“I’d rather kill than be killed.” These were the words uttered to me by the 19 year old former armed group member sitting across from me at a cafe in a paramilitary controlled community in Colombia. One year after being allowed to leave the armed group, he still had nightmares and visions of those he had assassinated; experienced trouble sleeping; and his new home built from blood money served as a constant reminder of his past experiences.
Si yo fuera ministro de educación, o vice-ministro, o asesor de alguno de ellos, les recomendaría que contrataran a Michael Fullan (). No lo conozco, pero he leído algunos de sus libros y me parece que si alguien quiere liderar un ministerio de educación, y hacer cambios de verdad, centrados en los aprendizajes de los estudiantes, considerando sintéticamente todos los factores, hay pocos con una visión más completa y calificada que la de Fullan.
If I were a minister of education, or a vice-minister, or an advisor to either, I would recommend that they hire Michael Fullan. I do not know him, but I have read some of his books and I think that if someone wants to lead a ministry of education, make real changes in the way students learn, taking all factors into account, few are better qualified than Fullan.
When one reads The Genius In All of Us by David Shenk (I recommend it), it is impossible to avoid stepping into the high wire debate over talent versus experience. And from there, the jump to the subject of excellence in education is inevitable.
Cuando uno lee el “The Genius in all of Us” de David Shenk (se los recomiendo), no puede evitar subirse al trapecio de la discusión sobre talento versus práctica. Y de allí, el salto al tema de educación de excelencia es inevitable.
The introduction of technology in education is gaining momentum worldwide. One model of incorporating technology into education that has gained tremendous traction in Latin America and the Caribbean is One-to-One computing. The term “One-to-One” refers to the ratio of digital devices per child so that each child is provided with a digital device, most often a laptop, to facilitate learning.
La introducción de tecnología en educación está teniendo un importante crecimiento en el mundo. En particular, los modelos Uno-a-Uno están desarrollándose rápidamente en América Latina y el Caribe. El término Uno-a-Uno describe la tasa de computadores por estudiante, donde cada uno de ellos recibe un dispositivo digital, regularmente un computador portátil, para apoyar su aprendizaje.
El debate sobre educación es un largometraje y está en los largometrajes. Aquí les paso mis recomendaciones (las traducciones de los títulos al español son mías e imperfectas—espero que le sirvan de guía):
The discussion about education is both a full-length feature film and takes place in films themselves. Here are my recommendations:
1. “Waiting for Superman” and “The Lottery“.
Is it fair that a child’s future depends on a lottery? Can all children learn at the level of the high expectations adults place on them? I wonder what the equivalent of the lottery is in Latin America.
Can technology help to improve the quality of education?
This is the question that led us at the Inter-American Development Bank to produce a report on currently available knowledge on assessments and experiences in this subject around the world. (Escuelas y Computadores: por qué los gobiernos deben hacer su tarea, Berlinski, Busso, Cristia y Severin. BID, 2011)