Few years ago our chilean educational system changed dramatically when adding the new programe call "enlaces" to the actual curriculum, it was supposed to be a revolution in the system due to the fact that the use of TICs would increase equity in the system and i'd make students' life easier. During all this year, the different implementations and improvements to this programe had helped students in several ways and I will explaine some of them.
First of all, it is important to mention the transition our system education suffered during the implementations of the programe in the facilities of the school, in the curriculum and the people that managed it. It was necessary to build some especial rooms for the new computers and also create several workshops for teachers who would lead students to "redes de enlace", some of them did not even know how to turn the computer on. The schedule in the school also changed because students must have two hours in a computer course. The idea was to implement this new course to foment equity in the country bringing the same oppotrunities to all chileans;they should learn and use the same programes from Arica to Punta Arenas. Unfortunately, this was not posible, because some public rural school had other importants issues like lack of rooms or teachers so they did not have acces to it. In my case, I was born in Santiago and I had acces to internet in my school from kindergarden but when I moved to Maule, most of my new classmate did not know how computers work because they always had problem with the internet conection in the town, eventually this changed.
Secondly, the use of TICs in the chilean educational system started to vary from the first transitional implementation period. After some years using enlaces program, it was common to see some students using the equipment better that the teachers because they began to explore different tools in the internet and they improve their capability. In addition, chilean people in general introduced technology at work and even at home, so children had the opportunity to use TICs in their free time as well. As society changed, they grew up with technology knowledge and the educational system had to update the curriculum again. Nowadays students use TICs not only in the two hours course but also inside the classroom, implemented with a laptop given by the goverment. Learners must use power point presentation in their performance in front of the classroom and deliver some paper work using microsoft softwares every week. Also teachers must know how to use technology and use it according to the national programs when teaching.
Finally, it is important to say that the use of the TICs inside the classroom has many advantages such as generate opportunities to explore the globalized world, motivate students during the lessons, and so on. Considering technology as part of our lives is meaningful learning for students that grow up with it and most important we ar prepare them for their future.
