In 1992, The Chilean ministry of education created the “Enlaces” program. The program’s aim was “constitute a national educational network among all schools and subsidized secondary schools in the country and incorporate new information and communication technologies to education (Enlaces, 1992)”.
During almost 20 years, this program has tried to encourage integrating technology in the classroom. The Chilean government has spent millions of dollar putting computer labs and internet connections in school. Also they have trained teachers in computer literacy. Sounds Familiar?
I think so. Why? Did US do the same? Yes.
But, Ministry of education in Chile has the worst problem that it could exist. It is a copycat. It always brings ideas from other countries. And Enlaces is not the exception. They did exactly the thing that Spanish Ministry of education did. But in the Chilean way, and you know what? They failed.
They failed not because the teachers refused to use computers. Not because the students didn’t learn. They failed because they brought a plan in which Chilean reality was not included. And they failed because they have a 20-year program that the only thing that has made has been to teach teachers to use projectors and PowerPoint. And they feel proud because we have reached a higher technological level in Latin America. But I think the Chilean teachers can and will give more. We just need to redesign this plan. We need to disrupt. We need to do something different.
The more I read Disrupting class, the more I thought and I do think that things in life have a natural development. But it is time to break them up.
