Enlaces is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an educational program designed to create a structural change in Chilean education in order to prepare youth, along with their parents and guardians, to participate in the emergent society of knowledge, and to create networks of communication that help integrate them with the world. Enlaces was started in 1992 by Chile's Ministry of Education.

Test phase

The testing phase of this program began in 12 schools in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, the capital of

. After 3 years the program had extended to the Ninth Region, the

Araucanía Region The Araucanía ( ), La Araucanía Region ( es, Región de La Araucanía ) is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions, and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is Te ...

, (the part of the country with the largest indigenous population) with more than 100 schools participating in the program. When the government decided that this project was viable, it focused all of its efforts on the spread of this program to all the regions of the country.

First phase

From 1995-2007 (the unofficial First Phase of the Enlaces project), the government spent more than $121 million and international cooperation from organizations such as the

Canadian International Development Agency The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was a federal Canadian organization that administered foreign aid programs in developing countries. The agency was merged into the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2013 by the federal governmen ...

(CIDA) in global education, infrastructure,

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

s, access to educational recourses, technical assistance, and teacher training. In 2003, in order to continue their efforts to connect the country, the Ministry of Education signed an agreement with local telecommunication companies to offer low-cost broadband connection for educational institutions. Sixty percent of the students in Chile have access to broadband internet because of this agreement. In 2007, the Enlaces Program had 3,372,943 students, and 95% of the students in the country have access to computer.

Future plans

In 2007, the Chilean Ministry of Education presented ExpoEnlaces 2007 where they showcased the latest innovations in

Information and Communication Technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...

(ICT) so that people can understand the abilities of these new technologies and their uses in the classroom. That same year, the Ministry of Education published its new objectives and projects for the coming years. Didier de Saint Pierre, the executive director of Enlaces, divided the program into two phases, the first phase, which is coming to a close, focused on infrastructure in the schools and equipping them to install the necessary programs and administration. The second phase involves developing the technological infrastructure so that it has the capacity to improve the quality of learning in Chile. Once the basic technological infrastructure is in place, the Ministry will extend the technology to the remaining schools in less developed regions, and it will implement new technologies in the more advanced regions. Examples of the new technologies that Enlaces will implement are

electronic whiteboard An interactive whiteboard (IWB), also known as interactive board or smart board, is a large interactive display board in the form factor of a whiteboard. It can either be a standalone touchscreen computer used independently to perform tasks a ...

s for

math Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, palm pilots or pocket PCs for

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, and projectors for teaching sciences. Other new strategies will include ICT in the classroom, where they will integrate portable technology and projectors in 3,000 classrooms, benefiting 87,000 students (3% of the total number of students). The goal is to implement this program in 16,000 classrooms by 2010. The

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

program is a good example of the direction in which the Enlaces program is headed. A very important aspect of this program is teaching style. Enlaces encourages the use of the HEI (

hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obse ...

experimentation An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

, instruction) method. The new science classes are being developed in a multimedia format using simulations delivered via the internet. This new program offers students many benefits. The classes that follow this methodology better prepare students for lessons and projects. When presented with an experiment, students can form a hypothesis, the teacher can demonstrate every aspect of the experiment using a computer, a projection system, and the internet, and the students can follow the other steps of the scientific method. While the use of simulations is not the exactly the same as doing the physical experiment, simulation eliminates the problem of lack of equipment and materials (such as chemicals for

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, and animals for dissection for

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

) that many schools in Chile face.

Adult Education

Part of the objective of the Enlaces program is to help the community through

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

. The idea was that children would bring the technology home with them, but this has not worked the way the Ministry had hoped. The majority of parents (especially those in rural areas) recognize the benefits of technology for their children, but feel that they cannot benefit personally. For adults who do want to learn more about technology, the Enlaces program offers an 18-hour digital literacy class where they learn the basic functions of a computer, how to use a

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...

, how to use the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, and how to create and use an

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

account.

References

{{Reflist Education in Chile Computer science education

Test phase

First phase

Future plans

Adult Education

See also

References