News and Updates

WorLD launches Latin American pilot of School Telecenters model
Temuco, Chile

28 June, 2002

Ten participants from four countries met during 16 – 19 June in Temuco, Chile, to plan pilot tests of the World Links Planning for School-based Telecenters approach in Latin America. The World Links materials, currently in English, will be translated into Spanish and localized for use in the context of Latin American education systems. Three pilot tests involving roughly five schools each will be held in Chile, Peru, and Mexico during the 2002 – 2003 school terms.

Planning for School-based Telecenters has been successfully implemented by schools in Zimbabwe and Uganda. School telecenters have helped schools finance the operations of their computer labs, forge alliances with private- and public-sector organizations, and increase levels of understanding and use of ICTs in their communities.

The Temuco workshop, hosted by the Instituto de Informática Educativa de la Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), examined in detail the workshop agenda and resources developed for delivery in Anglophone African countries. Proposed modifications have been identified and assigned to working groups from each participating country, with completion of the revisions scheduled for October, 2002.

In country-based workshops currently scheduled for November, 2002, teachers and school heads from each of the five pilot schools will work through detailed planning processes and strategic operational techniques. The result will be a development plan enabling them to complement their ongoing integration of technology and education with community-oriented resources and services.

Telecenters and schools: Natural partners?
Researchers addressing the diffusion of ICTs in Latin America have pointed toward schools as organizations with high potential as telecenters. The report, "Telecenters for Socioeconomic and Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean," states that, "Telecenters can be an important complement to formal education reform, providing support to students and teachers after school hours and increasing Internet access for teachers, parents, recent graduates and the community at large."

With support from government and parents’ associations, as well as international organizations such as World Links, schools in many developing countries and countries with transitional economies have already acquired computer labs and Internet connections. High costs of maintenance, connectivity, and training burden school personnel and their communities, resulting in computers cannibalized to yield spare parts, increased school enrollment fees, and the decline over time of the quality and availability of school computers.

Concurrently, telecenters are proving their value to their communities. However, according to researcher Francisco Proenza (2001) many telecenters encounter financial difficulties based on three main factors:

• High installation costs, including upgrades to facilities
• High operating costs, including personnel with limited training
• Limited revenue potential, due to restricted mobility among the target population

These factors, and others such as poor infrastructure, poorly regulated telecommunications markets, and other factors that influence these, represent formidable challenges.

However, the use of school with existing computer labs can directly address many of the challenges in telecenter operation. Combinations of government subsidies, donations, and school fees may have already been used to modify facilities, and provide professional-development opportunities to staff.

In terms of its target market, the school telecenter has the ready-made avenues of outreach to family members and former students. In addition, the school telecenter—based on its education-specific sources of revenue—may be able to survive for a period without achieving its telecenter-based revenue goals.

Context-specific implementations
The three Latin American pilot projects—as tentatively defined in the Temuco workshop—will share elements while at the same time addressing the unique systemic and cultural contexts in each of the three countries.

In Chile, for example, several schools affiliated with UFRO are already operating as telecenters on an informal basis. Their participation in the pilot program will test the degree to which planning tools and other resources enable increased organization and effectiveness of telecenter operations.
In Peru, participating schools will also be included in the nation-wide Proyecto Huascarán, which is itself designed to increase the integration of schools and communities through the establishment of up to 5,000 centros educativos. The Peruvian pilot, as currently framed, will involve schools that are not currently functioning as telecenters.

eMexico, the new initiative of the Mexican government, will provide a framework for the World Links pilot project based on the development of the Plaza Comunitaria, designed to provide educational and social information services to millions of undereducated citizens.

The result of these three concurrent pilot projects, it is hoped, will be a firm and comprehensive foundation of knowledge and experience for the dissemination of the school-based telecenter model throughout Latin America.

References
Proenza, Francisco J.; Bastidas-Buch, Roberto; Montero, Guillermo.Telecenters for Socioeconomic and Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. Inter-American Development Bank.

Proenza, Francisco J. 2001. Telecenters and Sustainability. International Association of Mass Communication Research and International Communications Association. 2001.