Super @ulas program: education without exclusion

To help reduce the digital divide in Venezuela, the Cantv Corporation and the Ministry of Education and Sport jointly developed the Super@ulas (“Superclassrooms”) Program, with the aim of providing access to new information and communications technologies for pupils at schools located in rural areas of Venezuela.

The program targets basic education in the country and was designed to foster the mass adoption of internet use and to strengthen the education of Venezuelan children, particularly those located away from access to technology and unable to enjoy other options for using the internet.

WHAT DO THEY INVOLVE?

The Super@ulas are corrosion-resistant, thermally insulated, easy to install aluminum trailers that are fitted out with eleven cutting-edge computers, one teacher’s desk, a printer, a webcam, education software, high-speed internet access, adequate lighting, and air conditioning.

One additional advantage is that they do not need to occupy a space already assigned for teaching activities: instead, they can be positioned as annexes to schools, without interfering in pupils’ routine activities.

The program provides for the installation of 100 trailers across the country, 3 or 4 per state, and has been planned in four phases, of which the first three have already been completed. As of 30 June 2005, the program has catered to a total of 62,163 pupils from 69 schools in 18 of Venezuela’s component states and territories. They have accrued a total of more than 200,000 hours of training for children, young people, and teachers at the target schools.

The fourth phase of the project is planned for October to December 2005, with which there will be a total of 1,100 high-speed internet access points, capable of reaching more than 100,000 students. In addition, a further ten units will be installed, as agreed with the Ministry of Education and Sport, in those states with the most pronounced technological shortcomings.

WHERE ARE THEY INSTALLED?

The populations who are to benefit are jointly selected by the Ministry of Education and Sport and Cantv. As a result of this, areas that had no internet access now have a Super@ula, benefiting both the selected school and its surrounding community.

In order to reach remote sites efficiently, Cantv used a range of technologies, including, as appropriate: microwave radio gear, high-bit-rate digital subscriber lines (HDSLs), or satellite connections.

The Super@ulas are equipped with educational software and licenses that help train children and young people. For example: Numerópolis, an educational portal that offers ten digital games for arithmetical skill acquisition, ranging from the third to the sixth grades of basic education; Casita Mágica, an educational game to educate preschool schoolchildren in home safety and hygiene; and Moviltraining, which teaches the use of the internet and basic computing tools (Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, etc).

Another noteworthy aspect of the Program is that Cantv provides a skilled facilitator who trains the teachers and shows them how to use the computers, the internet, and the educational software, and how to use technology in teaching processes and in managing and overseeing the Super@ula. The installed content and the facilitator allow it to be used as soon as it is installed.

WHO ARE THE USERS?

Super@ulas receive users ranging in age from 5 years up to adults. However, around 63% of users are aged between 7 and 12, which is represents the age group at greatest risk of dropping out of school.

Almost 61% of the users are studying the fourth, fifth, or sixth grades of basic education, which are the levels when most repeat-years are studied and, consequently, the levels where continued education is most endangered and where most drop-outs typically occur.

CONCLUSIONS

The Super@aulas Program has a special meaning for the Cantv Corporation, since it has allowed to promote, in partnership with the Venezuelan State, the development of information and communications technologies within the nation’s basic education system. Thanks to this initiative, Cantv is able to offer high-speed internet access and educational materials that reinforce the reading, writing, mathematics, and computer skills of thousands of pupils at rural schools. At the same time, this Program allows the corporation to make efficient contributions to the comprehensive education of children and development of citizens.

Super@ulas have acquired iconic status in the various localities where they are to be found, improving interactions between schools and communities and reinforcing local governments’ commitments toward education.

The skillful handling of information technologies and communication will be requirements of citizens who wish for full insertion into a world of work that is increasingly dependent on computers and digital data transmissions over hardwired and wireless networks. It will be part of a new literacy that will demand, in addition to reading and writing skills, the awareness and production of complex documents presenting information and images through a growing array of media and technologies.

We know about the enormous efforts that schools’ headmasters are required to make to keep their laboratories and libraries up to date, particularly in this era, where there is so much information, changing so rapidly. It is difficult to prevent costly books from becoming obsolete in light of progress in the modern-day world, and the internet offers us an enormous window onto those information superhighways.

This century’s problem will not be the scarcity of knowledge, but rather an overabundance of information. Providing children and youngster with access to those realities will enable them to better face those challenges and thus handle more competently that surfeit of information; it will also train them in the fields of reading and writing, mathematics, and basic awareness of computer science.

To that end, we have also allowed for the possibility of using a webcam for future webconferencing, to facilitate distance learning.

The Super@ulas have been received with great anticipation and enthusiasm – not only by the student bodies, but also by the rest of their communities. Members of communities celebrate the fact that their children now have the possibility of furthering their knowledge with the vast array of information to be found on the internet and of becoming the men and women of tomorrow who will bring progress to their regions. The opinions of today’s Program beneficiaries show this enthusiasm:

Mariali Sequera, ninth year at Urama Educational Unit: “The arrival of the Super@ula at my school has been spectacular; I think it’s really fantastic. It’s the best thing to have happened to us, and I’m going to make the most of it because it has given me my first ever opportunity to access the internet and a computer.”

Mariela Fragosa, sixth-grade teacher at the Pastor Rodríguez Manzo Bolivarian School: “We have longed for this for a long time; it’s a dream come true. With the Super@ula our schoolchildren are going to receive a complete learning experience and, best of all, they are going to be up-to-date with new information and communications technologies.”

Rosario Suárez, principal of Guaicamacuto National School: “The Super@ula is a major step forward for the school; it gives us access to the Internet, which it an important learning tool. For most of our children, this is their only opportunity to get online. Teachers ask their pupils to find information on the web about current events, to add to the information in their text books.”

“If the children are our tomorrow, then the time to support them is today.”

Nyurka Rodríguez
International Affairs Coordinator
Compañía Anónima Nacional de Teléfonos
E.mail: [email protected]