One-to-One Laptop Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean: Panorama and Perspectives

The introduction of technology in education is gaining momentum worldwide. One model of incorporating technology into education that has gained tremendous traction in Latin America and the Caribbean is One-to-One computing. The term "One-to-One" refers to the ratio of digital devices per child so that each child is provided with a digital device, most often a laptop, to facilitate learning. The objective of this document is to provide an overview of One-to-One implementations with a regional focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. It also proposes a systemic approach to improve the quality of education in contexts of mass laptop distributions to students and teachers.e-Learning, Teacher Education & Quality, Innovation

Curricular transposition in citizenship education

The considerable debate in recent years on the aims of citizenship education has not been accompanied by an equally substantial discussion on the educational processes involved. This article puts forward a theoretical framework, referred to as ‘curricular transposition’, for understanding the complex task of realizing normative ideals of citizenship through education. The framework highlights four stages in the educational process: the ideals and aspirations underlying an initiative; the curricular programme designed to achieve them; the programme’s implementation in practice; and its effects on students. The ‘leaps’ between these stages – involving movement between ends and means and between ideal and real – are highly problematic. These ideas are explored in the context of an empirical case: the Voter of the Future programme in Brazil. Disjunctures are observed at the different stages – in particular, a lack of ‘harmony’ between ends and means, and a lack of teacher ownership of the initiative in the process of implementation – leading to divergence between the initial aims and actual effects. Finally, broader implications of the curricular transposition framework for citizenship education are drawn out

Computers as Pedagogical Tools in Brazil: A Pseudo-panel Analysis

In this paper, we use repeated cross-section data on pupils in Brazil to estimate the effect of the availability and use of computers and internet as pedagogical tools on math and reading test scores. Computers are increasingly commonly used in schools and their effectiveness in improving learning is the subject of many recent evaluations in Europe and the US. We apply the pseudo panel technique to evaluate the effect of variation in the availability and use of computers and internet in Brazilian schools on pupils? test scores. --Computers in schools,pupil performance

Empowering Rural Citizen Journalism Via Web 2.0 Technologies

Once acquainted with the modern information and communication tools made available with the advent of the Internet, five Brazilian rural communities participating in a pilot project to develop a self-sustaining telecenter model, engaged in citizen journalism using inexpensive digital video cameras. Community members used Web 2.0 collaborative tools to post short videos on the telecenter portal. The 95 video blogs published between September 2006 and May 2008 recorded various aspects of community life,including religious celebrations,oral history arts and crafts traditions,folklore,and envirnmental concerns. This study evaluates the impact of video blogging in these communities

South-South cooperation, policy transfer and best-practice reasoning : the transfer of the Solidarity in Literacy Program from Brazil to Mozambique

Mozambique;Brazil;South South cooperation;development programmes;literacy;policy research

Recruiting hard-to-reach populations to physical activity studies : evidence and experiences

Most researchers who are conducting research with a public health focus face difficulties in recruiting the segments of the population that they really want to reach. This symposium presented evidence and experiences on recruiting participants to physical activity research, including both epidemiological and intervention based studies. Results from a systematic review of recruitment strategies suggested that we know little about how best to recruit and highlighted the need for researchers to report this in more detail, including metrics of reach into the target population such as number, proportion, and representativeness of participants. Specific strategies used to optimise responses to a population-based mail survey were presented such as study promotion, survey design, multiple mailings, and personal engagement. Finally, using place based recruiting via schools or places of worship to target ethnic minority youth were discussed. Overall the symposium presenters suggested that we need to learn more about how best to recruit participants, in particular those typically under-represented, and that researchers need to apportion a similar amount of planning effort to their recruitment strategies as they do the their research design. Finally we made a plea for researchers to report their recruitment processes in detail

Educational Policies for Integrating College Competencies and Workforce Needs

Explores the challenges of workforce development for a global economy in Brazil, Mongolia, Ukraine, and the United States, with a focus on basic skills development, internships, and the role of stakeholders. Recommends policy and curriculum changes

Non-business e-commerce in Malaysia: An investigation of key adoption

Problem statement: Non-business EC is a relatively new research niche in the general e-commerce stream. Application of e-commerce by profit oriented organization already become bread and butter but still limited applied in non-business sectors such as academic institutions (as in the present study), non-profit organizations, religious organizations and government agencies. Nowadays e-commerce becomes crucially essential in reducing their expenses and improving their operations.Therefore, application of this new innovation should enhance to no non-business sectors to be livelier.Understanding the key factors of facilitating and adopting the e-commerce in non-business are still need to enrich in particularly within Malaysian context. A field survey was conducted to determine key factors that facilitate the adoption of non-business EC in Malaysian Universities. Approach: One main focus of IT implementation research has been to determine why people accept or reject new technology. The current research will explore why Non-business institutions will accept or reject e- commerce. Since e-commerce adoption decision is a strategic one, a comprehensive list of potential facilitators and non-facilitators for the strategic use of information technology was derived from past research. Thus factors used as the basis for collecting data from 65 schools, centers and units from 5 public universities in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. These data were factor-analyzed to determine the key underlying dimensions of facilitators. On the basis of the resulting 5 dimensions namely, relative advantage, network orientation, information efficiency, innovativeness and competitiveness, regression analysis was done to determine the impact of the 5 dimensions on adoption. Results: They suggest that relative advantage, network orientation and information efficiency are the most important facilitators to the used of e-commerce in non-business sectors. Inhibitors were not estimated eventually, as there were no non-users among the respondents. Conclusion: The results implies the non-business sectors should look into advantages, network orientation and information efficiency as a strategic based for implementing e-commerce in more effective manner to achieve their goals