Transforming education: the power of ICT policies - Commonwealth ...

Policy Features
Overview of ICT in Education Policies in Uruguay
Currently, Uruguay is implementing an ambitious policy for the widespread provision of ICT in society and the
educational system, the Plan Ceibal. At the end of 2006, Uruguay’s president launched Plan Ceibal with the aim
of providing each student and teacher of primary education with a portable computer (Vázquez, 2006). The
implementation of the plan started in 2007 as a pilot in one school and it was expanded to the rest of the country
in 2008, ending in 2009 when the capital, Montevideo, was covered. Quantitatively, reaching this goal means that
all students and teachers in public schools already have their own portable computer (362,000 students and 18,000
teachers); that they can access free wireless Internet installed in more than 2,000 schools and hundreds of public
spaces in cities and towns; that all primary teachers were trained and that they have access to an educational portal
with resources and communities to support and enrich teaching and learning. After accomplishing these goals, the
Government is now aiming at providing portable computers to secondary education students and teachers (Ceibal,
2009a).
In this way, Uruguay has become the fi rst country in the world to adopt the proposal of the OLPC Foundation, headed
by Nicholas Negroponte 44 : this organization developed a low cost computer especially designed for children called
the XO and uses a Linux-based operating system and software designed for kids. The XO was meant to enable the
nationwide provision of ICT in developing countries.
Beyond the technological novelty, the OLPC proposal considers that laptops should be owned by students in the
fi rst levels of primary education so that each child can use his/her personal laptop at school as well as at home, that
Internet should also be provided through ubiquitous connectivity, and that this should be done at a massive scale
aimed at reaching “digital saturation” in a given community, without excluding any child.
The educational proposals of OLPC are based on the constructivist theories of learning pioneered by Seymour
Papert, who argued that computers provide the children a highly fl exible learning platform that enables them
to create, explore collaborate and express themselves and therefore to learn (OLPC, 2009). Of all the countries
that expressed initial interest in participating in this initiative (including India, Brazil, and Argentina who later on
desisted), Uruguay is the only one that has accomplished the goal of providing a laptop to all children in public
primary schools.
Ceibal is inspired by the OLPC and adopted the XO laptop, but its design and implementation was adapted to the
Uruguayan context, resulting in a slightly different project compared to the original proposal. The main differences
are outlined below.
Firstly, Ceibal is aimed to promote the massive use of ICT in society and schools. The vision of Ceibal is that through
the provision of laptops to children, these computers become part of the daily life of the family, thereby widening
the social impact of the initiative (Ceibal, 2009a). Therefore, in addition to the provision of laptops, Ceibal is also
expanding wireless Internet access in public spaces, training and supporting parents to operate the computers and
use them as sources for information.
Secondly, as opposed to the philosophy of the OLPC, Ceibal has an educational vision that insists on the central role
of the teacher in the learning process, considering ICT as a means for constructing children’s meaningful learning
opportunities. Therefore a signifi cant part of Ceibal’s efforts are dedicated to training and supporting teachers, and
helping them to integrate ICT in their teaching.
44 See www.laptop.org
Case Study: Uruguay | 139