Improving the quality of teaching and learning processes through ICT - Ecuador

Leveraging in Ecuador focuses on improving the quality of teacher training and pupil learning through ICT. It includes strategic and technical advice for schools, focusing both on pedagogical and ICT aspects, connectivity solutions and developing  digitised educational content. It was set up in 2009 by IICD and leveraging partner Edúcate. Based on the Q4 2009 pilot results, the Ministry of Education showed interest in collaborating with IICD and Edúcate in a wider scope education projects as of 2010.

The purpose of this project is to train teachers, pupils and school directors in the use of ICT in the classroom and in the preparation of teaching materials to contribute to improving the curriculum. The project also aims to train the pupils’ parents. The training courses will be done by IICD’s partners Edúcate and FUVIA in the 40 schools of Manabí and solely by Edúcate in the 6 Millennium and 5 satellite schools of the Ministry of Education. Edúcate uses a teacher training and pupil learning platform called Aprendizaje Personalizado Complementario e Interconnectado (APCI, in English Personalized Complementary and Interconnected Learning) while FUVIA uses the Moodle platform to enhance joint learning and the creation of teachers’ own content. Edúcate's learning platform has been originally designed to improve the academic achievement of pupils in language and math. The platform now integrates teacher training and teacher's management activities through ICT. Both the pupil learning and teacher training aspects have been very appealing to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry showed great interest in the results obtained in the IICD-supported 2009 pilot project in Manabí schools and requested to join forces with IICD and Edúcate for a period of two years. The areas of collaboration between the three parties are detailed in a MoU.

Identifying the right leveraging partner(s) in Ecuador has been somewhat challenging. The initial consultancies of 2008 which had led to a pending MOU with FODETEL stopped in the course of 2009 due to a restructuration at the level of governmental telecommunications and the subsequent, upcoming, disappearance of FODETEL. In 2009, a leveraging initiative took off in Ecuador on educational telecentres, in close cooperation with Edúcate and FUVIA and with support from FODETEL. The initiative deals with providing technical and strategic advice to the selected educational telecentres, connectivity solutions and developing local educational (and digitised) content. In this joint initiative, IICD focuses on technical and pedagogical capacity building for teachers, school directors and parents’ committees, on strategic advice on ICT in Education and technical advice to telecentres.

To train teachers, school directors and pupils in the use of ICT in the classroom and in the preparation of teaching materials, and also to train the pupils’ parents.

This leveraging programme started in 2009. So far no data has been analysed yet to measure the perceived impact.

The training courses will be done by IICD’s partners Edúcate and FUVIA in the 40 schools of Manabí and solely by Edúcate in the 6 Millennium and 5 satellite schools of the Ministry of Education. Edúcate uses the pupil learning and teacher training APCI platform now called Avanza while FUVIA uses the Moodle platform to enhance joint learning and the creation of teachers’ own content.