peter dirr report

Terms Of Reference

The Ministry of Education, on behalf of the Government and people of Chile, has undertaken a massive program of educational reform to improve the quality and equity of education in Chile. The reform involves a reformulation of the curriculum for primary and secondary schools, the introduction of new pedagogical approaches, and the extension of the school day.

The Consultant was asked by the Ministry of Education (MECE--The Program for the Improvement of Quality and Equity in Education) to study the potential and strategies by which television might support the educational reform process. The Ministry wishes to develop policies to guide the use of the television medium in education, in conjunction with appropriate strategies and methodologies of distance education.

Specifically, the Consultant was asked to analyze and discuss strategies and systems for the use of television in education in Chile; analyze the strategies and systems being used by the Ministry to train teachers (including the Enlaces network); analyze the needs for teacher training related to the curricular changes being made; and to analyze and discuss ways to incorporate distance education methods and technologies in education in Chile.

The Review Process

Review Of Literature

Before traveling to Chile, the Consultant received and reviewed a great deal of literature on the current educational reforms that are taking place in Chile; specifically, information about the MECE program (context, content, and implementation of educational reform, changes in policies for the improvement of education, objectives and minimum content standards for education media, the PME manual, and plans for the full-day program), and information about the Enlaces Project (general orientation, program description, and the 1996 Annual Report). Additional literature was provided to the Consultant during his stay in Chile, including samples of materials developed by MECE for teacher training, and reports on the use of cable television by the general public. All of this information was extremely helpful in providing the Consultant with a broad view of the challenges faced by the school system in Chile and the many changes that are taking place to meet those challenges.

Meetings With Key Persons

Over the course of three days, the Consultant met with a variety of persons, usually in teams, who are involved in various aspects of the educational reform process, especially as it concerns the use of media technologies and distance education. The meetings included:

MECE Directorate

MECE Basica (including PME, Escuelas 900, Escuelas Rurales)

MECE Media

MECE Television Group

Coord. Nacional de Programa MECE

Enlaces Project (Temuco)

San Bernardo School (Temuco)

Arturo Pratt School (Temuco)

Institute for Distance Education (UFRO--Temuco)

Minister of Education

Each of the meetings was very informative and productive. All of the participants were extremely cooperative, responding directly to questions asked, offering additional information, and tracking down information not immediately available.

The Reporting Process

The Consultant prepared a draft of this report in which he describes his observations of the current conditions and efforts and makes programmatic and strategic recommendations. That report was presented to many of the persons interviewed in a review session, followed by discussion of the recommendations. Following those discussions, the Consultant prepared this final draft of the report.

Recommendations

The Recommendations of the review process are placed early in the report for the convenience of the reader. Because the Recommendations stem from the Observations (the section which follows), the reader is encouraged to also read that section of the report.

Recommendation #1: Strengthen and expand computer use and networking.

"Project Enlaces" has proven to be a valuable resource for the schools that have it. Many more schools can benefit from having access to the same resources, especially as teachers learn how to integrate the new information technologies into the lessons they teach.

While Enlaces has in place a plan to expand its service (i.e., quantitative growth) to 100% of the secondary schools and 50% of the elementary schools by the end of the year 2000, that rate of growth needs to be monitored carefully. Internet-related technologies have been penetrating businesses and households at much faster rates than anyone predicted even five years ago. It is possible that the current goal for the expansion of Enlaces, while ambitious, might not be fast enough to satisfy the growing expectations of teachers and parents throughout the country.

Enlaces should also anticipate the need for qualitative growth, i.e., to upgrade its service to full Internet service for all connected schools. One can anticipate a flood of requests from teachers for full service as they become familiar with the Internet and how to use it. They can be expected to grow impatient with the limitations of the text-only batch-processed system that Enlaces provides today. (See the Observations section for a further discussion of this.)

Neither Enlaces nor the schools will be able to afford full Internet service given the existing tariff structure for telephone lines. Conservative use by teachers in a small school could cost the school $250 per month, a rate that many schools could not afford. As the schools assume responsibility for more of the costs of Enlaces (after their first two years in the project), Directors might be prompted to limit Internet use or discontinue its use entirely. If that were to happen, all the efforts to promote Enlaces would have been in vain and the teachers and children of Chile would be deprived of value teaching and learning resources. For this reason, the Consultant strongly recommends that the Ministry enter into an agreement with the telephone company for a special tariff category for schools that would provide at least one telephone line per school for Internet use at a fixed monthly rate.

The Universal Service Plan, adopted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the United States might help stimulate some thinking about how to develop such an arrangement. The philosophy behind the Plan is that every school in the Unites States should have affordable access to the Internet because of its potential for education. Under the Plan, all telephone service providers contribute a portion of their income to a Universal Service Fund which is used to help poor schools afford Internet service. That Fund is available to schools who with high percentages of low-income students (i.e., those who receive free lunches), and can be used to pay up to 70% of the costs of obtaining Internet service, including equipment, building networks, and monthly service and line charges.

In the absence of such an agreement, it is recommended that the Ministry explore ways to connect schools directly to the high-speed network that the universities of Chile share.

Because the personnel of Enlaces deal so intensely with computers, it could be easy for teachers to think of them as "equipment" people. This should be guarded against, keeping the focus on the curriculum applications of the technologies ("content, not machines").

The current Enlaces practice of establishing computer laboratories in the schools is a good first step. Eventually, however, the goal should be to begin to place the computers directly in classrooms. (Experience has shown that the more "convenient" it is to use technology, the more likely teachers are to use it. Having it directly in the class increases the convenience factor of computers.) Two efforts might make it possible to reach this point more quickly. The first would be to obtain computers at lower prices. One mechanism to explore to would be to invite "custom builders" of computers (i.e., small companies that build computers to your specifications from components) to submit proposals for the next round of computers, in addition to the larger companies. Their offers might be more competitive, even to the point of making the computers affordable for teachers and parents as well as for schools. The second mechanism is to ask the telephone, cable, and computer companies to cooperate with the Ministry to "wire" all the schools in the country over a period of three or four years. (The experience with "Net Day" in the United States might serve as a model. The participating companies donated all the cable and connections that were needed, as well as providing one trained cable installer per school. The schools, for their part, organized groups of parents to work for a day or weekend with the professional installer. In the period of a day or weekend, a group can wire an entire school. A central office, funded by industry, promotes and organizes the day each year.) It is possible that a combination of these two actions (lower prices and school networks) could vastly expand the availability and use of computers in schools with little or no increased cost to the Ministry or the schools.

Experience has shown that as teachers become motivated to use technologies in their classes, they need three things: time, time, and time. That is to say, that they need to learn how to use the technologies, they need to develop new materials, and they need to search for appropriate existing materials. This will be true as the teachers of Chile become more accustomed to using electronic technologies in their classes. The Ministry is encouraged to consider providing all teachers with one free period per day for this purpose. This might be done by hiring additional full time or part time teachers for the replacement periods. Anticipating about a 10% release-time rate, the cost for this innovation would be about 10% of current teacher payroll costs.

Recommendation #2: Develop A Cable Television Service.

Television is the most powerful communications technology that man has ever known. It tells stories well. It transports the viewer to places he could not otherwise reach. It can show phenomena that are otherwise difficult to understand. (More is said about these characteristics in the Observations section.) Educators all over the world have been slow to appreciate the power of the medium. (It is a power that has not escaped some of the titans of industry in the world, such as Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch.)

The Ministry of Education appears to be in an excellent position to secure at least one cable television channel for educational uses. It is strongly recommended that the Ministry pursue at least one cable television channel. It could serve multiple purposes. At one level, it could be used to deliver video programs to schools, a mechanism for further building local school video libraries. With today's technologies, such instructional programs can be "fed" at any time of the day or night and automatically recorded on a school video recorder. The channel could also be used to transmit teacher training programs to the schools, ideally just before the beginning of the school day or just at the end of the school day so that teachers could participate in those programs from the school before or after they teach.

In addition to using the cable channel to serve the schools directly, the Ministry should consider the value of such a channel to serve the informal (and possibly some formal) learning needs of youth (especially 3 to 12 year olds) and adults. Even at today's limited household penetration rates (20% on a national basis; 50% in metropolitan areas), cable represents a valuable resource for serving large numbers of Chile's households with educational materials. And over the next several years, cable will be reaching into many additional households.

Quality should be a major concern in selecting and producing programming for such a channel (see Recommendation #3 below for a further discussion of this). Without trying to develop a programming schedule at this time, the Consultant recommends that the Ministry give serious consideration to thinking of the day time and early evening hours as general and informal educational programming for children and adults. Programs such as Plaza Sesame and some of the more constructive series on Nickelodeon would be appropriate for children. Science documentaries, programs about people around the world, and series that help viewers apply the social sciences in their daily lives are traditionally very popular with adult audiences. Instructional programming (designed and intended for direct use in the classroom) could be aired during the early morning hours for automated recording by the schools.

An agreement with a cable company for this type of channel would have to be carefully negotiated. The Ministry would want to be sure that it was guaranteed long-term use of the channel, that it would be free to program the channel to its own specifications, that if the cable company introduces digitization and multiplies the channels the Ministry would also have use of the multiples, and that if the cable company is sold or merged, the agreement would be binding on the successor organization(s). The agreement could also provide that the cable company fund a small office or a free-standing non-profit organization to service school uses of cable (e.g., by training teachers, publishing a newsletter, and developing and operating a website of information on effective uses of cable in the classroom).

The Ministry should recognize that if it pursues this line of action, it will need to have access to video production facilities and personnel. It might be appropriate to consider establishing a school of film and television production at a university (if one does not already exist), that could serve both as the Ministry's production house for the cable channel and as a training ground for future professionals in this field.

Finally, if this line of action is pursued, provision should be made to be sure that every school in an area served by cable has a connection to cable (provided free by the cable company), and is equipped with at least one VCR and automated recording equipment (about $500 U.S. per school). A "Net Day" to wire school buildings for cable television reception could be held simultaneously with the Net Day for computer cabling.

Recommendation #3: Develop An Open Broadcast Television Service.

While the prospects of a cable channel are interesting and challenging, the idea of securing a program block on broadcast television presents additional opportunities and challenges. An agreement with a nationwide channel operator would have the potential of reaching more than 90% of the households in Chile. On the other hand, it is not likely that the agreement would provide any more than one hour per day of broadcast time. The importance of being able to reach a large portion of the people of Chile with informative and educational programming should not be underestimated. It holds the potential of being a strong, positive influence on people's lives.

What might the programming consist of for such a channel? The first criterion is that it should be top quality programming. It will, in all probability, carry the name and insignia of the Ministry. As such, it could quickly become the vehicle by which the Ministry becomes best known throughout the country. The quality of the programming could have a lot to do with the public's image of the Ministry.

What was said above about the types of programming appropriate for general audience programming should help guide the selection and production of programming for this broadcast segment. For its own image, the Ministry might want to develop and broadcast a fast-paced weekly news magazine program (CNN-style) on Chilean education topics.

Recommendation #4: Use Enlaces and Television For Distance Education.

Enlaces has in place an ever-growing network that can serve the teacher training needs of the nation, allowing the teachers to receive training and advanced degrees at their schools without having to experience long periods of separation from family or job, or lengthy trips to remote universities. It is ideally positioned to provide something that Chile desperately needs in order to support the massive and complex training needs associated with the reforms, i.e., the ability to distribute the same high quality educational opportunities to large numbers of teachers wherever they are located in the country.

Enlaces has already begun to offer distance education programs through its postitulo in instructional media. Those efforts should be expanded and made more flexible. Shorter workshops should be developed and offered more frequently, permitting far larger numbers of teachers to participate in them. In developing additional courses and workshops, the Enlaces staff is strongly encouraged to make them as multimedia as possible, taking as a standard the approaches of such websites as those of Discovery, PBS, and CNN.

This Consultant was struck by the fact that the training of intermediaries (especially Supervisors and Coordinators, but also school Directors) seems to be limited to one time per year and to be able to accommodate only limited numbers. Enlaces has the potential to make that an on-going process and to enroll many more intermediaries. It is urged to develop that potential.

The Enlaces network has the potential to serve not only the in-service training needs (which are critical and should remain the focal point of the Enlaces offerings), but also to offer advanced degrees to teachers and intermediaries. One attraction of those degrees is that they can be taken by a teacher or intermediary in her home town. Because she does not have to leave home, this would make it possible for many teachers to pursue advanced degrees who otherwise would not be able to.

If the Ministry pursues the recommendations above to secure a nationwide cable channel and a time segment on open television broadcast, Enlaces should be prepared to incorporate those resources into the design of its training programs, as appropriate.

The Ministry is also encouraged to have Enlaces consider other forms of distance education, especially as an alternative or addition to the existing plans to send large numbers of teachers and administrators abroad to obtain advanced degrees. There are some universities in the United States (and presumably in other countries) that would work with the Ministry to provide Masters degrees to teachers and administrators while they remained in Chile, functioning in their current positions. In these programs, which would be least disruptive to the current school services in Chile, the university would send faculty members to Chile periodically to teach a portion of a course, with the remainder of the course being finished over Internet or two-way video or audio conferencing. For the most part, the tuition for such programs is no more expensive than sending people to the foreign university, and the "lost time" cost is much less expensive.

Recommendation #5: Develop A Bridge Between Curricular Reform Training And Media Technology Training.

The Consultant includes this recommendation because he detected a possible void in support for teachers who are attempting to implement curricular reforms that incorporate media. The Supervisors are employees of the Ministry and are focused primarily on the curricular and pedagogical aspects of the reform. The Enlaces Coordinators, on the other hand, are university employees and are focused primarily on effective uses of media in the reform process. It is not difficult to imagine a professor who is working in both fields not receiving the help she needs from either the Supervisor or the Coordinator because each feels that it is the other's job.

The Consultant recommends that the respective roles of the Supervisors and the university Coordinators be clearly defined. Furthermore, both groups need on-going training programs so that each is fully familiar with all aspects of the reform process.

It also appeared that the Supervisors and Coordinators could easily feel as though they were working in isolation from one another. Vehicles for sharing experiences and seeking help from one another were not immediately apparent. If such vehicles do not exist, Enlaces is encouraged to develop electronic meeting places (Listservs or Newsgroups) that can be shared by the Supervisors and Coordinators.

Finally, the Supervisors and Coordinators are encouraged to use a team teaching approach to teacher training, where possible.

Recommendation #6: Establish A National Institute For Educational Communications.

The reform process is so complex and massive, and so many of the recommendations that have been made thus far involve new areas for the Ministry and those involved in the reform process, there might be merit in brining several of these efforts (and a few others) under a single umbrella. The Consultant recommends that the Ministry establish a National Institute for Educational Communication that would be a "think tank" for communication's role in the educational reform process. While providing an opportunity for all those involved to jointly plan and evaluate their efforts, the Institute would also be an operational entity.

One possible structure for the Institute would be a group of four Centers and four support units:

• Center For Excellence In Mathematics, Science, And Language Arts. This Center would be responsible for developing and implementing projects (including the creation of resources) in these three areas that are traditionally difficult for schools to deal with.

• Center For Improvement Of Teacher Education. This Center would have the primary responsibility for designing ways that communications technologies could be used most effectively to address the massiveness and complexity of the teacher training needs associated with the educational reform activities. It would also be responsible for producing appropriate materials and training programs.

• Center For Workplace Education. This Center would work with the Ministry of Labor to identify the most pressing training needs of Chile's workforce and design and develop appropriate training materials and programs to meet those needs.

• Center For Community Education And Literacy. This Center would identify ways that communications technologies (including the broadcast and cable television potential discussed above) can be used to educate parents (e.g., about parenting, child development, health promotion) and to raise the level of literacy of adults in deprived communities.

• Enlaces Network Unit. This group would continue to operate the Enlaces network, oversee its expansion and upgrade, and develop new applications of the technologies, especially as new technologies and software evolve.

• Research And Development Unit. This group would assist the Centers in developing and implementing studies to understand the needs of their target audiences, to inform the design and development of their products, and to measure the impact of their programs.

• Multimedia Production Unit. This group would support the work of the Centers by producing multimedia materials for their projects.

• Distribution And Sales Unit. This group would be responsible for making arrangements for distribution of the Centers' products (television and cable program schedule) and for sales of those products to schools, universities, and businesses within Chile and beyond.

The existence of such an Institute would permit and/or encourage the development of additional services to the schools and people of Chile. For example, it could provide parent education programs that do not now exist. It could manage the programming of a time segment on broadcast television if those arrangements are made. It could provide an on-going source of multimedia productions for the country.

The potential structure noted above is just that -- one way of considering the Institute. Many others are possible.

Recommendation #7: Develop Appropriate Strategic Alliances.

The very scope of the education reform on which Chile has embarked is so massive and so complex that it is not reasonable to expect the Ministry of Education to accomplish all the tasks by itself. Likewise, the roles that communications technologies and distance education might play in the reform are so massive and complex that they beg for alliances and partnerships with others. An initial list would include:

• Telephone companies (partnerships that would assure affordable connections to the Internet for all schools in Chile; also, a joint commitment to install a LAN in all schools, over time)

• Cable operators (partnerships that would guarantee that every school in an area with cable service would have at least one cable connection; also, a joint commitment to wire all schools with internal nets)

• Cable program providers (to provide free access to high quality educational programming, with rights that allow teachers to record and use those programs flexibly)

• Broadcast television operators (to provide air time)

• Direct (satellite) broadcast providers (to provide educational programming service to remote schools that will never have cable television access)

• Media producers (to assure a steady flow of locally produced quality educational programs)

• Foundations and corporate giving offices (to involve the business community and provide a steady flow of cash and in-kind support for the educational reform efforts)

• Other ministries (to jointly develop and offer educational programs that will support their missions)

These are the recommendations that the Consultant offers for the consideration of the Ministry of Education to improve and expand the role of television and distance education in the educational reform that has been undertaken in Chile.

Observations

The Magnitude Of The Challenge

Since 1990, Chile has committed itself to reform its elementary and secondary school system, improving the quality of instruction for all students, wherever they might be located. Given the vast geographic area of the country, and the range of socio-economic conditions in different parts of the country, this is no small challenge. Yet, the strength of the national commitment to this effort was apparent in all the meetings held by the Consultant during his visit. More than once in his meetings (as well as in the literature), the Consultant was told that never in Chile's history have all the people of the country been so committed to improving the quality and equity of education as they are today. There seems to be a national consensus for the improvement of primary and secondary education, with special efforts to raise the level of education in the country's poorest schools. This is further reflected in the increased financial commitment that the Government has made to education in the past seven years, growing from $1.16 billion in 1990 to $2.24 billion in 1996.

The educational reforms that have been put in place anticipate a complete restructuring of the content and delivery of education throughout the entire country, something that is being called "systemic change" in some countries. The reforms also include extending the school schedule to a full day (most schools now have two shifts of students per day), building new schools, adding new teachers, increasing teachers' salaries (an increase of 80% since 1990 in real terms), and putting in place a national performance system (SNED, 1995).

The educational reforms require major changes in the school curriculum, pedagogical approaches, and teaching materials. Among other things, they require that all teachers and school administrators be trained in new content, new teaching methodologies, new technologies, and new teaching materials.

One aspect of educational reform is mentioned a few places in the literature but not given a central place in the planning process. That is, the involvement of parents in the educational process. They represent a valuable resource that must not be overlooked. The case is stated well in the first module of the MECE training program, El Mejoramiento de la Calidad de los Aprendizajes: the quality of student learning rises significantly when the parents participate (Becher, 1984). When parents aid their children, they also improve their own knowledge.

Given the magnitude (breadth and depth) of these changes, Chile cannot depend on traditional forms of teacher training. Too many teachers (tens of thousands) need training in too many aspects of pedagogy in too short a time for the traditional forms of training to be effective. Innovative steps need to be taken. The challenge for Chile is to use the power of new electronic communications technologies and combinations of on-site and distance education to provide current teachers with training in the reform areas, and to provide them with on-going support as they implement the reforms. At the same time, Chile must assure that its current education students, who will be next year's teachers, are trained from the beginning in the new curricula, new pedagogy, and new technologies.

The Broader Changes In Society

Chile's educational reforms are not taking place in a vacuum. They are, in part, a reflection of broader societal changes. They also reflect educational reforms that are taking place in many countries around the world.

As we bring the second Millennium to a close, we find ourselves in one of the great paradigm shifts in the history of mankind. It is a shift in the way we live, the way we work, the way we think. The entire world is changing from a manufacturing world to an information world, a shift that is dwarfing the change from an agricultural society to a manufacturing society two centuries ago. Not only is this a shift "in kind," but also a major shift "in pace." The average person in any metropolitan area of the world receives and processes information far differently today than he did twenty years ago, or even ten years ago. In most major metropolitan areas, persons are bombarded with information for most of their working days. It is no longer a question of where to get information, but how to evaluate it and process it.

The pace of change is reflected in the structure of the communications industries. Forty years ago, the cable industry did not exist; ten years ago, the cellular phone industry did not exist; five years ago, few people in the world had heard of Internet. Companies that used to enjoy monopolies in the communications industries are now challenged by start-up companies, only to gobble up those companies a few years later. Television, which used to be received entirely over the air, is now received by wire in many cities of the world. Telephone service, which used to be delivered exclusively by wire, is now delivered largely over the air in many cities. Telephone companies now provide cable services, and cable companies will soon be offering telephone services. Companies that at one time were competitors now find themselves as partners, working together to accomplish very specific goals, usually for fixed periods of time. Ever-shifting "networks" of organizations propagate the landscape. And all companies recognize the need to invest in new technologies if they are to remain relevant and competitive in the new world.

Why focus on these changes in the communications industry? Precisely because they are symptomatic characteristics of the information-based society which we are becoming -- fast change, vast amounts of information, ability to adapt to new situations and new players, and a tendency to form partnerships or alliances for periods of time to accomplish very specific goals.

These characteristics are very different from the educational environment throughout the world. Educational institutions tend to change slowly. The amount of information they deal with tends to be limited (especially to textbooks and the local school library); they are usually self-contained units with little contact with other schools, outside of sports programs (and within the schools exist individual classes that are further self-contained and insulated from other classes); the idea of partnering or networking to accomplish shared goals is foreign; most teachers lack the technological tools that other sectors of society have (as well as lacking the will and knowledge of how to use those tools); and the need to continually invest in new technologies as tools of productivity is not well understood by teachers and administrators.

The educational reforms that Chile is adopting recognize the social paradigm shift that is taking place. The reforms are designed to bring the school curriculum in line with the more global changes that are taking place. They will provide students and teachers with access to far more information, teach students how to evaluate and apply the information they access, and help them become producers of new information. The reforms will provide students and teachers with access to new tools that will facilitate and support their transition to the new world. The purpose of this current consultation is to assess how the tools that currently exist in the new world of information and communications are currently being used and what might be done to use them even more effectively in the future.

The Reforms Underway

The educational reforms that Chile has put in place are clearly designed to educate young people for the world of the Third Millennium. The Ministry of Education's definition of improved quality of education specifies that graduates will have the following characteristics, all of which suggest that they will be individuals prepared to live productive lives in the new world:

• greater ability to think abstractly

• tendency to think in "systems"

• habits of communicating and working well in groups

• ability to judge and make moral decisions in the complex world in which they will live.

The reforms have as their central focal points:

• to improve the quality of learning

• to increase the use of information and knowledge

• to increase the innovative uses of knowledge resources

• to provide equity of the social distribution of quality education.

The reforms are being implemented through parallel activities in three areas: (a) the school system, (b) the curriculum, and (c) teacher education. Several programs have already been activated. The include:

• THE PROGRAM OF THE 900 SCHOOLS

• THE PROGRAM TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND EQUITY OF PRE-SCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION (MECE--BASICA)

• The Rural Program

• Projects To Improve Education (PME)

• The Enlaces Network

• THE PROGRAM TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY AND EQUITY OF SECONDARY EDUCATION (MECE--MEDIA)

• A NEW CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK FOR PRE-SCHOOL AND PRIMARY EDUCATION

• EXTENSION OF THE SCHOOL DAY AND CONSTRUCTION OF NEW SCHOOLS (funding approved by the legislature 10/8/97)

These programs appear to be well-funded and staffed by dedicated professionals who are striving mightily to make progress at rates that far exceed the pace of former efforts. They are part of new teams of professionals that the Ministry of Education has developed to implement the reforms. Through direct action, incentives and competitions, and support networks, their goal is to help current and future schools transform themselves into institutions that are more compatible with the new world, having the following cultural characteristics:

• responsible for results

• work in teams and network regularly

• exhibit a culture of communication

• view change as an opportunity for improvement

• open to change, trying new things, and incremental improvement

• view evaluation as a necessary and permanent element in an environment of rapid change.

Notes On Current Efforts

Discussions with the various groups were helpful in shedding additional light on the extent of the challenges they face and the ways they are approaching those challenges. For example, it is difficult to get from a review of the literature itself an appreciation for the fact that in some areas many schools do not have telephone service and even lack electric service at some times of the day. Furthermore, in most schools there is only one telephone line and that is controlled by the Director of the school. Such parameters certainly impinge on the roles that electronic telecommunications technologies might play in overcoming the challenges in some schools.

It is also difficult to derive from a review of literature an appreciation for the vast distances that the supervisors and coordinators must travel in some areas to get from one school to another. That also impacts on what might be possible in teacher training in those areas and the difference that distance education might make in providing access to the opportunity for continuing and advanced education.

In addition to general understandings such as those above, the discussions with the work groups yielded impressions in specific areas, all of which contributed in one way or another to the final recommendations of the Consultant.

The School System

The very size of the school system in Chile is an important characteristic in two ways: first, it is geographically vast, with many schools virtually isolated from others by geography; second, the overall size (in terms of numbers of schools, teachers, and students) might not be not large enough for it to be considered a viable marketplace for many educational vendors who develop and distribute the educational materials and technologies that will support some of the educational reforms. (The last statement is relative to other markets. For example, the educational system in the United States, with 50 million students and 2.7 million teachers in 100,000 schools, represents a large enough marketplace to warrant textbook publishers, software developers, and others to develop materials specifically aimed at the curriculum of the schools. Chile, with its 11,600 schools, 129,000 teachers, and 2.9 million students might not represent a large enough marketplace to encourage the same type of investment on the part of educational vendors.)

Some of the major challenges to be met in terms of the school system are: (a) implementation of complete school days for all children in primary and secondary schools; (b) introduction in every school of the technologies that will permit its students and teachers to participate fully in the new information age; (c) linking students and teachers in various schools and within each school so that they can share information, success stories, and resources; (d) making sure that the poorest of the schools have equal access to educational resources as the richest of the schools; and (e) helping the students and teachers in the remotest schools overcome the limitations of their isolation.

Those who are working with the schools seem to be very aware of these needs and challenges, even if they have not yet decided how to address all of them or where the funding will come to introduce the changes that are needed.

The Supervisors And Coordinators

The Supervisors and Coordinators are key players in the solutions of the educational challenges that now face Chile. They are, in fact, the change agents for the process.

The Consultant sensed a great need in this area -- the need to "train the trainers." The Supervisors are, for the most part, "generalists" who in the past have been mainly responsible for monitoring and accounting for the instruction that took place in the schools. Their roles have changed dramatically, from administrative responsibilities to pedagogical responsibilities. Supervisors are now expected to be curriculum experts and to introduce the teachers to new curriculum standards, new pedagogical approaches, new classroom materials, and new electronic technologies, and to provide support to the teachers as they attempt to implement all these new resources. One cannot overestimate the magnitude of this change in role for the Supervisors.

The Coordinators also represent an important resource for training and supporting teachers in the use of new technologies in their classes. It was not apparent to the Consultant whether or how the Coordinators were being provided with on-going training or whether they had electronic self-support groups to sustain them in their work.

The Consultant did not have the sense that Supervisors and Coordinators are receiving substantial and on-going training as they are being asked to perform their new roles. (It appears that most of the training is done in a very limited time period through a series of Jornadas.) One might expect to see, for example, a series of on-going workshops throughout the entire year, with provision for the Supervisors and Coordinators to have time off from their regular jobs to attend those workshops (in person or "virtually"). One might also expect to find substantial numbers of the Supervisors and Coordinators enrolled in complete certificate or degree programs that address the areas of curriculum design or reform, distance education, the use of media technologies in the classroom, etc. The Consultant saw little evidence of an on-going training program, virtually no Supervisor or Coordinator enrollment in the existing postitulo program from Enlaces, and no electronic discussion groups or workgroups of Supervisors or Coordinators on Enlaces or the larger Internet.

One other flag might be raised about the roles and functioning of the Supervisors and Coordinators. Although both groups share a common goal -- to train and support teachers in the implementation of new curriculum and pedagogical approaches -- both groups represent different agencies and seem to view their jobs as separate. The Supervisors are employed by the Ministry of Education and have the responsibility of stimulating and supporting curriculum change. The Coordinators are employees of the universities and have the responsibility of stimulating and supporting the use of media technologies.

The Consultant suspects (but did not confirm) that teachers might be somewhat confused by the line that is drawn. If a teacher is struggling to use new instructional materials, new technologies, and new pedagogical approaches to implement the new curriculum, and if that teachers encounters some difficulty or has questions, one would hope that the teacher could go to one source (the Supervisor? the Coordinator?) for help with the difficulty or question, and would not have to turn to several sources for the solution. Either the Supervisors or the Coordinators must be trained to bridge the gap between the curriculum reforms and the technologies, or they should be assigned to schools in teams.

Why spend so much time in this report addressing the current training and support of Supervisors and Coordinators? There are two reasons: first, as noted above, they are seen as critical in the successful implementation of the educational reforms; second, the training needs are so great for these groups that they cannot be addressed using traditional means. The depth of these needs cries out for the intervention of electronically-delivered continuing education opportunities, as well as the use of electronic communications technologies to build "electronic" communities and provide on-going support for the Supervisors and Coordinators. The very types of training and support provided to these two groups can be used to train and support teachers in general. In other words, the Supervisors and Coordinators should be taught using the same approaches and technologies as they will be supporting for the teachers.

MECE Programs

MECE seems to have taken substantial steps to begin and support the reform process. For example, the Project to Improve Media Education (PME) has taught thousands of teachers to design, develop, implement, and evaluate educational projects related to the educational reform. PME has funded more than 3,600 contracts during its five years. (PME is able to fund only one of every three proposals it receives from schools and teachers.) A majority of the projects were in the area of Language Arts, with fewer in Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The staff speculates that perhaps teachers have more difficulty conceptualizing projects in Mathematics and Natural Sciences than in Language Arts. (PME staff do not involve themselves in content and make no attempt to control or encourage proposals in any one subject area.)

The funded projects stemmed from and supported local efforts of teachers to work in teams, improve faculty-student interaction, revise classroom structures, and develop new lesson content. In other words, they have helped local teachers put into action some of the principles that underlie the educational reforms. Nevertheless, MECE staff notes the need to expand such projects by motivating many more teachers to implement similar initiatives.

There have also been a few instances of attempts to use the electronic media to expand the numbers of teachers receiving training. In 1993-94, for instance, a television-based course was offered in conjunction with TELEDUC and the Catholic University television network. That course alone stimulated 1,300 projects from teachers in primary and secondary schools.

All the MECE efforts (both at the primary and secondary levels), have incorporated certain central themes. They include:

• working in teams (professional groups, often using auto-instructional materials)

• project-based activities (the types stimulated and supported by PME)

• working with families and communities (building links with the community and increasing parent involvement and learning)

• developing support networks (especially evident in the work of Project Enlaces, described below).

From their experiences, MECE staff concludes that the characteristics of successful projects are:

• active participation by the participants (including regular discussions and examinations of alternatives)

• help from the Director of the school (including the allocation of space, provision of released time for teachers, and personal involvement)

• active involvement of the Ministry Supervisor (including encouragement and facilitation)

• appropriate financing (including cash and in-kind).

Project Enlaces

Among the more bold and important of the MECE initiatives is Project Enlaces, the development of an electronic mail network that links schools to each other and to the entire world through Internet/World Wide Web. With the introduction of Enlaces, the Ministry has provided teachers and students with a powerful tool that enables them to play an active role in today's world society. Enlaces is seen by MECE as a powerful tool for integrating other MECE efforts and expanding the impact of the educational reforms, improving quality and equity, while decentralizing education.

Initially begun in 1990 as a pilot program, Enlaces is being introduced to schools throughout Chile gradually. As it adds new schools to the network, Enlaces is giving preference to secondary schools (100% will be connected by the year 2000) and to schools with the highest number of at-risk students and those schools that are least likely to be able to find other sources of funds for equipment. The schools need to supply secure space for the installation of a computer laboratory, at least one telephone line for use for electronic mail (not necessarily full time), and a promise to finance the costs of operation (including maintenance, insurance, and communication costs).

Enlaces is jointly managed from the Ministry of Education and the Project Enlaces headquarters at the University of the Frontera in Temuco. In the latter setting, it is part of the Institute for Research in Educational Technology. The Enlaces directorate also contracts with a lead university in seven zones and twenty support universities within those zones to provide on-site support to teachers in the Enlaces schools.

While its role is often connected with the computers and networks that are its tools, the Enlaces staff rightly sees their role not so much to be the placement of computers in schools as to prepare students and teachers to live productive lives in the new world. The computers and the networks are the tools they use to accomplish their mission. In this regard, the mission of Enlaces is very consistent with the principles of educational reform -- the emphasis is on curriculum, not technology; content, not machines.

In their mission, the Enlaces staff includes the following roles:

• To modernize teaching practices

• To modernize classroom management

• To develop and distribute learning resources, including productivity tools

• To promote equity and decentralization of education by developing a(n) (electronic) learning community

• To help teachers in their professional lives by letting them share experiences and resources

At present, Enlaces is a limited form of communication. It consists of a "text-only" electronic mail service that is "batch-processed" at night, as a means of controlling costs. Students and teachers compose e-mail messages off-line and those messages are automatically sent by the computer during night hours. The teachers and students check back the following day or two days later to check for replies to their mail. This is a cumbersome approach to electronic communications that the Enlaces management feels is necessary because of the cost of providing full Internet service in real time. An upgrade would require at least an additional telephone line, and, in the absence of a "flat-fee" pricing structure from the telephone company, a per-minute charge for the time spent searching sites, downloading information, uploading responses, etc.

The use of full service could easily reach a level of two hours per week for each teacher and an additional hour per week for every ten students. (That is a conservative estimate, which could be exceeded in many schools if use is not monitored. Yet, the ability to "surf" and to search flexibly for information is one of the strengths of the Internet. To monitor and limit that use might defeat some of the power of the medium.) At a cost of $2.50 U.S. per minute, the telephone line charges for full Internet service could cost $200 per month for a school of 300 students. To that one would add the cost of subscribing to an Internet service, approximately $50 U.S. per month more, for a total of $250 U.S. per month. Even at those conservative levels of use, this one factor alone could be damaging enough to bring the use of Internet in the schools to a crashing halt.

In deciding to limit Enlaces to a "text-only, batch-processed" service, the MECE directorate has made a judgment (based on a cost-benefit analysis) that might be necessary to get teachers and students accustomed to using electronic media, but it is one that this Consultant does not believe will stand for long. Either teachers will cease to use the service systematically, or (more probably) they will begin to demand that the service be upgraded to include full Internet access. Neither Enlaces nor the Ministry of Education will be able to respond to those demands alone. For the Internet/World Wide Web to become effective tools of educational reform in Chile will require full cooperation of the telecommunications industry.

In anticipation of the need to upgrade, the Consultant recommends that the Enlaces management take immediate steps to: (a) seek alliances with leading companies in the telecommunications industry in Chile, (b) seek changes in the telecommunications tariff structures as they apply to all primary and secondary schools in Chile, and, (c) seek to assure that any future regulations of the cable industry include the requirement to provide at least one free line (voice, data, and video) to each school in Chile.

While on the topic of cost, it might be helpful to speculate on whether it is possible to negotiate a low enough price for a computer system that would make it more affordable for teachers to have in their homes. And is it even possible to anticipate the day when the cost of a complete computer system might be low enough to permit a large number of students to have them at home? What would that price be? How many would be able to afford a system at $900 U.S.? At $600 U.S.? At $500 U.S.? These prices are not impossible.

The visits to two primary schools in Temuco were especially informative for two reasons: first, the Consultant learned that the local cable company has provided free cable television connections to every school in Temuco; and, second, because they provided an opportunity to talk with a group of (fifth and sixth grade) students and learn how they viewed these resources and what impact they felt the Internet was having on their education. (These students happened to be in the two schools that have FULL Internet service on an experimental basis, so the responses of the students cannot be said to be representative of the reactions of students in other schools.)

It was clear from talking to the students that they saw all uses of the computer as a seamless garment. They did not distinguish between the computer as a free-standing tool and the computer as the gateway to the Internet. To them, it is one tool with many different uses. They seemed to be equally comfortable using it to: retrieve information, do practice exercises, communicate with old and new friends around the world, and prepare reports.

Teachers report that they welcome the availability of Internet and electronic mail, but that they wonder where they will get the time to use them effectively. With all the new demands that the educational reforms place on them (to learn new content, new pedagogical approaches, develop new teaching materials for their classrooms, and to learn to use the new technologies), they feel that there is not enough time in the day to do all they are required. They also note that as nice as it is to have some computers in a lab in the school, there are not nearly enough to adequately serve the needs of their schools. They want more computers and related hardware.

One thing this Consultant noted was that there did not seem to be any attempt to involve the parents in their children's uses of computers. There did not seem to be any classes to introduce the parents to computers, nor any attempt to provide the parents with opportunities to use the computers themselves. Enlaces might want to think of encouraging the schools to do this (perhaps by including it as a topic in the Enlaces training program). It could strengthen the bonds between parents and their children and parents and the schools, as well as providing the parents with greater literacy skills for the Third Millennium.

Current Distance Education Offerings

Enlaces has recently begun to offer a complete Postitulo program on educational computing using a distance education approach. The courses (a total of seven over a 17 month period) consist of a combination of Internet (electronic mail) and print materials. The materials promote active participation of the learners, working in groups, using the very technologies that are being studied, and interdisciplinary thinking about the educational applications of computers -- all characteristics that are very consistent with the principles of the educational reform. Because of their design, these courses can serve persons in geographically remote parts of the country as well as those in metropolitan areas.

The content of the courses seem to be well designed. The Consultant noted that the two courses developed to date are heavily print-oriented, even in their Internet component. He encouraged the design teams working on future courses to consider ways of using the power of the technologies to a greater advantage. He particularly suggested using the print component to go into depth on the topics and to re-think the design of the Internet materials, giving them more of a PowerPoint look and embedding sound and video, as appropriate.

One reaction to the Consultant's suggestion was that neither the Enlaces Center nor the Institute for Research in Educational Technology had video production capabilities or expertise. On further investigation, the Consultant was not able to find any university or other non-profit educational organization that had such experience. This void is addressed in the Recommendations section below.

The Institute for Research in Educational Technology (Temuco) would like to develop a self-financing distance education center, offering a steady stream of distance education courses, largely over the Internet. The Institute is advised to consider carefully how many students they need to enroll in each course to reach a break-even point. (Initial estimates were that they would need a minimum of 60 at the start of the program and that they would have to retain 40 until the end of the program -- 7 courses later. Results of the first full offering of the first two courses suggest that it might be possible to reach both the initial and retention goals, but it is not clear if those results will hold up over time.)

University Departments Of Education

While the Consultant did not visit any academic departments of Education at any of Chile's universities, he did inquire about their programs for training the nation's future teachers. He got the distinct impression that, while the Ministry of Education and its school Supervisors are introducing educational reform to the schools and training existing teachers to adapt to those reforms, the Schools of Education have, for the most part, not yet embraced the reforms. One consequence of this could be that another generation of teachers might enter the workforce not prepared as active participants in the educational reforms. They could require as much in-service training as today's current teachers, which would be a shame given the extent of the teacher training that already has to be done.

Relevant Societal And Educational Trends

As noted at the beginning of this paper, one cannot consider educational reform in Chile without also considering relative trends that are taking place in society and elsewhere in the education world. Some of the more relevant trends include:

Convergence

Until recent years, the lines between media were clear, as were the lines between the delivery systems for those media. "Text" meant printed materials; "audio" meant records or audio tapes; and "video" meant films or video tapes. At the same time, "telephones" used wire to deliver voice communication; "television" used the airways to deliver entertaining videos to living rooms; and "cable" used wires to deliver videos to some of those same living rooms. All of this is changing, largely due to the ability to "digitize" information, regardless of whether the information is text, sound, or video. The resulting phenomenon is the "convergence" of the media onto a single digital platform and the distribution of those media through any of the available distribution systems. The consequence of this phenomenon is that it requires a different dynamic when discussing which media to use (it forces one to focus on the power of each medium), and it reduces the importance of discussions about which delivery system to use (they can or soon will work equally well with all media).

Importance of Video

We live in a visual world. We are accustomed to "seeing" things for ourselves. We rely on visual media to transport us to places we cannot travel to easily, to give us a bird's eye view of unreachable places (deep in the human body, or way out in space), to bring us face-to-face with friends and adversaries who might be miles away, to bring us back in time to events that happened long before we were born, to awaken the power of our imaginations.

Visual media have become a staple in almost all cultures of the world. But there are large segments of one culture that have not embraced the visual media for the most part -- our schools. Many teachers have not yet come to appreciate the power of visual media or just how much we rely on them for information in our daily lives. They have not come to understand the power of these media, nor to think of ways they might harness that power to make their lessons more effective.

Any curriculum reform of the magnitude being undertaken in Chile ought to have as one of its goals the promotion of a greater appreciation for what visual media can do to improve learning, as well as direct instruction in how teachers can harness the powers of these media that have become a standard in so many other aspects of life.

In addition to infusing the teacher training effort with a greater appreciation for visual media, the Ministry might also consider how it might use the visual media directly to accomplish some of the goals of the educational reform. More has been said about this in the Recommendations section.

Partnerships

Today's business world is characterized by ever-changing partnerships or alliances. Companies join forces to develop new products, reach new markets, provide new services. There is a growing recognition that few companies can accomplish by themselves all that they need to accomplish to stay competitive. It is the view of this Consultant that the Ministry of Education must develop carefully selected strategic partnerships to successfully carry out its ambitious goals for educational reform, especially as those goals involve the use of telecommunications technologies. Not only will such partnerships (which are suggested in the Recommendations section) help the Ministry achieve its goals, but they will also be good for the partners, allowing them to demonstrate their commitment to this national effort in educational reform, contributing what they can do best.

Conclusion

The Ministry of Education has embarked on an ambitious program of educational reform. The needs are so great, requiring so many changes on the part of so many teachers, that traditional approaches to change (e.g., teacher workshops and presentations at professional meetings) are not sufficient. The present needs require extraordinary interventions -- those that hold the potential of training large numbers of teachers in a short period to implement educational reform. Those interventions can only be implemented through the use of modern communications technologies, including their use for distance education.