Talk given with Analia Ferraro (AACI, Buenos Aires) at LABCI Conferecnce, Peru, 2012.

1. Remote Teaching for Plan Ceibal in
Uruguay: a Road to Democratisation
Paul Woods English
Adviser
British Council Uruguay
and
Analia Ferraro, Coordinator,
AACI

2. • The context – Plan Ceibal in Uruguay
• The Ceibal en Ingles Project – Pilot and
Expansion Phase
• Ceibal en Ingles – AACI’s involvement
The Context - bringing digital media to
every household Video Clip

3. What is Plan Ceibal?
• A Uruguayan initiative to implement the “1
to 1” model to introduce ICT in public
primary and secondary schools.
• Has delivered over 500,000,000 laptops to
all students and teachers in the primary
education system and no-cost internet
access throughout the country.
• Impact includes increased self-esteem in
students, improved motivation of
students and teachers as well as active
participation by parents (94% approve)

4. Success is due to
 technological innovations
 training plan for teachers in
primary education
 active inclusion of the
society, teachers and
parents in the project
 successful design and
implementation of a
monitoring and evaluation
model

5.  Began during the regime of Tabaré Vazquez as
a pioneer project to remove the digital gap
 3 principal values:
1. distributing technology,
2. promoting knowledge
3. generating social equity.
 Named after a Uruguayan flower called “ceibo”
(Cockspur coral tree). Ceibal = "Conectividad
Educativa de Informática Básica para el
Aprendizaje en Línea").
 OLPC XO computers nicknamed "ceibalitas".

6. General Aims
 To improve the quality of education
through the new technological
system.
 Providing computers to every
scholar and teacher of the public
education, promote the same
opportunities for all.
 To develop a culture based on
collaboration between children, a
child and teacher, teachers with
each other, families and school.
 To promote a sense of technology in
the pedagogical community.
 Supply students with XO laptops

7. Specific Aims
To promote the laptops as a useful
tool in the schools.
To offer the teachers suitable
technological and pedagogical
training in using the new
technologies.
To produce educational resources,
with the new technological tools.
To inspire an innovative mind in the
teachers.
To assure the development of the
project by providing a support
system and technological assistance.
To involve parents in the
implementation of the project, not
only in schools, but also at home

8. 1:1 learning - OLPC classroom devices
“OLPC's mission
is to empower the
world's poorest
children through
education”
Nicholas
Negroponte, MIT
“As the pace of change in
the world increases
dramatically, the urgency
to prepare all children to
be full citizens of the
emerging world also
increases dramatically”.
“What children lack is not
capability, it is opportunity
and resources.
In the first years of OLPC
we have seen two million
previously marginalized
children learn, achieve
and begin to transform
their communities.”

9. Motivating
factors 1.
Learning
can take
place
anywhere

10. Motivating
factors 2.
Both the
teachers and
the students
are learning
together

11. Motivating
factors 3.
Even at a
very early
age pupils
can access
the vast
range of
resources
on the
internet

12. Key Findings in
Uruguay:
• Internet via school (32%
2006 67% 2008)
• Children take two weeks to
learn to handle the XO. Most
learned by individual
exploration.
• 50% of teachers use XO at
least once a week, 21%
almost daily.

13. •92% of children use XO for
homework.
•Browse activity is most
preferred
•Activities such as Write, Paint,
and Memorize less preferred by
children in higher grades.
•Access to the XO not only
closes the gap in access to
computers and levels the
students who don’t have a
computer at home with the ones
who do.

14. How do children use the Laptops outside
school?
Hours of use outside
school
Hours per week % of children
Up to 3 hrs
3-7 hrs approx
7 – 14 hrs approx
14 – 20 hrs
Over 20 hrs
Not used at
home
Total
Hours of use outside
School per week
Average: 10 hrs 20 min
Median: 7 hrs
Percentiles:
25 - 3 hrs 30 min
50 - 7 hrs
75 – 13 hrs
A L Martinez: :Plan Ceiba -: evaluación y lecciones aprendidas en la primera experiencia 1 a 1 a
nivel nacional

15. In what way do children use the laptop and
with whom?
How do they acquire the knowledge?
With help from a
teacher Individual self
discovery
In Pairs
Has the child taught someone else to use
the XO?
Whom?
Parents: 73%
Siblings: 46%
Other children:
42%
Teachers: 9%
A L Martinez:Plan Ceibal: evaluación y lecciones aprendidas en la primera experiencia 1 a 1 a
nivel nacional

16. Laptops in Use in Schools in the Americas
North America
Canada 5,000 OLPC laptops
Mexico 50,000 OLPC laptops
United States of America 16,500 OLPC laptops
65,000 Apple Mac notebooks
25,000 Dell laptops
Caribbean and Latin America
Argentina 60,000 OLPC laptops (La Rioja)
1800,000 Intel Classmates
350,000 netbooks
Venezuela 500,000 Intel Classmates
Colombia 20,000 OLPC laptops
Haiti 13,000 OLPC laptops
Peru 870,000 OLPC laptops
Uruguay 510,000 mostly OLPC laptops
Brazil 1,500,000 Intel Classmates
Paraguay 4,000 OLPC laptops

17. What are some of the criticisms elsewhere?
 Lack of teacher training and ongoing support
 OLPC gives underprivileged children laptops and "walks
away“: this "drive-by" implementation model was the
official strategy of the project. Nicolas Negroponte -
"You actually can" give children a connected laptop and
walk away
 Experiences with self-guided learning in India (Sugata
Mitra).
 “Laptops are getting opened and turned on, but then kids
and teachers are getting frustrated by hardware and
software bugs, don't understand what to do, and
promptly box them up to put back in the corner.“ (Intern
in Peru)

18. Decision Taken
All children in grades 4
to 6 in state Uruguayan
schools would learn
English as a foreign
language
A competitive invitation
to bid was issued by Plan
Ceibal
Three other
organisations were
involved in the bidding
process

19. Scenario
>2400 state schools but
only 145 had English
classes taught by trained
teachers of English
Not enough human
resources within the
system
Solution was to teach
remotely using
telepresence technology

20. Solution Proposed
 Blended Mode English
Language Learning
 Plan Ceibal Ingles - pilot
then expansion phase
 English lessons to
children in grades 4 to 6
in state schools
 Online English course
for Spanish-speaking
teachers

21. Implications
Curriculum and syllabus
design
Detailed lesson planning
Materials development
CREA Platform - Content
Management System
Lessons
Forums
Messaging

22. Culturas’ Involvement
• AACI in Buenos Aires
involved from the outset
• The Anglo in Uruguay is
one of 5 Uruguayan
institutions contracted
directly by Plan Ceibal
to deliver lessons
remotely
• Some initial discussions
with Culturas in other
countries, including
Paraguay, Chile and
Peru

23. The Remote Teaching Model
Local classroom:
•TV screen showing
remote teacher
•Lesson materials shown
via Webex, Promethean
software
2-way video & audio
Remote teacher
using video-conferencing
“This is Uruguay's problem: 40% of children who attend
public schools come from the poorest fifth rung of society. And
out of this fifth, just 3% makes it to college. Through Plan
CEIBAL we decided to take a chance on making a change and
to find a way out of this crisis we live in.”
Miguel Brechner, Plan Ceibal
Joint lesson
planning
Students with
Classroom
laptops
Local class
teacher
managing activity

24. Ceibal en Ingles Clip

30. Thank you for listening!
paul.woods@britishcouncil.org.ar
Aferrarro??????

31. A L Martinez:Plan Ceibal: evaluación y lecciones aprendidas en la primera experiencia 1 a 1 a nivel nacional