{"id":2336,"date":"2012-03-13T09:34:13","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T13:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/?p=2336"},"modified":"2012-09-27T10:39:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:39:00","slug":"oscar-becerra-on-olpc-perus-long-term-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/olpc-in-peru\/oscar-becerra-on-olpc-perus-long-term-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Becerra on OLPC Peru’s Long-Term Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss OLPC again<\/a>. I am not unbiased since I was responsible for the design and implementation of \u201cUna Laptop por Ni\u00f1o\u201d but I think my contribution may illustrate some of the points described in the article. To begin I would like to point out the reality upon which \u201cUna Laptop por Ni\u00f1o\u201d was developed.<\/p>\n

In January, 2007 a census evaluation applied to 180,000 Peruvian teachers showed 62% of them not reaching reading comprehension levels compatible with elementary school (PISA level 3) 27% performed at level 0 or less. 92% of the teachers evaluated did not reach acceptable (6th<\/sup> grade level) performance in Math. After 200 hours remedial education in reading comprehension still about 15% stayed at level 0. It was clear to us the main challenge for our project would not be \u201cteacher training\u201d on how to use computers in the classroom because most of our teachers needed exceedingly much more than ICT literacy courses.<\/p>\n

Public schools did not receive any maintenance for years, most of the largest schools known as \u201cemblem\u00e1ticos\u201d that were built in the 1950\u2019s had not been subject of any maintenance and were literally falling apart. One of them, with a capacity for almost 5,000 students had less than 2,500 because anyone who could run away from public education would do so. About four thousand schools (5% the number of schools but about 30% the Public school student population) had connectivity but very few of our target schools were connected because of their remote location.<\/p>\n

Almost 200,000 students in Peru attend about 10,000 \u201cone-teacher primary (1-6) schools\u201d where one teacher has to teach first to sixth graders in the same classroom. It was these schools we decided to serve first. The rationale behind such apparently \u201cdoomed to failure\u201d decision was:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The poorest and most remote schools are the most difficult to serve and therefore usually left for the last stages which seldom really happen.<\/li>\n
  2. Any widespread effort to improve quality of education should aim to reduce the gap between the poorest and the less poor.<\/li>\n
  3. The hopelessness plaguing children in extreme poverty areas had to be confronted. Access to technology is not a panacea but could certainly contribute to help children feel empowered.<\/li>\n
  4. It is widely recognized children have a natural trend to learn how to use technology.<\/li>\n
  5. Wealthy schools don\u2019t question if their students should have access to technology. Why should the poorer? We saw the project as a way to reduce the digital divide.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Our justification was evident enough for the Congress to pass a law approving the program, surprisingly without a single opposing vote in spite of the diversity of congresspersons.<\/p>\n

    Going to the four questions<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    1. Do any ICT interventions have impact? Or are we all just wasting our time with technology?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    All interventions, not only ICT interventions have impact. The problem is to figure out what the impact is and if it is good or bad. In the case of ICT, as the IDB report wisely points out, the effect is neither magic nor fast. What is surprising is how many apparently sensible people expect magic fast results and are ready to criticize the effort made after such a short time.<\/p>\n

    An educational system in such poor shape as the Peruvian will take, in my opinion 10-15 years, just to improve the quality of its teachers. Something needed to be done in the meantime. We thought giving children access to a technology designed as a tool to learn with, was a step in the right direction. I don\u2019t think time is wasted with technology, however it is not measuring how much more Math or History have children learned in the traditional way that we will see the impact.<\/p>\n

    2. Do we actually know how to measure the impact of ICT on education? Or are we testing the wrong things to see impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I think \u201cthose who have a hammer see everything as a nail\u201d is a proper way to describe the ways many evaluations are done or, even worse, looked at. In the case of the IDB study, having participated in the design and first stages I can assure the study was very well thought. However, as soon as the initial findings were reported, every interested party tried to \u201cllevar agua para su molino\u201d (bring water to its mill).<\/p>\n

    For example, I heard many advocates of the ICT industry (the main detractor of the OLPC approach because it impacted its market share numbers) use the results to say the project was a failure and their approach should have been used. There were no impacts in cognitive results because, as we knew from the beginning, no results could be reasonably expected so soon.<\/p>\n

    We were not (I should say they) testing the wrong things, not only the cognitive abilities were measured, but also the attitudes and expectations of students parents and teachers which actually showed improvement. Students became more critical of the schools system and expected more of it. That is an important outcome that will certainly impact the quality for the system in the long term.<\/p>\n

    3. Can any single intervention have impact? Or do we need to have more interventions over longer timeframes for impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Any single intervention will have probably limited impact. It is a combination of interventions that will have long-term effects. In our case we knew several articulated actions were needed and they would all take long times. Some of the things we did were:<\/p>\n