Fundación Telefónica

In 2008 EducaRed was added to Fundación Telefónica’s Proniño program, which focuses on eradicating child labor in Latin America), EducRed contributed its experience and knowledge to improving the quality of education in countries affected by this problem. The approved project, called “Fundación Telefónica Classrooms ", is intended to strengthen the processes of teaching and learning shared via Information and Communications Technologies. By the end of the year, 74 classrooms had been inaugurated in the 13 countries where the Proniño program is carried out, including public areas with IT resources, attended by experts in the promotion and use of ICT: the “digital promoters”, selected from the teachers in each school, who are being trained through the EducaRed program.

The New Proniño Channel on the EducaRed Portal
Fundación Telefónica’s educational portal initiated the Proniño Educator Channel in 2008. This new space is for teachers at schools involved in the program. It allows them to access information and share knowledge and experiences among themselves. The purpose of the new channel, which has contributions from renowned educational experts, is for teachers to learn what is new in education, and to exchange messages, materials and proposals in order to enrich the quality of education at their centers. They are also given ICT training as a support tool in the classroom and for their professional lives. At present, there are approximately 1,500 teachers registered on this channel.

This transnational educational project, created in 2005, is a network of specialized monitors, equipped with technological and didactic resources, which allow children in hospital to continue in their usual educational environment by using the Internet. At present, the project has 30 classrooms installed in hospitals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Venezuela, 16 of them set up in 2008. The initiative has a webpage offering tools and content. By accessing a specially created teaching program for the classrooms, children are allowed permanent contact with their regular environments to offset their isolation. Among the new features added last year, special mention should be made of the debut of  the “Sharing Space” section, where schools can present stories that they want told.

By virtue of the collaboration agreement signed in 2007 between Fundación Telefónica and the Organization of Latin American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), in early 2008 the first Latin American Prize for Educational Use of ICT was voted on. This award recognizes individuals and organizations from all OEI member countries whose international work has significantly contributed to expanding ICT use in education. The prize was awarded to a Portuguese teacher, Roberto Carneiro, and the Latin American Network of Educational Portals (RELPE).

In parallel, Fundación Telefónica and the OEI attended the Institute for Educational Development and Innovation (IDIE), in Brazil in April. The main mission of this São Paulo organization is to collaborate with the ministries and local administrations of Latin American countries and implement specific projects for improving the quality of education and the importance of ICT in this process. Coinciding with this presentation, the IDIE organized a seminar entitled “ICT in Education: The Road to Quality".

Fundación Telefónica also signed a collaboration agreement in 2007 with the Latin American Network of Educational Portals (RELPE), to create an area in EducaRed  for assistance and training of Spain’s teachers who work with students from Latin American countries. This space appeared in 2008 on the Integra portal, www.EducaRed .net/integraWith the first stage of this new portal, Spanish teachers will have access to contents of the educational systems of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic. Later, those of other Latin American countries will be incorporated. The purpose of this Virtual Latin American network of Educational Centers is to create mutual understanding among the different education systems involved in the immigration situation.

This project is backed by the International Labor Organization (ILO), with participation from leading Spanish companies with Latin American interests and coordination by the Spanish Confederation of Employers and Industries (CEOE). Its mission is to create awareness of the importance for young people to have gainful and dignified employment. It also recommends policies for creating youth employment, while promoting corporate hiring and training programs. Along these lines, EducaRed is currently carrying out different training activities and reintegration in schools for nearly 2,000 young people through three initiatives: the “Comprehensive Strategy for Educational, Social and Labor Inclusion of Young People in the Disadvantaged Districts of Bariloche" in Argentina; the “Specialization Program for Young Adults to Facilitate Entrance into the Labor Force” in Brazil; and the “Program for the Promotion of Youth Employment - Proniño Graduate Network“ in Colombia. The year 2008 also saw the launch of the PREJAL project’s webpage, allowing all participants to share experiences.

The Redeoficios portal, www.redeoficios.orgwas created five years ago as a virtual space for cooperation and information aimed at Workshop Schools, Trade Organizations and Re-employment Workshops in Spain, as well as those in Latin America through the Program for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. This initiative, which is part of the EducaRed educational platform, offers, among many other things, distance training for project directors and an employment exchange for professionals and business people interested in hiring personnel qualified in traditional trades, skills that are not always easy to find in the normal labor market. The portal continued to grow in popularity and influence in 2008.

Lastly, in 2008 conclusions were published from the research project, Interactive Generations in Latin America. Children and Adolescents in Front of Screens. Educational and Social Challenges. Conducted at the University of Navarra and coordinated by Telefónica Internacional (TISA), this initiative began in 2007 with the aim of understanding the behavior of young Latin Americans, aged 6 through 18, when faced with new technologies, as well as the impact of this use on social and family relationships. The results would be able to offer solutions to parents and educators. The EducaRed program has acted as a platform for all the phases of this project. Eighty thousand questionnaires were filled out at more than 350 educational centers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. Conclusions were collected in a white paper   published by Fundación Telefónica Collection / Ariel through the Debate and Knowledge program.

With the goal of spreading the EducaRed program, Fundación Telefónica was actively present during 2008 at many important events, conferences and congresses within the educational communities of the various countries in which it operates. The foundation used these opportunities to present its various portals, to explain the latest features, developments and technological research applied to education, while also offering a number of different training workshops. A partial list of the events and venues:

• Latin American forum on new technologies, Virtual Educa Caribe, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (March).
• Interdidática 2008, São Paulo, Brazil (March).
• Classroom 2008, Madrid, Spain (April).
• Expodidáctica, Barcelona, Spain (April).
• III National Conference “ICT and Education" TICEMUR 2008, Murcia, Spain (May).
• National Congress, Internet in the Classroom, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid and Santander in Spain (June).
• IX Educa International Virtual Encounter 2008, Zaragoza, Spain (July).
• I National Congress of Educators of the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences, (UPC), Lima, Peru (August).
• Educational Expo Argentina 2008, Buenos Aires, Argentina (August).
• San Luis Digital 2008, San Luis, Argentina (September).
• Latin American Campus Party, San Salvador, El Salvador (October).
• IV International Technology Week: Telecommunications, Inclusion of the Disabled,  Lima, Peru (November).