Plan Ceibal Research Articles

Advancing Digital Learning in a Traditional System

This report presents an exploratory study with three interviewees in Uruguay: a private school director in Montevideo, an APREnDER school director in Montevideo, and a Plan Ceibal employee who occupies a leadership position. The semi-structured interviews were conducted between November, 2020, and May, 2021, and centered on the leaders’ experiences to implement suitable teaching and outreach strategies to continue providing education. The findings suggest that Uruguay’s digital learning strategy has grappled with conciliating traditional views on education and digital learning. They further point to not all schools using digital learning resources during the pandemic even when these were available to them and their students, which suggests in some cases a digital divide originated by choice (Gunkel, 2003). The socio-economic gap seems then to depend not so much on the lack of means to acquire technological devices, but on the balance between the traditionally valued education system and the incorporation of new technologies.

Can one laptop per child reduce digital inequalities? ICT household access patterns under Plan Ceibal

The study of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption signals that diffusion processes within highly unequal societies produce stratification in the access to digital technologies and thus, maintain or even increase previous socioeconomic disparities. While technological utopians believed that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)-like programs could reduce societal inequalities, the economics literature evaluating these initiatives has mostly focused on student's human capital. Results suggest no impact, even for successful programs such as Uruguay's own OLPC-inspired Plan Ceibal. In this paper, we use an event-study approach to difference-indifferences to identify the impact of Plan Ceibal on the household adoption of technological goods across income quintiles. Our results show that Plan Ceibal helped to bridge domestic digital disparities in terms of access to PC and favored the uptake of internet services. We discuss the potential mechanisms behind these results. Regarding household PC access, even though Plan Ceibal was conceived as a universal program targeting primary-level students attending public schools, both infantilization of poverty and a dual-system educational stratification may explain why this initiative had a heterogenous impact across different income groups. Regarding household connectivity, Plan Ceibal reduced the cost of the bundle required to consume internet services at the time of the study, improving affordability and access among households with beneficiaries of the program.

Plan CEIBAL and the Incorporation of Digital Tools and Platforms in the Teaching of Mathematics According to the Teachers’ Perceptions

This article is based on research in which the three authors participated. The main objective is to identify, describe and analyze the practices of using digital tools and platforms for teaching mathematics in lower secondary education. Framed within a set of ICT policies promoted since 2007 by Plan CEIBAL in Uruguay, a mixed study was conducted, 176 teachers participated in a digital survey, and 15 of the participants were interviewed. Among the study’s main results, it is worth mentioning that mathematics teachers reported a low-frequency use of digital tools and platforms, and mainly an instrumental use of digital technology. It is necessary to foster and boost the development of best practices on the use of digital tools with pedagogical meaning in the context of teacher education degree courses through more prescriptive proposals that give meaning to innovation.

Competencias digitales en estudiantes de magisterio de la primera generación del Plan CEIBAL. Un estudio comparado en Salto, Uruguay

This article aims to disseminate some of the main results of the research: Development of digital skills in teaching students in Salto. Comparative study between Teaching students of the first generation of Plan Ceibal and Teaching students who did not participate in it. The research's problem question that arises is: What are the differences in the development of digital skills between Teacher Preparation students from the first generation of the implementation of Plan Ceibal and students who did not participate in it in Salto in 2017? The objective is to compare the development of digital competences between Teaching students from the first generation of the implementation of Plan Ceibal and students who did not participate in it. This research was carried out in 2017 with students who were in their second year of Teaching due to the growing importance of Digital Technologies in Education. Regarding the type of design this research presents, it is an exploratory type of investigation since, at the time the work was carried out, there was no access to antecedents in relation to the specific research problem. It is a mixed-study located at a descriptive-comparative level with two samples of cases selected for convenience. This article will address some of the twenty-one competencies analyzed in the research based on the Marco Común de Competencia Digital Docente of INTEF (2017). The area of ​​competencies analyzed is information and informational communication: it includes digital competences that aim to identify, locate, obtain, store, organize and analyze digital information, evaluating its purpose and relevance. Among the contributions generated by the research, it is stated that in this analyzed area that there has been a slight improvement in the development of digital skills in the con Ceibal sample.

Information literacy within the framework of Plan CEIBAL

Se presentan los avances realizados en el marco del proyecto de investigación “Alfabetización en Información y Competencias lectoras: herramientas para el acceso a la sociedad de la información y el conocimiento”, aprobado y financiado por el Programa de Desarrollo Académico de la Información y la Comunicación (PRODIC) de la Universidad de la República, Uruguay. Se aborda la relación entre la alfabetización digital, la alfabetización en información y las competencias lectoras tomando como objeto de estudio el Plan Ceibal. La investigación aspira a analizar si el Plan Ceibal considera instancias de formación en el uso de la información para proponer un modelo de alfabetización en información que sea integrado a dicho Plan. El proyecto está consolidando una línea de investigación innovadora y de reciente creación en Uruguay y a partir de él se están generando nuevos espacios de proyección académica que contribuirán a fortalecer el rol del profesional de la información y su inserción en el contexto socio-educativo del país.

Inclusión digital y democratización del conocimiento. Los Proyectos Flor de Ceibo y Flor de Ceibo Conecta2 en diálogo con las políticas públicas

La inclusión digital fue vista a principios de la década del 2000 como un paso imprescindible para la inclusión social en un mundo altamente tecnologizado, que permea todos los ámbitos donde las personas interactúan. Para lograr la inclusión digital de sus ciudadanos, los distintos países implementaron distintas políticas, cuyas estrategias estarán signadas por la orientación política e ideológica (Lago et al, 2015) Uruguay no fue ajeno a este fenómeno y en el ámbito educativo surgió el Plan Ceibal. Esta política vista como revolucionaria dentro y fuera de fronteras, vehiculizó su implementación a través de la escuela pública, importante referente de identidad nacional (en Uruguay) que fuera construida bajo los valores de la educación, la cultura y la homogeneidad de su población. En este contexto la Universidad no podía quedar ajena y desarrolla los Proyectos Flor de Ceibo (2008-2017) y Flor de Ceibo Conecta2 (2017-actualidad), acompañando crítica y reflexivamente el Plan Ceibal, a través de la integralidad, donde se conjuga enseñanza, investigación y extensión, con una metodología de abordaje por problemas, buscando facilitar la apropiación tecnológica, el desarrollo de competencias y la democratización del conocimiento, en un escenario de 2da Reforma Universitaria.

CHALLENGES FOR THE DESIGN OF NEW PEDAGOGIES BASED ON MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract Despite the fact that investment in technology has increased in Latin America, little is yet known about the integration of mobile devices in educational practices. The objective of this article is to analyse the access, perception of usefulness and frequency of use of the laptops provided free of charge by Plan Ceibal from Uruguay in the pre-professional practices of student teachers. A mixed method was used for the investigation, which includes a survey to 385 students and 15 in-depth interviews. Results show a limited pedagogical use of mobile devices as well as important challenges for emergent pedagogies. Most of the participants incorporate the mobile devices in traditional teaching approaches.

Managing Devices of a One-to-One Computing Educational Program Using an IoT Infrastructure.

Plan Ceibal is the name coined in Uruguay for the local implementation of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. Plan Ceibal distributes laptops and tablets to students and teachers, and also deploys a nationwide wireless network to provide Internet access to these devices, provides video conference facilities, and develops educational applications. Given the scale of the program, management in general, and specifically device management, is a very challenging task. Device maintenance and replacement is a particularly important process; users trigger such kind of replacement processes and usually imply several days without the device. Early detection of fault conditions in the most stressed hardware parts (e.g., batteries) would permit to prompt defensive replacement, contributing to reduce downtime, and improving the user experience. Seeking for better, preventive and scalable device management, in this paper we present a prototype of a Mobile Device Management (MDM) module for Plan Ceibal, developed over an IoT infrastructure, showing the results of a controlled experiment over a sample of the devices. The prototype is deployed over a public IoT infrastructure to speed up the development process, avoiding, in this phase, the need for local infrastructure and maintenance, while enforcing scalability and security requirements. The presented data analysis was implemented off-line and represents a sample of possible metrics which could be used to implement preventive management in a real deployment.

Plan Ceibal 2020: future scenarios for technology and education\u2014the case of the Uruguayan public education system

In the present work, a set of future studies were implemented in order to answer the following question: What will the future scenarios be within the next 5 years regarding new technologies in the public education sector in Uruguay? For this purpose, two panels (consisting of 20 participants internal to the programme and 25 international experts external to the programme) were set up to conduct a Delphi study. In addition, a historical analysis of the use of Internet resources at schools (traffic and users connected to the network) was developed. This section of the study brought us the following findings: Primary and middle public school centres have experienced an exponential growth in Internet use as measured by traffic downloads and uploads, as well as by connections. Traffic doubled every 1.5 years, and connections had doubled roughly every year in the period from 2011 to 2015.The study integrated the Delphi results and the analysis of Internet use as a method for prospective scenario planning, based on which four main possible educational and technological scenarios for 2020 were identified. This approach allowed us to define the possible technological future for the national education and technology policy.We found that the key challenges were not technological, but social and cultural factors. Some of the challenges to be explored are (1) How can we understand the role(s) of teachers better?, (2) can we rethink how technology is being used, adopted and adapted in learning environments?, and (3) what systemic changes are needed to respond these possible scenarios better through policy development? The findings suggest that problems and challenges presented by new technological innovations in education are not solved by more technology.Finally, we consider an approach such as this could work as a framework to help develop public education and technology policies in other countries with middle to high incomes that have strong orientations toward public education, including much of Europe.

Pilot phase study of tablets in early childhood and primary education in Uruguay within Plan Ceibal

This article presents reflections and results from a study about the pilot phase developed by Ceibal Plan concerning to the inclusion of tablets in early childhood education and primary education in Uruguay (2013-2014). The research is carried out from a constructivist perspective with a socio-cultural orientation, developing an exploratory strategy. The study attempt to know school’s technologies conditions, activities with tablets, their contexts and aims from teacher’s perspective. The sample design was developed taking into account strategic approaches, building a population that involved thirty schools from Montevideo and Canelones. The results provide information on technological infrastructure and human resources, activities contexts and aims proposed by teachers. The conclusions describes school's conditions about Internet access, administrative and pedagogical uses with the technological resources, as well as activities folowing digital literacy and pedagogical goals. In general terms, there is a favorable attitude from teachers about integrating the tablets in the first grades of schooling, but also some difficulties are recognized during the development of the pilot test.

The Effect of Access to Information and Communication Technology on Household Labor Income: Evidence from One Laptop Per Child in Uruguay

This paper examines the effect of the One Laptop Per Child program in Uruguay (Plan Ceibal) on household labor income. Since 2007, the Uruguayan government has delivered one laptop to every child and teacher in public primary schools. This program has considerably increased access to information technology within households, as evidenced by parents’ utilization of said technology. Households in the department of Florida received laptops in 2007, while those in the department of Canelones received them in 2009. Therefore, using data from Household Surveys from the National Institute of Statistics in Uruguay, a difference-in-difference model is estimated to capture the effect of the plan of giving laptops on labor income. The results indicate that there is a statistically significant positive effect of the plan on household labor income for households below median income, specifically, those at the 10th and 20th quantiles. Such findings suggest that the program has greater potential when targeted to low-income households, where parents possess lower computer skills.

Modalidad MOOC para educación media básica: enseñanzas de una experiencia

El artículo analiza la eficiencia terminal y los diferentes escenarios de tecnología, conectividad y aprendizaje que caracterizaron la experiencia del curso SCRACHT SM4T, organizado por el Plan Ceibal de Uruguay, en convenio con una universidad privada. La metodología aplicada es de tipo descriptiva transeccional, y se basa en el análisis de variables, registros y datos de Internet de los estudiantes. El estudio mostró que es posible implementar nuevas ofertas de cursos MOOC en escenarios de menor o mayor nivel de formalización, mediante diferentes estrategias de apoyo tutorial docente. Uno de los hallazgos principales de la investigación es que la tasa de finalización es superior a las reportadas por la literatura internacional, y en la mayoría de los estudios sobre MOOC. Un segundo aporte es la identificación y análisis de tres tipos de escenarios formativos: adaptativo individual, grupal con apoyo de tutor, y masivo mediante inscripción desde un centro educativo formal.

Experiencia exploratoria con Maestros de Apoyo del Plan Ceibal (Uruguay) como insumo para la creación de un Modelo de Alfabetización en Información

The article presents the results obtained in an exploratory experiment of research, selection and evaluation of information sources. These practices were made with the Plan Ceibal (MAC) support teachers (Uruguay). The experiment was carried out within the framework of the “information and reading literacy” program, which is carried out in the Academic Development Program on Information and Communication (PRODIC) of the Information and Comunicación Faculty (FIC) of the Universidad de la República (UdelaR). The research worked with 20 teachers who came from state schools in the western district of Montevideo and who developed the project in a workshop mode, observing the research, selection and evaluation of the information. These processes were made by the teachers themselves by following an instruction based on searching current topics. The objective of the experiment was to make the teachers aware of the importance of information literacy and primarily to recognize the way their behaviors are connected with information. The results of the experiment were dedicated to the construction of a Model of information literacy for the Plan Ceibal.

Facilitating change in primary education: the role of existing school facilities in ICT initiatives

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to illuminate the impact that the implementation of the Plan Ceibal imposes on the existing school infrastructure and how the use and upkeep of available facilities might need to be altered and changed to accommodate the new technology. Uruguay is, through the Plan Ceibal, the first country to provide every public primary school child with a laptop free of charge. The Plan represents a major investment to promote digital literacy and improve the quality of education. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data are drawn from a multiple case study of five public primary schools. Particular attention is given to how school facilities and their immediate surroundings mediate the successful introduction and adoption of individual laptops. Findings – Plan Ceibal has the potential to change traditional teaching methods and behavioural patterns, which will in turn have an impact on how facilities and spaces are used. Questions are raised regarding the ultimate effectiveness of the initiative and if the aspired to improvements might be curtailed by a lack of investment in other areas, such as the school infrastructure. We argue for a context-sensitive view on research that not only considers the technology and potential changes in pedagogical approaches but also the physical environment in which these changes are to take place. Originality/value – Research into facilities and asset management has an important role to play in the achievement of effective learning environments and the successful uptake of information communication technology (ICT) initiatives.

The Impact of a One Laptop Per Child Program on Learning: Evidence from Uruguay

We present evidence on the impact on students' math and reading scores of one of the largest deployments of an OLPC program and the only one implemented at a national scale: Plan Ceibal in Uruguay. We have unique data that allow us to know the exact date of laptop delivery for every student in the sample. This gives us the ability to use days of exposure as a treatment intensity measure. Given that there is some variation in the date of laptop delivery across individuals within the same school, we can identify the effect of the program net of potential heterogeneity in the rate schools gain improvements on students' achievement over time independently of the OLPC program. Our results suggest that in the first two years of its implementation the program had no effects on math and reading scores. The absence of effect could be explained by the fact that the program did not involve compulsory teacher training and that laptops in class were mainly used to search for information on the internet.

ELT through videoconferencing in primary schools in Uruguay: first steps

Plan Ceibal is an interinstitutional undertaking which has distributed XO laptops and Internet connectivity among primary school learners and teachers across Uruguay and developed a wide range of educational programmes. Ceibal administration believes that it is imperative to introduce English as a Foreign Language in primary education through the use of new modes of teaching which incorporate the OLPC XO laptop as a tool for learning engagement and democratisation. Uruguay has secured funds for a project based on blended learning which integrates remote teaching through videoconferencing, the use of a learning management system, and professional development. Plan Ceibal seeks to demonstrate that lessons delivered by remote teachers via videoconferencing with support from classroom teachers (CTs) with very limited or no command of English can facilitate successful learning outcomes in learners and CTs. In this article, I describe the pilot phase of this project which aims at delivering 5000 remote lessons by 2015.

<b>Educational multimedia in the context of Plan CEIBAL in rural schools in Uruguay</b> - DOI: 10.3395/reciis.v6i4.683en

<b>Educational multimedia in the context of Plan CEIBAL in rural schools in Uruguay</b> - DOI: 10.3395/reciis.v6i4.683en

One-to-one Digital Classes and Writing. A case-study perspective

Digital texts and digital practices of writing are dramatically different from analogical ones. According to this scenario, the new millennium literates are supposed to have complex and crossmedia skills of searching, evaluating, using, creating and sharing texts. In this paper, a selection of results of a multiple case study carried out within Plan Ceibal, Uruguay, an OLPC project, in 2009-2010 are presented. The research focused on exploring if, and how, children’s literacy skills and practices change when the personal learning environment consistently includes the ICT and the Net A mixed method, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, and developed in order to analyze the process by which the children of the case study give shape and meaning to written texts with analogical or digital media. The results show important differences in the approach to texts and suggest guidelines to schools and teachers involved in the change of traditional didactics to digital learning.

Tecnología y sociedad : la evaluación de impacto social del Plan Ceibal

The goal of this article is to briefly present the Plan Ceibal and the Social Impact Evaluation (SIE) strategy undertaken at the LATU. The first section introduces the origins and objectives of the plan, as well as basic information on its implementation. The second is a short reflection on the relationship between technology and social inclusion. The third section shows a general presentation of the research design for the evaluation.