This not only affects the accuracy of generated responses in other languages but could also lead to irrelevant or even dangerous outcomes in critical situations.
ColabIA also serves communities in general, as it has the potential to foster greater inclusion and equity in education. By initially focusing on Argentina and then expanding to other countries in Latin America, this proposal aims to address the specific needs of local communities, recognizing their unique cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic contexts. In doing so, it will contribute to closing the digital gap/inequality and promoting a more equitable distribution of knowledge and opportunities across the region.

Since 2017, Eidos Global has committed to fostering computational thinking as foundational skills for AI. We've tailored our initiatives to include preparing policymakers, providing teacher training, and assisting educators in harnessing generative AI technology, crucial since its advancements in December 2022. In collaboration with Code.org, Plan Ceibal, and UNESCO, we developed a curriculum for training teachers and policymakers in computational thinking. This program was implemented across 14 countries, engaging hundreds of policymakers, thousands of educators, and impacting over a million students from 2017 to 2019. In 2020, UNESCO invited us as a civil society specialist to participate in crafting Recommendations on the Ethical Use of AI. The following year, we discussed ethical AI usage in education with major Latin American stakeholders at a forum hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).Throughout 2023, we conducted extensive training with policymakers in collaboration with UNESCO. These sessions were designed to contemplate and develop public policies promoting AI that aligns with socio-environmental values and is accessible across the region. We reached 45 policymakers from 12 countries, contributing to Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 17. We also hosted workshops on AI ethics and learning experience design at the World Innovations Summit for Education (WISE) in Qatar. Moving forward into 2024, we are set to be the primary partner of Microsoft Philanthropies in Latin America. Our joint efforts will focus on developing AI content and re-skilling one million individuals through the ReSkilling program, which also includes digital literacy training in AI. Additionally, we joined the TeachAI initiative, a coalition aimed at empowering educators to teach AI effectively. Within this framework, we co-created a toolkit for educators that includes a comprehensive framework for AI integration into education, safe and ethical AI implementation activities, and models of agreements for AI usage in schools.

At Eidos Global, we emphasize community collaboration. We work closely with specialists to ensure our content is up-to-date and meets the highest standards of relevance and accuracy. Our team, comprising both educators and students from various Argentine educational institutions, champions the concept of lifelong learning as essential for thriving in uncertain futures.

We see AI as a potent tool, particularly when developed with a keen sense of social and environmental responsibility. Our ongoing advocacy for humanized education places individuals at the forefront, ensuring that technology enhances human creativity, empathy, and care—qualities that are essentially human and vital for addressing complex challenges in our world.

We are currently piloting our initiative as a natural progression from our successful TEC.LA program, which since 2018 has been cultivating computational thinking among educators across Latin America. Our approach has always been deeply humanized and contextualized, ensuring that every teacher in the region can grasp and convey the logic of computational thinking and its profound impact on our ways of living and teaching. Leveraging this rich experience and the network we’ve developed, we are now poised to introduce workshops focused on AI.

Using the same methodology of collaborative knowledge construction that characterized TEC.LA, we're expanding to include the reinforcement of our educator network. This will enable the creation of new materials on the use and key concepts of AI, initially tailored for Argentine schools. TEC.LA has been pivotal, training 2,345 facilitators through 98 workshops, and indirectly impacting over 2.34 million students by integrating practices like pattern recognition, algorithm creation, and essential 21st-century skills such as empathy and adaptability. In its inception, TEC.LA focused on problem-solving and "unplugged" activities, which facilitated learning without the need for digital connectivity—using play and physical interaction to make computational thinking accessible across diverse environments.
With the pandemic-induced shift to virtual learning, we adapted TEC.LA to emphasize computational thinking not just as an educational tool but also as a means for cultivating better digital citizenship and foundational technology skills.
Looking ahead, as AI becomes increasingly central in technology and education, we are evolving TEC.LA to include a comprehensive AI Thinking framework. This update will equip educators in both traditional and innovative learning environments with the necessary tools and resources to prepare themselves and their students for a rapidly changing professional landscape. In 2024, we will collaborate with UNESCO on AI workshops for educators, aiming to lay the groundwork for AI education in Argentina and, eventually, across the region.
Regarding the customization of the bot, we are currently developing Markie chatbot,  Eidos custom GPT, with humanized pedagogy that has been tested on a cohort of 50 students, yielding impressive results. The chatbot was built using custom GPT, powered by specific course content and the pedagogical frameworks we utilize at Eidos to create humanized educational experiences. We employed prompt refinement and feedback, followed by several iterations to achieve the following preliminary results: specific content for the course attended. The outcome was that 95% of the surveyed users reported that the bot added value to their course, providing agility and effectiveness, even though for most of them it was the first time using AI as a course assistant. Furthermore, the surveys showed an exceptionally high Net Promoter Score of 95.

Our primary financial barrier is securing consistent funding to develop and scale our AI educational tools specifically tailored for teachers in Latin America. While we have managed to pilot and iterate our program through limited grants and partnerships, achieving and sustaining scale requires more substantial, stable investment. Solve’s network of financial partners and funding opportunities could significantly bolster our capacity to maintain and expand our operations, ensuring that we can reach more educators and have a more profound effect on educational practices across the region.

Also, we face challenges primarily related to the development and deployment of AI tools that are adaptable to the low-resource settings typical of many Latin American educational environments. We need to enhance the functionality of our AI solutions to operate effectively in areas with limited internet connectivity and low-tech infrastructure. Access to Solve’s ecosystem of tech experts and industry leaders could provide us with the insights and resources needed to refine our AI delivery systems, making them more robust and universally accessible.

Our solution introduces a significantly improved approach to integrating artificial intelligence in educational settings, particularly within the under-resourced regions of Latin America. Unlike traditional educational programs that often deploy standardized, one-size-fits-all AI tools, ColabIA is deeply rooted in the understanding that technology must be both accessible and culturally relevant to truly transform education.

We propose a model that involves educators in the creation and refinement of AI tools. This bottom-up approach ensures that our solutions are not only tailored to the linguistic and cultural nuances of each region but also address the specific pedagogical needs of the communities they serve. By engaging teachers in the process, we harness their insights and firsthand experiences to craft tools that are truly aligned with their daily teaching practices and challenges.

Our solution aims to transform educational practices by empowering teachers in Argentina with AI tools that are culturally and linguistically tailored. Our theory of change is built on the premise that meaningful technology integration in education hinges not only on the availability of tools but on their relevance and accessibility to the educators who use them.

As part of the activities we will:
-develop of culturally relevant AI tools: Collaborating with local educators to design AI-based educational resources that align with their teaching needs and cultural contexts.
-Conduct workshops to train teachers on how to effectively use these AI tools in their classrooms.
-Establish a community of practice that allows for ongoing support and exchange of ideas among educators.

The expected Outputs are:
-Educational resources: A suite of AI tools and content developed specifically for the Argentine educational context.
-Trained Educators: A significant number of teachers trained in the use of AI in education, equipped with the skills to integrate these tools into their teaching practices.
-Community engagement: An active community of educators who continuously share best practices and provide peer support.

The expected outcomes are: 
-Enhanced teaching methods: Teachers incorporate AI tools into their curriculum, leading to more engaging and effective teaching methods.
-Scalable model for Tech integration: Successful demonstration of a scalable model for integrating culturally appropriate tech solutions in education.

Studies indicate that when educational tools are culturally congruent, they are more likely to be effective and are adopted more broadly (source: UNESCO's guidelines on culturally relevant education). Our pilot programs have already shown promising results and feedback from our training workshops indicates that teachers value resources that consider their specific needs and contexts. This response validates our model of involving educators in the development process, ensuring that the tools we create are not only technically sound but also pedagogically relevant.
Additionally, our ongoing collaboration with academic institutions and educational authorities provides a solid foundation for scaling and adapting our solution across different regions. By continuing to gather and analyze data from our implementations, we can refine our approach and further demonstrate its impact, encouraging wider adoption and adaptation.

We will track the number of educators who participate in our training workshops and complete our courses. This metric helps us assess our reach and the effectiveness of our training materials.We^ll monitor how frequently the AI tools are used in classrooms and the variety of contexts in which they are applied. This includes tracking logins, usage time, and specific features used within our platform. These indicators help us understand the practical integration of our tools in daily teaching activities.An finally, through surveys and interviews, we gather qualitative data from both teachers and students about their experiences with the AI tools. Feedback focuses on ease of use, perceived impact on learning, and overall satisfaction. This feedback is invaluable for ongoing refinement of our tools.

Our work aligns with Goal 4 (Quality Education) while enhancing the quality of education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities. Indicators include the number of teachers trained in the use of AI tools. Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure): Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation. We look at the integration of advanced AI tools in education as a part of building digital infrastructure in schools. Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals): Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. We measure this through the number and strength of partnerships with educational institutions and government bodies.

The core technology powering our solution, ColabIA, is a customized version of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) architecture, specifically tailored for educational purposes. This custom GPT is enriched with a database of contextualized content and integrated with pedagogical frameworks that are relevant to the specific educational needs and cultural contexts of Argentina.

Program Manager (full time Staff): Oversees the project's overall direction, ensuring it aligns with set goals. Coordinates different areas within the team.

AI and Technology Development Team (full time staff): Responsible for the technical backbone of the solution, including the development of the chatbot.

Educational Content Team   (full time Staff): This team focuses on creating engaging and impactful educational content tailored to the needs of the learners.

Evaluation and Monitoring Specialist (full time Staff) focuses on designing and implementing assessments to measure the project's impact.

External Advisors: Provide expertise in AI, ethics, and data privacy.

Since 2018, we have been working on designing and implementing workshops for educators with a focus on integrating technology through critical, creative, and contextualized use. At the same time, we are already working on customizing chatbots to create teacher/student assistants that embody a humanized pedagogy and utilize data that is free and culturally relevant.

At Eidos, we uphold a policy of humanized work where people are at the center, regardless of sex, age, nationality, or any other factor. We provide training on inclusion and gender, advocating for the use of non-sexist language to ensure that our workplace is inclusive and respectful to all.

Value Proposition: ColabIA provides AI-powered educational tools that are specifically designed to meet the linguistic and cultural needs of Argentinian classrooms. Our mission is to support educators in delivering more engaging and effective instruction and to help students achieve better learning outcomes.

Key Customers and Beneficiaries: Our primary beneficiaries are educators in Argentina who gain access to innovative teaching tools and resources. Our direct customers include educational institutions, teacher training organizations, and government education departments, who partner with us to implement these tools and training programs.

Products and Services: 

• AI-Powered Educational Tools: Tailored AI tools that aid teaching and reduce administrative burdens, allowing educators to focus on contextualized pedagogy.
• Professional Development Workshops: Workshops designed to equip educators with the skills needed to effectively integrate AI tools into their teaching practices.
• Curriculum Support: Curated resources and guides that align with local educational standards to facilitate the incorporation of AI into existing curricula.
• Community Building and Support: A community platform where educators can collaborate, share resources, and receive ongoing support to enhance their teaching practices.

Delivery Method: Our offerings are delivered through a mix of online activities for broad accessibility and some in-person workshops for hands-on training, ensuring that even schools with limited technological infrastructure can benefit.

• Grants provided by foundations, international aid organizations, and private donors who support educational innovation.
• Government and NGO Partnerships: We collaborate with government agencies and NGOs to secure funding and implement our tools and training across regions.
• Sponsored Training Programs: Specific training programs funded by partners who wish to invest in capacity building for educators, which can also include sponsorships for workshop participation.

Market Need: There is a critical demand among educators in Latin America for accessible and relevant educational technology solutions, especially in areas with limited resources. ColabIA addresses this need by providing AI tools that are both technologically innovative and adapted to the cultural and linguistic contexts of the regions we serve.

Impact Goals: We´ll measure our impact by the number of educators trained, the implementation rate of our AI tools in classrooms. We gather feedback continuously to refine our offerings and expand our reach.

Funding Model: 

• Grants provided by foundations, international aid organizations, and private donors who support educational innovation.
• Government and NGO Partnerships: We collaborate with government agencies and NGOs to secure funding and implement our tools and training across regions, which also supports widespread educational reforms.
• Sponsored Training Programs: Specific training programs funded by partners who wish to invest in capacity building for educators, which can also include sponsorships for workshop participation.