K12 Digest® - March 2022 - International Edition – The Faces of EdTech in Latin America Special

JANUARY LATIN AMERICA SPECIAL SPECIAL

INTERNATIONAL INDIAN EDITION

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MARCH 2022

K12 Digest March 2022

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The Educational Technology Pioneers You Can Trust

Diagnostic assessments enable you to

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Comprehensive digital curriculum that

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content bridges the gap between home and school learning

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Edmentum supports students’ future choices with opportunities for the present.

Join the schools across South America already relying on Edmentum to address their teaching and learning needs.

From the moment we made the switch to Edmentum, the client support has been industry-leading.

Mr. Samuel Irving, Deputy Head of Primary, International College, Punta del Este, Uruguay

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+44 (0)1572 492576

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@Edmentum_INT

K12 Digest March 2022

K12 Digest March 2022

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March 2022

Vol - 3 Issue - 3

Latin America Special Head of Advisory Board Dr. Manoj Varghese, Ph.D

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Andrew Scott Joseph Alex

Naomi Wilson Stanly Lui Emma James

Enquiry: admin@k12digest.com

Art and Design Charlie Jameson

Sales & Marketing

Jennifer Anderson Rachel Roy

Monica Davis Anna Elza

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K12 Digest May-June March March 2022 2019 2020

K12 Digest is a digital magazine published by Connecta Innovation Private Limited. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in the content and pictures provided are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Connecta Innovation Private Limited or any of its members and we do not assume any responsibility. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the advertisements, its content, pictures, and all representation of warranties made in such advertisements are those of the advertisers and not of the publisher. K12 Digest is a Free Subscription digital magazine strictly not for sale and has to be strictly for internal private use only. Publisher does not assume any responsibility arising out of anyone printing copy of this digital magazine in any format and in any country and all matters related to that.

SPECIAL EDITOR’S NOTE

Narrowing the Digital Divide in Latin America

T

here has never been a better blue-sky moment to launch a Latin American startup than now. That was the consensus of a report from the recent conference by Latin American Business Associations (LABA) at NYU and Columbia Business School on investing in Latin America. 2021 has been a blockbuster year with Venture Capital investment reaching USD$15,7 billion, more than in the previous ten years combined. In terms of EdTech for the region, 2021 will be remembered as the first year where Venture Capital investment exceeded USD$1 billion combined (20112021), where just the investment in 2021 was 50% of that number (USD$496 million).

However, there are challenges to face, partly to do with the fact that the region still lacks more seed investors, and partly because of a major issue of finding talented teams in terms of software engineers and management leaders. According to data from a survey carried out by Deel, a startup founded in Silicon Valley that develops solutions for global companies to hire people from any country, global hiring by tech companies in Latin America grew 286% in the second half of 2021 compared to the first semester, showing a

greater jump than in Europe, Middle East and Africa (+250%) or Asia (+227%).

According to the recent document “Education Technology in Latin America and the Caribbean, December 2021 ” released by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and HolonIQ, a global market intelligence firm from Australia that oversees the global learning landscape, EdTech is potentially one of the most powerful growth engines for the region, since it can accelerate the economic recovery, close the social educational gap, increase access for students and multiply the support for parents, mentors, teachers and education institutions in Latin America.

There are more than 1,500 EdTech startups in the region with an average age of 8 years (35% of them have less than five years of being incorporated), that have created more than 4,500 jobs. You will have the opportunity to take a close look at some of the leading EdTech startups in Latin America, some of them not visible enough, others already in the radar of investors, but for sure, all of them providing solutions to close the digital gap of millions of students.

Enjoy reading!

Juan Manuel Pico Juan Manuel Pico International Advisory Board Member, K12 Digest® K12 Digest March 2022

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INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Chris Wright

Maarit Rossi

Former International School Principal, Former Group Project Director at a World Class Learning Group, Education Consultant - Wright Solutions, United Kingdom

Founder & CEO - Paths to Math Ltd, Former Mathematics Teacher and Principal, Global Teacher Prize Finalist, Finland

Dr. Stuart Grant Colesky Principal, Rundle College, South Africa

Zeljana Radojicic Lukic Exceptional Educator from Serbia, Founder of Association of the Best Teachers of the Former Yugoslavia, Founder of Magical Intercultural Friendship Network, Founder of Creative Magic - Children’s International Festival, Founder of Magic Village, Serbia

Asst. Prof. Dr. Poonsri Vate-U-Lan Assistant Professor in Education, Ph.D. Supervisor and Researcher, Thailand

Stephen Cox

Elena Shramkova

Chief Education Officer, New Nordic School, Finland

Liljana Luani

Senior Teacher ‘Pashko Vasa’ school Shkodra, Exceptional Volunteer, Albania

English and Literature teacher, Owner of “The Smart Teens Studio of English” in Belgorod, Russia

Ralph Valenzisi Chief of Digital Learning and Development, Norwalk Public Schools, Connecticut, United States

Hatem Slimane

Servatius (Servee) Palmans Former Director School Administration & Business Operations (Large Education Group), Chief Operating Officer - BBD Education, Dr. Lilian Bacich Netherlands & UAE Senior Educationist, Author, Keynote Speaker, Co-founder Tríade Educacional, Brazil

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K12 Digest March 2022

Founder & National President - ATAST, General director of IFEST² the international projects competition in Tunisia, General secretary of MILSET Africa, BRISECC member, Tunisia

Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD Former Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU, Thailand & India

Hidekazu Shoto

Dr. Venus M. Alboruto

Angus Duthie

Master Teacher, Researcher, Innovator, Trainer, Philippines

Former Vice President Security (Large Education Group), Former British Army Officer (Airborne Forces), Senior Advisor – Resilience and Crisis Management (Emerald Solutions Group), United Kingdom & UAE

Innovative English and ICT Teacher, Author, Japan

Ian Deakin

Deputy Head and Dean of Faculty, Dalton Academy, Beijing, China

Shady Elkassas Rania Lampou

Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2019, 15 International Awards on STEM, STEM Instructor, Educator, Neuroscience Researcher, Trainer & Author, Greece

Director of Innovation Al Ittihad National Private School-Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Fethy Letaief Distinguished Senior EFL Teacher, ISA Coordinator with the British Council, Motivational Speaker, Tunisia

Herwin Hamid

Ha Nga

Revolutionary English Educator, Globally Connected English Studio - Hanoi, Vietnam

EdTech Specialist, Speaker and Teacher Trainer, Innovative ICT Educator, ICT learning multimedia developer, Indonesia

Juan Manuel Pico Co-founder & Managing Partner, Education Soul, Colombia

Dr. Leonilo Basas Capulso Master Teacher, Speaker and Researcher, Philippines

Kihyun Park Innovative Educator of Online Classroom, Pungsaeng Middle School, South Korea

Dr. Manoj Varghese, Ph.D Mr. Ngô Thành Nam

Technology Academy Manager, Microsoft Learning Consultant, Global Trainer, Vietnam

Senior Director – Global Partnerships, Advisory & Consulting – Connecta® | Head of Advisory Board – Higher Education Digest® & K12 Digest® | Adjunct Faculty – Assumption University | Former CIO – Athena Education | Former Global Director Technology – GEMS Education

K12 Digest March 2022

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MUST - WATCH

EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR - 2022

16 Helping Latin American Schools with Cutting-Edge Technology Solutions

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K12 Digest March 2022

FEATURED ARTICLES

28 MAKE YOUR STUDENTS’ GROWTH VISIBLE WITH DIGITAL CREDENTIALS Anabella Laya, Founder & CEO, Acreditta

32 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS AN ACCELERATOR FOR TECH TALENT Andrea Calderón, CEO, PrimeraHFC & Paolo Barone, Director of Partnerships, PrimeraHFC

40 SCHOOL GROUNDS AS A TOOL OF WELLBEING AND INNOVATION Ángela Ibáñez, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Patio Vivo Foundation & Marcial Huneeus, Director of Education, Patio Vivo Foundation & Andrea Manuschevich, Communications Coordinator, Patio Vivo Foundation

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46 LEARNING TO BE OURSELVES INTERNATIONAL SMARTPHONE FILMMAKING WORKSHOP Catalina Cortese, Mustakis Foundation, Chile & Leonor Merín, Mustakis Foundation, Chile & Martha Gómez, Education Soul, Colombia

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54 WHAT DO STUDENTS NEED FROM EDUCATION, TO BE CHANGEMAKERS? Catalina Largacha, Leader of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Colegio Santa Francisca Romana and Consultant for Educar para Innovar

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DIGITAL EDUCATION, OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERYONE

BENEFITS OF TECHNOLOGY IN K12 SCHOOLING

Constanza Pino, Human Value´s Director, WOM Colombia

Frederico Bello, Founder, Luca

FEATURED ARTICLES

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WHY PRIORITIZING THE WELLBEING OF TEACHERS IS SO CRITICAL IN 2022?

EDTECH IN LATIN AMERICA: AN “EDUCATION RENAISSANCE” TALE

PENCIL, FROM A TANTRUM TO IMPROVING EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN LATAM

CO-CREATION AS A FACTOR IN SCHOOL INNOVATION

Henry May, CEO, Coschool

Juan Manuel Pico, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Education Soul

Juan Manuel Zuniga, Chief Product Officer, Colegium

Katerin Camila Montaño Boada, EdTech Innovation Expert & Project Coordinator, Hypercubus

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BUILDING AN ECOSYSTEM WITH PURPOSE AT THE CENTER

IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING FINANCE IN SCHOOLS

A DOZEN REFLECTIONS FROM A DIGITAL CONTENT FACTORY

TEACHING ROBOTICS IN A PANDEMIC

Mariana Garza Villalobos, Founder & CEO, Inverkids

Martha Cecilia Gómez, Co-Founder, Education SOUL

Matías Scovotti, CEO & Cofounder, Educabot

Luis Javier Castro, Founder & CEO, Alejandria

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K12 Digest March 2022

FEATURED ARTICLES

118 DRIVING CHANGE THROUGH EDTECH WITH GROWTH MINDSET AND A KIND HEART Natalia Leon Amador, Author, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Educator, Common Sense Educator, Digital Learning Consultant & Coach

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EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION FOR RURAL AREAS THROUGH THE “AULAS AMIGAS” MODEL

TRANSMEDIA EDUCATION: A PROPOSAL TO STIMULATE CURIOSITY AND PARTICIPATION IN THE INFORMATION ERA

SCALING COMPUTATIONAL THINKING AND CODING IN SCHOOLS IN LATIN AMERICA

Sandra Milena Chica Gómez, General Manager, Aulas Amigas

Sebastian Moreno Cruz, CEO, Critertec Educación S.A.S.

Vicky Ricaurte and Marcelo Burbano, Co-Founders of Arukay

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K12 Digest March 2022

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MUST - WATCH

EDTECH COMPANY OF THE YEAR - 2022

Helping Latin American Schools with Cutting-Edge Technology Solutions

Edmentum creates innovative, proven learning technology and partners with educators to ignite students’ potential. The EdTech company began as a research project at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign over 60 years ago. Alongside a fully Cognia and American International Accreditation Association of Schools and Colleges (AIAASC) accredited online school, Edmentum provides consulting, CPD, mentoring, digital curriculum, assessments for learning, supplementary tools, online tutors, and test preparation to schools. The company is in a unique position to support any school or education organization with their school improvement or digital needs.

Edmentum is working with an increasing number of schools and partners within Latin America. In a conversation with K12 Digest, Paul Montague talks about the digitalization challenges in Latin America, how Edmentum is helping institutions in Latin America, and much more.

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K12 Digest March 2022

About

Paul Montague

International Digital Learning and Curriculum Manager Paul Montague, Edmentum’s International Digital Learning and Curriculum Manager, has worked in the education field for 20 years and has significant teaching and learning, digital curriculum, content, assessment, and social-emotional learning and wellbeing experience. His roles have included: Geography Teacher, School Improvement Manager, Advisor, Project Examiner, Government Advisor, Curriculum Development Manager (Pearson), International Consultant for The Middle East (GL Education), and Digital Curriculum and Learning Manager for Edmentum. In his current role with Edmentum, he partners with and supports schools worldwide as they introduce a range of Edmentum’s flexible digital curriculum and learning solutions.

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What is the status of the digitalization of education in Latin America? How is Edmentum catalyzing digital education in the region?

Edmentum is making headway in the Latin American market for digital curriculum, assessment, and K–12 virtual schooling and is supporting with catalyzing digital education in the region.

While schools are closed, working remotely, or in a hybrid setting, a recent report compiled by UNICEF estimates that nearly 114 million students are currently out of school due to inequity in education provision.

While some will still receive some education, this is not the case for millions of children pre-pandemic and, looking to the future, post-pandemic.

There has been a division in equity and access to education over the last two years in Latin America, and Edmentum is partnering with schools across the region and providing a range of digital solutions to enable their students to access quality learning.

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K12 Digest March 2022

Edmentum is also helping effectuate digital education by evidencing that its programs can reduce the time to plan curriculum, lessons, or create content for the weekly lesson plan, support schools in becoming more competitive in the region, and reduce running costs for schools too.

Furthermore, Edmentum is also competitively priced for the Latin American market, which is a contributing factor for helping to catalyze digital education in the region.

Edmentum has built great relationships with associations and international school groups across Latin America (including the Tri-Association, AMISA [formally AASSA], and LAHC). Typically, schools work with these associations to help them with professional development and third-party services. In light of this, we will be working with these to effectuate digital education further and showcase our programs to schools and how we can support them. We have delivered many thought leadership, consultative and product-focused webinars via the associations. We are also keen to show that we

have experienced consultants who can tailor and build our solutions around a school’s goals and objectives.

By partnering with these organizations, Edmentum displays its credibility to schools and how we are a trusted provider of valuable, quality content, flexible services, and solutions. Whether schools are teaching to a U.K., U.S., or international curriculum, we can support national and international schools as they embark on their journey towards digital education.

Edmentum’s goal to support schools in Latin America has remained a top priority. We will continue to showcase our solutions, such as Exact Path and Courseware, and how they support schools and students in many situations

What was the motive of Edmentum to venture into the Latin American market? How has the journey been so far?

Edmentum is an international education technology company that began as a research project at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign over 60 years ago. The original pioneers in computer-assisted instruction, Edmentum started as PLATO Learning and has developed since this time to add Study Island and EdOptions Academy, Exact Path, Courseware, and Calvert Learning to our range of learning programs.

Edmentum has recently partnered with BASE Education (social-emotional learning curriculum) and FEV Tutor (24/7 tutors) and acquired Apex Learning.

Having such positive growth in the North American market, Edmentum established itself internationally around eight years ago by offering its solutions globally. Our initial growth for the international team was in the Middle East, then Asia, and now we have a team to operate within Latin America. It was not necessarily so much of a motive, more of a recognition that we can absolutely support schools in this region with their challenges. The journey itself has been both exciting and challenging at the same time. School enrollments are low, budgets are restricted, expatriates are returning home due to civil, and COVID-19 unrest, and the level of uncertainty remains high.

However, Edmentum’s goal to support schools in Latin America has remained a top priority. We will continue to showcase our solutions, such as Exact Path and Courseware, and how they support schools and students in many situations.

Furthermore, the uncertainty of schools being open for on-site learning has led to confusion. Many have been left without the tools and resources to continue learning throughout the school year. Often, international schools in countries such as Argentina and Brazil have been open for business for a couple of weeks. Then, with little warning, the schools are instructed to close again, leaving schools hastening

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to operate in either a fully remote setting or a hybrid learning model. Edmentum can help with this uncertainty and support schools to future-proof their teaching and learning by providing digital curriculum and distance learning EdTech tools.

In addition to this, other challenges remain surrounding learning loss, bridging skill gaps, and filling teacher vacancies for certain subjects or year groups.

There is also the challenge of supporting teachers and students, reducing stress and anxiety, and producing content during an already difficult time when working remotely. Edmentum programs are built to help with each of these challenges and support schools.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, when educational institutions in the Latin American region moved to fully online courses, what were the issues Edmentum had to address?

How did the company overcome those challenges?

Edmentum is an online learning company, so we were positioned perfectly to address any concerns schools have in the Latin America region and allow them to learn with digital curriculum addressed to their needs, while in a remote learning capacity.

Many schools were also experiencing a complete loss or reduction in testing, so struggles emerged

in understand their learning gaps. The learning gaps were apparent, but there was no way of bridging them.

Edmentum, through Exact Path, automatically identified students who needed more support through its diagnostic assessment or by importing the schools’ last NWEA® MAP® Growth™ score data (Edmentum integrates with MAP data) into its system. From this, it then showed educators and students their learning gaps. Exact Path can identify gaps for students in math, language arts, and reading. It also supports local and international curricula and maximizes English proficiency, a subject that became a victim of the pandemic due to missed learning. Exact Path became a major bonus for schools in this way.

Furthermore, the program creates an automatic, individualized learning path for students to follow and address their gaps. This helps to mitigate learning loss for students and offer a new way of learning. Students have access to their learning path whenever and wherever they need, to help with 24/7 learning. This helped those educational institutions who needed access to a learning resource outside of school. Teachers could also always follow a student’s progress on Exact Path and support the student, when necessary, with reporting and analytics for administrators and teachers, bridging the gap between teacher and student when working remotely.

There were some other challenges that Edmentum faced. Some students didn’t have access to the devices they were used to using at school, and some also didn’t have broadband at home and had to use their parents’ mobile devices. While this was not ideal, it offered students a chance to complete some schooling, and Edmentum’s solutions functioned on most mobile devices, so they could use these in this instance.

Many educational institutions also had limited access to a digital curriculum and noticed that they had to implement a resource to address this. It became apparent to many international schools that Edmentum’s Study Island, Courseware, and Exact Path could help them with digital curriculum access. The programs could also support planning for the future, reduce teachers’ stress levels because content was already written for them, save educators time by automatically marking content, and track students’ progress and identify any skill gaps.

Hence, these were ideal for these institutions looking for reliable digital curriculum.

Staff shortages and schools closing their doors indefinitely were issues the region faced, and one which Edmentum also addressed. This meant that schools that were still operating had to change their business model.

With our online school, Academy, we enabled them to do this and continue operating.

For instance, a school in Haiti recently enrolled five additional students but did not have the accreditation to offer high school diplomas or teachers to deliver the credits they needed. They had teachers but were already stretched. Edmentum offered full-time teachers to deliver live lessons for full-time students or just deliver a particular subject to students (which was helpful for schools who had lost their math or English teacher, for example).

Academy allows for growth within a school and can also help the school attract students from outside the local area to increase enrollment and revenue. Academy

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also offers curriculum extensions. For example, if a school isn’t offering a U.S. High School Diploma, it can start to, through Edmentum and our virtual schooling program. They simply enroll the student, and Edmentum arranges the rest.

What are the measures Edmentum took to manage drastically increased traffic?

How did it help the users?

During this time, we saw unprecedented traffic and uptake. We have seen enrollments to our online school, Academy, increase by 462%, and our customers have increased by 157% on our Exact Path and Courseware products.

Furthermore, there has been a 47% increase in customers on Study Island and, currently, 1.3 million content launches each day.

With this increase in traffic, Edmentum maximized its support efforts and ensured it could provide the same amount of support to each school before the pandemic. This helped users as the Edmentum team dealt with issues quickly, and schools could continue functioning without a drop in output. We are exceptionally proud of the service we deliver, and our implementation is seamless.

We understand how vital it is to make the implementation process simple, so when schools partner with us, our solutions can be implemented into a school’s practice quickly and impact attainment and growth immediately.

Along with the increase in support efforts, it was necessary for Edmentum to hire more consultants to support the business. This also allowed us to gain a better understanding of the Latin American market in more detail and offer a more tailored service to the schools we work with globally.

How is Edmentum helping institutions in Latin America to improve the quality of content in these challenging times?

They provide a sound digital curriculum to enable their students to achieve their potential and goals and support them with any learning gaps.

Edmentum can provide over 6,000 resources to schools through EducationCity, 12 rigorous technology-enhanced item types to support assessment preparation through Study Island,

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As an online learning company, Edmentum is positioned perfectly to address any concerns schools have in the Latin America region and allow them to learn with digital curriculum addressed to their needs, while in a remote learning capacity

and over 600 courses to choose from in various subjects through its online school, Academy. Edmentum is also supported with various accreditations such as Academy being Cognia accredited and utilizes NWEA MAP Growth assessment data to provide a sound digital learning experience on Exact Path. Fully mapped to the U.K. and U.S. curricula, Edmentum can provide schools with quality content and support with improving their teaching and learning.

All resources are accessible anytime and anywhere so students can learn whenever and wherever they need to. This offers flexibility between home and school learning and enables schools to operate in the way they want to.

Tell us about the products and services Edmentum offers now for its clients in the Latin American region. How does the company intend to stand out from the crowd?

Edmentum offers several unique solutions to schools in Latin America to help them address their needs.

Exact Path is a K–12 individualized learning solution that makes learning personal. It uses diagnostic assessment data and personalized instruction. Students who use Exact Path are proven to demonstrate positive, statistically significant growth. Exact Path is unique in that it is perfect for helping close skill gaps, accelerating learning and individualizing instruction with effective competencybased learning paths.

Courseware offers standards-aligned course expansion for 6–12 students. Schools that implement Courseware in their settings report an increased student graduation rate. Courseware is unique in that it has over 600 courses and can help engage learners with online courses taught by a teacher of record.

Students can earn credit from anywhere, anytime, and track progress with reporting and pacing tools.

Academy supports K–12 students and allows for the expansion of school capacity with Cognia accredited courses and teachers. The program offers over 600 courses, and it stands out as a notable learning platform as students enrolled in these courses maintained a 92% passing rate in 2019. With Academy, you can offer courses taught by certified virtual teachers, extend alternative pathways to graduation for struggling students, and expand options to retain student enrollments.

Study Island, for K–12 students, improves mastery and retention by offering practice items with

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Edmentum can provide over 6,000 resources to schools through EducationCity, 12 rigorous technologyenhanced item types to support assessment preparation through Study Island, and over 600 courses to choose from in various subjects through its online school, Academy

flexible modes to improve proficiency, especially in high-priority areas. There are 600,000+ items built to U.S. state standards that offer game modes for a fun learning environment, test modes, and much more. No matter where learning takes place, Study Island ensures that students are meeting grade-level expectations and mastering essential standards.

EducationCity personalizes learning for K–6 students by linking assessment data with engaging curriculum content to support your students’ growth. Teachers and students can view progress and performance easily. EducationCity also supports inquiry-based learning aiding higher-order thinking skills.

How has the performance of Edmentum been in the last few years? What has been the progress of the business in the Latin American region?

Schools in the Latin American region have subscribed to our products and have been able to offer teaching and learning in a different capacity than before. We have created opportunities in schools for them to grow and expand and offer U.S. High School Diplomas to students who may not be able to access a U.S. style of education.

With Academy, we have also expanded course opportunities in schools, helping schools to address staff shortages, and save time creating courses and resources. Therefore, our performance is and continues to be incredibly positive, with an increasing number of schools recognizing our benefits. We have certainly seen more interest than ever before in the Latin American territory. Educators have been expressing much more interest in understanding our products and services in more detail while planning for the upcoming school year.

We have listened to schools across Latin America and have responded by revising our pricing model to fit more with the market. This pricing revision has come from acknowledging that some schools have low enrollments, reduced fees, and increased health and safety costs, meaning children have had to enter the public school space. However, Edmentum supports all schools and has also offered consortium pricing purchases for school groups and associations to help them bulk buy and achieve a much lower price for the solutions. We are a flexible company that wants to help students and educators. We would prompt any school needing help to reach out as we are always looking for partners to complete free pilots and offer feedback regarding how they use the products and their benefits.

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In a post-COVID-19 world, Edmentum will be taking the opportunity to showcase its virtual learning school, Academy, and its K–12 personalized learning program, Exact Path, to schools in Latin America

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K12 Digest March 2022

Post-COVID-19, what are the opportunities Edmentum sees in the Latin American K12 education market?

In a post-COVID-19 world, Edmentum will be taking the opportunity to showcase its virtual learning school, Academy, and its K–12 personalized learning program, Exact Path, to schools in Latin America.

Academy will be able to help schools to broaden and expand their curriculum offering by providing access to courses that a school’s teachers may not deliver. Academy also provides students with learning towards a U.S. High School Diploma, and Exact Path will be ideal for filling in any learning gaps. Both solutions will also mean students have the opportunity to access digital content.

We also believe there is an opportunity for schools to partner with the right company and take advantage of their consultation services.

Edmentum’s implementation services can help schools achieve their goals.

Tell us about the plans for Edmentum in the Latin American region. What are the short-term and long-term goals?

In the short term, we will be speaking to schools and institutions to make them aware of how Edmentum’s digital solutions can help them meet their goals. We wish to partner with schools and offer our digital solutions to improve the quality of teaching and learning that is taking place and ignite each student’s potential. We want to highlight the benefits of using digital solutions along with introducing people to the Edmentum brand, which has been established for over 60 years.

In the long term, we will strive to ensure every child reaches their potential and enable as many students as possible to gain the education they deserve, whether that is on-site, remotely, or in a hybrid setting. The goal is

to maximize teaching and learning with the usage of our solutions and aim to mitigate learning loss.

What is your advice to the educational institutions in Latin America who are looking for a technology partner?

Allow time to understand and develop a relationship with the technology partner and evaluate how they can benefit your organization. It is worth assessing everyone you speak to and being honest about your intentions and what you need so the company can tailor conversations and solutions to you. I would also recommend keeping a line of communication open and letting the partner know if you have moved in a different direction – their reaction will tell you a lot about the business you are partnering with.

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Make Your Students’ Growth Visible with Digital Credentials Anabella Laya, Founder & CEO, Acreditta

Anabella Laya is shaping the future of academic and professional credentials. She is passionate about Edtech, digital learning and the future of work. Listed on the 200 top women CEOs leading global Edtech startups by HolonIQ in 2021, she is the winner of “Women That Make an Impact in Colombia” Endeavor 2021. Latitud Fellow LF4, Anabella is currently participating in Endeavor Scale Up 2022 and SuperCharger Ventures Program. She is listed between the 100 Edtech Digest Influencers in 2022.

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Organizations such as Microsoft, Bayer, the IDB and IBM today issue digital badges to recognize skills, industry certifications and participation in special projects

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o two students are alike. Good teachers have long recognized this reality and can describe each student’s individual growth and performance, yet this has not been reflected on report cards, nor have the skills, behaviors or habits for which any student has excelled.

According to ISTE, K-12 educators, especially at the secondary level, are rethinking whether today’s scoring metrics are able to provide a solid picture of who students are and what they can do. This is precisely why schools, universities and other non-formal education stakeholders are creating digital badges: evidence in the digital world of verifiable achievement, skill and proficiency online and in real time.

Traditionally, performance has been recognized with trophies or diplomas that validate skills, values or effort.

However, just as methods evolve and adapt to modernity, digital badges have emerged as a new way to give recognition and endorsement.

Issuers and the importance of digital credentials Organizations such as Microsoft, Bayer, the IDB and IBM today issue digital badges to recognize skills, industry certifications and participation in special projects. On the other hand, some universities such as Tecmilenio (MEX), Northeastern (US), or the National University in Colombia use them to certify hard and soft skills in undergraduate, graduate to recognize outstanding students or to certify specialized continuing education programs.

In schools, they are generally awarded in addition to the report card. One of the most important benefits of badges for this particular segment is that they provide a more complete view of student achievement by linking them to evidence of learning outcomes.

In this sense, it is of interest to think about new areas of assessment that traditional tests do not measure and award digital badges around these concepts. For example: creativity to solve problems, empathy, perseverance or teamwork.

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Based on this premise, the badges become a statement of purpose for the school: they represent what they value, what they want students to achieve, and priorities inside and outside the classroom.

While K-12 still has a long way to go in this area, we have early adopters such as Aurora Public School in the United States where they offer recognition for granular skills to their students, such as critical thinking and teamwork. In Latin America, Innova Schools Colombia is also embracing this form of certification to provide portable, verifiable and lifetime portable credentials to their students.

Benefits of using digital credentials As the badge ecosystem grows, more educational organizations and companies will start using them, as they establish a common framework for the recognition of skills and competencies among employers, professionals and educational providers.

According to the IDB, “when these credentials are accepted and used by all parties, they become an important communication channel that establishes common standards and a common language for defining and describing professional achievements.”

Schools, parents and students benefit in multiple ways, including: • Saving time and money vs physical certificates, even more so in the virtual framework we are living in. In addition, as badges are sociable, they make visible to the world what the school values and prioritizes, creating opportunities to generate more prospects or parents interested in their offer.

• Students can create a digital identity of their skills and competencies from an early age, giving a much more complete picture than a report card and in a portable, lifetime, globally accepted and Blockchainenabled format.

• Parents can see in a more granular way their children’s skills and have a digital record of their achievements.

Credentialing trends The global digital credentialing market is projected to grow to $5.3 billion in 2028, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22%. This market is primarily driven by the increasing demand for digital badges as an alternative form of authentication and authorization.

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According to Credential Engine, only in the US there are almost one million unique credentials across four types of credential providers: postsecondary educational institutions, MOOCs, non-academic providers (half of the use cases) and secondary schools.

While this means that we need to improve transparency in the credential marketplace to provide a better understanding of the value and meaning of each credential, it also means that this framework of recognition is here to stay. HolonIQ affirms that 85% of Higher Education institutions see alternative and microcredentials as an important strategy for their future.

As the badge ecosystem grows, more educational organizations and companies will start using them, as they establish a common framework for the recognition of skills and competencies among employers, professionals and educational providers

Security in Blockchain: the future of digital credentials Blockchain is best known for its connection to cryptocurrency. But a simple way to understand it is as a public ledger that allows anyone to record transactions.

What makes it special is that it is lifetime, time-stamped, transparent, and decentralized. These characteristics are equally useful for managing financial transactions as for a system of students’ reputation.

The blockchain technology has come to the education sector with the promise of providing tamperproof credentials that facilitate student ownership and use of academic records. This means students will be empowered to share their verifiable records directly with anyone and have them be trusted as authentic.

This is exciting because it is not only a better way to deal with the way certificates work today, but it is also an opportunity to revisit ideas about more inclusive and diverse credential systems. Digitizing learning credentials will broaden the talent pool, create more diversity in the workplace, and allow easier access to individuals with niche skills.

The introduction of blockchain technology is improving today the way education is accessed, represented, and verified. Educational institutions that fail to embrace blockchain technology will restrict the opportunities students have when seeking employment and risk losing a competitive advantage.

Educators today are committed to creating wellrounded, curious learners. Digital credentials offer a flexible and inclusive ecosystem that precisely enables certifying formal and informal learning, skills and competencies. It’s time to take a new approach to recognition and give our students more tools for their future.

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The English Language as an Accelerator for Tech Talent Andrea Calderón, CEO, PrimeraHFC & Paolo Barone, Director of Partnerships, PrimeraHFC

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hat the 21st century and the Fourth Industrial Revolution have radically changed how we think of education is no longer a surprise to anyone. The beginning of a global pandemic has only exacerbated the necessity to quickly and efficiently adapt our practices to the current global needs. The advent of new technologies, and their accelerated adoption, has created a demand for a labor force that simply wasn’t there. An increasingly large share

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of the labor market has reprioritized the skills it requires for the foreseeable future with a clear focus on digital skills such as coding and data analysis as well as for relatable soft skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. In Latin America the demand is expected to grow exponentially with studies projecting a demand of 10 million IT jobs by 2025. The demand will mostly be pushed by US based companies nearshoring their IT needs. Already in 2021 the number of foreign companies

PrimeraHFC has over 20 years of experience teaching languages in both North and South America and in both private and public sectors

hiring in the region increased by 156%, the largest increase worldwide.

While the supply of IT professionals is increasing steadily to meet the growing demand, one large barrier still prevents Latin Americans from obtaining full

access to these jobs, their language skills. The region is considered to have one of the lowest levels of English proficiency in the world, ahead only of the Middle East and Africa region. According to the English Proficiency Index, Latin America scores a Low Proficiency level of

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About

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About

Andrea Calderón,

Paolo Barone,

CEO, PrimeraHFC

Director of Partnerships, PrimeraHFC

Andrea is co-founder of PrimeraHFC, an organization that since 2002 has worked in education and bilingualism programs and since 2010 has mobilized more than 3,000 English teachers to Colombia.

Andrea is an architect from Universidad de los Andes, she has an emphasis on Asian studies, Italian language and culture, and Japanese language and culture. Andrea is an Atlas Service Corps fellow and worked at Think Impact in Washington DC and coordinated the Global Development Ambassadors program in South Africa. In 2019 she opened DOT Center for Innovation and Coworking and in 2020 she co-founded Prosperity Makers, a company dedicated to education for employability. Andrea has worked as a representative in Colombia and a consultant for Partners of the Americas, ITDP and Ventures. She was selected by Gerente Magazine as one of the 100 most influential leaders in Colombian society.

Paolo Barone is a development economist with years of experience in the management of education programs in Colombia. Paolo has coordinated English teaching programs for different public institutions such as the Ministry of Education, the Department of Valle del Cauca and the Cities of Medellín and Itagüí. After a brief teaching experience Paolo developed an interest in bilingual education and the use of foreign native speakers in co-teaching practices. Paolo is currently Director of Partnerships at PrimeraHFC exploring the synergies between a bilingual education and the acquisition of digital skills for the global tech market.

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the language which is equivalent, or inferior to, a B1 level of the Common European Framework. Unless current and future IT professionals can be upskilled and trained in the use of the English language for work related contexts, many of the millions of future vacancies will remain just that, vacant.

PrimeraHFC has over 20 years of experience teaching languages in both North and South America and in both private and public sectors. Specifically, in the past years the organization has focused on the teaching of the English language in Colombia’s public schools. To this end, PrimeraHFC joined forces with different local institutions in the implementation of public policy programs aimed at increasing the acquisition of the English language

by Colombian students and teachers. The model we implemented for such programs consisted in the use of native English speakers that could join the students in the classroom and co-teach alongside their local teachers. This method sought to emphasize communicative competences such as speaking and listening in an attempt to maintain the subject more relevant and interesting to students which, regardless of their grade, had little or no level of language proficiency. These programs gained popularity and helped increase awareness of the state of bilingualism in Colombia’s public school system. Bringing foreign native English speakers to the classroom broken paradigms that only private schools could offer such services and

We understand that learning a language like English in Colombia will benefit their incomes and give them a different projection in their careers and lives

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This new path we ventured in has given us great satisfaction and allowed us to measure our impact more readily and efficiently than we were able to in the public sector

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even if only symbolically it started chipping away at the inequalities between private and public high schools.

We implemented these programs all around the country, the first one targeted Colombia’s vocational trade schools (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje) with 53 volunteer teachers impacting 10 vocational training centers. Due to the initial success of this strategy a much larger program shortly followed reaching 374 public schools with close to 700 volunteer teachers. Later on, several local municipalities and departments decided to introduce these programs in their own territories to either support or continue the national policy. The cities of Bogotá and Medellín both decided to implement different versions of this model as well as the department of Valle del Cauca.

These programs were enacted over a period of 4 years from 2014 to 2018 following the guidelines of the country’s national development plan. PrimeraHFC alone reached a student population of over 300,000 and 430 public schools. Despite the promising outreach these programs were eventually discontinued due to changes in the political agenda and new priorities arising for new administrations. This abrupt change forced us to once again face the harsh reality that working with the public

sector does not guarantee continuity of practices and therefore reduces our hope for creating a sustained and lasting impact on our communities.

The coinciding of these changes in education policies and the advent of the global pandemic forced us to take a hard look at our impact model and how to effectively employ our years of language teaching experience. Firstly, we decided to pivot towards partnerships with the private sector so as to minimize the risk of long hiatuses or abrupt changes in strategies. Secondly, to ensure a measurable and lasting impact, we decided to focus our efforts on vocational training so as to have immediate feedback from our student’s employability rates. The choice fell almost naturally on the high-tech sector, a high growth industry where demand for skilled and English speaking professionals is outpacing the available supply. A sector that due to its specificities can quickly train and upskill young Colombians and therefore contribute significantly to reducing the country’s high unemployment rates by providing well paid jobs.

In this new venture the first natural partner we decided to begin a dialogue with were coding schools. In alignment with our vision, coding schools offered a promise of employment after a 3 to 6 month period of intense training

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in basic digital skills. Our market studies confirmed the effectiveness of their model but also identified where they came short, language training. While the absence of English proficiency did not affect employability rates it did significantly affect their entry pay level, their chances of career advancement and the choice of applying to remote positions offered by foreign, often US based, companies. With this in mind we decided to develop a new methodology that took the best from our pedagogical experience and tailor it to the high-tech industry to bridge across that final gap that is still present in the labor market.

We became a Bilingual Talent Accelerator.

Our method consists in delivering an accelerated language course tailored to the specific needs of the students and the industry they are about to enter. We create a curriculum based on the student’s and the company’s needs in which we use case studies and work-related vocabulary that reflect the duties and responsibilities that our students will experience on the job. Apart from this, we include precise objectives for each session and the whole level, which help our students and teachers pursue a common goal. We understand that learning a language like English in Colombia will benefit their incomes and give them a different projection in their careers and lives.

Furthermore, our teachers are all native speakers trained

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in developing language and soft skills valuable in a global market, such as cultural awareness and sensitivity, accent reduction, and common expressions related to specific fields of study.

The first line of action we’re carrying out is alongside coding schools. Partnering with coding schools allows us to bring together their technical knowhow and our own language teaching experience to create the most complete training course for our students to get higher paid jobs upon graduation as well as to quickly advance in their own careers. Our second line of action is by working directly with tech companies that are having difficulties tracking down talent with both digital skills and language proficiency. In this scenario we are able to quickly identify individuals with the right set of skills and accompany them in a fast-paced language program that will allow them to meet the hiring requirements of our partner companies.

This new path we ventured in has given us great satisfaction and allowed us to measure our impact more readily and efficiently than we were able to in the public sector. We no longer measure our success on the acquisition of language levels but rather on our capacity to transform our students into bilingual professionals able to work and communicate in multicultural environments and therefore obtain well paid and stable employment.

Improving students learning with Luca The microlearning educational platform with key learnings and official lessons available to everyone.

Benefits of studying with Luca educational platform Students can use Luca to reinforce what they’ve learned in school, do homework, review, study for tests and learn new concepts for the first time.

Improves student and academic performance.

Increases participation in classes, improves study habits and increases the learning routine.

Educational platform available 24/7. Luca is always present in the study routine and allows access from anywhere and at any time.

Increases the level of attention in class.

Luca helps students by providing learning tools that allow them to be attentive in classes.

Now operating in LATAM and developed by experts in pedagogy, with previous experience in leading educational publishers such as Santillana, and tech companies such as Crehana, Netflix and Uber.

To know more about Luca, follow us on social media /Lucaeducacion

/Lucaeducacion

/Lucaeducacion

www.lucaedu.com

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School Grounds as a Tool of Wellbeing and Innovation Ángela Ibáñez, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Patio Vivo Foundation & Marcial Huneeus, Director of Education, Patio Vivo Foundation & Andrea Manuschevich, Communications Coordinator, Patio Vivo Foundation

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C

limb bars and watch the classrooms and their friends from the heights, smell the flowers, see the bees that the lavenders attract to the garden and observe the different colors and textures of ginkgos, quercus and pepper’s leaves, among other 15 plant and tree species. Play with their hands on mulch and soil and run up and down the brick hills. All this happens in a common recess at the Chilean Eagles College, at La Pintana, a vulnerable context neighborhood in Santiago, Chile. In children’s minds, they imagine that at the school ground they play with snakes and lions, says Karina Ravanal, the School Principal, boosting the game and the experience to the next level.

But it was not always like this. Two years ago, before the chilean nonprofit foundation Patio Vivo, (recognized as one of the seven innovative initiatives for Early Childhood in Latin America and the Caribbean by Unicef), transformed this school ground into a Learning Landscape, the space was made up of a big and empty concrete esplanade, with no shadow, no trees or not even places to sit and rest. According to the school’s educators, this used to be a very hostile playground that encouraged violent games, where fights and accidents were present every recess. This school ground, which is inhabited by 350 students from kindergarten to 2° grade, used to be very chaotic and noisy, while some of them played ball and ran everywhere, others sought refuge in the corners.

Unfortunately, this is the reality of many school grounds in urban areas, especially in schools of vulnerable contexts.

Meanwhile the CNDU (National Urban Development Council) recommends 10 m2 of green area per inhabitant, barely 5,7% of Santiago’s population has access to this standard, which shows a strong deficit of access to natural spaces (Centro de Políticas Públicas UC, 2019). More and more girls and boys grow up in urban contexts, with few or no opportunities to play outdoors. On the other hand, 54,1% of chilean students presents overweight or obesity, according to Junaeb (National School Aid and Scholarship Board), an alarming reality, where at pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade, almost 3 out of 10 children are obese. And in terms of bullying and school violence, according to the IX National Youth Survey, carried out by the National Youth Institute (Injuv) and published in March 2021, 1 out of 4 students had suffered a physical or psychological violent episode at their schools .

In this context of adversity, at Patio Vivo we have seen that by transforming these hostile and hard schoolyards into Learning Landscapes, we are making a significant contribution to innovate in education and to increase

About

Ángela Ibañez Ángela Ibáñez is co-founder and executive director of Patio Vivo Foundation, a non-profit organization aimed at giving children the opportunity to grow, play and learn in contact with nature, founded in Chile in 2014. Most of its projects are focused on greening school grounds to improve children’s well-being and regenerate ecosystems in vulnerable urban schools. Angela has been recognized as one of the 100 Women Leaders 2020 in her country.

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About

Marcial Huneeus Marcial Huneeus is the Director of Education at Patio Vivo Foundation.

He is in charge of promoting cultural change in educational communities, in order to transform the playground into a pedagogical tool. Marcial leads the work with educational communities and participation, promoting learning methodologies from experience and addressing topics such as the benefits of free, active play in contact with nature. Member of the Latin American School Coexistence Network. Bachelor of Arts and Master of Literature from the Catholic University of Chile. Trained in Waldorf pedagogy.

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About

Andrea Manuschevich Andrea Manuschevich is the Communications Coordinator at Patio Vivo Foundation. Andrea works mainly in transmitting Patio Vivo’s work and connecting it with other relevant educational actors and partners.

Journalist and graduate in Social Communication from the Catholic University of Chile and photographer graduated from the School of the International Center of Photography.

the physical and socio-emotional well-being of students.

And what is a Learning Landscape? This concept refers to a transformed schoolyard into a space that welcomes everyday children outdoors, in contact with nature, where free and risky play is promoted by diverse polyfunctional structures and where students can learn on the outside, and not only inside four walled classrooms. We see the schoolyard as the “third educator”, a concept developed by the Italian pedagogue Loris Malaguzzi, who postulated that in addition to teachers and peers, the school ground is also an important tool of multiple actions and learning.

Since 2014 we have built more than 80 Learning Landscapes around 7 different regions in Chile, benefiting more than 32.000 students. None of these Learning Landscapes is equal to another. For us in Patio Vivo it is tremendously important to design each schoolyard according to each school context, their own culture and vision and the territory they inhabited. To achieve this articulation, we have developed an interdisciplinary method through a dialogue between Architecture and Education, which bonds the community with the transformed space and encourages them to reflect on the benefits of play.

Play revolution Kindergartens and school grounds are for many kids the main place of play, as they have no other space where they can go every day to interact and share with their peers. Especially for those who grow up in urban contexts, with few or no opportunities to play outdoors on a daily basis, because of the lack of public spaces, the increasing sensation of insecurity and the new parenting habits that families are adopting, which are more sedentary and center in screens and technology. In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated this situation due to lockdowns and virtual school lessons.

In that sense, school grounds have a great opportunity to contribute as a space that promotes free, active, risky and natural play. Children communicate with each other by playing, this is their language and their main tool for learning, and it plays a key role for healthy development.

As the psychologist and researcher Peter Gray says, the considerable decline of active outdoor play in the last 60 years, is creating difficulties in developing socioemotional skills, such as self-regulation, conflict resolution and empathy.

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Since 2014 we have built more than 80 Learning Landscapes around 7 different regions in Chile, benefiting more than 32.000 students

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Free play allows children to discover their own interests, make decisions and explore the environment. By playing freely, without an adult direction or instruction, kids learn to relate and make friends. Also they learn other skills, such as organize themselves, collaborate and resolve conflicts. This activity in early childhood is closely linked to symbolic play, where imagination, creativity and autonomy are developed.

For its part, active play involves movement and coordination. Every time children jump, hang from a rope or crouch through a tunnel, they activate their vestibular and proprioceptive systems. The first one is related to the sense of movement of the body in space, it is linked to orientation, security, posture , balance, stable visual field, coordination of movements and alertness. While the second one, allows control of the position and movement of the body, so that children can plan and execute movements without problem and in a coordinated way. Active play allows to develop the will, healthy bodies and awake minds, besides it contributes to reverse the high figures of overweight and obesity that affect our country.

Risky play challenges kids, for which they learn to face their fears, be brave and understand risk, allowing them to be able to evaluate what things they can do and how. We build different polyfunctional structures in the school grounds that invite kids to climb, run, jump, or play as whatever they want. For example, in the game of bars, children need to self-regulate, as they must coordinate with their peers. Play with beneficial risk is promoted through spaces that stimulate the challenge according to the ages of the children.

It is also very important to understand that since these spaces do not exist, children will seek risk elsewhere.

Like for example the students from the Chilean Eagles College, that before Patio Vivo, used to climb walls and fences around the school, spaces that are not designed for this and therefore they can be very dangerous and a source of accidents.

At last, when playing in contact with nature, students receive lots of stimulation and a diversity of experiences.

Boys and girls can play with all their senses, exploring and observing organic materials, which change according to the season of the year. Thus, they learn to observe, know the rhythms of nature, develop their attention watching how trees change through months, and it allows them to feel part of nature and the ecosystem.

In Patio Vivo, we believe in a play revolution. Our call is to look at recess and play, not only as a moment for leisure and rest, but as a relevant moment of the day, where learning is more active than ever. A recess where students enjoy themselves, release energy through

movement, dialogue and develop various socio-emotional skills, allows them to return to the classroom with a much more positive attitude and willingness to learn, which improves school performance and reinforces the feeling of belonging.

We are all nature Another fundamental pillar for Patio Vivo is the bond between children and nature. When designing a new Learning Landscape, the choice of materials aims to promote play in its four different types, and enhance the value of the school’s territory and culture, as we mentioned before. We use noble, long-lasting organic materials that allow students to experience different textures and smells.

While playing around trees and soil, or on structures purposely designed for free play, students learn about materials, culture, nature’s cycles and the region’s native flora.

What message about the territory are we transmitting to children and adolescents in schools? How are we involving them in caring for the Earth? A Learning Landscape full of life, where colors such as green and brown predominate and where there is space also for other

Testimonials: “In terms of impact on their psycho-emotional well-being, students themselves have reported that the new school ground is a privileged space for meeting with themselves and for tranquility.

There is an immediate, concrete and significant contribution, in achieving certain states of mind that predispose them positively towards learning.” - Carlos Valderrama, IAPB School Principal “We have students who go home saying ‘I can’t be absent again, they will miss me’. This is an important space for growth, opening and other possibilities, so that they can express their emotions and interact with others.”

- Karina Ravanal, Chilean Eagles College School Principal

living beings, express to students nature care, as they also relate with other species and recognize themselves as part of nature. In the face of the climate emergency that the world is experiencing, it is of the utmost importance to contribute to adding new agents of change and care for the environment. One of our dreams is that each school and kindergarten transform their school grounds from an arid desert to a fertile place, so that we can begin to generate a network of living gardens that will form an ecological corridor for the city’s biodiversity.

As in the Learning Landscapes, this can be done by planting trees and plants and removing cement and replacing it with drainage pavements, such as soil, mulch or bricks, where the water drains towards the earth and maintains its humidity. In this way we do not waste the rainwater that normally runs towards the urban collectors, drying the groundwater.

The 21st century requires polyfunctional educational spaces that provide opportunities for hands-on learning and foster the physical, socioemotional and cognitive development of students. As Patio Vivo, we make an invitation to the teaching teams, to look at educational spaces from another perspective and observe how these changes lead to a better energy, school motivation and sense of belonging. Let’s keep transforming the schools, so we can see every day more active kids that enjoy playing freely and learning outside. Children that have a special place to develop multiple skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, problem resolution and communication abilities.

And where education emerges from fertile land, where students can really feel part of nature. We are all nature!

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Learning to Be Ourselves International Smartphone Filmmaking Workshop Catalina Cortese, Mustakis Foundation, Chile & Leonor Merín, Mustakis Foundation, Chile & Martha Gómez, Education Soul, Colombia

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martphone Filmmaking is a project born from the pandemic, which transmits the promotion of STEAM education spirit and reinforces the idea of democratizing access to populations who traditionally have not been able to receive digital tools through pedagogical projects characterized by motivation and challenge, so appropriated for millennial.

The Experience Filmmaking with phones was the invitation through which we gathered roughly 40 children and youths between 9 and 18 years old, coming mainly from Chile and Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela.

Eager to learn about filmmaking techniques and the experience of making movies, the participants across 7 sessions throughout November, 2021, conceived, wrote, filmed, edited and presented a short film focused on the search for sharing their individuality, interests and contexts. This is a workshop that raises awareness on the great potential of mobile phones, an everyday tool, for the development of the skills and talents of the 21st century.

Alliance Education Soul (Colombia), a company dedicated to the technological education of the 21st century and the Gabriel & Mary Mustakis Foundation (Chile), dedicated to the integral development of children and youths, came together with the purpose of contributing to integral education for children and youths through digital media and resources, in the midst of which it was born the #YoFilmo (#IFilm) workshop. This workshop is a prototype to update new educational strategies in a post-pandemic world, which has accelerated its shift towards digital platforms and universal access. A pedagogical alternative that promotes the development of responsible digital citizenship, in accordance with the demands of today’s world. A commitment to the transformation of the digital skills of children and young people and a convergence mechanism between the arts, communication and the digital world.

Integral Development Integral development aims at a holistic education, where the human being lives and learns from experiences systemically across all of its dimensions: Soul, mind, body and its environment. Traditional education has been directed towards developing logical thinking, which is why we have placed special emphasis on

About

Catalina Cortese Mena Catalina Cortese Mena is the head of Territorial Intelligence of the Mustakis Foundation Architect with an emphasis on territories, communities and collaborative learning processes. With experience in project management and national and international alliances, she has focused her work on the neighborhood scale, addressing issues such as sustainable development, design thinking, creativity, new educational strategies and territorial information analysis.

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About

About

Leonor Merín Castrejón

Martha Cecilia Gómez

Leonor Merín Castrejón holds B.A. in History of Art from the University of Granada (SP), Master in Architecture and Heritage, from the University of Seville (SP). Certified Business Excellence Senior Leaders Program for Nonprofits Management from the University of Columbia (USA), and Director of the PLADES Frutillar Foundation and Director of Innovation & Territory of the Mustakis Foundation. Leonor develops her professional career around the management of educational innovation projects in collaboration with other institutions on a regional scale, always at the service of social innovation. She assumed the creation and implementation of the KAOS Creative Learning Center in 2015, together with the rehabilitation of the building, and is currently dedicated to projection in the Territories of the Mustakis Foundation.

Martha Cecilia Gómez Co-Founder of Education Soul. Manager of digital transformation projects in education.

Corporate consultant in design, structuring and technical execution of educational projects with special emphasis on the development of STEAM skills, female empowerment and entrepreneurship.

Expert in facilitation with creative methodologies such as design thinking and lean startup. Instructional Designer (Certified by the IDB). HundrED Ambassador for Colombia. Expert in developing edtech projects based on adaptive learning with the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for vulnerable populations. Economist and MBA from the National University of Colombia, Master in Innovation from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

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what needs to be balanced out in order to promote more comprehensive environments. This workshop’s approach is the perspective of learning to be oneself, a fundamental aspect for the development of relational skills, in turn necessary for the challenges of the 21st century. Thus, the workshop built an environment of trust and empathy, through the role of the mediators, who, from their expertise, interceded in the learning process with dynamics that facilitated interpersonal relationships, built a collaborative atmosphere and strengthened soft skills.

Pedagogical Objective The didactics of this experience strengthen capacities in several dimensions: on the one hand, “learning to learn”, since telling a story through cinematographic language requires mastery and management of individual learning processes that will allow the participant to strengthen constant learning throughout his/her life. On the other hand, the mindsets used to tell a story or understand the story of others stimulate broad levels of understanding.

And finally, cinema is a very important part of popular culture, art and entertainment. The plots and themes of cinema can be taken to formal education as a reflective element that guides and reinforces positive behaviors connected with oneself.

Integral development aims at a holistic education, where the human being lives and learns from experiences systemically across all of its dimensions: Soul, mind, body and its environment

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Format and Methodology The experience combined practical and theoretical aspects, favored by a virtual platform, and constant illustrative examples and reflections. Thus, the workshop was guided by three thematic blocks: (i) Creating a story, (ii) Filming a movie and (iii) The art of editing, along with plenary sessions guided by the filmmaker Gustavo Bernal, who resides in the United States, as well as sessions in small groups guided by other professional filmmakers residing in Colombia, and in each case accompanied by a team of mediators from the Mustakis Foundation, based in Chile.

During the group sessions, random samples of the progress of the participants were taken, where in addition to having an expert’s vision, collaborative peer review was also promoted, detecting value propositions as well as aspects to develop or improve, always from assertive and respectful communication for the products of colleagues.

Thus, the experience reaffirmed respect for the differences and sensitivities of each one. In addition, as a teaching resource, at the end of each session the participants received infographics with the information and key tips for each session, to promote their learning process and give continuity to the work. In this way, students, with an average age of 12 years, combined, their creativity and their daily experiences in an intensive period of time

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with digital tools that allowed them to develop a very specific outlook of their various thoughts and feelings.

Product- Short Films To close the experience, a premiere was held with the screening of 20 short films, which lasted between 2 and 4 minutes, created by each of the participants individually. They highlighted scripts that were different from each other, loaded with emotion, creativity and current affairs. Some headlines were “A Game, a Friendship”, “Donatello”, “Toxic Garbage Island”, “Don Pelusa and His Adventure”, “A Walk Through the Center of Caracas”, “Microwave 3000 and the Oscars”, “The Love of the Birds”, “The Superpower Children”, “The Soccer Dog”, “Valentino the Photographer” and “The Greatest Show Performance”, and they showed world views from different ages, cities, cultures and domestic circumstances.

They also reflected the strengthening of abilities such as autonomy, assertive communication and the exercise of healthy digital citizenship appropriate for their ages.

This space reinforced the philosophy of active participation proposed during all the sessions, which with a structure of synchronous virtual presentations, had key moments of opening microphones, debate and group reflection, benefitted by the constant mix of participants that generated interactions with as many pairs as possible and the development of relational skills.

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Conclusions Among the most notable factors of the experience we have: ● The virtual environment, which additionally allowed us to bring together participants from 5 Spanish speaking countries, and enabled multicultural dialog. Thus, with digital support, the sessions were very dynamic and generated the interest and motivation of the participants, who were very active both in the chat and the open mic and debate spaces. In the words of filmmaker Mr. Gus “we were all close together in spite of being separated in different countries”. ● Demystification of the technical complexity involved in cinematography and making participants aware of the importance of this art as a human expression. ● Strengthening of the vision of their own self, and the relationship that their experiences have with the particular environment in which they find themselves. ● Awareness and visualization of other worlds and the value of this opening to validate one’s own reality and thus live a true digital citizenship. ● The activity was notably enriched by the moments of connection and reflection guided by the mediators, who demonstrated the good combination of moments of meditation and centering with the display of applied technical knowledge.

Cinema has a versatility to exploit and explore its large educational potential as a point of reference for real situations and contexts, even though the traditional system has not integrated it in an organized fashion; cinema as an object of study, as an educational resource and as a means of expression for children and young people, stimulates divergent thinking, originality and intellectual independence.

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As this is a space that promotes freedom of expression, children and young people acquire the confidence they need to show themselves or their work to an audience, adding to their arsenal tools that aid body language, the correct use of language, concentration and discipline that account for the maturity of skills such as: empathy, assertive communication, interpersonal relationships, managing emotions, stress and problem solving; all of them necessary for the future, and for the present.

The joint implementation of this workshop gave us the opportunity to add new elements, acknowledge new pedagogical practices among organizations, and reinforce our conviction on the opportunity that the different artistic manifestations offer for revitalizing educational processes. International work grants access to other worldviews specific of each territory, which is something we were able to appreciate in spite of the fact that all of the participants were Spanish speakers from sister nations. Smartphone Filmmaking is a project born from the pandemic, which transmits the STEAM education promotion spirit and reinforces the idea of democratizing access to highly motivational and challenging projects to populations for which pedagogical tools appropriate for this millennium have traditionally been out of reach.

Experiences like this foster a healthy relationship between oneself and the environment, on the basis that there are as many ways of “being oneself” as there are families, societies and cultures in the world. And as part of this discovery, the experience is an invitation to intervene and be a co-author in the various stages: “Learning refers to the enjoyment of life.”

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What Do Students Need from Education, To

Be Changemakers?

Catalina Largacha, Leader of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Colegio Santa Francisca Romana and Consultant for Educar para Innovar

Working on innovation and with entrepreneurs for over 12 years, Catalina discovered a passion: to develop creative, innovation and entrepreneurial skills from early ages. 5 years ago, she decided to dedicate her life to her passion, working as Leader of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Colegio Santa Francisca Romana. Catalina has also started to build her consultancy agency on education to innovate, looking to elevate in education the importance of the development of skills needed to succeed in life.

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You can study, get knowledge, but impact comes from when you take that knowledge, ideate, and take action over it

I

n 2016 at Colegio Santa Francisca Romana, a girl’s school based in Bogotá Colombia, educational leaders sat down to talk about the future. The Zarza logo is accompanied by a slogan that says girls are taught in school to be light for the world. Why do students need to be light?

The school was founded in 1963 by five nuns from the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rochester, Minnesota. For over 59 years, students have received an education based on Saint Francis’ values, developing a special awareness and sensibility on social issues. Critical thinking gives the students the abilities to understand the world and it takes them to rank year after year at the top spots at ICFES, the national exit test.

Principal Liliana Arango (2013-2021) was not happy on just continuing with what had been done, but making it better based on educational trends. It was clear that the world was moving faster and every year students needed tools to confront the everyday challenges of life, and the implications change had on their personal and professional paths.

The question became: what if there is something else that can be done to empower girls as changemakers?

One of the studies that gave answers, was the global competence for education presented by Veronica Boix Mansilla (2013). It helped to understand that content was not enough, it was more about how to enrich it with investigation and looking at different perspectives, communicating and on how to give students skills to take action over their ideas. You can study, get knowledge, but impact comes from when you take that knowledge, ideate, and take action over it. This way, students can be the light that ignites ideas that have an impact on the problems that surround our society.

Reading news and academic studies, having conversations and strategic planning meetings with parents, students and colleagues, started taking place at the school to define a vision for 2022 with five key objectives.

The school had been working for years on four of the objectives, and there was one new factor to work on. By 2022 the school expected to be recognized as leader on innovation and entrepreneurship.

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Girls with critical thinking and social sensibility, were now being given skills on innovation and entrepreneurship, so that they could see problems as opportunities, ideate, prototype, apply and take action, therefore becoming real changemakers.

Two factors where essential for bringing the idea to life: Technology As a Key Factor: Understanding that teaching technology was not about word, excel, power point and paint documents, and this needed to be changed.

Create, Ideate and Take Action: Developing a curriculum to develop creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial skills so that students could take ownership of their ideas and be committed to them to generate impact.

Technology As a Key Factor Technology teaching had to be rethought. The head of the technology department Claudia Rojas, with her team, looked for trends and developed a whole new curriculum based on the exploration of the world of technology and making. Students develop programming skills (by blocks and pseudocode) and complemented them with the use of hand and electric tools, laser cutters and 3D printing, among others, thus making their ideas tangible.

The technology curriculum is taught from prekinder to 12th grade and is based on four main components: Computational thinking: programming skills with the intention of developing in student skills on how to breakdown problems, propose and understand the process towards a result.

Artifacts: Understanding artifacts, how they work, and the different movements technology makes possible.

Transmission and movement transformation, developing skills working with Arduino on circuits and automation.

Design and Office: The use of the office suite, but also graphic and industrial design, with specialized software, taking ideas to 3D printing and laser cutting.

Technology and society: Moral and ethics in technology, security, and personal care on the web. Legal implications and correct use of the resource for the common good.

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Students making, learning to work with different tools at the makerspace to make their ideas come to life

Decisions and investment in developing new spaces to learn technology were fundamental. Taking the student out of a room full of computers, to work with tablets and laptops in different scenarios. Having a preschool maker space, as well as one for primary and high school, where students understood the use of tools to prototype their ideas.

This not only gave the technology department an opportunity to engage with new technological trends, but also to connect with Math and Science in the development of STEM-STEAM projects. As said before, students were open to the exploration of the contents, always considering the why? and what if? It gave them understanding on how their ideas can be put into action and the impact they have in society.

Inn-Genius became powerful. Students were researching, interviewing the different perspectives on opportunities, developing ideas, communicating them, and taking action by building prototypes

Create, Ideate and Take Action One day, art teacher Leonardo Pinzon, gave 11th graders a white paper. Students waited for the instruction, and so Leonardo said: just let your creativity decide. That day Leonardo understood that students didn’t see themselves as creative people. At the same time principal Liliana Arango and technology teacher Juan Ramón González, were talking about creating a class in 9th grade about innovation. Bringing creativity and technology into building something, gave students the XXI Century skills of problem solving, creative thinking, teamwork, amongst others.

In august 2016 a new class was organized for 9th graders called Inn-Genius. During the next 6 years students have gone through 6 principles that define the Inn-Genius philosophy: 1. The key is to build with others: Understanding strengths and weaknesses and looking for a team that complements them. The difference on doing the work as a team and not just with a group.

2. See problems as opportunities: Day by day problems can be solved and have a direct impact on a person, improving their quality of life. Redefining problems as opportunities to act upon them.

3. We are all creative: Defining that every person is creative and that it has very little to do with good drawing skills. Creativity seen as the power to project ideas in a tangible way.

4. We must take action to impact: Having ideas is good but implementing them so that they can really have an impact in society makes them better.

5. Value the process and its setbacks: It’s important to realize that every process is different and it comes with ups and downs. It’s in this roller-coaster were lessons have a bigger impact.

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6. Communicate your ideas to inspire: Learning how to inspire others by communicating ideas and invite them to give feedback so that the idea can evolve and be better.

Inn-Genius became powerful. Students were researching, interviewing the different perspectives on opportunities, developing ideas, communicating them, and taking action by building prototypes. They saw that their ideas were worth developing because they could give quality of life to a person, to a community, to our country, to the world.

Teams were solving opportunities such as: • What if there was a way to protect a fracture without using crutches?

• What if we could fix a pavement hole with an ecofriendly and economical solution?

• What if we could get rid of the plastic in the shampoo packaging?

• What if trees can grow from clothes that are thrown to waste?

• What if we could make menstrual pads that can biodegrade faster?

The leader of innovation and entrepreneurship, Catalina Largacha, started working with teachers so that students could develop these skills before and after the 9th grade Inn-Genius experience. With her team they developed the Inn-Genius curriculum, with a clear path on developing imaginative, creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial skills on students from prekinder to 12th grade.

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Imagination. Understanding the power of imagination, how the brain develops different images by mixing them to solve puzzles. Realizing that the images of one student are different from the other and how that is powerful when doing teamwork.

Creativity. Building creativity by exercising fluency, flexibility, originality, and idea elaboration.

Recognizing human beings as creative and the power creativity has on ideas. Creativity being a process in which going blank is part of it.

Innovation. Taking design thinking as a process to create and develop ideas, thinking always on the instance that can be impacted by the idea. Understanding the value proposition of the solution and communicating it accurately, so that the innovation of the idea is recognized.

Entrepreneurship. Realizing that entrepreneurship is not just starting up a business but taking action over ideas. Having or not financial gain from it. Planning steps to move ideas forward.

What do students need from education, to be light?

They need to be guided on what they can do with the contents they’re taught, so that they can impact society.

Develop the skills to become changemakers in society.

Since January 2022, Maria del Rosario Concha became the new principal at the school, with a vision to keep building a continuous learning process. Every day is an opportunity to learn and develop the best education our students can receive.

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Digital Education,

Opportunities for Everyone Constanza Pino, Human Value´s Director, WOM Colombia

Constanza always seeks to generate positive changes in society by building different and disruptive organizational cultures. She is an Occupational Psychologist, graduated with High Honors from Universidad Mayor of Chile and a Master’s in Human Resources and Organizational Development from Universidad del Desarrollo, in addition, she completed a Diploma in Leadership from Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. With more than 12 years of experience in Human Resources, she has led notable cultural, organizational, and business changes in Telecommunications companies such as Nextel and WOM, where she was part of the construction of the company’s organizational strategy in Chile, linked to the culture transformation, innovation and the digitization of its processes. In 2020, she arrived in Colombia with her husband and two daughters, with the same purpose and to start the construction of WOM as the fourth mobile telephone operator in the country and to lead the Human Value area.

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It is important to recognize that as technology and digitization advance, more possibilities are opened up, but at the same time more people are excluded from its benefits, and for this not to happen, education is essential

E

very day we see news related to global warming, immigration, poverty, violence, great challenges that lead all actors of society to commit to guarantee a promising future for the following generations. This is the well-known 2030 Purpose, for which the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created, that draw a roadmap and specify improvement purposes at a social, environmental, and economic level applicable to the whole world.

As a telecommunications company we know that although connectivity has become an essential service for life, and with the pandemic even more, in the 21st century there are still millions of people who do not have access to mobile phone services, restricting the opportunities that the digital society offers today. For this reason, we work to connect the unconnected in line with the Sustainable Development Goals to democratize connectivity and generate a positive impact on society, with digitization as the engine of development.

How has this been reflected in our operation? When WOM arrived in Chile, the southern country had the

highest cost per Gigabyte in Latin America because the telecommunications market had been static for several years, but with the arrival of a new mobile operator, an unprecedented dynamism was seen in the sector, which generated a reduction in prices and an increase in the consumption of Gigabytes, allowing Chileans to be more and better connected.

When we arrived in Colombia, we found a market with more than 20 million Colombians without access to 4G, the second most expensive Gigabyte in the region, and with the highest unemployment levels in its history due to the pandemic´s effect (24 .5%, according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics - DANE) which affected the income of households and started an inflationary phenomenon that even today is causing debate due to the high prices that people are paying, at the time of which has the most devalued currency in Latin America, as recently reported by The Economist.

Without a doubt, with less than a year of operation, the effect of WOM’s entry into the country has been evident and we are promoting the transformation that we wanted to achieve. Today, while Colombians are paying 111% more

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for food such as potatoes, an essential for most households, the prices of postpaid mobile services have decreased by 42% and, in general, the Information and Communications sector reached the lowest Consumer Price Index (CPI) during 2021 compared to the other sectors of the economy, with a variation of -12.10%.

But beyond prices and accessibility, the most gratifying has been the benefits that access to connectivity has brought: entire families that now have internet all month, the use of digital platforms for entrepreneurs who did not know about that before, and virtual education for children in remote areas. And it is clear that connectivity contributes to the generation of income for people, to their personal and professional development, but guaranteeing access is only the beginning, the challenge we have as a society and as a sector is to accompany the process of appropriation and use of technologies, especially for those communities that have access to the digital world for the first time.

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More than 1,000 entrepreneurs nationwide have benefited from “Veciwomers” and today they use digital tools for their businesses, offering new value offers to their communities.

When we participated in the spectrum auction in 2019, we committed with the National Government to connect populations that had never had access to mobile telephony services, in line with the current Government’s goal of achieving 70% of the population connected to 4G by 2022.

To date, and in record time, we have brought connectivity for the first time to 644 rural communities in the country, benefiting 450,000 people in more than 24 departments who had never had access to the internet, and didn´t know how to use a computer, emails or WhatsApp, hard to believe but true.

In this way we found a difficult reality, bringing them antennas and a signal was not enough and several questions arose: How are they going to take advantage of the technology if they do not know how to use it? How safe can it be, considering the risks on the internet? What can we do so that they use it for their development? It is important to recognize that as technology and digitization advance, more possibilities are opened up, but at the same time more people are excluded from its benefits, and for this not to happen, education is essential.

To also take it into account, ECLAC and UNESCO affirmed that in Colombia only 67% of 15-year-old students have an Internet connection, 62% access to a computer and 29% educational software, clearly facing this situation those who have greater restrictions in access

are students in rural areas. For this reason, at WOM we decided to accompany these communities that were having access to the internet for the first time in their digital appropriation processes and positively impact more communities in Colombia through digital education. In this way, in 2021, we launched our “Parche Digital” program in Juan y Medio.

Juan y Medio, is a village near Riohacha, La Guajira, the second department with the highest poverty rate in the country, which was the place with which we launched our signal in the country and made our first call in Colombia in the 2020. Before the arrival of WOM, its inhabitants had to travel more than two hours to access the internet signal, climb trees to get some signal, there were children and adults in the community who had never seen a computer before. For years they were disconnected, restricted from opportunities.

From WOM, in addition to providing the technological infrastructure in digital classrooms, we seek to guide the entire process of literacy, appropriation and digital citizenship with the support of Google Education, through its educational content. Likewise, the project includes complementary training through an educational platform aimed at the development and promotion of computational thinking for children, as well as training in digital entrepreneurship for adults.

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To date, 18 teachers from Juan y Medio have completed the first training phase of the digital literacy program, making them knowledge replicators for 250 students from the Sierra Nevada educational institution. Also, in total, 118 grade 11 students can present, for the first time, the Saber 11 tests (official government tests) virtually in the classroom that we deliver, avoiding traveling to other areas of the department. In addition, small businesses are also receiving training through “Veciwomers” the digital training program for entrepreneurs: in business management, digital marketing, finance, among others, to receive all the necessary tools to improve their business projects.

The population of Juan y Medio has not been the only beneficiary, the impact of this program has been spreading nationwide. We have decided to provide knowledge in digital tools to entrepreneurs throughout the country to carry out their businesses at another level, through the different phases of the program: WOM Academy and Mentoring. The first phase comprises 5 courses that provide tools for digital and financial inclusion, through a dynamic training path that allows certification with the EAN University and The Biz Nation, and the second phase consists of personalized support through mentoring with WOMers volunteers with extensive experience in issues

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related to business development, to continue the training process of the beneficiaries through guided advice on each entrepreneurial idea.

In this way, more than 1,000 entrepreneurs nationwide have benefited from “Veciwomers” and today they use digital tools for their businesses, offering new value offers to their communities. And as we always say at WOM, this is just the beginning because we are aiming for more, for more opportunities for digital education throughout the country and more affordability of mobile telephony services, in fact, WOm became the first operator to have a direct presence in Siloé, the 20th commune of Cali that for years has been stigmatized by problems such as violence, crime and lack of opportunities, but this does not impede us, these are reasons to arrive and transform people’s life, and this community will soon benefit from both educational programs.

Definitely, companies must go beyond the simple profitability of the business, they must be agents of change for society because it is possible to transform our environment, with opportunities and hope for everyone.

At WOM we work with the firm intention of reducing the digital divide existing in Colombia and we believe that digital education is the great enabler to achieve this goal.

Amazing Opportunity for Teachers and School Leaders to enhance their knowledge through FREE Teachers Academy masterclasses from international education experts !!!

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Benefits of Technology in K12 Schooling Frederico Bello, Founder, Luca

Born in Portugal, Frederico spent his career between finance and the startup world, mostly in Spain and London. As the former Head of Europe & Global International Expansion at ThePowerMBA, he immersed himself within the edtech world, deciding to leverage his entrepreneurial drive and previous experiences into disrupting the K12 Spanish Speaking Latam market for good.

The founder of Luca is also a former Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley and held management roles at several startups such as Uber, Selectra and Circ (e-scooters).

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G

iven the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many parents are looking for alternatives for children to take their classes online. Online k12 is a viable option in this quest.

It should be noted that this level is essential for the student to develop their individual skills or abilities. Also the acquisition of values to interact within society.

The inclusion of information and communication technologies has caused important changes in pedagogical methodologies.

In this sense, students can use these technological resources to complement their training or even as support material to solve school activities.

E-learning or virtual teaching proposes to focus learning towards digital channels. This means eliminating the barriers of space and time that are currently limited.

Luca the Educational Platform arrives in Mexico Luca is an educational platform that serves to provide children and young people with educational tools

developed by expert teachers, which allow them to continue their studies and stay updated and to be the main support for mothers and fathers when providing school support for their children.

A set of tools for children’s learning “We are very proud to reach the Mexican market with this platform. At Luca we are more than a reinforcement option at home, we are a specialized academic platform that comprehensively covers all the topics of the SEP (Secretaría de Educación Pública) curriculum and that children can use to learn for the first time, review, or prepare for an exam while they play and have fun”, stated our CEO, Frederico Bello.

We are aware that the health emergency has changed the way thousands of children and teenagers live and study, a situation that involves multiple challenges and has resulted in a drop in learning levels and school dropouts never seen before.

Impacts of COVID-19 on children’s learning During the current pandemic, parents shared the feeling

During the current pandemic, parents shared the feeling that their children did not learn enough at home, because the traditional platforms used by schools are not designed to meet the student needs

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that their children did not learn enough at home, because the traditional platforms used by schools are not designed to meet the student needs.

85% of kids using Luca improved their math and sciences grades 90% of our students improved their ability to solve complex problems 80% of our students are able to relate what the have learned to their daily lives Luca’s impact on the learning of children In this context, our digital education platform promotes democratizing access to education: at a very affordable cost, with high-quality content focused on a student-centered methodology and aligned with current technologies and platforms.

Our students learn with video microlearning lessons of just 5 minutes, designed by expert teachers, accompanied by quizzes and games, which make learning fun for students.

This model has been tested in schools in Mexico, resulting in unprecedentedly high rates of interaction and retention in the educational sector in the country bringing benefits like the ones we will mention.

Luca is an Educational Platform that values the relationship between Neuroscience and Education Luca is an E-learning platform that is concerned with motivating Primary and Secondary students towards learning, in such a way that it offers different interactive activities based on gamification and microlearning, 2 learning modalities that value the importance of creating a relationship between Neuroscience and Education.

This virtual learning environment has fostered enriching experiences both at home and in the classroom, promoting collaborative learning among peers and helping students to use different electronic devices more profitably.

Applies educational technology to make math fun, tackling math anxiety Competitiveness is a necessary skill that must be developed from the beginning of childhood education. Managed well, this ability develops well-rounded individuals capable of facing any situation.

In fun math, the development of competitiveness occurs through challenges. These challenges increase interest, stimulating their desire to learn and apply mathematics in their daily lives.

Luca is a virtual learning platform designed for children to learn about the most necessary learning areas in a didactic and fun way. At Luca we take advantage of technological devices to accompany our students wherever they are. In addition, we have the best math activities, games and microlearning tools; so no one will get bored, much less with mathematics.

Luca use a microlearning methodology, a tool that revolutionizes education Brevity: Microlearning is understood as a process of short duration. Learning is based on interaction with micro content that can be acquired in short periods of time.

Granularity: This characteristic refers to the fact that this learning model focuses on unique content or topics that specialize the training that the student acquires.

Variety of content: it is mainly due to the multitude of options offered by technologies. Microlearning uses videos, podcasts or games so that the training process is as dynamic and agile as possible for the student.

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Formal learning: this concept refers, mainly, to the fact that by being able to acquire small doses of knowledge, sometimes we are not aware of this microlearning process. In everyday actions such as watching a video or reading an informative blog, they are small gestures where we apply microlearning almost without realizing it.

Competitiveness is a necessary skill that must be developed from the beginning of childhood education. Managed well, this ability develops well-rounded individuals capable of facing any situation

Advantages of this innovative methodology Thanks to all these features, Luca can help educate much more effectively. Children can process around four bits of information simultaneously. This makes the results of microlearning training almost immediate.

These are some of the advantages offered Luca by microlearning: • The versatility of learning allows students to learn at their own pace without time being a problem in this training process.

• It is estimated that learning through this educational strategy is usually 17% more efficient. Many times it is difficult for our mind to maintain attention for hours.

Learning in short and spaced periods helps our brain to memorize content more efficiently and quickly.

• The specialization of the contents allows students to focus on the knowledge they need at a given time, thus guaranteeing their acquisition and learning.

• The microlearning platform allows students to commit and participate 50% more than with other types of conventional educational strategies. Videos, games or interactive content help activate the interest of the students making them more involved in the training.

• Traditional learning has sessions and practices that require the student a greater time of dedication. This does not happen with microlearning thanks to the short duration of each of the learning modules, thus accelerating the process of acquiring knowledge. This is ideal for students who have little time for training.

Luca raises $3M to transform and expand access to education in Mexico and Latin America Luca closed a pre-seed investment round with the participation of Heartcore Capital (Denmark) and Shilling Capital (Portugal); in addition to angel investors such as Juan Romero, former CEO of Pearson Latam; Hugo Arévalo, co-founder of ThePowerMBA; Brian Requarth, co-founder of Latitud and Viva Real; and Gonzalo Manrique, founder of Ironhack. This capital will be used to strengthen its technology and product development team, expand its content production, and consolidate its presence in Mexico.

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The round has also the participation of other investors such as Diogo Monica, founder of Anchorage; Vasco Pedro, co-founder of Unbabel; Borja Aranguren, CEO of Cobee; Frederico Abreu, Managing Partner of Teman Capital and Advisor at Descomplica; Caspar Wahler and Phil Teixeira, directors of Hedosophia; and Marcos Alvarez, executive of EQT. Founded in late 2020 by Frederico Bello, edtech offers a platform that empowers elementary school students to enhance their academic development through videos and proprietary content that fully covers the expected learning of the official curriculum for K12 education in the countries where it operates.

Developed by experts in pedagogy, with previous experience in leading educational publishers such as Santillana, and tech companies such as Crehana, Netflix and Uber; Luca allows students to take lessons, reinforce learning, receive tutor support and prepare for tests and quizzes all in a single app.

The experience is based on machine learning to offer a personalized experience and use microlearning and gamification techniques to achieve greater effectiveness, engagement and progress for students.

The company decided to begin operations in Mexico, which represents a potential market of 44 millions students. This market has a higher spending level on education, even more than developed edtech markets, and is one of the countries with highest penetration and use of mobile devices. In this country, Luca is starting with programs that cover elementary school and are aligned with the curricula of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP).

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In the second half of 2021, Luca rapidly deployed a pilot in 40 schools in Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, including public and private schools. In just 3 weeks it achieved its goal of acquiring more than 2,000 students, which validated its business model and approach, and allowed it to raise this pre-seed round in a very short time.

Currently, the edtech company already has 50 workers, most of them in Mexico, and includes professionals in Spain, India, Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela.

With the new capital, the edtech startup will expand its technology and product development team, as well as its video production to cover all elementary education, focusing on mathematics, Spanish and science. It will also seek to consolidate its business lines both B2C, aimed at parents, and B2B, focused on schools. Finally, the company seeks to start expansion to other Spanishspeaking countries by the end of 2022.

In the first 6 months of 2021, $6.4 millions of dollars were invested in Latin America, with the education vertical being one of the most important for investors, along with financial services, healthcare, real estate and retail (LAVCA).

Holon IQ reports that in the same time period, investment in edtech startups in LATAM and the Caribbean was 299 millions of dollars, 3.6 times more than in 2020. Around the world, Global Industry Analysts projects that the market for educational technology and smart classrooms will reach US$207 billion by 2026. 2020 was a catalyst that led to the global EdTech sector getting 10 billion dollars in funding in the first half of 2021, and today there are more than 30 unicorns in the world within this sector.

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Why Prioritizing the Wellbeing of Teachers is So Critical in 2022?

Henry May, CEO, Coschool

Henry May is a Social Entrepreneur from the UK currently living in Colombia. He is a Teach First Ambassador, having completed the programme from 2009-2011. He has set up two successful social impact organizations; The Huracan Foundation and Coschool. He has been working in education since 2009 in the UK and Colombia, with a particular focus on teacher training, and social & emotional learning. Coschool, the Colombian Edtech that Henry founded, has been recognized as one of the Top Education Innovations in the World two years running by HundrED and was recently named in the HolonIQ LatAm 100 EdTech list. Personally, Henry was named as one of the world’s top 100 Meaningful Business Leaders in 2020.

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Inevitably, students have fallen behind on where they should be in terms of their learning. Reading levels in younger students, exam readiness in older students, and everything in between seems to have been affected

T

hese are, of course, extraordinarily challenging times we are living in for schools, teachers, students, and families across the world. A survey at the start of 2022 from the USA suggested that 55% of Teachers are planning on leaving the profession earlier than planned.

“The Great Resignation” is, without doubt, going to leave its mark on the education sector. We are entering a period of churn and change in society.

In Colombia, public schools are opening up again after two years of unprecedented chaos. In an education system that is no stranger to disruption (in 2018 many schools had to finish the school year two months early due to teacher’ strikes - 40+ days of school were missed), this feels like the hardest time ever to be teaching. In order to respond to this crisis, we must urgently prioritize (and provide resources towards) the wellbeing of teachers.

My team and I at Coschool have spent the first eight weeks of this year listening to teachers and school leaders, and there seem to be a number of issues prevalent. Teachers are dealing with a monster with several heads: Lost years of learning Inevitably, students have fallen behind on where they should be in terms of their learning. Reading levels in

younger students, exam readiness in older students,and everything in between seems to have been affected. Sadly, this is even more pronounced in public & rural schools where both students and teachers struggled to switch to remote learning solutions compared to their private school counterparts. Educational inequality has been exacerbated by the pandemic. However, make no mistake about it; private schools are struggling too.

Decrease in students’ ability to concentrate/attention Social media and smartphones were already destroying our ability to pay attention, listen, be present, and concentrate before COVID. If you haven’t seen Netflix’s documentary, The Social Dilemma, I recommend it as a comprehensive analysis of this problem. Since April 2020 many students’ (and teachers’) lifestyles have changed dramatically: a surge in screen time, more time alone with their devices, and significant increases in gaming (particularly games with social/multiplayer components). We are more addicted than ever.

Something else has been on the rise in teenagers’ bedrooms, too: multiscreening (phone - laptop - gaming device, sometimes all at the same time). Science has long since told us that it’s impossible to consciously focus

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on more than one thing at a time. Children are moving between screens in short bursts, and the impact on their capacity to concentrate is catastrophic. Simply put, there is a strong correlation between one’s ability to focus and learning. If a teacher was already struggling to engage students before the Pandemic, it’s almost certain that this will be even harder now.

Rewiring of social connectedness Children and teenagers have always had (and will always have) complicated social dynamics. Bullying and namecalling shouldn’t be the norm, but it is something that exists in even the most welcoming of schools. Over the last two years, relationships have gone through unexpected and unusual trauma. What that trauma looks like will differ between contexts, locations, and age groups, but what we are hearing from schools is that backlogs of online disputes are now bringing conflict into schools. Scores are being settled for things that were said on TikTok or in whatsapp groups or on gaming servers. Social media (again at the root of issues) is accelerating the chopping and changing

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of social groups, the “banter” (and the bullying) and it’s an impossible task for teachers and school leaders to keep track of what’s happening.

Gender and sexuality education is happening at the speed of the internet We are hearing from schools that issues relating to gender and sexuality are causing a lot of tension and discomfort for students, families, and teachers. There have been really some positive developments in the topic of gender inclusion over the last few years. However, the information and stories available to students on the internet is outpacing most schools and as many students go about exploring their gender and sexuality, schools are off the pace and teachers are being left to deal with some extremely complex matters.

Where do we go from here?

The duality of “teachers as social workers” was something we have heard often since March 2020, and continues to ring true. Teachers are truly on the front line at the moment,

especially given the new stresses parents and families are under. Adults have lost their jobs, are changing their jobs, have moved house and so on. With so much flux occurring outside of schools, young people need stable, supportive environments in schools. Teachers’ jobs just became even more important than ever before.

What can we do to support them?

Recognising the moment we are living through There is a need for policy makers, school leaders, and communities to “read the room”. This is a tricky time.

It’s a time for empathy, listening, and supporting. It’s certainly a time to be careful with implementing new programs/measures/policies that will demand even more of teachers. It’s time for resilience, and sticking together.

Teachers need to feel supported publicly and privately.

Teachers with good mental health will be in a far stronger position to support students facing challenges of their own

Me first: the seat belt approach to mental health Just as we are instructed to do in emergencies onboard an airplane, we need teachers to fasten their own seat belts before attending to the students in their care. We need to provide teachers with the language and tools required to discuss and tend to their own mental health issues.

Teachers with good mental health will be in a far stronger position to support students facing challenges of their own.

In practical terms, a teacher that actively understands the positive effects of breathwork or mindfulness, and applies it in their own life, is ready to help students do the same.

Prioritizing rest and recovery How might we support teachers to break the cycle of exhaustion and the sensation of “somehow make it to the end of term”? Systems and schools should be exploring strategies to support teachers to maintain their energy and have time for renewal, sleep, and exercise. Some schools in Colombia begin classes at 6am. While there might be an argument from a logistical point of view and schools with two “jornadas” to attend to, this is an absurd idea if we want teachers and students to feel ready for the school day. Please, no more 6am starts!

Support networks Research on resilience has repeatedly shown that resilient people have better support networks. One of the positive impacts of COVID - and the acceleration of teachers’ adoption of technology - is the possibility of connecting to others who are experiencing similar difficulties. We need to build networks with intention and purpose to help teachers realize they are not alone, and that they can save

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time & energy by tapping into wider networks than they were aware of before.

More time for planning & professional development Ok, this is clearly easier said than done. I get it, teachers’ timetables are already stretched. However, this is a dangerous cycle that needs to be broken. Teachers need time to observe others (still a frustratingly low occurrence activity), reflect on their own practice (not sitting down a candle; reviewing their planning and making improvements), and plan effectively. It would be even

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better if teachers had time to coach each other and be coached (using resources from Better Lesson and Inspiring Teachers, for example). Better planning results in better execution which results in better student engagement and outcomes. It is a simple idea, and now would be a fantastic time for schools to provide teachers with more time.

A wider paradigm shift: HECI In recent years we have seen a collective push to prepare education systems for the future: a recognition that most jobs of the future will require better preparation in STEM, Computational thinking, and so on. This noise - while important - drowns out other vital components of a child’s education. I find Gerd Leonard’s framework of STEM and HECI useful. HECI = Humanity, Ethics, Creativity, Imagination). At times like these we would do well to remember that the purpose of schools is not just to increase productivity and serve the needs of the labor market. Indeed, if we needed a reminder of this, it was interesting (and concerning) to see the Colombian Ministry of Education’s top priority emerge during 2020: food. Schools play a vital part in attending to children’s most basic needs, and when push comes to shove, the basic needs come first. Returning to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we need to ensure children are safe and feeling a sense of belonging before we can be concerned about the raft of jobs they may or may not have in fifteen years time.

La Ruta Edumoción and a new regional professional learning community At Coschool, we are determined to try and be there for educators at this critical moment. To celebrate the launch of our new professional learning community focussed on Wellbeing for educators, Edumocion, we have sent school bus on a mission around Colombia (next stop, Latin America). La Ruta Edumoción is visiting thousands of educators in their schools, listening deeply to their current needs and challenges, and providing introductory access to what - we hope - will become the biggest professional learning community of teachers in Latin America. Edumoción contains different shaped and sized resources for educators to use, as well as providing a platform for creating a powerful community via meaningful connections with educators across the region.

The time has to come to take teachers’ wellbeing seriously and we will be doing everything we can to support them over the precarious looking months and years ahead.

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EdTech in Latin America: An “Education Renaissance” Tale Juan Manuel Pico, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Education Soul

Juan Manuel is an international business executive with 31 years of experience in consulting services of technology and education, with a special focus on public & private alliances for Fortune 500 tech companies such as Motorola and Unisys in the United States and Latin America. In 2016, he co-founded Education Soul, to close the digital gap at underserved areas, reaching +28,000 students in Colombia, using adaptive learning EdTech platforms. He has developed entrepreneurship public policy projects, and fostered acceleration programs. He is frequently invited as an Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation speaker in Latin America. He holds a B.S. In Business Administration from Los Andes University in Colombia and an Executive MBA from Boston University.

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In order for our students to flourish in such a post-pandemic situation, governments in the region are not the only ones to be part of the solution

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ccording to the OECD, the COVID-19 crisis forced school closures in 188 countries, leading to a high disruption in the learning process of more than 1,7 billion children, youth, and their families.

Therefore, the pandemic kicked up the rate at which technology was being adopted into the classroom. We have been witnessing a similar scene from the movie “Back to the future” as if we could have traveled to the future and “save time” between 5 to 10 years. Chances

are that if we had not had a pandemic, the rise of convergence between education and technology could only have happened around 2030, not today.

In this challenging scenario, governments around the world need to prepare strategies to mitigate the damage and be more prepared for the future to come, especially in two areas: to address potential barriers to student engagement by providing adequate technological and infrastructure resources, such as free internet zones, plus laptops, tablets and even low-cost smartphones, along

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with skill development programs (without them it could only be a sterile move); and to provide personalized support to students, by understanding that every student has its own dynamic and its own pace of learning, what we could call massive personalization.

In 2019, the OECD published a “Theoretical model for learning loss during school closure” as part of the report PISA 2018 Results (Volume II): Where All Students Can Succeed, where the potential learning loss is the effect of two concurring factors: how much students have learned during school closures (the “intensive margin”) and, on the other hand, how many students have continued

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to learn during the school closures (the “extensive margin”). As the graphic shows, a high learning intensity but a low student engagement leads to what the OECD calls long-term learning loss or hysteresis, a term used in labor economics that refers to the long-term effect of unemployment on a worker´s ability to find a job.

Transferred to the education landscape, it refers to the long-term impact of school closures on students’ outcomes.

The hysteresis moment where we are at drives us to extremely difficult consequences: students struggle to maintain their learning pace due to their lack of practice;

We can say today that Latin America is having a “renaissance” in terms of entrepreneurs focused on all type of EdTech solutions

high challenges in re-engaging with education activities and their demotivation as they feel they are falling behind from where they should be standing today. This is particularly critical in Latin America since internet infrastructure and IT resources are scarce among students from underprivileged areas.

In order for our students to flourish in such a postpandemic situation, governments in the region are not the only ones to be part of the solution. Hopefully, before the COVID-19 arrived, the world had seen a double trend in EdTech: from one side, a proliferation of EdTech startups proposing all sorts of solutions to be implemented at the classroom, helping students to learn faster and retain more course material than traditional teaching methods, giving them the possibility to be engaged with activities they like thanks to the adaptive learning tools embedded within the EdTech platforms; and on the other side, funding availability like never before, as a result of the appetite of investors to look for new lines of investments beyond FinTech and E-CommerceTech industries. The numbers speak for themselves.

According to The European EdTech Funding Report 2022 from Brighteye Ventures in London, the combined global EdTech funding figures for the two-year period of 2020-2021 equal funding secured during the entire sixyear period of 2014-2019, yielding to a 6-times growth in

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funding from 2014 and 2021, reflecting a dynamism and a vibrant ecosystem that is maturing.

A breakdown Venture Capital investment by user demographic for Europe shows that despite corporate learning is the biggest destination for investment (35%), K12 remains second (25%), as a result of the pandemic, where increasing adoption is being created to support traditional K12 education, rather than replace it. The hysteresis moment has started to be fixed, and the DeLorean car has come back from 2030 with solutions at hand.

HolonIQ, a global market intelligence firm from Australia that oversees the global learning landscape, has forecasted that the global K12 digital instruction and assessment market will reach USD$42.5 billion by 2025, “accelerated by the sudden shift to remote learning through COVID, where educators, children and their parents have embraced technology like never before”.

A similar trend, but with lower numbers, is happening in Latin America. The EdTech venture capital activity tracked from 2011 is gaining momentum and has reached USD$1,07 billion of EdTech funding for the last 10 years combined, where 2021 alone has represented 46% of the total investment amount in a decade, and 6 times the investment value from 2020.

As it is happening in Europe, Workforce Solutions and K12 are the two most relevant EdTech sectors that are receiving major investments as it is shown in the graphic, calculated by HolonIQ. However, the trends in the region are slightly different. Europe and the United States are more mature in terms of K12 EdTech adoption, while

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Latin America is way behind, probably due to the fact of not being early adopters for EdTech solutions at schools.

Traditionally, the public school system in Latin America has not the willingness to hardly invest in technology.

Thanks to the COVID-19 things are starting to change dramatically, where the word digital is now beginning to be present in the public agenda. On top of it, Latin America is witnessing a proliferation of local venture capital funds who are investing. In the past, if you wanted to reach a venture capital fund you needed to take a flight right up to Silicon Valley. Today, and especially during the last three years, things have changed to the better.

According to LAVCA (The Association for Private Capital Investment in Latin America), venture investment reached USD$15.7 billion in 2021, more than 3 times the previous record of USD$4.9 billion in 2019, and more than the previous 10 years of venture investment combined. The fact is that fresh funding money has landed in Latin America and the trend will continue as the years go by. There is a remaining challenge, which makes the difference with the United States and Europe, since the money flow has been going mainly to FinTech, E-Commerce and PropTech. Surprisingly, in number of transactions as of December 31st, 2021, EdTech came third after FinTech and E-Commerce, which shows that Pandemic has sent its urgency message even to investors, but there is still a long way to go in improving a more mature process of investing in this sector.

We can say today that Latin America is having a “renaissance” in terms of entrepreneurs focused on all type of EdTech solutions. EdTech is starting to be part

of this new wave of rising starts, especially because the education problem at stake has a monumental dimension, and now it does not depend exclusively on governments. It is something where parents, private sector, and investors are also involved. According to HolonIQ, 35% of EdTech startups in Latin America have less than five years old, and 12% started their endeavor in 2019 or 2020.

Within the region, Brazil is leading the way, making up just over 60% of the EdTech startup list, followed

by Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia. In terms of topic focused, K12 is now leading the way (41,6%), followed by Workforce Learning, and Management Systems, that make up almost one third of the numbers, as this is an area that remains strategic for governments, employers, and individuals. K12 has finally risen as a natural consequence of what has happened with the Covid-19 during the last two years, and it is just the beginning.

The digital era is here to stay. The pandemic accelerated the education needs in terms of closing the digital divide like never before. Venture capital investors are increasing its presence monthly. These are global and local signs of a new era, a moment of “education renaissance”, where technology is a main actor, educated and bold entrepreneurs are at the rise, investors are trusting the convergence between technology and education as they have been doing with Fintech and E-commerce.

Probably, we needed a universal crisis to have a fresh look at education, that had remained untouched during the last 200 years. Latin America finally is witnessing EdTech solutions that are betting to speed up the quality of education, the personalized massification, and the adaptive learning, where every child is unique and every child, no matter what, counts and deserves to receive the best available learning opportunity. Welcome to the beginning of a new era.

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Pencil, from a Tantrum to Improving Early-Childhood Education in LATAM Juan Manuel Zúñiga, Chief Product Officer, Colegium

Juan Manuel Zúñiga is a Colombian engineer with more than 20 years of experience in software and digital product development. He is a tech entrepreneur passionate on how technology can improve our lives and most recently, the quality of education in LATAM. He is the co-founder of Pencil, an Ed-tech Startup seeking to close the connection and communications gap between teachers and parents in early childhood. On 2020 Pencil was acquired by Colegium, a Chilean Ed-tech Scale-Up, where he became their Chief Product Officer (CPO) for the whole portfolio of K-12 solutions.

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Pencil’s first version was a mess (as it should) but we learned a lot and improved it and less than a year later we had 20 Early childhood centers using our app

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y name is Juan Manuel, I live in Cali, Colombia and I have a story for you.

A few years ago, Alejandro, my oldest son, was starting school.

Our school uses a small ride-on train to take the kids from the parking lot to the pre- school.

He was thrilled. He boarded that train and drove away, leaving two sobbing parents behind like it was nothing.

The next day the scene was quite different: Alejandro realized that this short train ride meant not being with mommy for hours and that it was going to be a regular thing… and he did not like that at all.

This time, the sobbing was a family thing while we watched him depart in that toy train station being held by one of his teachers while his arms were trying to reach ours.

The following days, my wife and I watched how Alejandro slowly started to like his new school, however we knew little about what went on during each morning in his classroom.

“Of course, we will send you daily updates in the traveling notebook” said his teacher the first day, referring to a tiny notebook that was supposed to be our primary communication channel with him.

That never happened, I believe we got like 15 notes in the whole School year.

This experience was the inspiration that gave birth to Pencil, the first app for early childhood communication platform in our city.

I initially pitched the idea to my brother, and he loved it. We were in Business. He was going to finance Pencil from far away (He lives in Mexico) and I was the guy with a dream.

It all started with a clumsy PowerPoint. We pitched the idea to a few early childhood centers in our city, and guess what: They did NOT love it…they loved the notebook, but they also knew that all the new parents were asking for a more efficient and preferable digital way to communicate with them, so they went along with it.

Pencil’s first version was a mess (as it should) but we learned a lot and improved it and less than a year later we had 20 Early childhood centers using our app.

Only 5 features: Messaging, daily reports, pictures and videos sharing, calendar and file sharing, no more.

The original goal was to replace the notebook as a communication tool, but the pictures and videos were the engagement drivers. (We learned this year’s later)

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Parents could now get a glimpse of their children’s day and even share time with the kids in the afternoon looking at the pictures.

We were happy. Our bank account was not….we weren’t making ANY money at all.

So, we took it to the streets to make our client base grow. I remember visiting 6 or 7 center per day. It was exhausting, but the AWWW moment that we got from the center administrators (that understood what Pencil was all about) was worth it.

Fast-forward more than a year, we were now in 4 cities, more than 60 early childhood centers were using our app, and we were growing…slowly.

As you can see by now, this is the typical story of any organically growing small businesses that would take many years to flourish, especially in education.

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Out of 700+ startups along with 9 more Pencil became part of their 3rd batch, which included a 6-month intensive, face-to-face program and a money investment

My brother had other plans.

He was still working his 9 to 5, so he could afford our beautiful money pit. He invited a friend that was “between jobs” as he was part of a Startup that was just sold.

Pablo changed our company meetings drastically.

Venture capital, metrics, growth hacking, product driven growth, and many other fancy terms, became part of our daily talks.

We analyzed the complexity of our market, how it was so fragmented, tech-adverse and a real challenge, but we were stubborn.

It was the year 2019, around August, in the many options we were looking at to turn Pencil into the next big thing we applied to RockStart LATAM, a startup accelerator from Europe with an office in Colombia.

Out of 700+ startups along with 9 more Pencil became part of their 3rd batch, which included a 6-month intensive, face-to-face program and a money investment.

So, on November the second of the year of our lord 2019, at 42 years old, like a teenager going to college, I moved to a small 2-bedroom apartment in Bogotá with Pablo for 6 months.

Rockstart was an intense, beautiful experience; we learned a lot and worked like crazy. In addition to managing a Business with over 90 clients, 11 employees, we had to keep up with the program: A crazy schedule, lectures, metrics reviews, and an insane amount of 5 minute feedback from a plethora of well-intended people who knew a thing or two on “how to make it in America”.

We transformed Pencil from mom and pops shop to a Unicorn-to-be (At least in our pitch and our PowerPoints) We opened a seed round for 300K. We pitched Pencil more than 90 times, we got tons of rejections but learned a lot, until finally we managed to get the interest of a few private and institutional investors.

By now the year is 2020, March 2020 to be more specific….(Suspense music) The pandemic hits Colombia.

All the momentum, excitement of a new chapter for Pencil and intent of our soon-to- be investors disappeared in less than 3 weeks.

This part of the story is called: “Now, what the hell are we going to do?”

Let me paint you a mental picture of our situation: 1. All of our clients stop paying us.

2. All of our clients rely on us more than ever before to keep in touch with the families as they transition to the absolute chaos that is remote-teaching toddlers and little children 3. Every childhood center that before the pandemic, didn’t want to talk to us was at our doorstep asking for help (Without any money) 4. We and our entire team, were all locked down in our houses working 12 to 16 hours a day 5. We were running out of money.

Don’t ask me the logic or the reasons, but we decided to keep going.

We did what everyone did during the first months of the Pandemic: We did webinars! Lots and lots of webinars.

Heck, we even created a weekly virtual bedtime-story session free of charge with a close friend of Pablo who is a children’s book author. The kids loved it. How that impacted our Business, we might never know.

In this webinar euphoria, we ended up in a virtual stage of the Ed LATAM Alliance, which invited renowned

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Edtech Startups from many Latin America countries (We were not “renowned”, but still we manage to get invited) That day we shared a stage with many other inspiring startups and scale-ups from LATAM and among them was one Chilean Scale-up that we found very interesting.

After the event, it occured to me to email the CEO of that Scale-up, just to ask for feedback (For the millionth time) I had sent many emails like this and got no response, but this time, within just 3 hours we got one.

On June 10th, 2020, we met with Ariel, the CEO of Colegium, the Chilean Scale-Up with more than 20 years on the market, a huge client base and a rich portfolio of K-12 software solutions.

This meeting was the beginning of 4 months of conversations that ended with the merger (More like absorption) of Pencil by Colegium…at exactly 2 weeks before Pencil went bankrupt.

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Pablo became the CFO of Colegium, I became the CPO and our entire team got hired and integrated to a family of more than 200 people with only one goal in mind: Improving the quality of education in LATAM through technology.

This part of the story is called: “Now, what’s next?”

It’s been more than a year since the merger, Pencil is now part of Colegium, and we went from less than 100 early childhood centers to almost 1,400 with more than 100,000 children, 160,000 parents and more than 30,000 teachers.

We now know that Pencil was much more than just communication, it was about connection between mostly scared first time parents and experience care takers and teachers that increased the parental involvement in those critical first years of the child social development, ultimately improving the well-being of entire families and communities.

We did what everyone did during the first months of the Pandemic: We did webinars! Lots and lots of webinars

We are now working in the next version of Pencil, which will come with more key specific features designed to drive engagement even higher and further strengthen the parental involvement that we now know to be so beneficial.

Our new version is also aimed to have a higher purpose: Improve parental involvement in every corner of LATAM, and what that means is: Public Sector.

Rural and government operated daycares with connectivity problems, parent’s and teachers with little to none tech experience, low-end devices even with no Internet connection are among the challenges that we are working to solve.

We have also learned a lot from the data in Pencil, and for our next version we want to make the numbers speak to the teachers, parents and administrators in a way they can understand and help them make better decisions.

And last but not least, Pencil is coming to k-12! We have found that the emotional connection that Pencil brings to early childhood can benefit families with older children during their school years. This is quite interesting because now we have a new player: The child himself is now part of the loop, so we are working on understanding what would drive engagement in an older child or even a teenager so that he becomes involved in the process and can benefit from it.

I still remember those days during the first months of the pandemic in my house working without knowing when the dream of Pencil was coming to an end, having absolutely no clue of our destination (or destiny). Only an intense belief that somehow what we were doing was important, that we had to keep going.

To me, it’s still very fascinating how life crossed our path with Colegium and we found Ariel, José, Alberto and Jaime (Colegium founders) with these same goals and beliefs so now we are all working together to improve education in LATAM.

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Co-creation as a Factor in School Innovation Katerin Camila Montaño Boada, EdTech Innovation Expert & Project Coordinator, Hypercubus

Katerin Camila Montaño Boada is a business administrator with master´s degree in innovation.

She is passionate about Ed Tech project management for the transformation of digital education. In her five years of work experience, she has had the opportunity to lead the implementation of projects at a national and regional level, to improve the learning experiences of children, youth, and adults.

She also had the opportunity to articulate multicultural teams and exploit her logical-mathematical ability for the creation of KPI structures to improve the performance of projects with agile and innovation processes.

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From education, we can see it reflected in the collaborative processes that are generated between students and their peers and in some educational methodologies that are being implemented

N

owadays we hear about innovation as a modern term that makes any process sound much more attractive to other people, but what is innovation really? is it a skill that is developed in people, a way of naming some adjustment in a process, a methodology, or is it just a buzzword?

In the 1940s, a German economist was the first person to define innovation as referring to a novel result, a new good, or a new quality of a good; a new method of production, a new market, a new source of supply, or a new organizational structure, all of which can be summarized as “doing things differently” (Schumpeter, 1942).

The definition is more anchored to the organizational sphere, but can innovation only occurs in the business sphere? In 2010 we found an abbreviated definition that is much broader than the initial definition, which states that innovation is the production or adaptation, assimilation, and exploitation of a novelty that adds value in the economic and social sphere; it is the renewal and expansion of products, services, and markets, the development of new production methods; and the establishment of new management systems. It is both a process and a result (Crossany Apaydin, 2010).

Innovation is a system that starts with a person or a group of creative people, these identify a problem and cocreate an idea for the solution. This idea becomes a tangible solution that they implement, at the time that the solution generates an impact the process becomes an innovation, but for innovation to last over time it must continue to innovate, and thus an innovation system is created. Since we understand that innovation is a system, how can we see it represented in education? Before answering the question, let´s review another current term, co-creation.

Co-creation is a collaborative exercise in which people generate something tangible around a common theme. It is an exercise that human beings have carried out since the beginning of time since it is innate for social beings to create in a community. From education, we can see it reflected in the collaborative processes that are generated between students and their peers and in some educational methodologies that are being implemented. Nowadays it is more evident that we learn by sharing knowledge in groups and from experience, in other words, from learning by doing.

In the education field, innovation can be understood in two ways: as the adoption and introduction in the school of something that already exists outside or inside the school,

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and as a product or response to the solution of a specific problem or internal need (Ramírez;2012).

In my years working in the social and private sector supporting Colombian educational institutions, I have noticed that the processes that are created to generate a positive impact on education are not adapted or do not generate the desired impact, which is reflected in educational progress. In my time in the institutions, I have met with teachers who are willing to change their processes, to adopt innovative methodologies, to change the way they want their students to perceive them, or to see technology as a tool and not as an enemy. But what can stop teachers in this process of change?

Due to the pandemic, the educational sector suffered an acceleration in the implementation of technologies in the classroom, but this does not mean that educational processes changed, only that due to necessity they were able to adapt in the best way to the new context. Some teachers’ managers understand digitization as an innovation process, and it is not so since it does not really generate a change in the teaching and learning process of students.

Currently, private companies are approaching education with projects and processes in which they want to contribute to change in the classroom. These processes are received by the Institutions, and their stakeholders, but there is a gap in which the processes are not fully adapted to the Educational. Institution, and then end up depending

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on the time in which the private company implements them, thus not generating sustainability in the processes.

Universities conduct research on education in the environment of the Educational Institution and from these processes, new knowledge, innovative methodologies, processes, among others, are generated, but there is a gap in which these new resources do not reach the Institution, since they do not take into account from the first moment what to do in the Institutions and the real context of the teachers, so they are not identified, or they never get to know the information.

Colombia is a highly biodiverse country, having so many different cultures and territories, the task of defining

general parameters is very challenging since it is not the same to teach in a dry territory like the Guajira, a jungle territory like the Amazon, or in cities like Bogota or Medellin, so the processes of innovation become a task of departments or even Educational Institutions. Because each Educational institution is a different world, even if they belong to the same department.

I remember one of my field visits to Buenos Aires, not Buenos Aires-Argentina, but the department of Cauca, I was going to accompany a workshop of a person of my team in an Educational Institution in the rural area usually, the trips to the rural area are made by public transport either by bus, boat, motorcycle or even bicycle, depending on the territory. In this case, the school was at the top of a mountain, so we synchronized with a teacher to take us in his SUV. For two hours from the urban center and by the trail we were able to see the dynamics of the population and each time we got closer to the top of the mountain

houses could be seen. When we arrived at the school was at the tip of the mountain surrounded by vegetation, almost not visible from afar. We arrived 30 minutes before the start of the workshop, so many teachers had not yet arrived. As the time of the workshop approached, people began to come out from many points of the vegetation surrounding the school, most of them with their rubber boots because of the walk from their place of lodging to the school. As the innovation workshop began, the teachers were excited about the knowledge we were about to impart.

They were all very receptive to the information and exercises, and we showed them different methodologies to implement. At lunchtime, which was at the school restaurant (they usually have breakfast and lunch at the school because most of the places are far away), the teachers told us that without knowing it, they were already implementing some concepts of the methodologies, that they wanted to connect with their students so that they

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It is time to develop these processes based on co-creation, it is time to enhance these processes to generate greater impact and create a system of constant innovation that generates a transformation of education

would attend classes more and that they would arrive with a lot of encouragement. When we inquired a little more about why they did not do this before, they told us that being in such a distant territory, very few projects or processes beyond the standards of the Ministry did not reach them, even though the rector at that time interceded so that more things would arrive.

As we continued with the workshop and reflected what we have learned during the ideation part, we were very surprised because the group presented us with different ways of implementation in that were adapted to their context and that from our lack of knowledge we did not understand, to see the community strengthening processes, focusing on the learning from the power to connect and inspire the students, in short, to make them fall in love in such a way that they would want to come back every day.

At that time, we had not seen this in any other workshop, since the priorities and contexts were different, in this municipality what the teachers were looking for ways to attack the problem of non-attendance at the institution because the students preferred to go to work rather than to the institution. The teachers continued to implement what they had learned at the time and told us that they had reduced absences in the higher grades and that they continued to co-created solutions together with the help of the methodology and the motivation of the principal.

It is time to develop these processes based on cocreation, it is time to enhance these processes to generate

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greater impact and create a system of constant innovation that generates a transformation of education.

The innovation processes cannot be given from a general parameter so that all the Institutions carry them out in the same way, but it must be a process that gives minimum parameters and that allows each Institution to implement it in the way that best suits its context and needs. One of the most important actors in this process is the teaching director who is the head of the institution and who is committed to generating a transformation from the participation of him and the teachers, it can be achieved.

The processes must be co-created from a real context with the participation and leadership of teachers and not from a superficial study that does not understand their dynamics and that generates processes without them.

So, I invite universities, private companies, Ministry, Secretariats, among other entities, to think about innovation, not from a process that is carried out from superficial research but a process that should be cocreated between you and the Educational Institutions, that can convene the largest number of teachers from all entities in an area, generating spaces for creation and catharsis in which they can identify the different concerns that afflict them all. And that they feel so involved in the creation of the processes that when the time comes to implement them, they feel identified and represented.

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Building an Ecosystem with Purpose at the Center Luis Javier Castro, Founder & CEO, Alejandria

Luis Javier Castro defines himself as an entrepreneur and activist. He is the Founder and CEO of Mesoamerica Investments, a Private Equity Firm from where he has lead investments across Latin America for the last 25 years, with world-class partners such as OTPP, Bain Capital and large business groups in the region. Luis Javier is the Founder of Yo Emprendedor, an NGO dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship in Central America and President Emeritus of AED, an organization that brings together more than 150 companies in search of a more prosperous, inclusive and respectful environment. He is currently a member of the Board of the largest NGO in the world, United Way Worldwide. In 2021 he was appointed to the One Young World global advisory board for his efforts to identify, connect and promote young leaders around the world. In 2020, Luis Javier founded Alejandría, a company with the purpose of building an educated, connected, and empowered society.

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lejandría is an ecosystem builder, driven by the purpose of building an educated, connected, and empowered society. With over 25 years of experience in the private sector of Latin America, Alejandría’s team is building an ecosystem composed of entrepreneurs, talent, knowledge, resources, collisions, stories, and culture. Consequently, we are an ally for global leaders and entrepreneurs willing to change the traditional way of doing business and understand the interdependence of stakeholders in the world of the 21st century. “We believe that business is good because it creates value, it is ethical because it is based on voluntary exchange, it is noble because it can elevate our existence, and it is heroic because it lifts people out of poverty and creates prosperity. Free enterprise capitalism is the most powerful system for social cooperation and human progress ever conceived. It is one of the most compelling ideas we humans have ever had. And we can aspire to even more.”

(Conscious Capitalism, Mackey, Sisodia, 2013). Conscious investments, where the deep needs of society are identified and innovators focus on understanding the root of the

problems to create solutions, are key to the ecosystem.

Throughout history, we have seen our society transcend in numerous areas, yet we have also seen profound inequalities.

Over the course of the 20th century, education was seen as a differentiator when it should be seen as an equalizer. At Alejandría we want to help founders in the EdTech industry transition from a scarcity paradigm, where the quality of education is a key differentiator amongst one another, to an abundance paradigm, where education is accessible to all, becoming a social equalizer, especially for kids in K-12. We believe this is possible with the use of exponential technologies and by putting purpose at the center.

According to the annual report by HolonIQ, 2021 had a record of “USD $20.8B of EdTech Venture Funding, 3x pre-pandemic levels.” With a 72% CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate), from 2019 to 2021 of capital attracted in the EdTech industry, it becomes clear that the education system cannot depend solely on the government.

More than ever, it is crucial to highlight the role of the private sector and find bridges between the private and public sectors.

With a 72% CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate), from 2019 to 2021 of capital attracted in the EdTech industry, it becomes clear that the education system cannot depend solely on the government

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The education pillar of Alejandría’s purpose is by far the most active, with six partnerships, three of which are in K-12. We believe it is equally important to support global companies that want to bring solutions to the Latin America region, as it is to support local companies that want to export solutions to the world (Latin America is now approaching $1B of EdTech venture funding since 2010, according to HolonIQ).

In the first case, we have partnered with Knowledgehook, a Canadian-based educational technology company that supports teachers and students around the world in mathematics. Knowledgehook has developed an Instructional Guidance System to support the development of the teaching skills, through formative assessment, to give teachers the tools necessary to make every student numerate. Starting from the premise that most, if not all, teachers in K-6 (in some cases K-8) are generalists and therefore education experts, but not math experts, and that mathematics is the language of the future, Knowledgehook is inspiring the problem solvers of tomorrow, through a data-based, gamified, fun platform for students and teachers. With 8M+ users, 100% client retention, and implementation in five English-speaking countries, Alejandría’s involvement is helping the business expand to Latin America and complete a Spanish version.

The year 2022 brings many opportunities to the region, as Knowledgehook’s platform has been aligned with Mexico’s and Costa Rica’s National Curriculum, fully translated into Spanish, and starting a multi-year implementation plan. Phase 1 of the implementation plan consists of building awareness through a pilot program, engaging teachers and principals, and aligning the program to the needs of the specific education system (In

Mexico, the State of Nuevo Leon is currently in this phase, and we have 186 teachers on the platform) . Phase 2 is aimed at developing teacher capacity, increasing the use of formative assessment, and increasing teachers’ conceptual and pedagogical knowledge. Finally, phase 3 is the actual implementation and focuses on collecting diagnostic and engagement data. In addition to Knowledgehook’s platform, the company encourages communities of practice and bi-weekly live webinars with world-class experts on four topics: Education 2030 (Global Trends), Future Skills, Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and Improving Math.

Knowledgehook is keeping up to pace with major industry challenges and trends. Through a gaming platform, the company expects to increase students’ enthusiasm and will unlock real-time students’ data to be shared with teachers, tutors, and parents.

In the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, mathematics performance of Latin American countries such as Mexico (409), Costa Rica (402), and Colombia (391) were considerably below the OECD average (489) (OECD Data, 2018). The pandemic has aggravated this. Entering the 4th Industrial Revolution, where coding, Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, machine learning, to name just a few, are going to become essential in the student’s development cycle, these results are alarming. Through Knowledgehook’s large sets of valuable data on students’ performance, we expect to deliver actionable insights to the math ecosystem (Ministries, Districts, Parents, and Teachers) and enable better outcomes.

Secondly, we have partnered with Colombian-based TOMi.digital and Aulas Amigas. Founded by Medellinborn and raised entrepreneur, Juan Manuel Lopera, TOMi

Through Knowledgehook’s large sets of valuable data on students’ performance, we expect to deliver actionable insights to the math ecosystem (Ministries, Districts, Parents, and Teachers) and enable better outcomes

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is on its mission to empower teachers to create, curate, and deliver a billion minutes of fascinating K-12 digital lessons, in emerging countries, by 2027. 80% of the teachers on the planet do not have access to localized, engaging, and easy tools to deliver digital lessons (TOMi, 2022). This was the case for Juan Manuel, whose life was saved by a teacher.

Growing up in Colombia in the 90s wasn’t easy, moreover was growing up in Medellin (Colombia’s most dangerous city at the time), where violence and drug dealing were a latent risk. When Mr. Lopera turned 14 years old, his mother bought a computer for him and his two brothers.

Since then, Juan Manuel became passionate about technology and discovered, with the help of one of his teachers, a different way of learning, different from what traditional academic methods could offer. Inspired by his teacher, Juan Manuel became an education entrepreneur and early in his life found his purpose; “Repeat the impact my teacher had on me, in millions of children and young leaders around the world, through impacting teachers” With more than 250K deployed lessons, 4.1M students’ sessions, and almost a 100K activities repository, TOMi “aims to simplify the day-to-day tasks of teachers, providing them with more time to create inspiring lessons and resources.” (Wise Qatar, 2020) TOMi 7, a device created by TOMi.digital is designed to simulate internet in places without connectivity, allowing students to access the content in the activities’ repository. TOMi 7 can also

be connected to a TV or Smartboard, or project on any surface, making it an interactive board. Finally, TOMi 7 has the ability to control class attendance through a QR code reader and grade students’ exam papers.

“Innovation in education happens because an inspiring teacher makes it happen, we support teachers in their journey” – Juan Manuel Lopera, CEO TOMi.digital.

Previous to TOMi, Mr. Lopera founded Aulas Amigas to transform education in Colombia and Latin America. Transforming learning environments through a comprehensive project that seeks to address not only technological but also pedagogical challenges inside and outside the classroom. Last year Aulas Amigas impacted 522 classrooms, over 13K teachers, and more than 400K students with their Aulas Amigas model.

According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Covid-19 has wiped out 20 years of education gains. In the post-pandemic world, innovation in education is going to be key for kids who have been out of school for over two years.

Alejandría will continue to be committed to “ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes, by 2030” through investments in purpose-driven companies and the development of a healthy ecosystem that connects agents and stakeholders.

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Importance of Teaching Finance in Schools Mariana Garza Villalobos, Founder & CEO, Inverkids

Mariana is the founder and CEO of Inverkids, she has a degree in finance at Tecnológico de Monterrey and some certificates in ethics, business management and entrepreneurship. After graduating from university, she embarked on her mission of preparing new generations for their financial life through Inverkids.

She is a mother, entrepreneur and financial speaker that has been recognized as a leader woman by Pro Network and Holon IQ. Also, she has led Inverkids in multiple national and international programs and awards such as Jump Chile, Mass Challenge, Startupbootcamp Fintech CDMX, MindCet & Bonbillo. Her mission is to impact the future public policies of the country & region by promoting financial education and inclusion for the new generations.

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rom a very young age, children create their own ideas about money and begin to shape their behavior around it. What they see at home, what their parents do, and what they tell them about money are the three main effective sources of learning. But what about teaching financial education in schools?

Inverkids was born with the objective of preparing today’s kids and teens from Latin America in their first financial steps by: • Teaching financial knowledge in schools • Developing financial skills at home • Real life practice through the use of a debit card is our next step When I was a little girl my dad taught me the importance of saving, investing, and spending wisely so I could gain financial independence and create the life I wanted to live. At age 5 I started saving 10 pesos

coins because I thought they were made of gold and years later that small habit became my passion and my career. My passion grew stronger when I was at the university. It was then I realized not everyone had a good relationship with money and that most of my peers didn’t know what a healthy financial lifestyle looked like, it was then that the idea of Inverkids came to mind. I wanted to help parents and schools start the conversation about money and provide financial education for the new generations at an early age. Just like my dad did it with me.

At Inverkids we provide schools with an E-learning webapp to teach about finance and entrepreneurship through content, activities, games, projects, and competitions throughout the school year.

We first started teaching grades 7-9th, which in Mexico is middle school. Then, our schools realized that their younger students and families could

At Inverkids we provide schools with an E-learning webapp to teach about finance and entrepreneurship through content, activities, games, projects, and competitions throughout the school year

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benefit from it too, so we developed our elementary school curriculum.

The results are constantly reflecting in our kid’s daily life. They are talking more at home with their parents about money. They plan and achieve their financial goals.

They use a budget to keep track of their expenses and compare prices before buying something. In addition, they increase savings to achieve their financial goals.

Our most amazing discovery has been how teaching kids about saving and achieving their financial goals has impacted teachers and parents alike. Inverkids is inspiring children to discuss money with their parents, instead of the other way around; these conversations have led teachers and parents to look at their own relationship with money and has motivated them not only to work towards financial wellbeing, but also to keep the line of communication open with their children when it comes to finances.

Also, at Inverkids we are encouraging parents to give money to their kids either as a reward for their effort, a gift or a prize; how do we plan to teach about money without it to actually practice and take real life action.

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In Mexico and Latin America, the need to acquire financial knowledge is essential to be able to make better money decisions, benefiting not only their lives, but also their families, cities, and even the country as a whole

Kids are always learning and absorbing information.

Sometimes we think that they only learn what we teach them, but kids never stop learning and imitating what they see and hear from their family and friends.

Just as children must be taught to walk, sleep, read, they must also be taught about money. They see what we do and say about money, and they replicate it as well.

Now is the time for parents and schools to start teaching children about money management, because as we know, finance is much more than just learning to save for a piggy bank. Topics such as alternative investments, FinTech industry, globalization, entrepreneurship, sharing and being conscious consumers are found through our curriculum.

Furthermore, as parents and teachers, it’s very important to try to talk with our kids to ensure they are not developing misconceptions about finance; an early intervention could guide them to the right financial track.

In Mexico and Latin America, the need to acquire financial knowledge is essential to be able to make better money decisions, benefiting not only their lives, but also their families, cities, and even the country as a whole.

Much work is needed to start improving financial health in Latin America.

There has been an international debate for many years to try to determine if financial education should be a part of the school curriculum. Around the world more and more countries are taking action to start teaching finance at an

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early age, such as the UK, USA, Canada, Armenia, Australia, among others.

At Inverkids we encourage governments, financial institutions, and schools to prioritize financial literacy for the new generations. Kids and teenagers are in a vulnerable position because they have the least financial knowledge and financial wellness. The FinTech industry is creating an “easy access” to every financial instrument, not only will they not know money like we did, but now with a “click” they can access debit cards, investments, insurance or even credit. They have their big financial break or mistake just one click away.

The OECD established financial literacy as a core life skill in modern society. Children are growing up

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in an increasingly complex world where they will eventually need to take charge of their own financial future. At Inverkids we are giving them the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.

Inverkids is here to stay, we will not stop until kids from México to Argentina are prepared for their financial life. We celebrate our milestones, and we are excited for what’s to come. Let’s remember that no matter what our kids choose to become, either software developers, engineers, soccer players, musicians; financial decisions await them every day of their lives. There’s no such thing as a divorce from money, so let’s work for a good and prosperous relationship with it.

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A Dozen Reflections from a Digital Content Factory Martha Cecilia Gómez, Co-Founder, Education SOUL

Martha Cecilia Gómez is the Co-founder of Education Soul. Manager of digital transformation projects in education based on adaptive learning with the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for vulnerable populations. Business consultant in design, structuring and technical execution of educational projects with special emphasis on the development of STEAM skills, entrepreneurship and female empowerment, expert in Instructional Design (Certified by the IDB). Economist and MBA from the National University of Colombia, Master in Innovation Management from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

She has been recognized in December 2021 by HolonIQ and the IDB as leader woman in Latin America who are leading EdTech startups and supporting education and training for women in the region.

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Our experience with non-profit organizations shows us that, by having tools and materials based on active methodologies, teachers feel better supported to demonstrate their ability to align themselves with the educational dynamics of the 21st century

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uring the last 6 years Education Soul, a Colombian company dedicated to the development of tailored educational projects, has faced the challenge of creating pedagogical tools that are capable of awakening the spirit of 21st century skills within the communities in conditions of vulnerability it targets. This has presented the challenge of designing very motivating and dynamic content to be used in contexts where connectivity is scarce or non-existent, without losing its ability to promote effective learning and, in turn, has generated some reflections on the characteristics that it should contain, which we address in this article in order that they may become references for other organizations and individuals interested in the subject.

For Education Soul, each of the educational projects it joins is approached as a challenge in itself, not only because of the need to create easily accessible formats, but also because each of its tools must be carefully created keeping in mind the needs of diverse, changing and challenging

users such as children, young people and teachers who seek to develop learning in this digital age, in areas such as computational thinking, STEAM, entrepreneurship and in general in the so-called 21st century skills.

As a result of this accumulated experience, strengthened during the pandemic, Education Soul has generated a series of learnings in terms of the development of educational content, which we would like to share briefly below and even though for many they are almost obvious, we note with concern that the strong demand for virtualization, typical of the emergency that we have experienced in the last two years, shows that there is still a long way to go in this area, especially in Latin America.

A dozen reflections: 1. The pedagogical materials and tools must demonstrate the collaborative nature in the construction of knowledge. The contents must not only be graphically beautiful and show quality in their design, but they must also reflect the result of a process of collective construction

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according to a contextualized situation of the population they are going to reach, involving agents, even outside the conventional academic community.

Intensify the aspects related to the expected learning and propose to the student a deep inquiry based on their culture and empathy with the communities that surround them.

Although areas of knowledge tend to be universal, it is very valid that the pedagogical materials bear the touch of the communities where they will be used, since they generate a sense of cultural adaptation that creates empathy among the beneficiaries. For example, workshops conceived by Education Soul, such as Smartphone filmmaking, which has been applied in different local and

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regional contexts such as Colombia (2020-2021) and Chile (2021), despite following the same guideline, has been applied with differentiated tools and language depending on the location and the results of each cut, showing this: while satisfactory in both cases, they are far from similar to each other, due to the cultural adoption of each context.

The scripts, the use of language, the cultural meaning, and the techniques contain significant evidence.

2. The following serve to empower teachers: Pedagogical materials, especially in k12 areas, must be very solid when it comes to addressing the role of the teacher and the transformation of their mentality to adopt active pedagogies. These materials can serve as transformation tools to the extent that they provide elements that favor

Designs made in recent years have been very successful thanks to the balance of the simplicity of the tools in contrast to the robust structure that gives them life

the attitudinal change of teachers and help them recognize a new methodological route for addressing the issues that surround them.

Our experience with non-profit organizations shows us that, by having tools and materials based on active methodologies, teachers feel better supported to demonstrate their ability to align themselves with the educational dynamics of the 21st century. That is, teachers trained in active methodologies loose the fear of applying them when they feel supported by materials consistent with that purpose; and teachers without sufficient training in them are supported to begin their experimentation.

3. The materials are more effective to the extent that they give space to prior appropriation by the teacher and to the fact that he/she himself imprints his/her differentiating stamp. The contents and tools must contain a step by step guide for the teacher that accounts for the design philosophy, the objective that is expected to be developed, but also allows the teacher to make use of his/her creativity when applying them.

In our particular experience, the moments of greatest enjoyment on the part of the teacher have been perceived, in 2019 by the hand of a local organization, during a series of collective content creation days in STEAM areas, carrying out exercises to solve musical programming challenges and its combination with robotics. There, completely analogous teachers managed to break their prejudices against technology and themselves created new ways to bring it to their students.

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4. Of course, a content design that places the student at the center of the process is key. When an experience revolves around this category, its implementation through content and teaching tools has a direct impact on students and how they interact with their peers.

Designs made in recent years have been very successful thanks to the balance of the simplicity of the tools in contrast to the robust structure that gives them life.

A case in point is the STEM workshops designed in 2021

by Education Soul for the Breteau Foundation, which,

thanks to their great acceptance, have been published in Spanish and English in the Foundation’s countries of influence, and have managed to easily bring children to the circular economy and propose solutions from their own homes to global problems such as pollution.

5. Good instructional design makes a difference.

Learning based on challenges, problems, self-inquiry, the maker phenomenon, etc., effectively leads the student to develop their thinking skills, but none of this is effective in its application without a correct conceptualization of the

Virtualizing content must be a professional effort carried out as a team that overcomes the temptation to fill learners with pdf materials without any setting

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route. Learning. Each question, each challenge must be very well structured and follow a clear line drawn by the expected learning objective.

6. As far as possible, seek creatively to involve more complex technological resources in the development of the learning process, in order to encourage students to promote the correct exercise of their digital citizenship. In cases where the adoption of edtech platforms is possible, it really favors and democratizes learning. in the development of the learning process, in order to encourage students to promote the correct exercise of their digital citizenship. In cases where the adoption of edtech platforms is possible, it really favors and democratizes learning.

The adoption of edtech platforms in the last 6 years in public educational institutions through the organization Fé y Alegría of Colombia, shows us that edtech platforms are not only ways to improve specific skills, but also create a digital culture in institutions, which is becoming stronger little by little, becoming a part of everyday life.

7. Constantly materialize during the development of the learning construction route, the disciplinary balance required to optimize the appearance of solutions to the challenges posed. Lean on the principles of the STEAM approach (contextualization, creative design and emotional touch) and take them to projects in other areas.

8. The contents and tools must reinforce the idea that learning is a constant construction. Include connections to real situations where error and failure are bridges to achieve satisfactory learning.

Tailor-made projects for social organizations aimed at closing gender gaps have shown us that we learn better when we connect with the content and when we feel identified by the problematic situations described in the materials that are presented to us.

9. Establish, within the methodological design route, realistic expectations about the expected learning

objectives and how to demonstrate them within the framework of understanding the context where they are applied.

10. The materials must be inclusive and promote the closing of gender gaps. The content and tools designed should favor teamwork and, above all, multi-diversity in their composition, where students consider factors associated with gender, ethnicity, abilities and skills, age, and, why not, the inclusion of teachers and parents as part of the team.

11. Virtualizing content must be a professional effort carried out as a team that overcomes the temptation to fill learners with pdf materials without any setting. Support tools must be differentiated according to the medium through which they will be disseminated. We cannot expect for the same material, the same design to be used in face-to-face and virtual environments indiscriminately without appropriate adaptation.

12. The designs must be made in a clear language, considering new ways of communicating the process and the objective. They should favor the development of life skills such as creativity, critical thinking, computational thinking and aspects such as awareness of diversity, respect and personal enjoyment during the process. At this point, the importance of communicating the learning results is highlighted: they are what really give value to all the instructional and creative effort. Encourage participants to share their experiences and learning through all available mechanisms to create community in diverse environments.

We hope that these dozen reflections serve to motivate many other organizations that work every day to change the way we bring knowledge to our population. We are convinced that our efforts as private organizations greatly contribute to breaking down barriers and democratizing quality education for our children and youths.

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Teaching Robotics in a Pandemic Matías Scovotti, CEO & Co-Founder, Educabot

He

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He began his career as a primary level teacher and later specialized in technology and models for incorporating new technologies into the educational system. He participated as a workshop facilitator, content writer and advisor in various public programs as well as in the private sphere. currently serves as CEO at Educabot, a company of which he is co-founder.

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he pandemic required that classrooms be moved to each of the student’s homes. In these improvised spaces for learning, there were no teachers in charge of a course, there were no resources and tools offered by the school infrastructure, we could not interact as we did in person. In this context, new provisions emerged, new responses were created. Educators, students and families appropriated digital tools that did not have a specific meaning in face-to-face learning.

How can we create learning spaces that take advantage of the best of presence and virtuality? That is the question that today brings together all the actors who participate in the educational ecosystem and the EdTech market. Governments, educators, families, third sector organizations and companies have the opportunity to work together so that technology is not a magical solution to the problems of countries, but tools for their social, educational and economic development in the present and in the future.

We live in a scenario marked by the advancement of collective intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of things, artificial intelligence and “machine learning”. At

Educabot we understand that computational thinking, programming and robotics in the field of education allow us to provide a comprehensive and solid response to a context of permanent change, in which skills related to digital technologies are essential for development, social inclusion and construction of student knowledge.

To achieve this, it is vitally important to review educational practices inside and outside the educational system and at all levels (including teacher training) and also build relevant experiences that strengthen the development of new cognitive skills. These skills can build bridges that, in the future, facilitate the professional insertion of students in an environment of permanent change. Also prepare them to have a technological awareness as citizens and to be able to function in a responsible, informed, safe, ethical, free and participatory manner, exercising and recognizing the impact of their digital rights in their personal life and their environment.

Create to learn In this sense, we created the “Aula Maker Educabot” program, with the aim of creating a space within schools that promotes the culture of making and STEAM skills in

Governments, educators, families, third sector organizations and companies have the opportunity to work together so that technology is not a magical solution to the problems of countries, but tools for their social, educational and economic development in the present and in the future

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children and teenagers as a tool for learning, exploration and development. We intended to collaborate in the formation of a new generation capable of using technology in the search for creative solutions to real problems.

Aula Maker is an integral solution for schools where we equip the classroom and turn it into a technology laboratory. Our experience has shown us that there are many variables that must be taken into account when implementing a technology project in the school, based on an offer that includes electrical installation, furniture, equipment (kits of robotics, drones, 3d printer, laser cutter, etc.) to the platform, annual planning, projects and the teacher.

The project emphasizes the development of different skills and abilities that are required in the teaching and learning processes of the 21st century. Not only do they

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learn to solve the proposed activities and challenges, but they also create their own projects based on real problems in their daily lives. We want to inspire practices that give rise to creation and that enhance the interests of students, teachers and the entire educational community.

Redefine learning spaces The idea of providing a space of freedom and creativity in the construction of knowledge, which empowers people through innovation and open knowledge, was affected by the closure of schools, which forced us to redesign these spaces for virtuality. Aula Maker, like all projects linked to STEAM education, have a great need to have a space designed for experimentation.

During the quarantine, many educational institutes had to rethink their daily practices using digital tools. Those who

The idea of ​​providing a space of freedom and creativity in the construction of knowledge, which empowers people through innovation and open knowledge, was affected by the closure of schools, which forced us to redesign these spaces for virtuality

used to teach STEAM disciplines started using simulators.

At Educabot we have a phrase: ¨if you like pizza, eat pizza, not pizza-flavoured snacks¨. The pandemic had challenged us and, as an innovative and development company, we had to take advantage of this opportunity. After a few weeks of brainstorming, development and iteration, we launched “Remote Session”, a functionality for our software that allows any robotics kit to be programmed in real-time remotely and collaboratively without the need to add any extra hardware.

What benefits did this revolutionary way of teaching robotics have? In the first place, it reduced the initial investment of the schools, due to the lower cost (one kit is good for the whole classroom and for many classrooms in different spaces). Second, with this functionality, educators would be able to see in real-time what all students are programming. Lastly, we were promoting the development of collaboration skills through digital tools.

Contextualized learning When we started working with the “Remote Session” in schools we realized that, just as they could load code on the teacher’s board and see three LEDs in real-time simulating a traffic light, we could also bring this experience to reality

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and allow students program a real traffic light, or at least a miniature one.

This is how we created a unique experience so that, this time in a self-guided way, students could program an interactive model of the City of Buenos Aires. Through an animated video, they were told that a strong storm had devastated the city and that they were needed to restore services. During the experience, the participants must solve different challenges to put the city back into operation. Divided into 5 groups, they had to restore the services of five iconic points of the city.

Through streaming they were able to see in real time the work that they and other teams were doing on a 15-squaremeter model and all before time ran out. This time, we had managed not only to teach robotics and programming in a contextualized, innovative and fun way, we had done it in a way that did not require the intervention of the teacher.

Something that often limits the scale of STEAM projects.

Collaboration is at the heart of learning, it allows us to work together to solve the problems that come our way.

The context invited us to think about the global challenge that the entire society was facing, COVD-19. Why stop and not take advantage of this context as an engine that allows us to continue learning from each other?

Since 2017, Educabot has been in charge of leading the team that represented Argentina in First Global, the most important robotics world championship. Since 2019, we decided to create Copa Robotica, the qualifying tournament in which all the provinces of Argentina participate, and whose winner represents the country in the First Global Challenge Robotics World Cup. In 2020 we had to suspend the event due to the pandemic, but, in 2021 and already with the experiences developed in “Remote Session”, we decided to make the event virtual.

We create contextualized experiences so that, in teams, mixing participants from different provinces of the country, they can compete remotely. One of the games was precisely located inside a human body infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, where two nanorobots, each commanded by an alliance, were within this system to be able to combat and eliminate viruses in function of the Arduino code that they created and sent from the Educabot Robots platform. In other words, they programmed from every corner of the country and they saw the result in real time in a model also created entirely for the competition.

Another challenge was to find a genetic sequence of a new mutation of the virus that could save the lives of millions of people. The game places us in a laboratory in which a group of scientists is working to find the genetic sequence of a new mutation of the virus. The sequencing device is divided into 4 sections of the genetic code. Each

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of these sections has a specific 4-digit code. The alliances had to decipher the correct codes of each one of the sequences before the end of the time. Similar to Wordle, the famous game but with numbers.

The emergency as an opportunity The pandemic came to change our lives, it accelerated and changed the way we buy, work and even bond. Technologies have become invaluable tools to be able to continue with our lives, during isolation and in the context of a health emergency. The pandemic showed us why developing skills like creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking are crucial for life in the 21st century.

These skills are probably not enough. For successful preparation, it is important to add to these skills specialized technical expertise, which is becoming increasingly important to compete in the global knowledge economy, especially in technical areas, due to the elimination of jobs by increasing automation. In this context, with the return to attendance, we also run the risk of not learning what we can change and improve about our practices, and how to create hybrid scenarios to enhance learning.

At Educabot we believe that the pandemic gave us the opportunity to create a new way of teaching robotics, to take advantage of resources and to make a practice scalable that can often only take place in a prepared physical space that perhaps few schools can have. What has happened has shown us that the crisis we are going through can also be seen as an opportunity to move towards an educational system that has more tools and is more resilient, providing new skills and professional tools, both to school leaders, teachers and students. Today we know that we have the potential to bring comprehensive and pertinent techno-pedagogical proposals closer, so that more and more students have the opportunity to build a better future for all.

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Driving Change Through Edtech with Growth

Mindset and a Kind Heart Natalia León Amador, Author, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Educator, Common Sense Educator, Digital Learning Consultant & Coach

Natalia is a published children’s books author, Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Educator, Common Sense Educator, digital learning consultant & coach. She believes in kindness, collaboration, connection, and the power of a meaningful relationship between technology, teacher, student, and learning. As a Bachelor in Early Childhood Education, and more than 10 years of teaching experience from preschool to college level, Natalia has led educational boards, teachers, and parents in the design and implementation of long-term transformational plans in schools. Always keeping in mind learning as the ultimate goal, Natalia believes technology is a fundamental tool that provides wonderful insight and possibilities if approached correctly. She currently podcasts for school leadership, consults for schools, coaches and mentors teachers in the path of becoming 21st century educators.

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Understanding the complexities of an educational organization is not an easy task. It requires grit, empathy, structure, charisma, and an array of people skills

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ack in 2015 when I became an Apple Distinguished Educator, I felt a spark come to life as an ever clear life purpose: inspire, educate, innovate. This is when I first thought that even though I loved teaching and being in the classroom, the impact of innovation and inspiration could be greater if I could focus on multiplying the edtech vision in schools, rather than one classroom at a time.

As I transitioned out of the classroom, I decided to partner with field experts in the edtech sector, and ideate our very own consulting proposition to fulfill the vision of edtech as a catalyzer for deeper and more effective learning opportunities for all. To build something as ambitious from scratch was indeed a challenge, but an exciting one at that.

This is how eDnovating was born: at a dinner table with educators who loved technology and believed it to be the game changer in the future of education.

A successful implementation of school-wide edtech is what we set out to do with Rochester School, in Bogotá – Colombia. It needed to begin with a clear proposal: drive the school to fully integrate Apple technology, from teacher iPads and Macs, to student devices, and labs. From a technology standpoint this meant many structural and technical challenges.

However, from a pedagogical view, the roadmap would

require years to fulfill. We therefore set out on a task to fully understand what Rochester School was like at that point.

In order to gain deeper insight, a full blown diagnostic of the teaching and learning culture needed to take place.

Everything from informal conversations to formal class observations, allowed us to understand how to best serve the community and plan accordingly for the upcoming years. Implementing a root cause analysis, was crucial for the plan to be successful and to decrease pushback as much as possible.

Understanding the complexities of an educational organization is not an easy task. It requires grit, empathy, structure, charisma, and an array of people skills. People drive education, so in order to understand the institution, you need to know the people. This is why we set out to create a task force represented by the different leaders of the institution in order to get our plan going: learning, teaching, leading, technology, and infrastructure were represented by 5 leaders who would allow the task force to provide guidance in their field to their peers.

The task force strategy, paired with one to one interviews, surveys, and class observations, allowed us to design a robust action plan. It was very pleasing to find a school with a growth mindset culture, characterized by

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a focus on continuous professional development, self and peer evaluation and a clear educational philosophy which had technology as one of the main tools to help materialize the educational vision.

We also found plenty of room for growth. From professional development, to the purchase of devices, we set out to cover as much ground as possible through the leadership of our Task force.

In learning, we focused on the curriculum. Deploying a curriculum analysis and integration of ISTE Student Standards throughout K12, being mindful of the suggested bands, as well as intricacies like the amount of learning expectations a teacher had to balance and assess throughout each trimester and year. This was a deep challenge that was carried out with all area heads, so they could grasp the concepts that would later on be expected to be deployed throughout the year.

When it came to Teaching, we focused on professional development. What do teachers need to know, and know how to do in order for them to successfully lead and facilitate the best learning experiences with technology?

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Many people focus only on the devices, but when we talk about Edtech, there are many factors to consider

The clear growth mindset allowed for the leadership to open up the professional learning opportunities throughout three years, designing a school certification process in which we involved digital literacy skills, and digital pedagogy. Teachers learned how to use the tools through the Apple Teacher certification process, and developed planning and implementation skills in blended scenarios through the eDnovator certification we provide.

Leadership focused on providing the vision and the resources to make all the other actions happen. By allocating resources in the shape of money, people, time, permission to take risks, and providing emotional support, the other teams were able to design and follow a vision with clear guidelines.

Technology was a different conversation.

Many people focus only on the devices, but when we talk about Edtech, there are many factors to consider. We looked into platforms, apps, learning analytics, classroom observation tools, and how each investment would greater support learning and the success of children in the school. This is a conversation that should always be guided by the pedagogy, and never by IT. It is crucial to remember that every investment a school makes, should help gain in student success, and therefore having the pedagogy lead the decision making of the tools is a game changer.

Finally, the backbone of every technology implementation lies with the IT department.

They are the ones that make the teaching and learning magic possible for the rest of the community. Making sure that the school was well equipped with its network, access points, routers, LMS, SIS, MDM, etc. was fundamental and it was precious groundwork that was carried out.

Despite drafting a rigorous path, it is always crucial to remain flexible. This is why we hold it as one of our core values and embed it in our methodology. Setting up an action plan, strategies, specific KPIs, responsible persons, expected products, and available resources helps the strategic plan come together in a cohesive fashion for everyone involved to understand it. But when

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dealing with people, it is always recommended to expect pushback and the need to regroup and come with different solutions as the plan is ongoing. In synthesis: people are key in edtech implementations. Which leads me to the next important aspect of the plan: socializing.

Once the plan had taken its shape and form, we were ready to share it to the school community. This is a key moment, because you will commit yourself to follow through with the plan for the next three years, and to guarantee that everything in the leaderships’ power will be done to guarantee that it will be successful. It is also a beautiful part of the experience, seeing how hope and excitement vibrates throughout the community around a project that impacts students’ possibilities in such a profound way. Also, involving the community in the plan helps increase people’s investment towards the common goals that are being planned for.

It was very interesting to sort out the challenges along the way. Because, yes, there were challenges and many.

With resilience, teamwork and flexibility we managed to continue meeting our KPIs and developing the plan even further as time passed. We discovered that professional development had been key, and that our strategic plan would have been at a loss had the teachers not had the opportunity to learn how to use the iPads, and how to teach and learn with them. It wasn’t only the teachers and leadership that received training, the IT staff also received training in different subjects in order for them to be able to make the experience for everyone possible.

As time went by, we expanded the reach of the program, including parents in the mix with initiatives like the “Digital Parents Blog”, where they received a weekly message with tips onrelated to how to parent in the 21st century. Also, special training sessions took place to

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empower parents in the use of parental controls at home, and all around parenting tools.

Nowadays, when you walk by the buildings, you will find students that will halt you and ask your for an interview, which they are conducting on their iPads. And I’m talking about third and fourth graders, sometimes even our preschoolers will do it. You will find stop motion, green screen, podcasts, digital music and photography happening all around you, allowing students to express their learning using technology as the prime tool to make their learning visible. You will see students collaborating online, or even next to each other as they figure out the script to their movie, or the structure of the photo collage. You will find students who collaborate to create, and use technology to produce rather than to consume, actively engaged in their processes and showing leadership and autonomy in their learning.

Now we are looking at a different phase. We want to expand the use of technology to other grades: Preschool and lower Elementary. Though the use here has been conservative, you can still see students using robots to learn prepositions, iPad apps to learn how to trace letters and discover the world of phonics. We wish to continue providing students with more interdisciplinary elements in their projects in order to push toward a high order thinking skills (HOTS) mindset. Also, the STEM Lab is in the oven.

When we look back it seems like not a lot of time has passed, but five years in the making is a long time, and we can see the ripening of our efforts. What began as a three year partnership, has extended, allowing us to continue providing guidance, support, a hand, two hands, a heart, and all the minds we can put together to solve problems creatively and most importantly: as a team of educators who will go the long mile for their students.

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Educational Innovation for Rural Areas Through the “Aulas AMiGAS” Model Sandra Milena Chica Gómez, General Manager, Aulas Amigas

Passionate about Education, Administrative Engineer and Master in Economics with emphasis on Economics of Education. With more than 12 years of experience in the education sector, she has managed governmental projects in the Secretary of Education of Medellín and the Secretary of Education of Antioquia. She has also worked in the private sector and in NGOs, initially as Manager for Colombia of a Puerto Rican educational platform company, as well as Director of Operations of Virtual Educa for Latin America and Director of the Virtual Educa Colombia Foundation. She is currently CEO of Aulas Amigas, a Colombian company dedicated to the design and implementation of educational innovation projects.

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We are facing a great challenge: The world is advancing at great speeds and the educational system cannot and should not be left behind

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echnological advances have been transforming the way we access information, learn, connect or consume, generating great challenges in different fields. At this moment we are in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, marked by the development of exponential technologies such as Big Data, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, among others. However, when we get to the classrooms of our schools in developing countries, mainly in the rural sector, it seems that we arrive to a parallel world. Some of these schools have not even reached the second industrial revolution, since they lack electricity and, in many cases, also drinking water, for most of the schools the third revolution has not arrived, because they do not even have computer equipment and in those where the technological infrastructure is present we find ourselves with the challenge that the teachers are not prepared to appropriate it and make pedagogical use of it with the students.

The foregoing results in fewer opportunities for children and young people when it comes to accessing an increasingly competitive and technological labor market and deepens the development gap in our countries.

We are facing a great challenge: The world is advancing at great speeds and the educational system cannot and should not be left behind.

But to make progress we must break great barriers, among them we can name as significant: 1. High cost of technology, 2 Lack of training and appropriation in digital skills of teachers 3. Lack of relevant and contextualized content and/or resources 4. Lack of connectivity.

Understanding this need, Aulas Amigas, a Colombian company with 12 years of experience in the design and implementation of Educational Innovation projects, has decided to be part of the solution, working for the transformation of learning environments in rural areas, with a focused effort in having better teachers, increasingly trained, with better resources and with the necessary skills to train the citizens of the 21st century.

The AULAS AMIGAS project (Learning Environments for Educational Innovation and Significant Learning Management) is a UNIQUE concept, which aims to transform learning environments through an INTEGRAL project, which seeks to address not only technological challenges but also teaching inside and outside the classroom. This Project has 3 main components: 1. Training and teacher support; 2. Tools, content and resources 3; Technology (Tomi7), all of the above transversalised by a statistical monitoring system: The Educational Observatory, and, in addition, strengthened by the communities of teaching practice: “La Red de Embajadores Aulas Amigas” (The Network

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of Ambassadors) and the Network of Teachers of Tomi.Digital.

In the first training and support component, the project implements two training courses. Initially it focuses on teaching the correct use of the delivered technology and its pedagogical integration in the classroom. A second moment is about a support process where the teacher will receive training in topics such as active methodologies for the classroom, to achieve the transformation of their educational practices into innovative pedagogical practices. This process is endorsed and certified by Aulas Amigas and by the Pontifical Bolivarian University (UPB), who deliver to teachers the certificate of the courses “Appropriation of ICT with Aulas Amigas” and “Appropriation and Innovation with ICT use, in learning environments Aulas Amigas” The second component focuses on access to the Tomi.Digital Platform, which allows teachers to manage their groups, their classes, and their content. TOMi helps them create interactive content for K12 and deploy it in any learning environment with or without internet, while giving them access to a large community of thousands of

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teachers where they can share and make use of content created by their peers in all Latin America.

The third component is the technological devices where the main role is TOMi7: the teacher’s personal assistant. With TOMi7, teachers will have access to tools that will allow them to transform their classes into innovative classes even without connectivity. TOMi7 generates an intranet that allows the contents that the teacher has downloaded or created to be shared with up to 30 devices in the classroom and the children can browse them as if they were connected to the internet, it also has the following tools • Interactive content for offline use.

• Augmented reality camera • Automatic grading of standard tests • Digital whiteboard • Automatic attendance list • Content Hotspot • Interactivity in class “Aulas AMiGAS” is complemented by other devices such as a projector, sound system, keyboard and mouse, among others.

Teacher Édier Galvis with his students

The AULAS AMIGAS project (Learning Environments for Educational Innovation and Significant Learning Management) is a UNIQUE concept, which aims to transform learning environments through an INTEGRAL project, which seeks to address not only technological challenges but also teaching inside and outside the classroom.

As a transversal component we have the Educational Observatory, a statistical monitoring system that allows us to monitor the project in real time. And lastly, our sustainability components, the communities of practice, including the network of TOMi Digital teachers in Latam and the “Red de Embajadores Aulas AMiGAS” (the Network of Aulas Amigas Ambassadors), which allows us to continue in contact with the teachers who have benefited from our project, and we can continue contributing to their training, in addition to systematizing successful experiences in their communities.

Aulas AMiGAS is a project that comes from the hands of local governments to their territories, mainly benefiting schools, teachers and students from the public sector. Among the experiences, teachers who use the tools provided to transform their practices stand out. Here are some successful experiences Successful experience: COMPUTING TOMI 7 Teacher: Édier Galvis Cortés School: Boquía, Llano Grande Headquarters City: Salento State: Quindío Description: environmental and pedagogical capsules, to strengthen learning; a playful adaptation to the New School through ICT

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COMPUTINTIC TOMi7 was born in times of a pandemic with the intention of making a bridge between working at home and attending students with something that would lead them to motivate them so that their learning process was joyful, of quality and at the same time taking advantage of technological resources available from the Aulas AMIGAS project with the TOMI 7 device and the Tomi Digital platform.

The COMPUTINTIC TOMI 7 project allowed students to awaken their interest in studying after more than 1 year without attendance, taking into account that

TOMI 7 is a tool that allows integrating all the contents developed in the new school methodology and also facilitates the teacher the implementation of practical activities such as content presentation, evaluations and above all the integration of other projects that are held within the school, in order to improve all these necessary pedagogical experiences so that students feel that studying is not a obligation but a constant enjoyment.

The project included guides designed by the teacher, adaptation of new school booklets, both written and digital, creation of classes in TOMI DIGITAL,

Aulas AMiGAS is a project that comes from the hands of local governments to their territories, mainly benefiting schools, teachers and students from the public sector

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Teacher María Isabel Sánchez both in content such as evaluations and competitive tests, production of audios containing dictations and synchronized with the TOMI 7 to be able to share them in class without connectivity, implementation of exercises on the Mathematics Olympics to practice simulation style.

The development of the project showed a great advance in the students regarding the fulfillment of the proposed achievements per period, in the same way the development in analytical capacities is evidenced thanks to the tests with their different styles of questions.

Regarding the motivation of the students, the highest point has been noted in their enthusiasm for wanting to do the activities, since they constantly ask when they will study with TOMi7.

Successful experience: English Day Teacher: María Isabel Sánchez School: Andres Bello City: Bello, State: Antioquia Description: Active methodologies and Colombian culture as channels to strengthen English language skills The experience originated to strengthen the area of English and motivate students to learn a second language, especially due to the fear of the community in general when learning a new language, since we have encountered students with fear and denial. without arguments for his learning as well as parents who affirm that their children do not know English and the subject is difficult for them because they do not know it either and most of the time, they transmit these unfounded

fears to their children and tend to justify their poor performance and lack of interest in the subject.

One of the strategies used in the experience is the use of the TOMi Digital platform, which was a great tool during the pandemic because it allowed the creation of digital content to strengthen English skills.

Among the methodologies used we find teamwork, conquering challenges, games, performances, carousels, musicals, talent shows, among others.

The main actions have focused on turning students into active subjects in the construction of their knowledge and development of skills. It interacts with the entire educational community, mainly with students, teachers and families. For the above, the tools provided by the Aulas Amigas project were used, such as the TOMi7 device and the TOMi Digital platform.

As achievements of the development of the experience, we can highlight the musicals in English, the celebration of a World Cup with football matches, sporting events and a carousel. Representation of parties from different Colombian cultures, videos, talent shows, among others. All of them have demonstrated the motivation and interest of the Institution’s students in learning the second language.

The “Aulas AMiGAS” Project is revolutionizing classrooms in rural areas, bringing not only technology but also innovative pedagogical practices to students and teachers in order to prepare them for the great challenges we face in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. More information about Aulas AMiGAS in www.aulasamigas.com

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Transmedia Education: A Proposal to Stimulate Curiosity and Participation in the Information Era Sebastian Moreno Cruz, CEO, Critertec Educación S.A.S. Sebastian Moreno is a social entrepreneur, CEO of Critertec Educación SAS, co-founder of Mett Colombia, member of “ANDI DEL FUTURO” and managing member of the EdTech Colombia guild.

He is also a member of the board of directors of different non-profit organizations, such as “Techo para Colombia” and “Fundación Vida Nueva”. Sebastián has been the winner of different awards and incentives with his ventures in strategies such as APPS.CO and CREA DIGITAL (Colombian Government’s prizes). Sebastián has invested the last 6 years of his life in understanding how to improve the quality of education in Colombia and how to help students and teachers develop the necessary skills for the new economy and to contribute to the solution of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) from their contexts.

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Ultimately, the concept of transmedia narratives consists of telling a story or communicating a message through multiple media, each one with their own independent content, but still related to each other, offering the audience different entry points to a real or fictional narrative universe

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owadays, we live immersed in an environment surrounded by multiple screens, devices, data flow and content that are constantly demanding our interest.

Therefore, deciding what to pay attention to, becomes a common and demanding task. We know that since the advent of the computer, video games and the Internet, the ways of communicating, consuming, entertaining and inhabiting the world have changed; or in the words of the American writer Bruce Sterling in The dead media manifesto (1995-2001), our culture is experiencing a great wave of new media species. Centralized media, those one-to-many dinosaurs that roared and stomped on the earth during the 20th century, do not adapt well to the postmodern technological environment.

Similarly, in 2003, Henry Jenkins, an American researcher at the University of Southern California, in an article published in the Technology Review Magazine, stated that we have entered a new era of media convergence that makes the flow of content through multiple channels inevitable, proposing the concept of transmedia narratives which, in its most basic expression, means telling stories through multiple media. In this article Jenkins states that

children who have grown up consuming and enjoying stories such as Pokémon, Star Wars or Harry Potter, among others, (…) are looking for stories and experiences anywhere that generate emotion using multiple media, such as: movies, workshops, podcasts, board games, video games, books, etc. Likewise, communication scholars such as the Argentinian Carlos Scolari (2013) affirm that young consumers have become hunters and gatherers of information, they like to immerse themselves in these stories, reconstruct the character´s past and connect them to other texts within the same franchise (e.g., Pixar), which has led to new forms of participation and interaction among story fans.

Ultimately, the concept of transmedia narratives consists of telling a story or communicating a message through multiple media, each one with their own independent content, but still related to each other, offering the audience different entry points to a real or fictional narrative universe. The above, to promote the consolidation of a fan community motivated to participate and create in a collaboratively way, new content that enables them to propose other points of view from the original story, based in their own interests and skills. Which teacher does

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not dream of classes where the pedagogical content has the same success? What would happen if we proposed an education based on the logic of transmedia narratives?

Since 2017, as a private company we have put our efforts in designing with an interdisciplinary team, high impact educational projects and exciting learning experiences from the integration of disruptive methodologies and approaches (such as gamification, user experience, Design Thinking, STEAM and transmedia narratives), as well as emerging technologies, in order to inspire children, youth, teachers and families to become agents of change and social transformation. As a result, we generate a Transmedia Education approach that allows us to integrate learning objectives with narratives, gaming and media, to create learning experiences that stimulate curiosity and creativity, promoting audience participation through the creation and dissemination of content.

A clear example of the results that can be achieved with this approach is our transmedia pedagogical project GUARDIANES (“keepers”), aimed at children and youngsters between 6 and 14 years old, educational agents and families. Based on a science fiction narrative, but

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The central conflict of this story is related to some interspace villains known as the Archibians, capable of manipulating humans into destroying their own world

using real scientific facts, it invites them to investigate, experiment and understand their world from different disciplines, making a conscious use of technologies and devices, in order to enhance 21st century skills and propose solutions to the problems we face as humanity. In this story they are invited to counteract an interdimensional threat, related to villains known as the Archibios, capable of manipulating human beings from the shadows to generate irrational behaviours and ultimately put society and the world as we know it at risk (see official trailer).

In GUARDIANES, media allows the audience to revaluate their role in the world and transmit messages that invites then to rethink human behaviours and activities in order to contribute to the protection of the environment and improve the quality of life of all beings on planet Earth.

This is how this story, which unfolds through multiple media, can provide a memorable experience, stimulating both curiosity and audience active engagement.

The Story The central conflict of this story is related to some interspace villains known as the Archibians, capable of

manipulating humans into destroying their own world.

They were brought to humanity´s attention by two space artifacts (Kyvox and Papyru) sent to Earth by a more advanced civilization inhabiting planet Kepler 452B, who located us in the Cosmos thanks to the Voyageur 1 probe sent by NASA in the 1970´s.

These artifacts were found by an astronaut from the Interspace Technology Agency (ITA), a secret organization that has been operating in the heart of Colombia for more than 14 years under the leadership of Dr. Rodolfo Trujillo, a renowned scientist and astrobiologist with extensive knowledge of molecular engineering. He and his team use Augmented Reality technology to decipher extra-terrestrial messages and discover that the Archibios greatly affect adults. For this reason, he creates the GUARDIANES initiative, and makes available to children and youngsters technology much needed to counter the threat and protect planet Earth.

During the course of the story, children and young people will discover that the Archibios are, in fact, beings from other planets that have been parasitized by an ancestral fungus (cordyceps unilateralis) that modifies

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the behaviour of whoever it chooses as it´s host. These villains will be in charge of presenting to the audience a series of conflicts related to the havoc they have caused in the universe, so that the participants can solve them collaboratively, through research, experimentation and creation processes.

The central conflict is what allows us to propose different stories interrelated with their respective media, to offer children and young people various options to enter the narrative universe where we will bring them closer to learning objectives and specific values that we want to integrate into everyday life.

Media and audience participation With the purpose of expanding the story of Guardianes Project, we created twelve (12) media products, for both on-site and virtual usage, which contribute to the generation of meaningful and immersive experiences that transcend the physical space of the classroom to build and appropriate knowledge collectively. These media products are: face-to-face workshops, animated video, mobile applications, English camp, card games, social networks, missions and tutorials, comics, a pedagogical guide for parents and teachers, diegetic objects (Kyvox and Papyru), oficial ATI application and a website.

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Each one of the media products above, allows the audience to learn a part of the story and opens the possibility of formulating questions and theorize about the origins of the Archibios and their possible involvement in some of the current global issues. For example, in the English camp designed for students from 10 to 13 years old in the city of Medellín, Colombia, our pedagogical objective was to inspire participants to speak as long as possible in English, while playing and solving puzzles. What kind of story and conflict could we create by relating these objectives to the narrative universe of the project?

We decided to put in trouble the director of ATI, Rodolfo Trujillo, who after investigating about pollution in some cities of the world, discovers that the Archibios have a plan to pollute the air of Medellín. However, it seems that they find about his research, so he decides to go into hiding before the Archibios catch him. The mission of the participants will be to analyse the last reports sent

by Rodolfo Trujillo to the ATI before he vanished, in the best classic Carmen Sandiego game style. They will have to prepare their passports, visit several countries through a virtual reality application and, most importantly, communicate in English all the time, since the Archibios do not know this language and they could be interfering with tablets and other devices we are using.

With the purpose of expanding the story of Guardianes Project, we created twelve (12) media products, for both on-site and virtual usage The most interesting thing about weaving the learning objectives with real data and science fiction stories, is the possibility of activating the senses and attention, stimulating creative and critical thinking of the participants to discern which parts of the story are fiction or reality.

During this experience we saw groups of teens sitting on a pile of cushions, carefully hiding the tablets that have been assigned to them to read the Papyru augmented reality clues. Why? They were convinced that speaking English was not enough to avoid being spied on. Even one of the

participants from another group comes up to us and asks while pointing to the floor: do you see that? Our reaction was to hold up a crumpled piece of paper, to which he replies: I see you are not a an Archibio! Then joins his group to tell them the area has been secured, so they can carry on.

These type of exciting experiences in transmedia projects motivate the audience to look for answers to questions that have not yet been resolved; to do so, they explore other media that make part of the project, and take from the story certain behaviours, attitudes, methods, that they will bring into their own lives and integrate into their culture.

In conclusion, with an interesting story, multiple media and the application of the principles of gamification, it is possible to design more humane experiences that captivate the attention and engage people to participate and collaborate with each other to solve everyday challenges; but also dream of other possible futures, especially in a context where as of January 2022, 62.5% of the world´s population has their attention in a sea of information on the Internet (Datareportal, 2022), and now have the possibility of choosing what, how, when, and where they want to consume information, making a future for themselves as they go.

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Scaling Computational Thinking and Coding in Schools in Latin America Vicky Ricaurte and Marcelo Burbano, Co-Founders of Arukay

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t is obvious for most educators that we need to change the current education system. Most of the time we are educating for a world that is not going to exist in the future. According to the Future of Jobs Report 2020, the World Economic Forum estimates that “by 2025, 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms. ” One of the biggest problems is that most educators do not understand the role that K12 education plays in this challenge. The world is focused today on solving the problems of: (1) workforce’s reskilling and upskilling: “The World Economic Forum estimates that more than half (54%) of all employees will require significant reskilling by

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2022, but the problem is likely to be even more acute in some regions. European Commission figures show that around 37% of workers in Europe don’t have even basic digital skills, not to mention the more advanced and specialized skills companies need to successfully adopt digital technologies. ” (2) workforce ICT capabilities: “In an increasingly data-driven future - the European Commission believes there could be as many as 756,000 unfilled jobs in the European ICT sector by 2020 - this difference will become even more acute.” and Code.org estimates that there are 500,000 unfilled computing jobs in the United States.

But without the help of the K12 education system, the world would not have enough people either interested in technology or with the right knowledge base to meet these two challenges. According to HolonIQ, Bootcamps are doing a great job at partially solving this problem.

The K12 education system around the world is doing a poor job at educating students in computational thinking and coding

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About

Vicky Ricaurte Vicky has more than 20 years of experience leading teams in the financial, education, and health industries. She has been the Director of Internet at the Stock Exchange of Colombia and the Pension Fund Porvenir. She has acted as vice-president of Operations at Best Doctors and was the founder of INNCUBATED (the first education startup incubator in Colombia). Vicky is a co-founder of Arukay. She graduated from Universidad de Los Andes, CESA, and Harvard University.

About

Marcelo Burbano Marcelo has more than 20 years of experience in financial and strategic advising, 15 years exclusively working for the education sector, guiding institutions, companies, and business groups. He was in charge of the Latin American region for The Parthenon Group, one of the most recognized consulting firms in educational strategy based in Boston.

Marcelo is a Managing Director at Prismapar, a regional M&A boutique in Latin America.

Marcelo is a co-founder of Arukay. Marcelo is a co-founder of the Global EdTech Startups Awards, the largest EdTech startup competition across the world. He studied engineering at Universidad de Los Andes. He has a Bachelor in Science from The Wharton School (UPenn), and an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS).

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“Tech Bootcamps re-skilled and up-skilled over 100,000 professionals globally in 2021, up from less than 20,000 in 2015. We expect this number to reach over 380,000 by 2025. ” Nevertheless, we need to reach more students, at a scale that is only solved at the K12 educational level. The K12 education systems need to prepare more students in computational thinking and coding. It needs to view coding as another language and not as a subject like science.

There are 4 languages that must be taught in schools: 1. Our native language (English, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.): the language that humans use to communicate with their community.

2. Math, the language of numbers: the language that humans use to understand the universe.

3. English, the language of globalization: the language that humans use to share knowledge across the world.

4. Coding, the language of innovation: the language that humans use to communicate with technology.

Unfortunately, the K12 education system around the world is doing a poor job at educating students in computational thinking and coding. According to the report “Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in K-12 Education,” 3/4 of principals surveyed said that their

schools do not offer courses with computer programming and coding. Most of the time, school administrators do not prioritize computer science education because they prioritize subjects that are included in required testing. Despite PISA incorporating questions that test computational thinking in the mathematics assessment in 2021, most governments across the world haven´t incorporated computational thinking in K12 curricula.

Latin America suffers a worse fate than other regions due to the lack of interest from most parents to pay for additional complementary education for their children outside of what the schools offer. This is particularly different from what is seen in Asia where parents devote a large portion of their disposable income in supplementary education. An example of this is the success of EdTech companies in Asia, like BYJU’s, which are mostly in the B2C supplementary education. In Latin America, K12 EdTech solutions that want to reach scale need to go through the school system.

In addition to going through the school system, any K12 EdTech solution needs to be affordable, easy to implement, and tailored to academic local standards.

• Affordable means that the solution is priced in a way that

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can reach both private and public systems. 80% of the K12 students in Latin America are in the public school system.

• Easy to implement means that the solution considers the different capabilities of schools and teachers. The solution’s quality cannot depend on the level of sophistication of each school and teacher. It needs to work flawlessly in a premium school in San Jose, Costa Rica as well as in a public school in Bogotá, Colombia.

• Tailor-made means high quality but adapted to each country. The solution needs to be aligned to international standards but at the same time aligned with local specifications.

The most successful EdTech solution for computational thinking and coding in Latin America is Arukay Learning System. Arukay Learning System (www.arukay.com) is a curricular learning system for K12 schools that teaches coding and computational thinking through STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) projects.

Arukay has impacted +100K students, +4K teachers and +300 schools from the private and public sector in eight countries across Latin America.

For centuries, Latin America has leveraged its natural resources to create wealth, but Arukay aims to create economic growth based on the talent of their population.

Nowadays, the startup ecosystem in Latin America is

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creating an unprecedented value. In 2019 Softbank created a dedicated US$5B fund for Latin America startups, fueling the growth of many startups and waking up Silicon Valley participation in the region. Since then, there have been several startups across Latin America, some of them unicorns, that have disrupted different industries. Rappi, Nubank, La Haus, Tül and Chiper are some examples of companies that are game changers in their industries. The founders of these startups have leveraged their coding skills and capabilities to disrupt their respective industries with technology. Arukay focuses on this opportunity that technology brings to the Latin American region. Arukay is educating the next generation of entrepreneurs from 4-year-olds to high schoolers. Arukay’s students will be able to be fluent in coding because they learned it from a very young age thus tapping into the opportunities that the tech industry is creating very early on.

When Arukay was founded in 2014, the idea of teaching STEAM education in K12 using coding as an instructional language was an audacious idea, even for the most innovative schools. It took a couple of years and two pivots for the company to find the right educational model.

An educational model that can scale across geographies, languages, and academic standards. Arukay’s objective is to democratize the access of computational thinking and

The school system will increase the number of hours devoted to teaching coding. Today most of the schools dedicate just one hour a week. This is going to change. The number of hours will increase until it gets to an hour daily

coding education. Any kid should learn how to solve everyday problems leveraging the power of technology.

Arukay’s model was inspired by “Sistemas de Ensino” from Brazil. A proven educational model that disrupted the public and private education system in Brazil in terms of quality, coverage, and price. Sistemas de Ensino started 50 years ago to improve the quality of education in K12 schools in Brazil. Sistemas de Ensino replaced the textbooks of publishing companies and provided a “school-in-a-box” solution to schools that wanted to improve their academic quality. Unlike Sistemas de Ensino, Arukay doesn’t provide any printed material as all interaction with the system is through a platform powered by machine learning.

Arukay’s Learning System is composed of a product and a service both delivered through a platform: A product: Arukay’s Learning System delivers a lessonby-lesson cloud-based curriculum differentiated by grade, from kindergarten to 12th grade. The Arukay system has different programs starting from the foundations of computational thinking and block-based coding programs to text-based programs. Arukay’s Learning System is delivered in 3 languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.

A service: Arukay trains teachers who are going to implement the Arukay Learning System. Teachers do not need to have a technical background to implement the Arukay Learning System. Arukay’s motto is that anyone can learn how to code. Arukay trains teachers throughout the school year and certifies them. Teachers also get analytics and reports to keep track of their students’ academic performance.

A platform: This educational platform delivers all the content and teacher training. It provides adaptive learning to students powered by machined learning. The platform also collects data to learn how teachers and students learn.

Schools implement and operate the Arukay Learning System. Arukay Learning System is cloud-based and runs on any device. Arukay’s methodology includes both projectbased learning and designing thinking. Arukay has a solid academic rubric aligned to two international standards as well as to local standards. Arukay is a turn-key solution that provides what the teacher needs: content, grading systems, analytics, and reports.

Arukay wants to democratize the learning of computational thinking and coding no matter where students live and what language they speak. The K12 segment is yet to be disrupted.

The school system will increase the number of hours devoted to teaching coding. Today most schools dedicate just one hour a week. This is going to change. The number of hours will increase until it gets to an hour daily. Arukay aims to develop a K12 curriculum that teaches all subjects using coding as the instructional language.

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