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The Evolution of Technology in Central America:
A Quick Historical Overview
About 30 years ago Education –in general- was book-based and somehow teacher-centered, which meant that technology was a luxury rather than a need. This teaching panorama, -no doubt-, was pretty much the norm throughout Central American teaching contexts. At this point in history we are living in, Education has now shifted direction towards a much digital way of learning.
If you can still recall being a student in the 1980s, whether that was in school or college, the classroom features were quite different if compared to one nowadays. The board and chalk were crucial elements in our teachers’ educational practices. Reading or searching in “paper” books was the way to gain knowledge, in addition to the use of photocopied material prepared by our instructors. Hey! Don’t forget the countless visits to libraries to get the material needed for our assignments. Looks like technology was not that needed at that time, or it manifested itself –perhaps- differently.
Central American classrooms witnessed the manifestation of a new element: the PC. The PC in class triggered a twofold effect in teaching: Teachers who were aided by video beam projectors or big screens in class were able to display material previously saved for your desktop computer. Students, on the other hand, also got the hang of using their PCs to review their instructor’s material or create their own. Now if one adds Internet connections in our schools, communities, and homes, the possibility of finding new resources to teach and learn were much more numerous than before. A greater shift in education, spiced up by these technological seasonings, was awaiting the new millennium.
Today’s classrooms are no longer what they were before: the digital natives are now sitting in class. Virtual learning is and continues being in vogue. The new trends in education and language learning began and persist on reshaping our way of teaching and learning. Today many professionals use –more and more- new Web-based resources to foster online assignments. Case studies and WebQuests (part of PBL philosophy of teaching) are quite common practices in schools today. More and more ELT professionals find room to develop themselves professionally in terms of technology literacy and competence. VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments) will eventually replace the noisy cafeterias we would visit to plan presentations and papers with our peers.
If we had to talk about the implementation of technology in private or public schools in Central America, we must agree that every country is doing its best to foster and consolidate this slow, pain-staking process. Not only Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also Costa Rica and Panama are trying to implement state-of-the-art educational technologies, -a highly costly endeavor, no doubt. The one country that seems to be somehow behind is Nicaragua. Yet all our Central American countries are aiming at providing a more technologically-oriented education to our young population of digital learners.
In conclusion, governments must continue finding the necessary financial support to guarantee quality in education. Furthermore, the lack of teacher training needs to be replaced by technology literacy and competence for both teachers and students. No doubt Central America moves with the flow of new trends in teaching and learning. In a matter of years, tablets, cell phones, iPods, and many other gadgets will be a very common part of our teaching contexts Web 2.0 and social media will give us the tools to have students learn with our guidance or autonomously.
To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:
| 1 | Education technology in Central America, per country |
| 2 | Governmental investments in Education in Central America |
| 3 | Virtual learning and its applications |
| 4 | VLEs and today’s educational practices |
| 5 | Technology literacy among teachers |
Jonathan Acuña
ELT Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
Other blogs I often write for my students at the university are:
Sunday, September 16, 2012
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