Montevideo, April 22 (EFE).- Although Latin American and Caribbean countries have made progress in incorporating technologies into their educational systems, the structural gaps that persist limit their pedagogical impact and sustainability.
This is indicated by the first regional diagnosis on the state of Educational Digital Transformation in the aforementioned region, framed in the EdTech Initiative project, led by the Ceibal Foundation of Uruguay and financed by the International Development Research Center of Canada.
This diagnosis analyzes the degree of maturity of educational systems in digital transformation processes based on nine key pillars.
These are: context of the educational system, identification of problems, definition of success, devices, connectivity, platforms, programs, teacher training and data.
The study shows “a challenging scenario” in the region, since eight of the nine pillars present low levels of maturity, while only one reaches a medium level, with averages close to 2.4 on a scale of 1 to 4.
Problem identification (2.71) is the best placed. Among the key findings, the report highlights the growing capacity that exists to recognize priority challenges.
“The fragility in the systematic and participatory diagnosis limits the design of evidence-based policies, especially from a territorial and equity perspective,” he details.
Contrary to this, teacher training (2.39) and the use of educational data for decision making (2.39) are those that accumulate the lowest average.
“Teacher training strategies are deployed in digital technologies. Their scope, equity and effectiveness are limited, evidencing territorial gaps and lack of impact evaluation,” he says about the first of these in the key findings.
Regarding the second, it details there “progress in the development of educational information systems” and “challenges in interoperability and culture of use for educational decision-making.”
Within the context pillar of the educational system, in which the set of structural, political, institutional and cultural conditions that influence the possibilities of advancing in Educational Digital Transformation processes are analyzed, the study points out that experience (2.84), governance (2.77) and lifelong learning (2.59) have a medium degree of maturity.
However, fairness (2.22) and artificial intelligence (2.01) have a low grade.
“Equity and AI are the most critically valued dimensions, which accounts for structural weaknesses in the use of technologies to accompany trajectories in vulnerable contexts and lack of systematic innovation as a feature that prevents the use of AI in education,” he points out.
On the other hand, the report identifies four large groups of countries according to their level of development, reflecting differences in state capacities, levels of digital governance and continuity of public policies.
While Uruguay and Costa Rica present “consolidated ecosystems, with mature digital governance, solid institutional frameworks and policies sustained over time”, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico “combine relevant advances in institutionality and technical capacities, with implementation challenges in contexts marked by territorial diversity.”
Meanwhile, in Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Peru “institutional fragmentation, policy discontinuity and deeper structural gaps predominate”, and El Salvador and the Dominican Republic “represent systems in development, with initiatives underway and institutional frameworks under construction.”
Finally, the study points out that a marked difference is observed in the perception of progress: “while government actors highlight progress in planning and institutionality, teachers, academia and civil society organizations point out persistent difficulties in territorial implementation.”
In this sense, Roberto Porzecanski, director of Fundación Ceibal, pointed out: “The educational digital transformation already has an installed base in the region, but the challenge now is to take the next step: going from access to technology to its effective use in learning. This implies strengthening teacher training, integrating technology with a pedagogical sense and ensuring that policies reach all territories equitably.” EFE
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The EFE Agency had the support of the Ceibal Foundation for the dissemination of this content.
