 | Issue: | Latin America 2002 |
| Article no.: | 8 | |
| Topic: | Telecommunications and Education in Brazil: A View of the Present and the Road Forward | |
| Author: | Jorge Werthein | |
| Title: | Director | |
| Organisation: | UNESCO | |
| PDF size: | 24KB |
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Article abstract
Technological developments in telecommunications are facilitating changes in education. Experience with formal education and life-long, continuous staff training programmes provide strong evidence in favour of including telecommunications in a technology mix to provide education at a distance and in the classroom. A series of projects, in cooperation with UNESCO, is putting into practice ideas of leading educational theoreticians. Further progress in Brazil will depend upon the implementation of educational applications of the Fund for Universal Telecommunications Service, created in 2000.
Full Article
“Telecommunications and education.” It is hard to find someone in the area of education who doubts the relevance of new telecommunication applications for education. In fact, technological developments in telecommunications during the last three decades have finally created conditions that can facilitate the profound changes in education prescribed by top-level thinkers. To illustrate this point I will briefly recall the ideas of Morin, Perrenoud, Coll, Nóvoa and Henández, some of the experts in education who have been very influential in the educational reforms put in place in Brazil in recent years. New Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), particularly the Internet-based, videoconferencing and future applications of interactive, high-definition television, could help educators better deal with issues brought up by Edgar Morin in his Les sept savoirs necéssaires à l’éducation du futur (Paris, UNESCO, 2000). Morin centres his discussion on educators’ concerns about complexity and the need to establish relationships and to avoid simplifications and reductionism. “Technologies will be central for teachers to conceive ways of dealing with diversity, manage their own intellectual development and be able to involve pupils in the learning processes.” Philippe Perrenoud, in his Dix nouvelles comptences pour enseigner. Invitation au voyage (Paris, ESF, 1999), refers explicitly to the use of new technologies – one of the competencies of the title of his book. In addition, it seems very clear that technologies will be central for teachers to conceive ways of dealing with diversity, manage their own intellectual development and be able to involve pupils in the learning processes. “In order to change education the teacher has to become a researcher.” Fernando Hernández (Transgressão e Mudança na Educação, São Paulo, Artmed, 2000), an expert in curriculum, prescribes the re-organization of teaching around specific “projects” instead of the traditional disciplines. For him, in order to change education the teacher has to become a researcher. This vision of education, shared by many, would not have a chance to come true if it was not for the wide opportunities opened by the new ICTs applications. António Nóvoa (Portugal, Porto Editora, Vidas de Professores, 2000), studying the life story of schoolteachers, shows that education is a lifetime commitment for them. Nóvoa points out that for teachers the school is also a site for continuous professional growth. The school has to become an information centre, connected to other schools, libraries and research centres to be able to fulfil learners’ needs, be they pupils or teachers. The vision of these experts has been incorporated in Brazilian efforts for educational change. Telecommunications have contributed to this effort, which is also part of the global commitment to attain the objectives of promoting development and eradicating poverty set by the UN Millennium Declaration. Technology can help change education and thus “give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work” (UN Millennium Declaration, item 20). How Brazil is taking advantage of telecommunications for education It is beyond the scope of this article to summarize all initiatives taken in Brazil to harness telecommunications and other ICT for education. What I will highlight here are a few illustrations of initiatives that UNESCO has helped either through institutional support to specific activities or through international cooperation agreements with various agencies of the government of Brazil. In the field of formal education, I will refer to the initiative to introduce telecommunications- based applications to fundamental and secondary public schools (PROINFO) and to blooming “open universities” initiatives, particularly the network of public universities (UNIREDE). In the wide area of training and lifelong, continuous education, I want to stress the initiatives in the areas of public health, social service and adult education. The major initiative in Brazil in the area of ICTs for education is PROINFO, managed by the Secretariat for Distance Education of the Ministry of Education. “The government of Brazil is perfectly in tune with advances in the studies in the field of educational technology, which show the blurring of the old boundaries of the modalities of education “delivery”. This institutional designation does not adequately express the coverage of the programme as it is mainly for classroom education. In this respect, the government of Brazil is perfectly in tune with advances in the studies in the field of educational technology, which show the blurring of the old boundaries of the modalities of education “delivery”. The initiative combines equipment distribution with teacher, technical staff and support personnel training. PROINFO is centrally co-ordinated, but it is implemented by the Secretariats for Education in each state that selects the schools and determines the size of the computer labs to be installed. Approximately 5,400 public schools, with pupils ranging from 7 to 17 years of age, have been served so far. So far, 52,000 computers have been installed serving 5 million pupils. Some of these computer labs are connected by the Internet to the Nuclei of Educational Technologies as a means to facilitate co-ordination and training. Around 400 technical staffers have been trained in IT and telecommunications. Almost 2,000 teachers have been given post-graduate level training to work with the Nuclei of Educational Technologies and 110,000 class-room teachers, school headmasters and support personnel have been given instruction in ICT for education. The development of open universities in Brazil has been blocked for a variety of reasons. One of the strongest is doubt about the quality of distance education. Another is connected to concerns about how the rights of pupils can be protected, to avoid creating a population of “second- rate” graduates competing in unfair conditions in the professional market. Pressing needs have pushed many prestigious institutions of higher education to begin offering courses at a distance, including the need for an immense number of qualified teachers in higher education to carry forward fundamental educational reforms. They are gaining confidence in the capacity of these new technologies to concentrate access to dispersed expertise and to help monitor the learning process. “The network has been instrumental in bringing together high- quality human resources throughout the country to collaborate in the effort.” There are various initiatives in both public and private institutions. The network of catholic universities, for instance, is setting high standards in this field. The UNIREDE, a network of all public universities, has already trained hundreds of thousands of schoolteachers. The network has been instrumental in bringing together high- quality human resources throughout the country to collaborate in the effort. This initiative would not have been possible without the interactive communications made possible by new ICT technologies. In the field of lifelong, continuous education and on-the-job training, the UNIPREV Virtual Campus, the REFORSUS distance training courses, the PROFAE distance education programme and the International Tele Congress are playing a significant role in Brazil. The first three (UNIPREV, REFORSUS and PROFAE) are examples of training and re-training programmes of the staffs at state agencies. They are part of a wider process introducing a new conception of public service. All regional offices and local branches of the Brazilian National Social Service (INSS) are connected to the corporative Virtual Campus (UNIPREV), giving the entire staff access to various forms of management training in accordance with the specific social benefits they are charged with implementing. With UNESCO’s assistance, the Brazilian Programme for the Strengthening of the Public Health System (REFORSUS) has been formatting distance education programmes in hospital management, the management and maintenance of hospital equipment, environment management and the management of hospital waste. The programme is aimed at the staff of 27 public health laboratories, the 90 centres responsible for blood collection and 970 public hospitals. Four thousand people will attend the programmes of hospital management and maintenance of hospital equipment. The course on environment management and hospital waste disposal will be offered to 20,000 people. Six prestigious public health universities and schools have been directly involved in course design and preparation of learning material in text, video, audiotape and web-based formats. The courses start in September 2002. “Communication with teachers / tutors is provided by Internet links, fax and a toll-free telephone line.” Still PROFAE is a distance education programme, in the field of public health, for teachers at technical schools and hospital ward assistants. The programme is intended to train 15,000 nurses who, in turn, will teach 225,000 hospital ward assistants. Thirty-one higher education institutions in Brazil are responsible for delivering / tutoring the course. The course consists of eleven modules and is presented in text format. Communication with teachers / tutors is provided by Internet links, fax and a toll-free telephone line. UNESCO has also been involved in a joint initiative with the Industry Social Service to provide youth and adult education as a public service to industrial workers. This service is linked to the Industry Council of Brazil and the University of Brasília. “Videoconferences were transmitted to a public gathering of 14,270 people in 221 interactive videoconferencing centres distributed throughout all of Brazil.” The Second International Tele Congress, dealing with adult education, took place in mid-August 2002 and was supported by 18 public and private institutions, including the Ministry for Labour, the Ministry for Education, the Council of University Principals, the Ayrton Senna Institute and the Roberto Marinho Foundation, to mention only a few. The videoconferences were transmitted to a public gathering of 14,270 people in 221 interactive videoconferencing centres distributed throughout all of Brazil. An even wider population registered for the conference and took part in the Internet chats and forums where more than 150 papers were presented and discussed. “Costs prevent the wider use of new technologies to reach a greater portion of Brazil’s population. ” The above examples are but a very modest illustration of what is going on in Brazil in terms of telecommunications and ICTs for education. From the educational point of view, these examples show that Brazil has learned how technology can help but is not the focus of attention. All these initiatives use a technology mix, each case with a stronger emphasis upon one technology or another, but also using less glossy but still effective technologies and methods. The experience illustrated very briefly here, leaves some points to ponder about telecommunications and education. One is the cost of equipment and services – still high in spite of a significant reduction over time. Costs prevent the wider use of new technologies to reach a greater portion of Brazil’s population. Another problem is the scarcity of people trained for the massive dissemination of new applications in every district and municipality of the country. In addition, more extensive use of telecommunications in education would require a critical mass of high- quality, top- level experts in creative telecom applications adapted to the needs of schools in smaller cities and rural areas of Brazil. The road forward In a large country such as Brazil, everything is big; there are big challenges and big accomplishments as well. Brazil’s statistics are astonishing when compared to smaller countries. The numbers may be large, but even so they often only represent a drop in terms of country’s vast dimensions. In the area of telecommunication, this big country has had enormous success meeting the ambitious universal telecommunications service access targets set by the deregulation programme in effect since the 1990s. “R$3 billion by mid- 2002 – US$1 billion at current exchange rates.” In the field of education, the road forward in Brazil will be dependent on the implementation, and application, of the Fund for the Universalization of Telecommunications Service (FUST), created in 2000. The Fund had already accumulated some R$3 billion by mid – 2002 – US$1 billion at current exchange rates. Plans have been made to use the funds for Internet installations in all public secondary schools, public libraries and museums, thousands of other libraries, NGOs and all public health centres, among other applications. This significant investment in a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure will serve a wide variety of vital educational needs. Wireless applications are another area to explore; as they will permit many inexpensive grassroots applications and bridge the “last mile” of the information highway to schools and homes.
