Mexican digital wave

A revolutionary interactive teaching project is under threat thanks to its links to a previous president. Jo Tuckman reports

Jo Tuckman
Tuesday June 5, 2007

Guardian

A classroom in Mexico City: hands shoot in the air. A nod sends one boy bounding to the digital board at the front, where he taps the nipple of a three-dimensional body image. There is a loud "ping" and a hyper-reality picture of the mammary glands is highlighted with such vigour it seems to jump out of the wall. The boy smiles and takes his seat, and the class launches into a discussion about what different glands do.

The subject matter may have added a buzz to this particular lesson in a state primary school, but teachers and pupils credit at least part of the eagerness to their new classroom tool, Enciclomedia. "Before, we used to get bored a lot, and we didn't understand things very well," says one student, Jimena. "Now it is much more fun."

Since 2005, the Mexican government has put Enciclomedia (the board, computer and software) into over 145,000 classrooms, reaching more than 95% of children in the final two years of primary education. It gives access to digital versions of the textbooks that make up the curriculum, and each lesson has dozens of hyperlinks to multimedia resources.

Simulated trip

A double click when learning about life before the Spanish conquest might open the door to a simulated trip through an ancient city, complete with soundtrack. A cartoon character may be summoned to add a little humour to learning about volumes. An onscreen dictionary can be called upon at any time.

A US academic who headed an external evaluation by the Harvard graduate school of education calls it "very positive". An article in the Guardian in January gushed that it was "probably the world's bravest, most imaginative and ambitious implementation of education technology".

But for all the enthusiasm, Enciclomedia's future is now in doubt. The congress has slashed in half the budget of 7,100 million pesos (£330m) the government had requested to fund it for 2007. This has forced the education minister to cancel contracts to install the equipment in about 40,000 secondary school classrooms.

"We don't want to send a signal that we are not in favour of putting new technology in schools," says Tonatiuh Bravo, president of the congressional education commission. "But we need to analyse the costs and the benefits, and to assess whether it is the best project available."

Mexico's new government, which took office in December, is publicly committed to maintaining Enciclomedia in primary schools, at least for now, but as well as cancelling the expansion to secondary level, it has also promised a review.

"There should have been a pilot project before putting it in all schools," says Jorge Santibáñez, head of planning and evaluation at the education ministry. He says the ministry is also evaluating other technology projects for schools, and mentions the idea emanating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to provide every low-income child with a $150 laptop. The two projects could, theoretically, enhance each other, but in Mexico, as in most developing countries, there is rarely enough money available for two major technological ventures at the same time.

A bell-tolling tone now pervades coverage of Enciclomedia, as if it were destined to continue the long Mexican tradition of the bright ideas of one government being abandoned by the next. But its developers insist the project has too much to offer, and too many fans, to be discarded. "I am very optimistic," says Raúl Medina Mora, an education consultant who is responsible for the project's international promotion. "Enciclomedia has proven successful in the classroom itself, where it matters.

"Individual computers in the hands of kids are a great complement, but will never be a substitute [for a teacher]. With Enciclomedia, there is an education community all in one conversation."

The Harvard study was certainly impressed. "Enciclomedia brings together an amazing number of resources and integrates them meaningfully," says Ilona Holland, the professor who headed the study. "All of a sudden you have everything together and it is phenomenal the difference that makes."

A phenomenal difference for Mexican teachers, too, who grew up in a tradition that sees education as learning facts. Most Mexicans still believe the best student is the one who gets 10-out-of-10 in tests based on regurgitating lessons learned, rather than one who has acquired what Holland terms "higher-order thinking skills". So it is hardly surprising that teachers are complaining they have not had sufficient training and do not get enough time to prepare lessons. Concerns about teacher comfort are among the most frequently cited problems with the project.

Suspicion

Then there is the instinctive suspicion with which many Mexicans view such grand projects, assuming that they are mechanisms by which officials can make a buck on the side. Allegations are rife about the lack of transparency in the awarding of Enciclomedia's contracts, along with charges that equipment is going missing or not being properly installed.

But perhaps Enciclomedia's biggest obstacle is its personal association with former president Vicente Fox - ironically, the reason it got off to such a flying start. The original idea was developed by an academic, Felipe Bracho. He took it to the education ministry, which took it to the president - who fell in love with the project. Fox pushed Enciclomedia with more enthusiasm than almost anything else during his otherwise rather static administration.

The problem is that he left with a reputation for inept government and under suspicion of shielding corruption. As a result, the incoming president, Felipe Calderón, has tried to distance himself from his predecessor, despite being from the same centre-right party. Hardly surprising, then, that government officials are reluctant to defend a project so closely identified with the former president.

Bracho and Medina say they are sure Enciclomedia will fly through the reviews in government and the congress. But Holland is worried that it will impact badly on the generation who are getting used to the new tool today, but will be thrust back to traditional teaching styles and paltry resources tomorrow. "I can't imagine the shock to the system. Now they have this magnificent library ... it will be like taking them out of it and putting them in a bare room."