Dario Luis Banegas spoke in this session 'Learning English through remote learning' about e British Council's role in Plan Ceibal, which has rolled out XO laptops to all Primary aged children throughout Uruguay.
Dario spoke about his role as project manager and how one of the key aspects for him is the relationships between the different roles (lesson plan writers, materials designers, classroom teachers, remote teachers, e-moderators, children, parents and educational administrators).
In the project, classroom teachers in Uruguay are supported by remote teachers, mainly in Argentina in order to teach children English. Video conferencing is used to transmit the image and sound of the remote teachers into the Uruguayan classrooms and the classroom teacher facilitates. The lack of English of most of the classroom teachers is the reason why this is done, but the classroom teachers are undergoing an English Programme in tandem, supported by e-moderators, who also talk to them via Skype and help with the planning of lessons.
Dario showed videos of actual classes in progress and spoke about the challenges and successes of this interesting project, which is increasing in intensity this year from 250 lessons a week to thousands across the country.
Dario spoke about his role as project manager and how one of the key aspects for him is the relationships between the different roles (lesson plan writers, materials designers, classroom teachers, remote teachers, e-moderators, children, parents and educational administrators).
In the project, classroom teachers in Uruguay are supported by remote teachers, mainly in Argentina in order to teach children English. Video conferencing is used to transmit the image and sound of the remote teachers into the Uruguayan classrooms and the classroom teacher facilitates. The lack of English of most of the classroom teachers is the reason why this is done, but the classroom teachers are undergoing an English Programme in tandem, supported by e-moderators, who also talk to them via Skype and help with the planning of lessons.
Dario showed videos of actual classes in progress and spoke about the challenges and successes of this interesting project, which is increasing in intensity this year from 250 lessons a week to thousands across the country.
I'm glad Dario presented this Project at the conference.
ReplyDeleteWe are really proud of being part of this Project. We are based in Montevideo (capital city of Uruguay) and through video conference facilities we deliver English classes to 75 different groups around the country.
It’s really an amazing experience, you can’t imagine how excited kids are and how much they enjoy their classes. Amazing!!
As an e-moderator for Plan Ceibal, I am proud to be part of this ambitious project, which gives us all the possibility to make the most of ICTs so that Uruguayan kids have access to English lessons.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear that Dario has spread the word and perhaps inspired other communities to work collaboratively like Argentinians and Uruguayans are doing for Plan Ceibal.
Cheers!
Gaby Madera
madera.gaby@gamil.com
Thanks, Mercedes and Gaby for commenting. Plan Ceibal was mentioned as an excellent model in quite a number of different sessions. It's a truly exciting project that has put Uruguay at the top of innovators in educational technology
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