4 ms·

I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was a lost for the future of children, but I'm all in for saying that it made no difference. I have 3 daughters between

by ericol 7y ago

I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was a lost for the future of children, but I'm all in for saying that it made no difference. I have 3 daughters between 25 and 18. The 3 of them received a netbook from the plan. My father was a teacher both at secondary schools and at a university at the same time that the program developed, and he was a serious and dedicated proponent for the use of the netbooks on class; so, I kind of have a first hand experience on 2 sides of the dice ;) From the side of my kids, it was just a way to be able to connect to the internet 24/7, with absolutely no effect on their academic performance (I'd dare saying it had a negative effect; not trying to diminish my responsibility, but it was rather difficult as a single father to policy 3 young girls while at the same time the example set on the contrary by their friends was rather strong: Most father would just let the kids use the computer all day, as that meant not having to care for them). My father, on the other side, was an island in a sea of apathy from the people that were supposed to drive the change. I think the biggest issues with the "Plan Conectar" were mainly four: - The government on average thought was that it was enough just to drop the computers in the kids' lap. - There was a big disconnect between the main drivers of the program and the "lower ranks" of the educative establishment. - A HUGE percentage of the educative workforce was computer illiterate, and both passively and actively rejected the program. - When the program was crafted, it was not visible defined (Nor there was anybody / anything actively defining it nor enforcing it) who's responsibility was to implement the program from the top to bottom, so basically everybody's attitude was "Not my responsibility". I'm friends with the person that was responsible for the program from the whole of my province, and I know for a fact - I even once applied for a position with them - how much of an effort they were doing for the program, and how excellent they were at doing that. I'm also aware of how much of a fight they were presented against, and how it felt like a lost cause from them start.

jakelazaroff 7y ago
> - The government on average thought was that it was enough just to drop the computers in the kids' lap. An relevant quote on technology and education [1]: > You might have said "What is the role of computers and bicycles in education?" Then I would have said, "Why the bicycles?" and you "Why the computer?" Efforts like OLPC seem to start from wrong place: presupposing that access to technology will be good for education and then figuring out how to solve that, rather than looking at what educational issues actually exist and determining the problem from there. [1] http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N16/weisen.16n.html http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N16/weisen.16n.html
- ericol 7y ago
  I really like that quote, not sure why you left the juicy part out ;) Yeah, I think basically the problem stems from thinking technology is an end instead of a medium; and even for those that do see it as a medium, they are not quite clear how it fits the education environment. In the end, we should first try to focus on fixing education - that, from my point of view, is a process that is utterly broken everywhere - before shoving in there something like technology.
diegof79 7y ago
Ey thanks for sharing your experience. I appreciate your perspective as a father. My experience is from the teachers training side: as part of the University of Buenos Aires, I taught programming classes to high school teachers. I think that having a computer is much better than not having it. It makes no difference for kids with access to computers, but there are kids that doesn’t have that. For those kids it may do a difference. My main complain of the “Plan Conectar Igualdad” is about the cost of incompetence. As you mention there is a lot of capable people that wants better education, but when resources are not very well aligned and plans like this are at the risk to die in each economic down turn, I wished a much better approach rather that giving the netbooks and wait for a miracle.
- ericol 7y ago
  > but there are kids that doesn’t have that Yes, totally agree here. Obviously was far from my experience (In my house there've been for years now more computers than people, and that's not even counting cellphones). But I couldn't agree more with what you are saying: For an incredible lot of kids was not only the first contact with a computer; it was also completelly unrestricted. Regarding incompetence, I think there was some sort of desconnection from reality from a lot of people in key places: I think way too many people thought that just dropping the netbooks would be enough (Like in Ethipia) without even considering cultural and social constraints. It still baffles me that it is heralded as a success by a lot of people from the previous government; yet, I think that the move by the current government to scrap it completely - instead on making the effort of fixing the problems - was utterly stupid. There was a lot of energy, effort and knowledge by a lot of incredible hard working and knowledgeable people put into making them work. Also, I never gave them much of a cursory look, but I think the machines were _really_ configured to be a powerful assistant to education: It's demise in the end was mostly due to - failed - politics... Just like with socialism ;)
  - stebann 7y ago
    "Conectar" was my introduction to computers. When I was a teenager I felt that some people were really making an effort to bring new opportunities but many didn't appreciate it, like teachers who couldn't figure out configuration stuff and just dismissed the effort by the government and personnel who worked in the program because they thought We (many poor children in the "Interior") wouldn't have any kind of curiosity about them. Don't misunderstand me but I used to heard things like "No entiendo para que lanzaron este programa si estos chicos nunca van a ser programadores o van a trabajar de éso"... Of course I can talk about it, It just wasn't about throwing computers to us and expect us to hack our way to success. I think that by mid 2020's Argentina will have much more literate computer users and many people with more expertise in a variety of things, and with that new context We will do better by recycling good ideas and reviewing mistakes from the past.

by ericol 7y ago

jakelazaroff 7y ago

> - The government on average thought was that it was enough just to drop the computers in the kids' lap. An relevant quote on technology and education [1]: > You might have said "What is the role of computers and bicycles in education?" Then I would have said, "Why the bicycles?" and you "Why the computer?" Efforts like OLPC seem to start from wrong place: presupposing that access to technology will be good for education and then figuring out how to solve that, rather than looking at what educational issues actually exist and determining the problem from there. [1] http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N16/weisen.16n.html http://tech.mit.edu/V105/N16/weisen.16n.html

ericol 7y ago
I really like that quote, not sure why you left the juicy part out ;) Yeah, I think basically the problem stems from thinking technology is an end instead of a medium; and even for those that do see it as a medium, they are not quite clear how it fits the education environment. In the end, we should first try to focus on fixing education - that, from my point of view, is a process that is utterly broken everywhere - before shoving in there something like technology.

diegof79 7y ago

Ey thanks for sharing your experience. I appreciate your perspective as a father. My experience is from the teachers training side: as part of the University of Buenos Aires, I taught programming classes to high school teachers. I think that having a computer is much better than not having it. It makes no difference for kids with access to computers, but there are kids that doesn’t have that. For those kids it may do a difference. My main complain of the “Plan Conectar Igualdad” is about the cost of incompetence. As you mention there is a lot of capable people that wants better education, but when resources are not very well aligned and plans like this are at the risk to die in each economic down turn, I wished a much better approach rather that giving the netbooks and wait for a miracle.

ericol 7y ago
> but there are kids that doesn’t have that Yes, totally agree here. Obviously was far from my experience (In my house there've been for years now more computers than people, and that's not even counting cellphones). But I couldn't agree more with what you are saying: For an incredible lot of kids was not only the first contact with a computer; it was also completelly unrestricted. Regarding incompetence, I think there was some sort of desconnection from reality from a lot of people in key places: I think way too many people thought that just dropping the netbooks would be enough (Like in Ethipia) without even considering cultural and social constraints. It still baffles me that it is heralded as a success by a lot of people from the previous government; yet, I think that the move by the current government to scrap it completely - instead on making the effort of fixing the problems - was utterly stupid. There was a lot of energy, effort and knowledge by a lot of incredible hard working and knowledgeable people put into making them work. Also, I never gave them much of a cursory look, but I think the machines were _really_ configured to be a powerful assistant to education: It's demise in the end was mostly due to - failed - politics... Just like with socialism ;)
- stebann 7y ago
  "Conectar" was my introduction to computers. When I was a teenager I felt that some people were really making an effort to bring new opportunities but many didn't appreciate it, like teachers who couldn't figure out configuration stuff and just dismissed the effort by the government and personnel who worked in the program because they thought We (many poor children in the "Interior") wouldn't have any kind of curiosity about them. Don't misunderstand me but I used to heard things like "No entiendo para que lanzaron este programa si estos chicos nunca van a ser programadores o van a trabajar de éso"... Of course I can talk about it, It just wasn't about throwing computers to us and expect us to hack our way to success. I think that by mid 2020's Argentina will have much more literate computer users and many people with more expertise in a variety of things, and with that new context We will do better by recycling good ideas and reviewing mistakes from the past.