Electronic education heats up in Chile

A group of educators in Chile is reaping the benefits of Monash expertise in best-practice use of computers, the internet, intranets and other electronic and digital communication technologies in schools. MICHELE MARTIN reports.

A visit to Chile earlier this year gave Dr Geoff Romeo, a Monash expert on electronic and digital communications in schools, an insight into how important such technologies are to the future growth of one of South America's strongest economies.

Dr Romeo, a senior lecturer in the Education faculty at Peninsula campus, travelled to Chile in January after being invited to talk to educators there on his experiences in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education.

Dr Geoff Romeo: "While technology matters, good teachers matter more." Photo: Melissa Di Ciero

His trip came about after two students from Chile studied in the faculty last year. A couple of their lecturers also spent several weeks in Australia and became so interested in Dr Romeo's work, they asked him to visit Chile to do a series of lectures and workshops at Los Andes University in Santiago and the University of Concepcion in Concepcion.

"The audiences were a mix of teacher educators, teachers from public and private schools, both primary and secondary, and student teachers," Dr Romeo says. "I talked to them about challenges faced by Australian education systems, with particular reference to Victoria, in integrating ICT into the school curriculum.

"Chile's education system is generally less resourced than Australia's, and many of the teachers said they weren't in a position to do in the classroom what students in Victoria could do with ICT.

"They told me there weren't enough computers in their classrooms, that the ones they did have were too old and had outdated software, that access to digital cameras and video recorders was limited at best and that internet access was very slow.

"But they were keen to make better use of the available ICT and were particularly interested in some of the collaborative online projects using relatively simple technology taking place in Victorian schools."

Dr Romeo says Chilean teachers were quite taken with the international online Teddy Bear Project, involving an exchange of teddy bears between two classes in two schools in different countries. Each class then emails the other about their bear's activities, such as which child's home the bear has visited and the school excursions it has been taken on, helping children learn more about other places and cultures.

In relation to the broader community in Chile, Dr Romeo says the government sees ICT training as an important aspect of developing the country.

"In poorer areas, the government is building new schools featuring computer and internet technology, along with training and technical support resources, designed to provide an ICT resource for surrounding communities," he says.

"There's also a push for Chileans to learn English, and the teachers I spoke to wanted to know how ICT equipment could be used to help increase the rate of English learning among children." But Dr Romeo says the most important question he was asked time and again during his visit was why the technology mattered.

"I said the simple answer was because it is woven into the fabric of our lives; students need to engage with it, and engage with it critically, discussing issues such as internet addiction, access to socially unacceptable material and whether it's okay to read other people's email.

"However, I emphasised that I didn't believe in technology purely for its own sake, and that while technology definitely matters, good teachers matter more -- it's what teachers say and do in the classroom that makes the real difference."

Action

For further information, contact Dr Geoff Romeo on +61 3 9904 4216 or email geoff.romeo@education.monash.edu.au.