The Aprender Blog
From the frontline
Crossing the Atlantic
Our link school in Goiania, Brazil is really going places. Having spent the last two summers with the staff there, helping, encouraging and, most importantly, listening to both teachers and students, we are seeing a transformation in the look and feel of the school. We’ll be able to show some photos on a later blog. The key development this week has been an email I received from Marcelo, our man on the ground. He needs a teacher training programme to begin with the staff that are part of the, what they call ‘Thematic classes’.
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Contact with Youth Sport Trust
Our Director of Sport at school recently attended a Youth Sport Trust event at the Emirates stadium, London. One of the outcomes was news that YST are branching out into Brazil. Aprender has emailed them to see if there can be some synergy – particularly excited about it as our pilot school in Goiania has recently worked really hard to clear the scrubland to make some space for PE. It would be great to help them in this area.
Visioneering
3 hour meeting today regarding future use of ICT in education. What is our vision? What affects our vision – our dreams? Does everyone visioneer in the same way, with the same framework? Probably not. What happens when a team of people are visioneering and most are not really visioneers? Its’ not a criticism but an observation. Some people simply don’t ‘get’ vision. It’s not their bag.
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Technological Solutions
Just how much will information technology play a part in the acceleration of progress in education in Brazil? If you you-tube brazilian education you’ll see a whole range of postings talking about the ‘laptops for kids’ initiative. Large, multi-national electronics and computing companies are doing a lot to support this great government scheme. To help young people connect into the resources that the internet can offer can certainly help advance their studies – and why not!? But ICT is not the utopian solution that some are suggesting.