The pensas@MOZ project: international cooperation in educational technologies (original) (raw)

This article focuses on the pensas@MOZ Project activity throughout 2008, illustrating the development of new technologies in Education and E-learning in an international cooperation setting. Born within University of Aveiro’s Math Teaching Project (PmatE), pensas@MOZ is present in all (10) provincial centres (Centros Pensas) except Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, one of Africa’s poorest countries. pensas@MOZ also stands for its own proprietary Internet based platform (named Plataforma de Ensino Assistido or PEA), which integrates Information Technologies (IT) in a creative and multidisciplinary way, being the basis of various Assisted Learning and Teaching (ALT) activities. Suppressing time-space constraints, PEA fosters collaboration and exchange of resources and experiences among all education intervenients (teachers, students, parents and administrative officials), contributing to the development of new learning and teaching strategies and processes. As a repository, it houses multiple interactive digital contents including learning objects (LO’s), digital multimedia contents (DMC’s) and question generating models (QGM’s), based on Trees of Objectives (TO’s). These contents are compliant with other educational technologies (interactive boards, online polls, etc.) and have been used in individual and group practice, diagnosis, evaluation and competition settings, providing immediate in-depth customized post-activity results. Engaged in promoting technological and science culture in Maths, Biology, Physics and Portuguese language, the project’s intervention covers a wide range of activities: national web-based Maths and Physics annual competitions (EQUAmat@MOZ), supported by Mozambique’s government and Portuguese governmental cooperation program (Instituto Português do Apoio ao Desenvolvimento);educational and vocational programs for teachers and technical professionals (FORmat@MOZ), namely in the development of the experimental teaching of sciences and the integration technology in daily activities; weekly collaborative activities (OUTclass) for mixed international primary school teams (a coalition between Escola Básica de Á-dos-Ferreiros, Junta de Freguesia do Préstimo and Externato de Vila Meã in Portugal and Colégio Académico da Beira, in Mozambique) aiming at structured thinking and written expression improvement, using synchronous communication tools (SCT’s) and promoting intercultural exchange; and international scientific and cultural events (biannual Math, Portuguese and Technology conference, accountancy and audit seminars, etc.). This paper showcases pensas@MOZ’s activities and results, drawing from enquiries made to various stakeholders. Moreover, it documents a sustainable and social responsible strategy operation, stemming from local competence development, in order to overcome the challenges derived from IT exclusion and globalization adaptation. Results account for a widespread support on a multi-leveled basis (international, national, regional and local), which are giving rise to further initiatives/projects.