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LearnLink Projects: BRAZIL
U.S./Brazil
Learning Technologies Network (LTNet)
Term:
October 1998 - December 2001
Status: Closed
URL: http://www.ltnet.org
Principal contact: Eric
Rusten
In
October 1998, LearnLink, with funding from USAID's LAC Bureau, started
the US/Brazil Learning Technologies Network (LTNet) project. This
modest initiative was tasked with creating a web-based clearinghouse
for Brazilian and US educators containing static information on
educational technology. The project was carried out under the US/Brazil
Partnership for Education a bilateral agreement between the US and
Brazil that seeks to foster greater cooperation and exchange of
ideas and information in the education sector. Under this bilateral
agreement, LTNet partnered with the ProInfo program, a national
school computerization and education reform program, at the Brazilian
Ministry of Education and started exploring collaborative activities.
At its inception, staff expectations for LTNet were limited to meeting
the terms of the contract and the goals of the Education Partnership,
and staff did not set their sites farther into the future than the
two-year project term.
Now,
over three years later, an exciting transformation in LTNet has
taken place. The once modest project, after evolving from a static
clearinghouse into a dynamic and integrated set of collaborative
on-line learning environments that are actively used by public schools
across Brazil, is now an independent Brazilian NGO. This new NGO,
LTNet-Brasil, will continue and expand the work of
LTNet in Brazil with a focus on building and strengthening the capacity
of Brazilian educators to integrate computer and Internet technologies
into education and improve teaching and learning. Within this broad
goal, LTNet-Brasil will also continue enabling international collaboration
between Brazilian educators and students and school in Africa, the
US, other countries in Latin America and elsewhere in the world.
In
March 2002, at the VII Bilateral Education Partnership Meeting in
Brasilia, the US Department of Education and Brazil's Ministry of
Education agreed to continue the US/Brazil Partnership for Education,
which was formed in 1997, for three more years. At this March meeting,
the past director of LTNet presented some of the achievements of
the LTNet project and announced the establishment of the LTNet-Brasil
and introduced Vera Lucia Suguri as the NGO's Executive Director.
After this announcement, the Brazil delegation proposed that the
that LTNet-Brasil continue to be used to support activities carried
out under the US/Brazil Education Partnership. The Brazilian Ministry
of Education was especially interested in ensuring that LTNet-Brasil
would continue LTNet's previous work of supporting bilateral exchanges
and in enabling US and Brazilian schools to participate in virtual
collaborative activities.
Four
Brazilian educators that the Ministry had invited to the meeting
highlighted some of the achievements of LTNet's capacity building
efforts during their presentation to describe how technology is
being used in Brazilian schools to improve education. The four educators
had participated in a variety of LTNet collaborative and training
activities and reported on how important LTNet was in enabling significant
educational benefits through the use of technology in their schools.
These teachers gave a polished presentation using a well-designed
PowerPoint visual describing the many faces of how they have been
using LTNet's web site and their participation in LTNet and ProInfo
sponsored training activities. They held the attention of the enthusiastic
group of participants from both delegations and visitors who were
keenly interested in learning about specific examples of how ICTs
are being used in schools and the impact that these uses are having
on student learning.
Thus,
a transition was made from a USAID-funded and an AED-managed activity
to an independent NGO lead by very capable and professional Brazilian
educators. Under this leaderships and through the NGO, LTNet's work
to train educators and support teachers' integration of ICTs into
learning projects will be sustained and continue making a positive
contribution to public education across Brazil.
History
and Primary Activities
LTNet was funded by USAID's Latin American and Caribbean Bureau
for initially one year starting in October 1998. USAID then provided
additional funding to enable LTNet to continue work for two additional
years. The idea for LTNet originated at the first U.S./Brazil Binational
Dialogue on education, held in early 1998. The Brazilian Ministry
of Education was establishing a Centre for Experimentation with
Educational Technologies (CETE) as a national resource to promote
and research the effective use of educational technology and to
support ProInfo, a national school computerization project. The
Ministry suggested that a similar center or clearinghouse be created
in the United States by the US Department of Education so that it
could be linked to CETE. This would enable U.S. and Brazilian educators,
researchers and policy makers to share what they were learning about
using technologies in schools.
The US response to this suggestion from the Ministry of Education
was to collaborate with USAID to establish LTNet. The project was
designed by USAID in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education,
the U.S. Information Agency (now part of the U.S. State Department),
and the Brazilian government.
In
the first few month after LTNet started work, the initial partnership
with CETE evolved to encompass a strong partnership between ProInfo
and LTNet. Under this collaborative partnerships, LTNet was able
to achieve far more than was specified in the project contract.
For the three years, from October 1998-December 2001, the US/Brazil
Learning Technologies Network (LTNet) project has supported and
strengthened efforts in Brazil to integrate the use of computer
and Internet technologies in routine teaching and learning, thereby
contributing to improvements in Brazilian public education. Specifically,
LTNet successfully accomplished the following objectives to:
 Build
and enhance, over the course of the project, an easy-to-use web
site, bilingual in Portuguese and English and encompassing quality
information, professional networking services, and teacher development
resources for Brazilian and US educators;
Support
and enhance other US/Brazil Education Partnerships activities, especially
exchanges between Brazilian and the US educators and actively participate
in Partnership meetings;
Establish
and strengthen links between multiple Brazilian educational programs
and encourage improved use of educational technologies within these
activities;
Organize,
carry out and participate in conferences, seminars and workshop
in the US and Brazil that increase an understanding of the effective
use of computer and Internet technology in education;
Seek
out and enable partnerships among US corporations and Brazilian
counter part institutions and the Brazilian education sector; and
Reach
out to and expose US educators to Brazilian experiences with educational
technology applications and facilitate collaborative links between
US and Brazilian educators to exchange experiences and perceptions
about using computers and the Internet to improve teaching and learning.
Achievements
Over
the past three years, LTNet staff, often in partnership with the
ProInfo staff, developed and implemented, activities that improved
the promotion and use of computers and the Internet in education.
The
adoption of new technologies within education systems is often a
slow and challenging process that was nurtured effectively by LTNet's
Project Director, Eric Rusten, and other project staff who worked
very closely with their Brazilian partners, particularly with ProInfo's
pedagogical coordinator Vera Lucia Suguri. Through this close partnership,
LTNet staff gained an understanding of the information culture among
Brazilian educators, which enabled the project to develop and adapt
activities to the specific needs and circumstances of Brazilian
teachers and students.
Brazil
does not lack experts in educational technologies and in making
effective use of computers and the Internet in schools. In fact,
make of the leaders in this field globally are from Brazil and have
contributed to ProInfo's and LTNet's work. LTNet was able to draw
on this local expertise to strengthen its work and in turn occasionally
facilitated interrelationships among educational technology specialists
and schools. Relying on sound educational theories, LTNet in collaboration
with ProInfo contributed knowledge and skills for improving the
way educators use computer and Internet technology in teaching and
learning. In addition, the LTNet/ProInfo collaboration was able
to:
1) excite educators, especially at the classroom level, about the
potential of educational technologies;
2) instill a belief in their own abilities;
3) show them how to achieve their goals; and
4) provide a web-based collaborative environment for using different
technology in educational activities.
Once an educational technology "comfort level" was reached,
educators were able to link analytically initially-intimidating
theory and practice. Also, the approach developed and promoted by
LTNet and ProInfo imparted practical solutions to problems teachers
faced and enabled teachers to immediately engage their students
in online collaborative projects.
The
first year and a half of the project was spent primarily building
relationships, testing new approaches, developing the LTNet web
site and an integrated set of virtual communication and collaborative
tools, developing and applying a rapid training approach that best
fit the needs of Brazilian educators. The third year was marked
by a 50 percent reduction in funding and a rapid expansion in demands
for LTNet services, specifically the use of LTNet's web site and
the virtual collaboration and communication tools. This increase
in demand forced staff to refine existing tools and identify and
install new functions to make the collaborative learning environments
as user-friendly as possible. The funding decline led to a reduction
of paid-staff time that could be dedicated to managing LTNet. LTNet's
Director was allocated 50 percent time on LTNet, while the other
two staff were allocated 40 percent and 30 percent respectively.
To compensate for this loss of paid staff, LTNet had to increasingly
rely on staff from Brazil's ProInfo program and volunteers at Brazilian
schools and NTEs.
LTNet,
in collaboration with ProInfo, raised the level of interest in educational
technology encouraged educators to network with each other and to
experiment with creative uses of technology to improve teaching
and learning. In addition, LTNet helped to change perceptions among
many Brazilian educators about their capabilities and roles as educators.
LTNet and ProInfo demonstrated with Brazilian educators what could
be done with technology. Educators learned new ways to share learning
experiences, build learning communities, and become innovators themselves.
These
achievements and the success of LTNet become even more impressive
when the relative lack of resources for developing and maintaining
LTNet's web site and creating the collaborative learning tools and
environments is factored in. Much of LTNet's success is directly
attributed to the personal dedication of LTNet's Project Director
Eric Rusten and LTNet partner at ProInfo Vera Suguri. Although LTNet's
funding ended in December 31, 2001, LTNet's future will continuing
under LTNet-Brazil, a newly-created NGO that was created by Eric
Rusten and Vera Suguri.
LTNet
represents:
A
project whose greatest value emerged out of its ability to be organically
transformed based on expanding and developing partnerships, emerging
and evolving needs of the various partners, and most importantly,
responding to the actual needs of Brazilian educators, while encouraging
them to explore, experiment and learn from their own activities
that were linked to LTNet's training and web-based collaborative
tools.
A
project that is likely to survive through the continued use of tools
that were developed and provided by LTNet, and through the continued
impact of the training provided to multipliers and teachers across
Brazil. An example of this comes from a multiplier interviewed at
an NTE in Brasilia who mentioned that she was writing her thesis
on using and adapting LTNet's AAC environment for visual arts teachers.
LTNet's
impact may expand under the auspices of the Brazilian NGO, LTNet-Brazil
because of the tremendously increased need for the types of services
and tools that LTNet provided during its three year tenure. In late
December, a new set of partnerships was in the process of being
established between schools in Brazil and in Africa, using LTNet-Brazil.
This is a clear indicator of LTNet's success in creating rewarding
collaborative processes and tools that will continue to benefit
educators globally.
In
spite of very limited financial and staff resources, this project
was able to self-adjust, innovate, learn, expand its reach, and
impact large numbers of multipliers, teachers, and school principals
in Brazil.
This
was made possible because of:
Quick
response and flexibility on the part of LTNet staff. One multiplier
in Monte Claros, Minas Gerais, who was interviewed over the phone
from Brasilia noted that LTNet's Project Director, Eric Rusten,
was always able to provide very helpful and timely assistance and
that his support from a pedagogical and technical perspective has
helped them to "change their way of working." She also
noted that Washington, D.C. (meaning Eric Rusten) was able to provide
assistance much faster than anyone she had access to in Brazil.
Demand
driven approach based on a good understanding of the information
culture facing Brazilian educators. Instead of pushing for the implementation
of what may have been initially thought to be needed, i.e., a web-based
clearinghouse of information about educational technologies, LTNet
listened and responded to the needs of Brazilian educators and open
up opportunities for them based on a good understanding of the information
culture and pedagogical environment facing teachers in Brazil.
Flexibility
within USAID's Global LAC Bureau especially from the project's USAID
officer, David Evans, allowed the project to transform itself and
evolve based on demand rather than some preset objectives.
LTNet
staff's ability to develop and nurture durable partnerships both
with US and Brazilian institutions.
Important Results include:
Thousands
of educators trained in use of technologies for teaching and learning.
Some estimates include:
5,000 participants at the International ProInfo Congress in Fortaleza;
2,000 participants at training activities in Faxinal (Parana) and
Santa Catarina;
1,419 multipliers at 263 NTEs who use LTNet on a regular basis;
60,000+ teachers and coordinators (primary beneficiaries) a public
primary and secondary schools across Brazil;
many more who participated at presentations and workshops; and
thousands of students who use the LTNet chat rooms with their teachers.
At
many training events and presentations, LTNet received a lot of
media attention in the form of live television coverage and newspaper
articles. This resulted in a shadow audience that is difficult to
estimate but potentially very large.
More
important than the numbers listed above, LTNet developed and implemented
a training approach that works with Brazilian educators and can
be scaled up to address the growing and continuing needs of Brazil.
This training approach could also likely be used in other countries.
LTNet's training works because it is experience-based, grounded
in practice and is carried out within the context of a collaborative
on-line environment that the trainees continue using after the event
is finished. It also works because of the ongoing support that is
made available to educators by LTNet and ProInfo staff and the network
of people using LTNet. This effective training approach leads to
immediate and actual use of technologies by the teachers in their
classroom environment to improve learning and for their professional
development.
Brazilian
ownership and expected continuation of LTNet's work through LTNet-Brazil
(a Brazilian NGO created to carryon this work). While LTNet was
originally meant as a network between Brazilian and US educators,
and it has, indeed, fulfilled that mission, it has also emerged
as a network to greatly facilitate learning among Brazilian educators.
Responding to where the needs were greatest, LTNet turned a lot
of its attention to supporting Brazilian educators. This attention
was very much needed, very well received, and resulted in clear
Brazilian ownership of most of LTNet's services and activities.
Filling
an important niche in Brazil's technology and education context.
While Brazil has extensive expertise in educational technology,
there is a gap between theory and "expertise", and local
school teacher's practical application. LTNet developed and implemented
an approach that is beginning to fill this gap by providing tools
for ongoing use of technology for educational applications, ongoing
support, and collaboration with teachers, and encouragement and
guidance during the application process.
A
large amount of learning on the part of LTNet staff and ProInfo
partners about what works and doesn't work in training and enabling
Brazilian educators to use technologies. This learning was partly
the result of ongoing activities to satisfy the project's objectives,
and partly the result of LTNet and ProInfo staff's willingness and
eagerness to experiment, adapt, adjust and involve as many educators
and others as possible in their activities, and even in some cases,
facilitating experiments suggested by educators themselves and facilitating
the learning process based on these experiments with technology. |
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Project Brief (PDF)
News Bulletin 10.03.01
