Colombia. Conscious experiential education (EEC) is the name of this model that works with the philosophy of an inclusive education and whose main characteristic is to accommodate the technological capacity of each institution regardless of whether it lacks connectivity, and even works with computer equipment that does not have to be state-of-the-art.
Santiago Areaza, lecturer of TecnoMultimedia InfoComm, of the show specialized in audiovisual technology for education, and executive director of the Colombian company Critertec, will explain in his talk "Empathy technologies and their role in the construction of the new classroom", the scope of this own methodology that allows students and teachers, to jointly generate concepts, skills and attitudes through immersive experiences and collaborative learning environments in which individualism is left behind and work is done to learn in groups.
This topic, as well as "The evolution of technology in learning", "Digital Transformation of the Education Sector in Latin America", "Automation at the service of education", "The use of technical standards in educational environments", "Importance of acoustics in educational environments" and "Environmental technologies in educational environments", will be part of the Education Technology Summit, an academic event that for the first time is held within the framework of TecnoMultimedia InfoComm.
Areaza is director and creative producer of interactive content and experiences based on the integration of interactive physical design, audiovisual and digital media and coordinates the educational area of this national company that promotes classroom change through the implementation of new methodologies.
Under his direction, the model, which is currently being worked on in 15 schools in strata 1 and 2, impacts more than 4,000 children a week, has a decentralized scope as it reaches Medellín, lower Cauca and the Urabá area and is applied through pedagogical devices that promote the experience through games and Project-Based Learning (PBL). and reverse engineering.
For this, the model uses empathy technologies, a series of emerging media such as virtual reality, augmented reality, 360° content, and tangible programming, which help children make a reinterpretation of reality and promote a different way of relating.
According to Areaza, "it is paradoxical that in the country there is a lot of installed capacity, but in hundreds of schools it is not used, or it is underused. The Ict Ministry, the Ministry of Education and the Computers to Educate program have worked hard to deliver computers and tablets, but in many cases, schools do not know how to take advantage of these resources. On some occasions we have had to unpack the tablets from their original boxes because they have not even opened them."
There comes the conscious experiential education that can begin to operate with a computer room equipped with Windows operating system or tablets without connectivity, although if the school does not have either of the two, it begins to work in a totally analogous way.
A next step is to train teachers because it is only they who in the future can adopt the project, replicate it, scale it and give it continuity. To this end and through the Pedagogical Innovators program, more than 700 teachers from the capital district in Bogotá are being trained.
Areaza's talk will be held on October 5 at 3:40 pm at the Gran Salón de Corferias in Bogotá.
