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Bienvenidos al nuevo sitio. Me tomó un tiempo organizar todo para que funcionara con la nueva plataforma, pero parace que todo está listo. De pronto hay errorcillos... me cuentan. No migré los usarios, así que si estaban registrado en alguno de los blogs anteriores y quieren registrarse en este (para comentar, por ejemplo), deben hacerlo de nuevo. Siento la molestia, yo también detesto crear nuevos usuarios en todo lado.

Intenté guardar las direcciones de los feeds RSS, pero no estoy seguro de que funcionen bien, así que puse unos cuentos enlaces en la barra derecha para que actualicen sus lectores o agregadores (¿sindicadores? ¿Cómo se dirá en español?).

Welcome to the all new site. It took a while to set things up, but I think I'm pretty much done. Everything that used to reside in the old site seems to be here... just go ahead and navigate. I didn't migrate users, so if you want to, you will have to create a new account. Administrator (me) authorization required (to fight spam, sorry).

I tried to keep the URLs of the RSS feeds, but I'm not quite sure it's working, so I put up some links to various feeds on the right navigation bar. Please update you readers or aggregators. I hope you enjoy the new look and feel.

La fase de formación del proyecto de educación rural en su componente de tecnología presenta retos y dificultades complejos: escuelas distantes, falta de conectividad en muchas... Por una parte es muy complicado reunir a todos con alguna frecuencia y por otra, no podemos desaprovechar la oportunidad de incluir en todos los procesos de formación materiales y apoyo virtual, es decir un modelo que Chris Dede llamaría distribuído. Básicamente y usando las ideas de Chris, implementar, para quienes tienen conectividad, un modelo de formación que distribuya el aprendizaje en el tiempo y el espacio, con asesorías presenciales y trabajo individual y grupal (grupos dentro de la institución) apoyado en contenidos distribuídos a través del portal.

Al tiempo, creo que la única forma de hacer realidad la idea de incluir uso de TIC en todos los procesos de formación (Stella), es incluyendo este tipo de modelo distribuído, y creando materiales de apoyo virtual a cualquier y todo "taller", promovido por el MEN.

Hasta antes de decantar en mi cabeza una reunión que tuve hace poco con representantes de una gran corporación multinacional y una charla con un viejo amigo que trabaja en la fundación de una empresa colombiana, creía ingenuamente que cuando las empresas hablaban de responsabilidad social se trataba principalmente de apoyar el desarrollo del país en sectores como el educativo. Sin embargo, ahora me doy cuenta que esto no está siquiera cerca a la realidad, y la responsabilid social podría más bien llamarse estrategias de mercadeo y posicionamiento de marca utilizando como excusa el desarrollo social.

Yo, en mi ingenuidad, pensaba que quienes hablan de responsabilidad social desde la empresa privada se preocupaban porque sus programas e iniciativas fuesen las mejores para lograr objetivos educativos, sociales, etc. (aunque sé que en varios casos ni siquiera tienen esos objetivos claramente definidos) y que éstos se alinearan con las necesidades de la población y los planes y objetivos del gobierno (cuando trabajan con él). Descubrí, con miedo y disgusto, que su preocupación es tratar de que el gobierno se alinée con las metas y programas de la compañía, e incluso las haga política. ¿El mundo al revés? Tal vez no. Tal vez yo vivía en una fantasía de mundo al revés donde las compañías adelantan acciones sin buscar repercusiones en su precio en bolsa o su "bottom line". La realidad, más que apoyo al gobierno y al desarrollo social, puede convertirse en impedimento para dicho desarrollo, si se promueven programas de dudosa calidad y pertinencia por intereses particulares de las empresas, si se busca posicionar una marca, producto o compañía mediante su influencia sobre los gobiernos gracias a su poder económico (y a la debilidad y necesidades financieras del gobierno de turno).

En breve, una parte de mi cerebro, sabe ahora que las empresas no son filántropas y ni siquiera se acercan a ello... la responsabilidad es más corporativa que social y más con sus accionistas y con el "bottom line" que con la sociedad y el desarrollo. La otra parte de mi cerebro aún está confundida y piensa que es bueno que la empresa privada invierta en acciones por el desarrollo social, pero no entiende cómo solventar el nuevo problema que encontró.

¿Qué me da más miedo? Que si esto es así (digo si porque me puedo equivocar) y personas inteligentes y con poder dentro de las organizaciones piensan que está bien, es normal, y es éticamente aceptable (lo cual tiendo a no creer yo, o cierta mitad de mi cerebro, mejor dicho), estamos encaminándonos cada vez más al futuro distópico que retratan algunos donde la megacorporaciones controlan el mundo: welcome to Shadowrun... de paso, dice Wikipedia sobre la historia de este juego de rol:

Dos hechos importantes dan origen al universo de Shadowrun. Primero, entre los años 1999 y 2001 se aprueba una serie de leyes que les otorga a las compañías multinacionales atribuciones similares a las de los gobiernos contemporáneos como la formación de ejércitos privados y la extraterritorialidad de éstas (las megacorporaciones ya no estaban sujetas a las leyes de los países en las que se encontraban), lo cual da pié para una guerra entre megacorporaciones por el poder sobre las demás. (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun)

¿Exagerado? De pronto.

¿Inversímil? Cada vez menos.

¿Miedoso? Cada vez más.

OJO: editado a eso de las 7PM, después de seguir decantando

At around 7 AM the plane landed in Cúcuta, a small city, a capital actually, in the border with Venezuela. It's hard to call it a city, but it is. I have problems even calling Medellín a city, so Cúcuta doesn't just cut it. It felt hot, but not very humid.

I got a cab, a very expensive one by the way, and about one and a half hours later I was standing in front of the City Hall in Sardinata, the small town where I was to meet Miguel, the director of education for the area (a district supervisor I guess they would him call in the U.S.). We were to meet in the central park, but
he was not there waiting for me as I expected. I went into the Town Hall and asked for him. They said he was vaguely around, so I went back and sat on a bench in the park to wait for him. People were helpful, and a girl who went out on a scooter to run some errand said she'd tell him I was here if she saw him. He arrived soon enough, somebody pointed him out to me, and we met. He is a man in his mid-fifties, tanned, talkative and loud, very Santandereano (from Santander). We went to his house, where I left my luggage, guessed I would sleep there, and got ready to go visit the first rural school. We went to the mayor's office to ask for some transportation in his behalf. He had a huge kitch emblem of "Millonarios" my own football team, so I used that to break the ice. "We started well this year!" Miguel sat with me, introduced me, and I used the opportunity to ask the mayor, a doctor, by the way, about his plans for educational technology. He looked baffled and evaded the question. Miguel answered for him in a long negative, mentioning Law 550 (bankrupt), needing to build classrooms and other urgent needs. The mayor, whose name I can't remember, took a few calls while I was sitting in his office, and authorized his driver to take us where we needed to go and pay for the gas.

César, his driver, would take us to "San Roque" rural school. Close to 10:30 we left in a green Willy’s Renegade. I asked questions about the region and security. There are very big coal mines in the area, and many people there work in the mines. You can see the coal down to the road, and people black with coal walking around and working. Miguel said there were both "paras" and guerrillas in the area, but I shouldn't worry because I was with him. He laughed and added, "many of those guys were my students, they leave me alone". I saw army soldiers on the road, and that made me feel even safer (I hate saying that!). He also mentioned things having changed after "Bloque something" of the "autodefensas" turned in.

We were soon driving on a dirt road that César new very well, and stopped for a beer. The weather was nice. Not too hot. Just warm. We kept talking and I heard stories about César having been Miguel's student (he was a teacher for some 30 years) and how he had learned to operate heavy machinery and worked both as a driver for the mayor and driving bulldozers where needed. At around noon we were in "San Roque", "Escuela Rural San Roque, Sede 1".

It was a small school, in the middle of a small group of houses where mostly coal miners live. Some houses were made of brick, some of wood and some of "bahareque" (stomped dirt). There was a big antenna from a time when Telecom was there. "'They' came and made calls and didnt' pay. They closed it down with great loss," a lady said to me. Miguel instantly thought he could buy the business and provide phone service to that community, since the antenna was there and they only needed the solar panels and an agreement with Telecom.

The principal was counting votes for student council president, so we to get a drink. I looked around taking pictures, while the other two headed down to a "tienda". I walked around saying hi to a few teachers, introducing myself and waiting for the principal to be ready. I checked out their computer lab (which is also a classroom for the eighth grade) and talked to him, a few, students, a couple teachers and a couple parents, while sitting in it.

They all complained about their computers not working and being old and problematic: they received them through “Computadores para Educar”, the program that the Ministry of Communications started a few years ago to refurbish machines donated by companies that didn’t need them any more and send them out to public schools. The community helped build the room where they are kept, since they required minimum conditions (a good roof, bars on the windows, outlets, etc.).

All seven of them were very old computers (X486) in bad conditions. Only three worked and they seemed to not have had much use, even though they said there was a "computers" teacher who brought students to teach them how to use Word and Excel. I guess that is part of the problem: there is a teacher in charge of that and nobody really integrates technology into anything… computers and software are a class on their own and learning how to use them is an isolated goal. The community, however, was very enthusiastic and parents underscored the importance of their children learning how to use computers and "communicate with the rest of the world." One mother asked me what I thought they should do now. I didn't really know what to do, so I recommended they talked to Computadores para Educar to inform them of the condition of their machines and the fact that none of the teachers had received training in computer use technology integration in the classroom. I left her my card. I bet she'll call.

After my talk with the people in the school, Miguel, César and I went nearby to have a couple of beers (three each, I think) and drove back to Sardinata. Two teachers came with us, and they were friendly and talkative, asking about my work and about ministry policies I have no idea about, like requiring schools to have at least 22 students to open, which they thought was outrageous. In some areas there simply are no more students and they can’t walk the several miles that separate them from the next school.

We finally got back to Sardinata, where, as I had foreseen, there were no hotels. I stayed the night in Miguel’s house, where he lives with his wife, two daughters, one son, one son-in-law, and two grandchildren. I was tired from the trip and a little light-headed from the beer, so I took quick extra cold shower (not extra cold by choice) and lied down in the double bed they generously offered. The house was big, though, with a respectable inner yard that the grandchildren used to ride bike in. I planned to get up and have dinner with the family, but I didn’t wake up till the next morning, when my alarm clock rang one hour early (my cell phone’s clock somehow got reset to one hour earlier) and I ran to the shower to get ready for the day. It was 5:00AM! I had a lot of time to read “Tipping Point” before everyone else was up. I had breakfast with Miguel: soup ("Changua"!), steak, “arepa”, avocado, and coffee… huge breakfast! I watched “Sesame Street” with the grandchildren for a while and then César arrived to take us to “San Roque” the school I visited today.

It was farther away than the other and quite different. It felt more rural, just because the community didn’t live around it, but was also extremely poor, with zinc roofs and even an unlit classroom. However, they had two working computers (one was taken to get fixed last week when they heard I was coming) and the other was new, left there by “Compartel” the government program that provides free 24-hour Internet for schools (for four months… then only 4 hours a day… then, they have to pay). Teachers nor students used the computer much, other than for some administrative tasks and for their “computer” classes, where they learned the usual Word and Excel with the addition of e-mail use: not that they used e-mail for school things, but they taught students how to open a Hotmail account. Before I left I took a picture of a teacher helping (really doing it for her) a student create an account, maybe inspired by my presence? After talking to a few teachers, the principal and a few students we were ready to leave, but Miguel was hungry, so we waited for them to fix us some lunch, which they did very quickly. It's lent and friday, so we had fish, salad and “papa chorriada”. For some reason I don’t really understand, we didn’t stop for beer even once today. I suggested it, but it just didn't happen. We went straight back to Sardinata, where I got a cheap communal cab to Cúcuta.

Now, I am sitting at the airport, killing time before I can go home... in about three hours. There is really nothing to do here; I bet Jasmine would love this airport with no wireless, and nothing to see or do, except the weather getting warmer and more humid. I just hope I don’t have her luck and my plane is on time.

The trip was very interesting, people were great and I had some fun. Most importantly I had the chance of observing, first hand the schools and their computer labs. I had already talked to teachers in Caldas, but that's a different story. I know my sample is minimal, but all the comments I’ve got point to the same thing: “Computadores para Arreglar” (Computers to Fix) has problems with their tech. support and training. Teachers don’t know how to use computers, when they do, they don’t know how to integrate their use in their curricula, and many of them say they haven’t received any training whatsoever. This last point may be due to the fact that every year many of the teachers either leave their schools get transferred (by choice) to urban ones, or schools in other areas; others quit or even lose their jobs due to lack of competence (they don’t pass their tests). In short, whatever we try to do to incorporate technology in schools has to start by giving them good computers with decent connections to the Internet, and continually training and supporting teachers, not assuming that if they were trained in year one, they will be trained in year two, because they will probably not be the same group. Tough job I got inventing how to incorporate technology in rural Colombia… and I just have three more weeks to finish my recommendations! Wish me luck, and throw at me any brilliant, tipping ideas you might have.

**wow I hadn't written this much in English for a while**

It's been a while and I probably already lost the few readers I used to have. Anyway, I think I do have some things to say and some updates on what's going on, but I won't write all.
I am in Medellín today, in a congress about "Escuela Nueva". This first day has been awesome. It has reminded me of Aswith Education Forums and HGSE in general. Why does a Colombian meeting remind me of the big H? Well... they managed to bring world wide experts as I had only seen together at Harvard. Leaders from World Bank, Unesco, Unicef, Ministries of Education, PREAL and other huge organizations were invited, as well as other educational leaders from Colombia and the rest of Latin America.
Well... that's it for now... Escuela Nueva apparently rules!

I'll come back and type a few stories I have to tell... the apartment story, the World Bank story, the new job offer story... and maybe others... such as the visit from HGSE mexican friends, and of Rafa, my HGSE Brazilian friend, who is sitting next to me in this congress.

If you still read this, type a small comment to let me know it makes sense to keep writing, please.

Good luck all (if any).

Wednesday was my birthday. Weekday, workday, early meeting the next day... not much of a celebration. A few good friends came by, we had a few whiskies, pizza and cake. I am 29 now and sometimes feel younger, but others feel really older. Tonight I will have dinner at the Jaramillo's, with some of the same friends who came by on wednesday and some others. Tomorrow I'll go out somewhere with repeated people and some new ones... a prolonged celebration.
My dad and Jacinto bought me a new pair of glasses, with a great frame and the best lenses they could get (get darker in the sun, UV protection, anti-reflection something...). I think I look good in them (it's a change though) and I definitely see much better.
On other news, I started my second consultancy this week, and I'm still working on the first one. With "Poblaciones", the rural education project, I will continue until the beginning of april. My first report is due this Monday and I've been working hard on it. It's confidential, so I won't be able to publish it online, but I'll comment on what the bosses thought. With "Competencias", Rosario Jaramillo for those who met her at Cambridge, I just started as the coordinator/designer/person-responsible-for (job titles are inexistant here) the putting in place of communities of practice of non-profits, administrators and teachers who have projects related to citizenship.
Both are hard, both are fun, and both take a lot of my time. The other part is occupied by looking for a place to live and unwinding a bit ;-).

A second consulting job is finally coming through. I will work on building online communities of practice with those who are working on citizenship at different levels: teachers, administrators, non profits and ministry "officials". I will work with Rosario, whom I casually met in Cambridge last year and my old friend Camilo. It will go through July and is, as most things here, a "capacity building" initiative that has to become self-sustained.
Another very interesting challenge, and more hard work. I think I won't have much time to even sleep in the next six months.

I'm on my way the first day of the thingy with the universities. Other people will present today and I will just listen, mingle and work on my own presentation in the mean time. I do hope there is wireless in the hotel auditorium... if there is, I will be online... amuse me (IM me)... the presentations won't be the highlight of my day!

EDIT:
There is a wireless network at the hotel, but I had to pay for it... $10,000 for 3 hours. I'll be online intermitently.

I went to a meeting this morning, innocently expecting to just listen, and Rosario just threw me in ("me echó al agua"... what's the English equivalent of that?) saying I am the new member of the team, who will work on building networked communities of practice... I just said... "OK" and introduced myself to the audience. I think I'll start in January.

I had an interesting meeting today. Rosario Jaramillo (some of my readers know about her), the person leading the ministry's citizenship project, wants to use networked technologies to create online communities of practice with teachers, trainers, organizations, schools that are working on "Competencias Ciudadanas" around the country.
She is already implementing Teaching for Understanding courses with Wide World for over 300 teachers and is thrilled with the results.

She asked me to lead the formulation and start of this online-communities-of-practice-or-the-like project... it would start in January in go for some 4-5 months. I have to think about it, but it sound really interesting.

More consulting, more uncertainty (but more freedom), more not knowing what will happen when the project at hand is over.